Interview with Lynn Lowry (The Crazies, Shivers, Cat People etc.)
By: Arthur Jefferson

Arthur Jefferson: There's been talk about remaking your 1973 movie, THE CRAZIES, which was originally directed by George Romero...
Lynn Lowry: Well, they actually are doing a remake! I spoke to the producer, Michael Aguilar, and tried to talk him into giving me a cameo. Who knows? We'll see.

But you know Hollywood, they may have never even seen the original film. It's really all about "George Romero, THE CRAZIES-money, let's do it!"

AJ: How would you appraise George Romero's direction of THE CRAZIES? Did he enjoy a good rapport with actors?
LL: George was very creative and a real gentleman. He put you at ease and made you very comfortable. He pretty much let you do your own thing unless he just completely didn't agree. The only thing we differed about was the death scene-and I have to say that he was totally right about it. I just thought, "How lame!," but I did what he wanted and it's become one of the film's most recognizable moments. A lot of my fans mention that particular thing to me, so I'm really glad that I listened to George and gave him what he wanted.

AJ: I suspected that David Cronenberg didn't have the impetus to draw passionate performances from actors-until I saw THE FLY. Could you recount your own experience with Cronenberg on the set of SHIVERS?
LL: I had a scene in that film where this guy attacks me and I stab him in the arm with a big fork. They photographed a close-up of the stabbing. They padded-up Dave's arm and used his arm, for the close-up, rather than the actor's. Well, I got very excited-I was "in the moment" and everything-and when I stabbed him, I completely missed the padding and accidentally stabbed David's shoulder with the fork. After saying "Ouch!," David just reacted with, "That's okay, don't worry about it." Very nice.

AJ: Many of your movies eventually evolved into cult classics, including SUGAR COOKIES. You co-starred with Mary Woronov, who played your lesbian lover, and the film-at the time-was branded with an X-rating. What did you find so appealing about your character?
LL: Well, what I liked best about SUGAR COOKIES was that I got to do two different roles. I would have liked to have had a different wig for the first role.. after I saw the film, I thought, "Oh, that wig is just awful!" But it was nice to play a character who was just a real bitch and then, later, I got to play this totally innocent, unaffected person who falls in love with the Mary Woronov character.

Other than that, I think the thing I liked most about the film was getting to work with Mary and those scenes that we have together are really sensual, really beautiful...even though we were just acting, the scenes still come across in such a delicate and lovely way.

Theodore Gershuny's SUGAR COOKIES	Paul Schrader's CAT PEOPLE	Radley Metzger's SCORE

AJ: You played a prostitute in CAT PEOPLE. Was the director, Paul Schrader, as sensitive as Romero and Cronenberg?
LL: No. Paul was very abrupt and impatient. He got annoyed with you for things that were not your fault. The first day on the set, the makeup and hair people wouldn't let me go because they weren't finished.

Well, Paul kept calling me to the set; I kept telling the makeup and hair people that I needed to go and they'd say, "Just a few more minutes!" So when I finally got to the set, Schrader said, "Well, it's about time! She finally showed up!" Like it's all my fault! So we started out, the very first day, on the wrong foot. And he throws a ton of direction at you! He goes through the whole scene with what he wants you to do for every second-and you can hardly absorb it because there's so much going on.

I got hurt in the scene while going down the stairs, but no one seemed to care about that-they were very inconsiderate. It was my biggest budget film-and it was, by far, the worst that I was ever treated on any film that I'd done. I'm glad I did the film, and I think the scene is memorable and I actually made more money from doing that film than anything else that I had done. But it was not my favorite film to work on.

AJ: Which of your films are your favorites?
LL: That's kind of hard to say but I liked SCORE a lot, even though there was a lot of nudity and I didn't really want to become known as an actress that does that kind of stuff. But the movie was so funny and I had such a funny, funny part-I think my character was such a doll! I just saw the film recently and I thought I was so cute in that movie.

But I have to say probably my favorite is SHIVERS, I really liked the look of the film. THE CRAZIES, however, would qualify as my favorite acting role; I like the way my character changes just a little bit at a time-she slowly goes mad through the whole film, and it was probably my most difficult acting role.