Monday, May 30, 2011

EAT SHIT AND LIVE!



Our very own Canadian Creepette Felicia Mancini goes back to Camp Arawak to interview Jonathan Tiersten aka Ricky in the cult classic Sleepaway Camp. He talks chicks, cults and why decades later Sleepaway Camp remains to have one of most shocking endings in the history of horror.



Q: How was it like filming something that decades later has become not only a classic horror film but a cult-like following to go along with it? Did you have any sort of idea Sleepaway would be received the way it did?
A: Sleepaway Camp is like an old friend. Sometimes it feels very secure to know they are there for you no matter what and sometimes they are the one that drives you nuts.Existentially there is nothing I can do about it either way. We all knew something different was going on all those years ago. It sounds like bullshit, but we could feel it. It beat out Yentl and Amityville 3D in it's first weekend. It ran in theatres for almost a year. Even back then that was a long run. As far as cult status, I think we have Jeff Hayes and the internet to thank for that. It all started about at the turn of Century. People were so worried about their computers dying they missed the reemergence of something much more terrifying. Sleepaway Camp!

Q: Why is Sleepaway the quintessential Horror Summer Camp movie?
A: You know I was just reading something on an eighties website and could swear the guy took the words right out of my mouth. "Real characters. great kills, crazy ending." I always said that people put too much weight in the ending. If that is all there was nobody would still be watching. Can you imagine having to sit through 'The Crying Game' again? Zzzzzzz! The explanation I most often use is 'Sleepaway Camp is a cross between Friday The 13th and Meatballs, except that is scarier than Friday The 13th and funnier than Meatballs!'

Q: Favorite scene you shot during the filming?
A: My favorite scene was and is the baseball scene. Did you see my catch? It's even better in slow motion.

Q: How would you describe the fashion on set? The camp shirts and ultra short shorts are almost as iconic as the film itself!
A:The fashion on the set of Sleepaway Camp was the fashion of the times. That was how I dressed. It is no wonder I wasn't raped and killed on the streets of Manhattan, but I am serious when I say that is how I walked around. Alot of that wardrobe was mine. I like my legs. I am still very vain. Just ask my wife.

Q: Sleepaway was one of the very first 'female' serial killers in modern horror and even the other women in the film were all pretty unique, deranged and crazy personalities plus they were mostly all hot chicks. How would you describe the women of Sleepaway Camp?
A:They were beautiful. I had never been around such pretty women who didn't think I was a bug. In high school those girls do not hang with the short guy who doesn't play football. I still couldn't get a freakin' date when I got home. On set I was B.M.O.C!

Q: All these years later why is Sleepaway so relevant and carry such a strong following?
A: I think its relevance is based on several things. The most important lesson in Sleepaway Camp (killings aside) is tolerance and empathy. It is no wonder I have so many transgender friends. The world does not have to be a mean place. In the original Sleepaway Camp everyone who watches is pulling for Angela and she is the killer. Name me another horror movie where the audience feels badly for and is pulling for the monster.

Q: Will we see Angela and Ricky in another installment of the series after the last one that reunited the two of you?
A: Felissa and I talk all the time and she still speaks to Robert Hiltzik all the time. I'm in touch with the exec-producer of the last film. I think it will happen. Felissa and I just did our first film together that isn't Sleepaway Camp related. It is called 'The Perfect House'. Ironically I get to play a killer and she is a victim.

Q: The whole Sleepaway Camp series is filled with one liners - what was your favorite line as Ricky?
A: Eat shit and live!
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For more on the Sleepaway Camp series check out www.sleepawaycampmovies.com
or to check out Jonathan's music and movies hit up www.jonathantiersten.com

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ABOUT FELICIA MANCINI



5 THINGS I LOVE:
1) Michael Jackson (Post- Thriller)
2) B-List and incredibly tasteless horror films and 90's New York Rap (Where Brooklyn at?!)
3) International News and Indie Documentaries
4) My hometown Hamilton, Ontario Canada ( The people, not the pollution or popo!)
5) Thin trashy tee shirts,turbans and having a baggy crotch on my pants

5 THINGS I HATE:
1) Google search engines and my hypochondriac ways (OMG am I pregnant/dying/ *insert random illness or condition here)
2) Lady CaCa (You ain't different or shit, hun!)
3) Chipped Nail Polish
4) Times Square
5) How Oprah somehow hasn't discovered me yet (Like, c'mon! How many issues of O does Young Fauxprah have to have in a shrine in order to get some shine?)

All in all, I love Creep Street but hate how shit is always sold out!



WHAT I DO FOR THE PAPER:

Journalist with CONCRETE LOOP., Buzz Media Inc (www.concreteloop.com)
I have chatted with Celebrity Stylist Atiba Newsome about what's it like to dig through Kelis' closet, interviewed Soledad O'Brien while she was in the elevators at CNN and got to talk sneakers and style with Va$htie just to name a few. I have a bunch of really dope stories, videos and features about come out and Concrete Loop is the home of all things exclusive! Quality not Quantity, kiddies!

Co-Founder and Reporter for 1994 PRODUCTIONS (www.1994productions)
My childhood homie (hence the name of our company) turned College colleague turned business partner, Charlotte Lopez and I have started our own documentary styled production company. She shoots and edits while I write and ask questions. The ladies truly do run this mutha fu....you get it.

GET BENT!

2 comments:

xtheseusx said...

"alright, gangsters, listen up!"

commodore sixty four said...

the choice to super impose the girls head onto a male body was both disturbing and hilarious