The gorgeous Elaine Wilkes granted me an interview on Novemeber 5th, 2011. I have never met a nicer, more gracious person in my life. She told me many exciting stories from the set of the movie, and I am now excited to share them with you, the fans!
Matt - I have a lot of questions, but wow I just can't believe I have you on the phone! That's wild!
Elaine - This is so great! The one thing I wanted to say that I remember about the movie is how well everyone got along! Sherry and Joanna and I got along so well! We just laughed, there were never any fights. I can't think of even one fight or disagreement. Nothing like that ever. We all got along so well, and so like how it seems we got along on screen, it was real, we really did get along.
Matt - That's what I was just thinking, it looked like y'all had a really close group there! Elaine - Totally! We really did. Everyone from the makeup artist, to the wardrobe, everyone got along. There was no drama, and no "I don't like this person". I've been on movie sets where people don't like each other, and there is fighting, and it just goes on and on, and there was nothing like that. We were all in Canada, and I think partly it's because Sherry, Joanna, and I were from Los Angeles, and so they flew us up to Canada. We were all in a hotel, so it was almost like we were in a sorority or something. Like we were all in a dorm room together. That made it really nice! After work we would hang out, or we would do stuff because we were all there. Usually when you are in a movie, and you go home, everyone goes home to their respective places, and you don't see them, and you don't hang out, you just don't build that closeness. We got close because we were with each other all of the time. We just had such a great time. I just remember us laughing alot!Matt - That is awesome!
Elaine - Yea definatley!
Matt - One of my main questions is there are a lot of things on the internet that say the movie started filming in 1978 and then picked back up years later.
Elaine - No, that's not true.
Matt - I didn't think so.
Elaine - What could have happened is that I know we only shot once. That's the only time we ever shot. we never reshot or redid. If it was 5 years later we would all look different.
Matt - Right! I was thinking that also, but I had found it in so many places online that I just had to ask about that.
Elaine - No, no, that's not true. It could be that maybe they didn't get funding or something like that. The original name of the movie was April Fools, and then they changed the name of it to Killer Party after. That happens alot where you will be doing a movie and then all of a sudden they change the name. You know, it's kind of a vague blur to me but maybe they couldn't get funding or something like that, and maybe that's what took longer, but I am positive that we did not reshoot any scenes.
Matt - There was another scene, has it been a while since you have seen the movie?
Elaine - A little bit, yea! haha But I'm sure I can remember.
Matt - They just re-released it through Warner Archives. It's a new widescreen print. It's very clear now.
Elaine - Oh really?
Matt - It came out about three weeks ago!
Elaine - Oh wow! That's so awesome!
Matt - I did notice that during the scenes at the drive in, those particular parts look much newer than the rest of the movie.
Elaine - I know that had that in the original. I don't think they will put more money into it personally.
Matt - Have you ran into anybody from the movie, or do you keep in touch with anyone?
Elaine - You know, we used to, when we all got back, we all stayed in touch, and we all hung out, and then, slowly, everybody got busy. You know, life happens and stuff, and then slowly we would hear from each other for Christmas, and then I went out of town. So much happens, and we kind of lost touch. I haven't heard from them in a while. But like, after the movie, we definatley stayed in touch. Then just lately, we all got really busy, so we kind of just lost touch. We definatley stayed in touch for years after the movie.
Matt - I was able to track down a couple of other people from the film. I haven't got a chance to hear back from them yet though.
Elaine - Oh who?
Matt - I found Maida Rogerson, who played your mother in the movie. I also found Martin Hewitt.
Elaine - Oh, what's Martin doing???
Matt - He is doing some type of home inspections now in California. He has his own website online.
Elaine - Oh how intresting! Did you find Joanna or Sherry?
Matt - I wasn't able to really find much on Joanna, but I did see pictures of Sherry online. She did another film a few years earlier titled Final Exam. I haven't been able to find her personally, but she did do the interviews for that DVD. There are some pictures of that on Google Images.
Elaine - I was in Sixteen Candles, at the time, with this unknown director, and unknown actors
Matt - I loved you in Sixteen Candles! The part with the pearls really cracks me up!
Elaine - Right! Right! Just to see what we were doing at the time, we were just doing some low budget movie. It was never anything that, you know what I mean, the director wasn't known, and he would goof off. He was just John Hughes. Then all of a sudden John Hughes became JOHN HUGHES! You know what I mean.
Matt - That movie has became so iconic, it will never ever be forgotten!
Elaine - I know! It's something like in the ten top teen films of all time, or something like that. It's so wild to think of that. Not one person was famous in that movie. Not really. Jamie Gertz was on Growing Pains I believe, ya know, she was on a TV show at the time.
Matt - Jamie was on Facts of Life during that time also.
Elaine - That's what it was, Facts Of Life, yeah. So anyway, you really hadn't heard of many people. John Cusack was in that movie. Joanie Cusack was in that movie.
Matt - Yeah! Havilland Morris went on to lots of other things too.
Elaine - Yeah! Exactly! She is very sweet too!
Matt - I bet she is! I was saw her the other night, when I was rewatching Gremlins 2, and I had a flashback to Sixteen Candles, when I saw her.
Elaine - She was so sweet. Ironcially, she was in a movie I did with Madonna, "Who's That Girl?", and Havilland was in that movie!
Matt - She was! She played Wendy Worthington!
Elaine - That was so cool! I like her alot! You know one other thing you might be intrested in knowing is every reaction shot, ya know the scene where we see Jennifer, and we look at her and she is chasing us, or like the scene where we go into the bathroom, and we see a tub, and there is someone in the tub? Well, when you make a movie, what happens is they have to do lighting on one side, and then they have to switch all of the lighting around to film the reaction. What happens is they go, "Just look in the bathtub, there is going to be someone in there". So we just come in the room and there is just an empty tub. I never saw Joanna like that until after the movie. The very end where she was chasing us, that i saw, but I never saw like when she went crazy, I never saw that. They just told me "Joanna is gonna be coming after you, so look and there is Joanna".
Matt - Oh wow, so those were practically all insert shots!
Elaine - Right right, I never saw any of that. So then, I go home, and then they would turn the lights around, and they shoot Joanna. So it's like the morning, Sherry and I would shoot, and then in the afternoon, Joanna would shoot. So we never saw what each other was doing. When I saw the movie, I really thought she did a great job with that! She really did it. I never saw it. We also had body doubles. Joanna and I each had a body double. So Joanna in one scene, you can actually tell where, it's the one where she is in the house, and she swings from the chandelier, that is not her, that's the body double. If you look, you can see it's not her. Then, when we are fighting with the pole. They are both body doubles. There is someone dressed in exactly our costumes, with a wig on, so they look like us. The only reason why I guess they had to do that for Screen Actors Guild or something, so they consider that a stunt, or something like that. It's funny because if you look closely you can that's a body double.
Matt - Y'all did a good job, it really looks good!
Elaine - I know, exactly! It's so funny, but it would be weird to see someone dressed exactly like me! We had some really funny things! It was fun! We had to put contacts in my eyes, and the contacts, I just couldn't for some reason, I think it was a doctor, he had to put them in, because they were these special type of contacts that covered your entire eyeball. That's why my eyes were blue at the end. For some reason, I swear it was him, I would just see this big finger coming at me, so I would blink. He would say DON"T BLINK! haha It was funny because when this big hand is coming at you, your natural instinct is just to blink, and he would say "You are blinking, you are so difficult". He finally asked me to put them in myself. So I had a little bit of problem with putting my own contacts in. They were so big, and they were hard contacts, they weren't like today where we have soft ones.
Matt - So they were kind of like the Michael Jackson Thriller contacts?
Elaine - Totally!!! Yes!! I totally did not like putting those contacts in. They just had to cover the entire eye to make it look funny. So those were kind of a challenge for me.
Matt - I did notice one thing, I was playing on google maps, which I love to do, and I found most of the filming locations for the movie. One thing I did notice is there is one scene torwards the beginning where you guys are riding your bikes down the road torward the Beta Tau house from the college. Jennifer looks right across the street, and there is the party house.
Elaine - Right.
Matt - In all actuality, the party house is like a block away on another street.
Elaine - Right! Exactly! Once again we say "oh look at that", the camera shows up looking, and then they have to turn the camera around and cut to something else. So we looked, and that isn't truly where we were looking. It was an old abandoned house actually.
Matt - They have now gotten it redone and refurbished. It looks really good. I'm not sure exactly what it now is. I do not think it's a fraternity house anymore, or if it ever was. They renovated it and it just looks really great. When I had found the Beta Tau house, I immediatley looked across the street, and it just wasn't there.
Elaine - Oh wow! That is so intresting! Do you live in Toronto?
Matt - I actually live in Texas. I'm just such a big fan or horror movies, and locations, and movies in general. I did have another question where at the end of the movie with you, where you became possessed after Jennifer had died, was that your voice that they altered, or maybe a voice double, or even ADR maybe?
Elaine - No, you know what, that WAS my voice, but I think they put it in like a tremble, like where they altered it. It was my voice, but I think what they do in the studio is just put like a funky filter on it or something.
Matt - Well, it was definatley scary! The voice on both of you guys was very scary!
Elaine - (laughing) That was so funny. I remember that night that we were shooting, I just kept eating so much sugar at the craft services table. Like chocolate, and junk candy and stuff, so I just had tons of energy. I felt really hyper. I remember I just kept eating tons of that. We had to do night shoots because of regulation. We had to do it at night. A 12 Hour call time. We would work like from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM, or something like that. We definatley worked all through the night. So for that scene, I believe that scene was shot at like 3:00 in the morning. I wanted to be up. It's weird, it's like your time schedule gets off, kind of like flying over seas or something. I wanted to be up for it, because it was so late in the morning, actually early in the morning really (laughing). Those were night shoots. We would do a day, and then we would have a turn around and we would have a night shoot. Those scenes were the night shoots.
Matt - Wow! Another question that I have been trying to figure out is, at the filming of the party house, were the interiors on a set?
Elaine - No actually, that all was actually in the old house we were filming in. There were no sets. The party house was actually at that old abandoned house. The interiors were all there. I honestly just had a flashback to that house, and it was so funny because we were doing a scene. Sherry and I were running, and everybody was dead. So we walked into that one room, and we were like "Everyone is dead!", so we were standing in the room and the director yells "Cut" and everyone that was dead just stands up! (laughing) They were all standing up and joking around, and the director yells "Action", and then everyone was dead again!It was so weird to be like "ok they are dead now!" (laughing). It was really funny! The funniest was the reactions. They had cut some stuff. There was a scene where they do a prank or something. In the scrpit, they had it where someone really did die! So, I was really crying, and then when I saw the movie, they took that entire part out. So now it looks like I am really overacting, but that's okay! It's really funny how they changed it during the editing. Once you shoot, and when they edit it, they change it. They can take scenes out, and cut stuff out, and move things around. So then, it looks like your reaction to something is diffrent. It's really funny how they change things around.
Matt - That actually leads to another question I wanted to ask you, there is a lot of speculation that alot of the movie had been cut becasue there are scenes in the film that really doesn't make alot of sense.
Elaine - Yeah exactly! That's exactly what happens. I wish I had saved the script, I would have given it to you. I had all of these scripts and then when I moved, I just got rid of them. You are right, the one scene especialy that I remember is that they had this person really die, and this whole thing happens and it all got cut out. So I am crying, and it's like "Why is she crying so much for that?", so it was definatley all cut apart. There are just so many diffrent variables that require them to change it. I think the editing wasn't very good. Even when we would get our scripts, they would change the script day to day. We would memorize the script, and then they would give us a new one. So like while we were getting make up, here would come a new script!
Matt - I did notice from the beginning of the movie, you guys were planning an "April Fool's Party", and then later, I remember Martin Hewitt saying "I'm a seamonster, for HALLOWEEN!"
Elaine - Right! Exactly! That is such a great catch! I never even noticed that! That's so awesome! You are totally right.
Matt - What was Sherry like to work with? She seems like she would be very sweet!
Elaine - She's so awesome! I love Sherry! Joanna was great too. They are great people. I really really like them. Like I said, we got along really well.
Matt - I read a rumor online, that the song used in the film called "These Are The Best Times", the rumor states that the 3 leads from the movie actually sang this.
Elaine - No!(laughing). I should start that rumor and say "YES YES I SING THAT!". That's a cute song by the way I think. I just think it's an adorable song, but no that's not us at all. I know exactly the song you are thinking. I wish it was us, but no, it wasn't at all. I don't think even think we did ADR on that film. I think we just shot was there and that was it.
Matt - You have been really so sweet for doing this interview. I know alot of people wouldn't want to take the time to do such a thing, but I want you to know I really do appreciate it very much.
Elaine - I could feel your energy!It felt great! I could totally tell you really wanted to, so I am just really so happy to do it!
Matt - Thank you so much!
Elaine - Likewise!! Thanks so much again! If you hear from Joanna, or Sherry, please tell them "Hello". I think they are amazing!
Matt - I sure will! Ya know, maybe this can be a way for you guys to get back in touch!
Elaine - Well thank you! I appreciate your time, and thanks so much, if there is anything else, you can always feel free to ask me. Thanks alot my friend, and take care!
Matt - You too!!
Elaine - Bye bye
