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Kelli Maroney plays cute and tough, bad and beautiful better than anyone. In \u201cFast Times At Ridgemont High\u201d her character intrepidly stands up for school spirit during a rally. In the cult zombie classic \u201cNight of the Comet\u201d she wields a gun like John Wayne. And in \u201cChopping Mall\u201d she battles killer robots\u2026 and wins.<\/p>\n
How did you get your start in acting?
\nI wanted to act forever, from watching old black and white films on late night TV with my mom. My schools never had drama depts… so I signed up to be an apprentice at the Guthrie Theater in my hometown, Mpls, MN. We were extras and got classes with F. Murray Abraham, William H. Macy, and lots of other great actors who were there that season. There I heard about a conservatory school in Kerhonkson, NY with a regular program in the fall in Manhattan. <\/p>\n
So, I did the summer program and was planning on continuing with the Fall season but two weeks after getting to NYC I got Ryan\u2019s Hope instead. Total fluke\u2014I was looking for an apartment and having trouble because I was too young and too broke and the rental agent said her friend was a casting director who was looking for a teenage Lolita from the Midwest.
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\nWas working on a soap a good learning experience?
\nIt was the best training EVER for being professional, pulling up a performance with not much rehearsal, coming up with the emotions of the character\u2014crying on cue, etc. I worked with some great actors who were classically trained and worked regularly on Broadway. We also had a bunch of famous people come in\u2014Christopher Reeve, Joan Fontaine to name a few, and I got to work with them!
\nFAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH
\nYour character CINDY, the head cheerleader, has a great moment lecturing students at the rally\u2026 How was this scene to film?
\nI noticed that the script dialogue had cut the line that was in the book, \u201cYou know, it takes a lot of courage to get up here and do something you KNOW people will make fun of!\u201d So, I screwed up my courage and asked Cameron Crowe and Amy Heckerling, writer and director, respectively, if I could put it back in. I was sure that line was the whole reason to do the speech. Cameron said, \u201cSure, try it and we\u2019ll see if it\u2019s happening…\u201d So I did. The real cheerleaders at the school were not happy with my performance and thought they were being mocked. Um\u2026 I suppose you could say that. I snuck around the high school for hours beforehand to try and get the Valley Girl accent down. I was from the Midwest and lived in NYC, so I had no idea how it sounded. Talk about having to come up with it at the last minute!
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\nThe big football game\u2026 How was this experience?
\nIt was COLD! We filmed it all in one night, as far as I know? I was glad I was jumping around staying warm. When you are focused on your own performance you miss a lot of things during shooting that you don\u2019t see until you watch the finished film later. I was amazed that Amy had SO MUCH coverage of everything that she could really cut it anyway she liked. Like I said, the first finished version has me doing the half-time performance and that is gone now and it focuses much more on Forrest Whittaker as the football player.
\nHow about the morgue scene?
\nI really went overboard with this one\u2014I got a book of pictures of cadavers from the library and grossed myself out the night before. Vincent S. was great fun on the set and really relished his role. I think Phoebe Cates was afraid of him at first, but what a great guy!
\nWere any of your scenes edited out?
\nYes, I had a couple of scenes with Judge Reinhold that didn\u2019t make it in\u2026 one outside the guidance counselor\u2019s office where I just pop in at the end, one on the bleachers where I ask him where he works (embarrass him and make him feel like a loser) and I also originally danced to the song \u201cThe Stripper\u201d at half-time during the big game. That was fun, and it\u2019s where me peeling off the glove with my teeth, came from.
\nNIGHT OF THE COMET
\nWhen Sharon Farrell, as the evil stepmother, slaps you in the face\u2026 How was it filming this?
\nIt was chaotic… Sharon and I kept doing it a few times, but those scenes are hard to make look real. Because I had already done this type of scene on Ryan\u2019s Hope with my \u201cMom\u201d Louise Shaffer, I told her to just slug me a good one so we wouldn\u2019t be there all night. It actually hurts a lot more to fake it countless times than to just take a punch in film. I was choreographed to throw myself over the couch and tumble to the TV set. That was planned. Strange little cartoon moment that people really enjoy.
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\nAn important scene for your character SAMANTHA is when, the next morning, she learns about the fate of the world\u2026
\nThat was our first day of shooting. My coach, Roy London, suggested that I play that I am talking non-stop and running around so that she will not be able to get a word in edgewise, and so can\u2019t say the words out loud that everyone is gone. It\u2019s a classic denial scene and that\u2019s what powered me through it. When she says: \u201cWhere are the g-damned kids?\u201d I shut the door on her. Then I feign some more disbelief\u2014because as long as I don\u2019t believe it, it isn\u2019t true, right?
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\nThe radio station where you play DJ\u2026
\nI love this scene even more now because there are very few real DJs in radio anymore\u2014it\u2019s all computerized, and I think that\u2019s sad. So I got to live a lot of people\u2019s dreams, being live on the air, but we also pointed out the pre-recorded stuff and made it creepy. We had no idea just how creepy it was to become in our real future.
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\nThe classic ZOMBIE COP scenes: First, the cop who pulls you over\u2026
\nIt was freezing! It was my first time using the fake blood and guts and it was honestly very disgusting. Those aren\u2019t my legs. One of the producer\u2019s girlfriends was used for that in a later pick-up.
\nAnd the ZOMBIE COP in the bathroom\u2026
\nI was pretty used to running around in my underwear after being on Ryan\u2019s Hope, since I was \u201cLolita\u201d on that show. But it was the closest thing to nudity they were going to get out of me or Cathy, so we went for it. Everyone was very sensitive and respectful that evening, so I didn\u2019t realize how really sexy it was until I saw it myself.
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\n\u201cDaddy would\u2019ve gotten us Uzis\u201d\u2026 How was it shooting those cars?
\nIt was fun. Everyone on the set loved it when we had gunplay! Plus we were all pretty tired and firing a round or two off lets off some steam. Thom added \u201cDaddy would\u2019ve gotten us Uzis\u201d at the last minute because the prop guns kept jamming. So, he said, if that happens in the next take, say\u2026 so, I did. Sometimes the best things come out of what\u2019s actually happening on the set rather than a pre-planned \u2018moment.\u2019
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\nThe part where you open up to your sister while sitting on the cop car is very moving\u2026 How was this to film?
\nWell, up until this scene Sam has been coping with the disaster by being in denial. But here is where she begins to face the truth and has to say goodbye to everyone she knew, but also to everything that was SO important to her yesterday! It\u2019s growing up all at once and trying not to go crazy. Actually, they almost cut that scene because they thought it was stupid. But the test audience responded to it so fortunately it stayed. I still think that scene is one that I\u2019m most proud of in my career to date. I can\u2019t imagine it not being in there!
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\nDancing in the mall\u2026
\nThat night we just went in and trashed everything. It was tremendously freeing for all of us. We just improvised things as we went along, like with the shoes and the TV. Thom wanted it to be kind of a homage to those gangster films of the \u201830s.
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\nThe needle injection scene with Mary Woronov\u2026
\nThis was important because the audience is supposed to think she\u2019s really killing me. I loved working with Mary. She is not only a very giving and generous actor, but also such a kind and gentle person. I had not met her before this film and I guess I didn\u2019t expect that. It was great. Not to mention it was one of the few times I actually got to lie down instead of running.
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\nFinal scene when you meet your new man Marc Poppel\u2026
\nBeing that in the original first draft Sammie was supposed to die, this was added afterwards. In a comedy, at the end everyone has to be paired off\u2014you couldn\u2019t have just left Sam by herself, because that\u2019s not a happy ending. I don\u2019t know how many people realize that DMK is the person who kept beating Regina in the video game at the beginning in the movie theater. So, Thom rapped up the whole story by doing it that way. Ingenious, huh?
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\nCHOPPING MALL
\nWhat mall was this movie filmed in?
\nThis was, again, The Galleria, a mall that was iconic in the Valley here in California in the 80s. It has since been torn down and rebuilt, but it isn\u2019t the same. That is, in fact, Perry\u2019s from Fast Times, I think. The \u2018Orca who beached there every night\u2019 was Bob Greenberg, a dear friend of Jim W\u2019s who afterwards lost ALL of that weight. He has passed on now, but what a nice guy he was.
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\nYou and your date talking in the Furniture King\u2026
\nThat scene sets up who we are further. You know the innocents are always the survivors in horror films. Notice the lack of nudity on my and Tony\u2019s part. It also sets up the fact that I\u2019m a great shot for later on, to validate why this girl is kicking robot butt. Then I trashed that mall, too. I guess I must have a hatred of malls, which I believe was an intentional comment from both of those writers, through my characters. I think at the time both of those writers were commenting on where the culture was going. Surprisingly, today we look back nostalgically at those times. It\u2019s funny.
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\nHow was it crawling through those ventilator shafts?
\nOh, that was a big fake silver thing that they set up so they could get a camera somewhere near us. I\u2019m glad it looks real, but that was all cheated and no one went in the ventilator shaft. I don\u2019t even remember it being hot in there\u2014it\u2019s called acting, dear boy, as Laurence Olivier once famously said to Dustin Hoffman.
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\nWhat were some of your favorite stunts to do?
\nI mostly remember running and running and running. The actor has to \u2018cheat\u2019 running fast or otherwise the camera can\u2019t keep up with you, which makes the DP very cross. The trick is to look like you\u2019re really booking but… uh, not be really booking\u2026 The spiders and snakes were only okay because they had a great \u2018bug wrangler\u2019 who took time with me, the snakes, and Dolores the professional Tarantula, used to working together. It was cute.
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\nHow do you go about doing the various reaction shots?
\nIt\u2019s different every time. It\u2019s something every actor must have in their \u2018toolbox.\u2019 If you have to do many takes, sometimes what was working initially \u2018wears off\u2019 and you had better have a couple more up your sleeve so you don\u2019t dry up.
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\nAnd finally \u2013 the climax where it\u2019s you alone against the robots?\u00a0
\nAnother happy coincidence\u2014I really DID slip on the paint and almost fall down. See what I mean about the accidents being great? I loved the way they put that reverb in my voice at the end for \u201cHave a nice Dayayayayayay!\u201d The challenge in those scenes was to keep my injuries consistent so that one minute I\u2019m hurt and the next I\u2019m not\u2014I just hate that when I catch it in films. It\u2019s like, hey, what happened to your broken leg all of a sudden? And it takes the audience out of the movie.
\nFor the fall, they harnessed me to the railing so I couldn\u2019t really fall. That was fun, and not at all frightening, so I had to \u2018play\u2019 being scared. Then we did kind of a homage to The Terminator where I pick up the killer robot\u2019s arm and reflect on it for a second. THIS is what killed all my friends? It\u2019s just metal, kind of thing.
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\nOTHER STUFF
\nHow was it doing a two-tier job as actor and producer on SAM AND MIKE?
\nIt went pretty smoothly, surprisingly, since I had a partner and a fantastic below the line co-producer. Of course we had the usual disasters, including one of our trucks getting into an accident. I learned to always keep that crew well fed and they are picky! Especially if they are doing it for free.
\nOnce we had the bright idea of ordering pizza\u2014we were broke already\u2014and I thought the camera guy was going to kill us. I hadn\u2019t thought about the fact that they can\u2019t have grease on their fingers and handle the lenses. Live and learn. From then on, it was fork food all the way. We had way under budgeted the meals. It won\u2019t happen again on my set, guys, I swear. Also, I sincerely hope to pay everyone well on my next project. It sure would have cut down on all my guilt trips.
\nWhat\u2019s one of your favorite TV shows that you appeared in?
\nWell, shooting \u201cLeo And Liz In Beverly Hills\u201d was where I got to meet and work with Carl Gottlieb. I also had to audition for Steve Martin, which was intense and wonderful.
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\nHow was it working with director Jim Wynorski again in BIG BAD MAMMA 2?
\nI had auditioned for Monique\u2019s part but obviously didn\u2019t get it. But by then, Jim and I were friends and he often called me up and said, \u201cWanna come down tomorrow and do a scene or two?\u201d And I always would do it because it was such a great time and we had so many laughs. I\u2019m in quite a few of his films if you look closely!
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