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By Suzanne

Interview with Morgan Fairchild of "American Horror House" on Syfy 10/9/12

This was a very fun call. Ms. Fairchild was very nice and had a lot to say! She was very funny, too.

NBC UNIVERSAL
Moderator: Gary Morgenstein
October 9, 2012
1:00 pm CT

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen thank you for standing by and welcome to the Syfy American Horror House conference call.

During the presentation all participants will be in a listen-only mode.

Afterwards we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If you have a question, please the 1 followed by the 4 on your telephone.

If at any time during the conference you need to reach an Operator, please press star 0.

As a reminder this conference is being recorded Tuesday October 9, 2012.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Gary Morgenstein. Please go ahead, sir.

Gary Morgenstein: Welcome everyone. I’d like to introduce Morgan Fairchild, who stars in the Syfy original movie American Horror House, premiering this Saturday, October 13 at 9:00 p.m. Thank you, Morgan, for joining us.

Morgan Fairchild: Well thank you. Hi everybody.

Operator: (Sigland), would you please send forward the first caller.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen if you’d like to register a question, please press the 1 followed by the 4 on your telephone. You will hear a three tone prompt to acknowledge your request.

If your question has been answered and you would like to withdrawal your registration, please press the 1 followed by the 3.

If you’re using a speakerphone, please lift your headset before asking your (unintelligible).

One moment please for the first question.

And our first question comes from the line of Reg Seeton with DeadBolt.com. Please go ahead.

Reg Seeton: Hi, Morgan, thanks for taken the call.

Morgan Fairchild: Hi.

Reg Seeton: Hi. Well does working on a project like American Horror House somehow take you back to earlier in your career doing projects like The Haunting of Sarah Hardy?

Morgan Fairchild: Well it takes me even further back to Initiation of Sarah -- which was actually my first TV movie -- which was also a haunted sorority house -- so yes it goes way back.

Reg Seeton: And can you talk a bit about how Ms. Margot fits into the story?

Morgan Fairchild: Well like a lot of the characters I play, she’s sort of the catalyst. The bad guy is always the catalyst. So she’s not unlike some of the other characters I’ve played except that she does seem to just be pure evil.

Reg Seeton: And what it was like to shoot in Louisiana? Did that add to the tone of the film at all?

Morgan Fairchild: You know, it was just fabulous shooting there. Everybody was so friendly and so nice. And we were shooting in April mostly before it got too hot, so I wasn’t dying there. And I’m from Texas, so I know what dying in the heat means.

So it was fabulous and got to go down to Jazz Fest and go down to New Orleans a bit and see a bit of the countryside and it was just great.

Reg Seeton: Great. Thank you very much.

Morgan Fairchild: Thank you.

Operator: And our next question comes from (unintelligible) Jamie Steinberg with Starry Constellation Magazine. Please go ahead.

Jamie Steinberg: Hi I’m glad we could work everything out so we did get to talk.

Morgan Fairchild: Hi, Jamie, nice to hear you.

Jamie Steinberg: I was wondering if you could talk about what about the role intrigued you to be a part of the film.

Morgan Fairchild: I’m sorry. I didn’t quite hear that.

Jamie Steinberg: What about the role intrigued you to want to be a part of the film?

Morgan Fairchild: Well I must confess I’m quite a devotee of the Syfy movie channel. I mean I watch Syfy movies on the weekends. And all my friends have done them, so it was quite fun. And they sent me the script and I thought well, you know, this is actually fun. I could do this. You know, I don’t have to get chopped up or anything too gruesome.

Jamie Steinberg: So is there anything then you found challenging about your role?

Morgan Fairchild: You know, they’re always challenging. From Ms. Margot the thing was I didn’t want to tip it too early that she is actually a bad guy because at first she seems sort of supportive house mother kind of thing and sort of the normal everyday thing that a kid would encounter at college. I didn’t want to tip it too soon, so that was a bit of a challenge is just trying to find ways to play things that later people could go back and say, oh yes, I see that. But at the moment that they don’t necessarily catch on right away.

Jamie Steinberg: Great. Thank you so much.

Morgan Fairchild: Thank you.

Operator: And our next question from the line of Amy and Nancy Harrington with Pop Culture Passionistas. Please go ahead.

Woman: Hi. Thanks so much for talking to us today.

Morgan Fairchild: Oh sure my pleasure.

Woman: Can you tell us a little bit about working with the director Darin Scott?

Morgan Fairchild: You know, Darin was just fabulous to work with. He was so sweet and low key. And I mean I’ve worked some real screamers in my life, you know, who you never have a moment of peace on the set. And Darin is very low key, very patient with everything, very on top of all the technical stuff that was going on -- which we had a lot of in this movie -- and just a lot of fun to talk to and sit around at lunch. We became friends just sitting around and gabbing at the lunch breaks and on breaks and stuff and talking everything from politics to old Hollywood stories.

Woman: Excellent. And as an actress, is it liberating getting to play such a wicked character?

Morgan Fairchild: You’re obviously not familiar with my oeuvre. I have sort of specialized in wicked characters. But this one was a little different in that she’s actually supernatural, so that was fun -- sort of unlimited power.

Woman: Excellent. Well thanks so much for talking to us today.

Morgan Fairchild: Thank you.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of (Tim Hogan) with TVOvermind. Please go ahead.

Tim Hogan: Hi, Morgan, it’s nice to get to speak with you today.

Morgan Fairchild: Hi. Who is this?

Tim Hogan: (Tim). You (unintelligible)...

Morgan Fairchild: (Tim). Hi, (Tim).

Tim Hogan: We’re actually mutual Twitter followers. You might know me as (nightfly69).

Morgan Fairchild: Oh okay. Oh yes hi nice to meet you.

Tim Hogan: Nice to meet you too. In researching for this conversation, I learned that you helped co-found the Environmental Communications Office. And I was wondering if you take pride in how many productions these days make efforts to be green and if you could speak to how green American Horror House was as a production.

Morgan Fairchild: Well I am very proud of it. Back in the mid-‘80s when Hollywood first started getting interested in doing things environmentally, the only two people really that kind of knew anything - I don’t mean to sound condescending. The only two people who were familiar with the issues were Ed Begley and myself. And so we were the two that everybody would sit down with and take to dinner for EMA, for ECO, for all the different groups that we’re getting founded.

And yes it is nice to see that there was actually some long-term effect. People really are much more conscious of it now just in trying not to send out paper scripts for instance, trying to use both sides of paper if they’re going to print. You see it all over Hollywood trying not to use Styrofoam if they can, just a lot of different things on sets.

American Horror House seemed pretty good about it. I have to say they were pretty good about it. But it’s quite well founded in Hollywood now. Everybody tries very hard. I think the studios got excited because they realized how much money it could save them.

Tim Hogan: Right. Okay and a follow up I was wondering if you could just talk a little bit about your costar Alessandra Torresani, what it was like working with her.

Morgan Fairchild: Oh well I cannot not say enough good things about Alessandra. She is just an adorable girl. She was terrific to work with -- which isn’t always true with some of the young actors these days. She was terrific, a total pro and she’s very good in the movie. And I haven’t seen the movie, but the scenes I had with her I thought she was really, really terrific and total pro -- young but a total pro -- and just a lovely girl.

At one point I had said to her, you know, that you shouldn’t be this close. Because we were shooting in Baton Rouge, I said you shouldn’t be this close to New Orleans and not go to New Orleans because she had never been. So I said okay we’ve got to get you to New Orleans.

Because we were shooting half days and half nights, it was kind of difficult. So there was one weekend where we shot until 8:00 in the morning, came home, slept, got in a car at 5:00, drove to New Orleans, hit NOLA, one of Emeril’s restaurants, for dinner and then Alessandra - there were a group of us from the show and Alessandra said, “Well do these clubs stay open after 2:00?” and I said famous for it, honey.

So we did a few of the clubs and then they stayed out very late. I sort of crashed at 1:00. And then got up the next morning and took her over to Café Du Monde for beignets and chicory coffee -- which she’d never had before. And, you know, we all bought all this beignet mix -- which I don’t know if I’ll ever use. I hope she’s made some. And I got a lot of pralines and stuff. And then went over to Jazz Fest and heard part of Bruce Springsteen and Herbie Hancock and all of that.

So it was a fun weekend.

Tim Hogan: Wow.

Morgan Fairchild: We had a really time. I feel like a mother hen with her, that you must see the world, you know. It’s nice to sleep all weekend when you’re tired and you’ve been working all week, but there are these things going on and you’re close to it and you shouldn’t miss it.

Tim Hogan: She was lucky to have you as her tour guide.

Morgan Fairchild: Well I don’t know about lucky, but I do think she had a good time.

Tim Hogan: Well thanks for sharing that. I have a few more questions, so I’ll get back in the queue line and hopefully speak with again.

Morgan Fairchild: Oh okay. Is that how it works? I don’t know how this lineup exactly works.

Tim Hogan: Yes.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Tony Tellado with Sci-Fi Talk.

Tony Tellado: Hi, Ms. Fairchild, been a fan for a long, long time. It’s kind of great...

Morgan Fairchild: Oh that’s so sweet of you. Thank you.

Tony Tellado: ...to talk (unintelligible).

Morgan Fairchild: So nice to talk to you.

Tony Tellado: I get the impression - I’m sorry. I get the impression that Ms. Margot and Rosemary, it’s a dual role for you. Is that - and she has like a little bit of a history with the house, am I on target there a little bit?

Morgan Fairchild: Yes. I’m not sure. Gary, how much can I tip the story here? I mean is it - what can I say?

Gary Morgenstein: You can talk about it, just don’t give the ending away. That’s all.

Morgan Fairchild: Okay. Yes she does have a history with the house and, you know, that’s part of figuring out here history with the house is, is a big part of the story, of trying to understand what’s going on as the girls are confronted with different odd happenings in the house as to why they’re happening and what’s really going on there. So again not wanting to totally tip it, but yes she does have a past history with the house.

Tony Tellado: And as far as with dealing with the effects, was it a lot of stuff that was done in camera or a lot of stuff that was added later?

Morgan Fairchild: Well we did some stuff on camera but there’s only so much you can do on camera. I’m always reminded of when I did Holy Man Eddie Murphy and it’s about a home shopping thing and they have plugs on my face for one of those electronic things that are self-exercising. And Eddie turns it up all the way and my face sort of explodes on camera. And they used it a lot in the promos and to this day I have people come up to me and say, “Do that thing you did in Holy Man, you know, blow up, you know, do that thing with your face,” not understanding I can stretch it so far and then CGI has to take over.

Tony Tellado: Well, you know, that’s one of the things I admire about you is obviously beautiful woman but you’re always willing to do things that kind of go against the type, you know, of that type of actress. I always admired that about you.

Morgan Fairchild: Oh thank you. Yes I like doing odd things. You know, I grew up in the theater and so I like doing odd things that people don’t expect you to do -- whether it’s a horror movie or playing a nun or all kinds of different things -- just I like to catch people off guard.

Tony Tellado: Cool. Well thanks (unintelligible).

Morgan Fairchild: (Unintelligible) Hollywood doesn’t let you that much, but I like to.

Tony Tellado: Well thanks. I look forward to seeing this movie.

Morgan Fairchild: Oh well thank you. Me too.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Suzanne Lanoue with TVMegaSite.net. Please go ahead.

Suzanne Lanoue: Hi it’s nice to speak with you today.

Morgan Fairchild: Oh thank you my pleasure. How are you?

Suzanne Lanoue: Pretty good thanks. I enjoyed listening to you about New Orleans -- great city.

Morgan Fairchild: It’s so fabulous.

Suzanne Lanoue: It is. I love the karaoke there.

Morgan Fairchild: Well Alessandra and I voted that we want to do another movie together and that we want to shoot in New Orleans next time and just so we’ll be closer to the action and won’t have to drive so far.

Suzanne Lanoue: Oh that’s a good idea. You’d mentioned earlier that you’ve played a lot of evil women in your roles. Why do you think that is? Do you choose those or has it just worked out that way?

Morgan Fairchild: No it’s just kind of worked out that way. I think partially because of the way I look. I think the pointy nose sort of does it.

And also well I’ll tell you a story. When I first got out here, my first TV movie was one as I mentioned called Initiation - I mean called yes Initiation of Sarah. And I’d been here about three months and I got an audition for this TV movie and it was a rip-off of the Carrie kind of movie with the telekinesis...

Suzanne Lanoue: Right.

Morgan Fairchild: ...and for television. And Kay Lenz was going to play Carrie character. And then there was the - and it was about a sorority house with an evil sorority queen. And so there was that part and then there was the part of Kay Lenz’s sister, who wants to be in the sorority but loves her sister and is torn between.

And so I go over to read and I read for the bad guy. And the producer who was a fellow named Chuck Fries, who was just the king of TV movies back then, said, “Oh okay you got the part.” And I said, “Well I’d really like to read for the sister, you know, just not the bad guy because I think the sister has more grey areas that I could explore.”

And he kind of he says, “Honey, you haven’t been here very long, have you?” And I said, “No, sir,” and he says, “Let me explain something to you. I can find an ingénue anywhere, but a good bitch is hard to find.” And he says, “The bad guy makes everything happen. It’s the catalyst for everything. I mean think of Shane without Jack Palance, all the movies that you would think of without a good bad guy, you know, Bogart without Edward G. Robinson.”

He says, “Think of all the,” - he says, “The bad guy makes the movie happen.” And says, “That ingénue can walk through it and nobody will really notice, but the bad guy makes it work.” And he says, “You play good bad guy.”

So I got the part and I thought well, you know, it’s a good credit and nobody will see this anyway and, you know. And of course it was the number 1 TV movie of the year for ABC and everybody saw it. And to this day I have everybody from David Duchovny to Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, the first thing they say to me is, “I loved Initiation of Sarah.”

And so it sort of set me on my road to bitchdom I guess. And ABC Family actually did a remake of it a few years ago and I played the mother of one of the girls in that one.

Suzanne Lanoue: That’s funny. You have a history with that.

Morgan Fairchild: Yes but I think it’s sort of the way I look and then it helps to be a good solid actor. You know, thank you for all the theater training and all of that because you can just sort of hold on firm ground there.

Suzanne Lanoue: Well when I first saw you was in Mork and Mindy and you weren’t too much of a bitch -- a little bit.

Morgan Fairchild: Kind of.

Suzanne Lanoue: A little bit.

Morgan Fairchild: No that was so fun. I loved doing that. Again I love doing things that catch people off guard. And that one again I hadn’t been out here very long. My second or third job was Happy Days and they were so sweet. That was such a wonderful show and everybody was so sweet.

And so whenever I’d be over at Paramount for anything, I’d stop by the set and say hi. So I’m over there one afternoon and Henry Winkler says, “You know, do you have to go somewhere?” and I said, “No. Why?” And he says, “Stay for a while and watch this kid work.” So they had a guest star that, you know, was doing all this weird stuff and just, you know, brilliant.

So I stayed the rest of the afternoon just so I could tell this guy that he was a genius. And, you know, tick, tick, tick like eight, nine months later I get a call from my agent and he says, “Good news and bad news.” I said, “Well what’s the good news?” He says, “Well you got this TV movie that you wanted.” Great.

I said, “What’s the bad news?” and he says, “Well Gary Marshall has this new series he’s doing and nobody knows anything about it. It’s all under wraps and he doesn’t want to give you contract and they don’t want to pay you that much. You’re making a lot more money nowadays and we don’t think you should do it.” And I said, “Well what’s it called?” and he said, “Mork and Mindy,” and I said, “Mork and Mindy, that’s Robin Williams’ show.” And said, “Who’s Robin Williams?” I said, “Don’t tell Gary. I would work for free to work with Robin Williams. I don’t care if I have a contract. I don’t care if it’s top of show. I will go do it.”

And got over there and of course Robin had been the one I’d seen a month before working on the Happy Days set. And again we started off and you could see Robin kind of looking at me like why did they send me Ms. Whitebread America, you know.

And so we did the read-through and then blocking, and I’m sure most of you guys know that, so we sort of get in on a stage and start figuring out who’s going to stand where and what we’re going to do and all of that.

And so I quickly realized that what everybody did was just stand back and let Robin go because Robin would not stick to the script. So Robin would take off and do all these rips on everything. And then when he’d sort of slowdown and run out of material, that was when the director would say, “Well let’s get back to the script.”

And so it was kind of interesting watching. Well then it came my scene and he started going off and he said something and I said something back to him and he like looked at me. And so he said something and I said something back to him. And, you know, so we started improvising and we’re coming up with all this stuff. And finally he comes over to me and he throws me in the air and he says, “Momma, you’re one of me,” you know, and dropped me back down.

And so that was what we would do. We would improvise a lot of the stuff because that’s the way he worked. But a lot of the people didn’t know what to do with him because nobody had really seen anything like Robin. Now people are used to Robin, but back then people weren’t really used.

And again it goes back to what the other gentlemen asked. I love to be part of anything that’s cutting edge, that’s new, that’s different, you know, where you can sort of exercise your chops and stuff.

Suzanne Lanoue: That must have been great training (unintelligible) working with Robin Williams.

Morgan Fairchild: Well Robin had gone to Julliard with my sister and Christopher Reeve had also been in the class behind my sisters. And they were buddies, so Chris would come hangout on the set and I had known Chris in New York. We had the same agent and we’d frequently audition together and stuff. And so it was kind of a group of friends.

And so yes fun learning from him but also feeling that you are contributing because you’re the only one doing it with him what he likes to do -- which is do the improvisational thing. And he’s very fast. You have to be very on top of things to keep up with him. He’s very smart.

Suzanne Lanoue: Oh he’s my favorite.

Morgan Fairchild: I know I love him. I love him.

Suzanne Lanoue: All right thanks a lot.

Morgan Fairchild: Sure.

Suzanne Lanoue: I appreciate it. Thank you.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Mike Gencarelli with MediaMikes.com. Please go ahead.

Morgan Fairchild: Hi.

Mike Gencarelli: Hey, Morgan, how’s it going?

Morgan Fairchild: Mike Media, hello.

Mike Gencarelli: That’s me. Thanks for chats yesterday or last night. It was great. I’m glad everybody worked out.

Morgan Fairchild: Yes me too.

Mike Gencarelli: Well, you know, I think about your TV career and, you know, having both a career staying in TV and film. I mean have you ever preferred one to another?

Morgan Fairchild: Well they’re all just very different and you forget also that I grew up in the theater. So I mean do a lot of theater whenever I can still and did a staged reading of a play this summer and did a big national tour of The Graduate in ’05 and have done, you know, big national tours of like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, have done Broadway, off Broadway.

So they’re all very different. They’re all very different in the energy -- the way you focus your energy -- which is really what the difference between stage acting and film acting is.

And then film acting is usually it’s also very different because of the size of the format. How you focus your energy is to me one of the most interesting things about it.

Mike Gencarelli: And do you have any kind of, you know, sort of technique that you use to, you know, for when you approach a role?

Morgan Fairchild: Well I do sort of the basic thing everybody does, you know, that they teach you from the Day 1 -- which is break it down, break down who is this character, what do they want, where do they come from, what is their background, where are they trying to go, what are they trying to get out of this. so it’s all that kind of basic thing.

And then again it’s a very focus of energy. I’m a big Bruce Lee fan. And Rudolf Nureyev for some of you who may not know Rudolf Nureyev was probably one of the best ballet dancers of the 20th century. And watching him on stage with the focus of energy was just an amazing thing the way he controlled the stage.

And back in ’73 I’d been living in New York and I went home for the summer for a visit to my mom. And, you know, mom always wanted to do anything that was hot in New York. So I said, “Mom, these kung-fu movies are just the hottest things on 42nd Street, so we’ll go to a kung-fu movie.” Well and saw kind of this Bruce Lee movie and it opens with a - Enter the Dragon, it opens with a scene in the Shaolin Temple with Bruce Lee just like stripped to, you know, his skivvies and I was just fascinated with the focus of energy -- the total focus of Chi.

And I watched the whole movie. You know, he’s just brilliant. If he had lived, he would just have been such a major star because of this focus of energy. When the camera is on him, you cannot take your eyes off of him.

When Nureyev was on the stage, you could not take your eyes off of him. You know, the poor little corps de ballet dancers would be dancing their hearts out and he would be standing with his back to you and you’re watching him instead of these poor little girls dancing.

And that was what sort of inspired me again to spend 4-1/2 years taking kung-fu in Chinatown in New York from a (unintelligible). I mean even when I was doing Search for Tomorrow, I remember one day I was sitting there watching something in the control room and it was summer and I had one of my little Danskin things on and one of the guys came up behind and said, “Morgan, did you know you have dimples in your back, because they would kick your ass, honey.”

You know, down there in Chinatown and I would take the subway to go down there and pick my ways over bodies on the Bowery. This is back when bodies on the Bowery really were there. And it was a little scary going to and from class. But, you know, 4-1/2 years until I moved out here I was there like five, six nights a week as much as I could get in.

So yes that’s what I do. That’s part of it is because to play a good bad guy especially you have to have that focus of energy.

Mike Gencarelli: Sure. Well thank you so much and I’ll jump back in the queue. Appreciate it.

Morgan Fairchild: Thank you.

Mike Gencarelli: Bye-bye.

Operator: And our next question comes for the line of David Martindale with Hearst Newspaper. Please go ahead.

David Martindale:Hi thanks for doing this call.

Morgan Fairchild: Oh sure. Hi, David.

David Martindale:Hey I’m calling from Dallas by the way.

Morgan Fairchild: Oh you are? Where are you in Dallas?

David Martindale:Well I’m in Arlington. I live in Arlington.

Morgan Fairchild: Oh okay. I had cousins who lived in Arlington.

David Martindale:And my (unintelligible)...

Morgan Fairchild: My sisters - and my family is still in Dallas as I’m sure you know.

David Martindale:Yes my sister lives in Richardson, so there you go.

Anyway the Syfy Channel has a knack for making these films that almost feel like throwbacks to old drive-in movies from another era that were kind of cheap and kind of cheesy and kind of schlocky. But they were also fun and creepy and sometimes genuinely scary.

Did this movie put you in the mind of that kind of film? Did it feel like you were doing that kind of a movie?

Morgan Fairchild: Well there’s scary movies. I mean for those of us who are of that age, I mean I still remember going to see Night of the Living Dead at a drive-in and it was the scariest thing I’d ever seen. It was so real and the whole, you know, docudrama kind of thing of it. It was such a breakthrough in filmmaking.

So yes so I mean I’ve always enjoyed these kind of fun movies. I mean and like I said I kind of watch them a lot of times on Saturday or Sunday afternoons. And Saturday evenings my boyfriend knows that he records the nine o’clock new movie for me every Saturday, even when I’m not there.

And they’re fun. You know, they’re fun entertainment. And yes I enjoy doing anything that’s fun. I’ve worked on needless to say a few that weren’t so fun. And anything like this that’s fun - although I do have to say that some of the ones they shoot in Eastern Europe where every time you have a seen everybody’s breath is on the air and you can tell they’re freezing even though they’re in like cut-offs and everything. Those I’m like oh all I can feel is sorry for the actors, you know, especially the girls always having to be in skimpy clothes and stuff.

But no they’re a lot of fun and I always throw myself wholeheartedly into every script. And I’m familiar with this. Like I said, Initiation of Sarah twice, Haunting of Sarah Hardy, different movies that I’ve done about the supernatural and everything, so it’s a lot of fun -- especially this one because it’s supernatural I enjoy.

David Martindale:Yes do you suspect that the people over at FX that make American Horror Story -- which is about to start its second season -- do you suppose they’re saying those guys at Syfy are such dirty so-and-so’s for making American Horror House? Kind of (unintelligible)...

Morgan Fairchild: Oh I don’t think so. I mean there’s so many similarities in things in this town. There is practical no original idea. I think it’s old saying there’s six stories, you know, in the world and got to just find a different way to tell it.

David Martindale:Yes.

Morgan Fairchild: So no I don’t think so at all. It’s an interesting town but it’s not that small a town -- small minded.

David Martindale:Okay cool. Thank you so much.

Morgan Fairchild: Yes.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of April McIntyre with Monsters and Critics. Please go ahead.

Morgan Fairchild: Hi, (April).

April McIntyre: Hi, Ms. Fairchild. Thanks so - hey thanks so much for your time.

Morgan Fairchild: Oh sure.

April McIntyre: So I wanted to hear about how it went with Stan Lee at Comikaze promoting this movie and if you could give us some anecdotes and just your feel on the genre as a whole. You haven’t done a whole lot of horror. I mean I’m pretty familiar and I remember you from the very beginning of your career. And I was just wondering if it’s a genre that appeals to you and you might be looking for some more horror scripts.

Morgan Fairchild: Well there are some critics who would say every movie I’ve ever done is a horror.

April McIntyre: No.

Morgan Fairchild: No it’s been a part of the genre. I mean I’ve had friends who have done other things. One of my girlfriends from high school was in the original Hills have Eyes and stuff. And it’s a genre I’ve always been very interested in. I’m a big vampire fan, loved, you know, Dracula and Frankenstein and all of that. I love monsters. I don’t like slasher films. I’m monsters. I like monsters and ghosts.

So yes no it’s been fun. It’s fun to do it. It’s fun to be part of it. And it’s not like I’ve never done something in that sort of vein before. I’m sorry. I’m not sure if I’m answering your question.

April McIntyre: Well I was wondering if the experience with Stan Lee, who’s such an icon in that genre...

Morgan Fairchild: Oh with Stan Lee, oh at the Comikaze.

April McIntyre: Yes.

Morgan Fairchild: Yes Stan Lee. You know, Stan is lovely and that was the second time I’ve done Comikaze and he is always so supportive and so terrific, obviously such a legend, an icon. It’s just always fun to be around him. Everybody just livens up when Stan walks in the room. And he’s always very supportive.

I was talking to him in the greenroom there at Comikaze and he was asking about it and talking about it -- about the movie -- and wanting to know all about it and just a lovely man.

The Comikaze thing is fun because you meet a lot of fans that I wouldn’t necessarily run across in other kinds of venues because people are really devoted to those genres -- the anime, the cartoons, the horror, the slashers, all of that. So it’s fun because you actually meet your fans but they’re not necessarily who know you from that genre.

April McIntyre: Right.

Morgan Fairchild: And they’re in such interesting costumes.

April McIntyre: Quick follow-up, it’s in the trailer, so I’m not spoiling anything, there’s a murderous big bear in the sorority house and I was wondering if you could give us a little tidbit on that one. There’s a scene with a very large teddy bear that does not nice things.

Morgan Fairchild: Well I haven’t seen all the CGI, so I’m not sure what they did with it. Yes a bear who is a mascot for the school.

April McIntyre: Like a teddy bear, like a human-sized teddy bear.

Morgan Fairchild: Yes it’s kind of a mascot. That’s the thing. It’s a mascot costume.

April McIntyre: Right.

Morgan Fairchild: Like a giant teddy bear for the school and becomes quite something else again. Instead of a lovable big thing becomes sort of a demonic figure, as does a lot of the characters. A lot of the characters through the course of this thing have shall we say metamorphosis and become different than what they were to begin with.

Again I don’t want to give it away. I’m trying to figure out how to dance around it here without giving it away. But yes a lot of murder and mayhem transpires.

April McIntyre: Thank you so much.

Morgan Fairchild: Thank you.

Operator: And we do have a follow-up question from the line of Tony Tellado with Sci-Fi Talk. Please go ahead.

Tony Tellado: Hi again Ms. Fairchild. I want to ask you about your experience now that Chuck is, you know, gone into history in playing a character on the series and what was that like for you?

Morgan Fairchild: Oh, you know, it’s so fun. She was a fun character and again that was just a great cast. Anytime I was working over there you knew you went and had just a wonderful time. You knew you were going to have a good time when you were at work. He is just - Zach is a lovely young man and they’re so talented and everybody on there was. I really enjoyed working with everybody on there.

I was disappointed I didn’t get to go back and do a little more as the show was winding down. I was hoping to have some real knock down, drag out grandmother scenes with Linda Hamilton.

Tony Tellado: You know, it sounds like, you know, because you have such great experiences, you know, would you ever consider writing a book about your experiences at all?

Morgan Fairchild: You know, I’ve thought about it. Whenever I’ve talked to people about it, they seem to just want dirt though, you know, and I’m not really good on dirt. I am a very positive person and I don’t do that, you know. So far no one has seemed really interested in the fun stories and the exciting stories and sometimes the adventurous stories.

I mean I shot one movie in Bosnia during the war and I was like in tunnels under the city to avoid Serb sniper fire and things like that. I mean some of these things have been quite interesting.

So yes I mean I’d like to write about the adventures and the fun and a lot of the wonderful people I’ve gotten to work with and just some of the stories. But mostly they just want the dirt.

Tony Tellado: You know and another thing is you’ve done your share of daytime television and that pace and that structure as an actor, does that help you because of the pacing and the different range of emotions and arcs you have to play?

Morgan Fairchild: Well back when I got on Search for Tomorrow, I had done a lot of theater. I’d started in the theater when I was ten, so I already had a lot of years of theater. I’d done a lot of commercials. I’d done a lot of runaway production that happened in Texas back then because it’s a non-union right-to - I’m mean it’s a right-to-work state. And worked on Bonnie and Clyde when I was a kid.

And yes the soap was a great learning experience for me because I chose to use it that way. Some of the younger actors seemed to be chasing at it and saying, oh, you know, I shouldn’t be here doing this. I should be doing great things.

And my approach was I got married very young and I didn’t really get to go to college except part time. And I would sit in there like I mentioned before I’d sit in the control room and watch the show every day because it was on our lunch break and learned what I was doing wrong. I learned how to do close-ups. I learned how to do things watching the show -- watching me on the show.

And one day one of the guys was complaining, you know, because he was doing a Broadway show too and he says, “I don’t know what I’m doing here.” And I said, “Well, you know, I do because I didn’t get to go to college and if I’d gotten to go to SMU, they would have had this wonderful film department who would have had me do scenes and put me on video and then play it back for me and see what I did wrong. And these people are paying me to do it.”

And so I just took it as a great chance to learn camera technique and learn what worked for me and what didn’t play for me and all of those kind of things.

So it was - and, you know, to be quite frank we had a lot of wonderful theater people when I was doing Search for Tomorrow. I mean Michael Nouri was on it who some of you - he worked a lot but some of you would know him as Ziva David’s father on NCIS. Joel Higgins was doing Shenandoah at night on Broadway. Larry Haines was doing Promises, Promises on Broadway at night, won a Tony.

All these different people - oh I’m trying to think of his name, oh God (unintelligible). But anyway we had a lot of great - Kevin Kline, Kevin Kline had just come out of Julliard with my sister and was working on the show with us.

All of these young actors getting starts. Kathleen Turner was over on one of the shows. Chris Reeve was on Love of Life. Donna Mills had done one. I think she was already at (unintelligible).

But I mean it was a great training ground where you could live in New York, you could audition for things, you had this job where you could learn every day, where you were working with good theater people.

John Cunningham was on the show, who, you know, later would do Six Degrees of Separation. And, you know, but you would end up working with wonderful people, so you did learn a lot.

Tony Tellado: Yes that sounds great. My vote would get a book. Just hearing you talk today, I would definitely read it. I think it’s really interesting stuff.

Morgan Fairchild: Yes. Okay thanks and we haven’t hit Johnny Carson or Vincent Price.

Tony Tellado: That’s right. Thank you.

Morgan Fairchild: Thank you.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, press the 1 followed by the 4.

And our next question comes from the line of (Tim Hogan) with TVOvermind. Please go ahead.

Tim Hogan: Hi, Morgan, it’s me again.

Morgan Fairchild: Hi, (Tim).

Tim Hogan: Hi. There’s are a few off-topic questions. Now that Dallas is back on the air, I was wondering if you would be interested at all in reprising the role you originated of Jenna Wade.

Morgan Fairchild: Well sure. I mean I’d always be interested. Originally just socially a couple of people in charge over there had sort of reached out to me and asked me the same question. But I’ve never heard back from them sort of following up and deciding to put Jenna back in it with me or Priscilla, so I don’t know what their thinking is.

I’m just happy just Larry and Patrick and Linda all working away again in those great parts again. They’re all friends, you know, so I’m just always happy to see people working and working in fun, wonderful parts.

Tim Hogan: Yes I’m glad to see that it’s a hit again.

And a couple other topics that are areas of interest of mine is fashion and fashion photography. And I know you’ve worked with some of the very best and I was just wondering if you could share a few names of your favorite fashion designers and favorite still photographers that you’ve worked with over the years.

Morgan Fairchild: Yes. I mean there are a few photographers I’ve gotten to work with I was really thrilled to work with. I got to shoot with David Bailey, who for those of you who are young may not know there was a big hit movie in the ‘60s called Blowup and David was the photographer that it was based on and made David Hemmings a star. And he was the only man ever married to Catherine Deneuve I think and discovered Jean Shrimpton, who was the big supermodel of the ‘60s.

And just a wonderful, crazy, you know, character to work with. I mean there’s a store here on La Cienega called Trashy Lingerie -- which is as it sounds -- although it’s very expensive trashy lingerie. And he put me in some trashy lingerie in the window in rush hour with all the mannequins and shot me. He had me in a nurse’s outfit with a gorilla.

And he put me in waitress’ uniform on the hood of like a ’60 Thunderbird in front Tiny (unintelligible) -- which is a drive-in food store here like they used to have back in the old days of, you know - I forget what you call them. But, you know, where you can drive up and order. And all the tour buses were going by going nuts, you know.

And David’s one of these crazy people. He put me in this position where I’m staring straight into the sun, tears running down my face and I’m saying, “David, David, I’ve got, you know, I’ve got to,” - and he didn’t have any film. He’d gone back to the car to get film and didn’t even tell me, so I’m sitting there looking into the...

And I got to work with George Hurrell, who for those of you who don’t know was the big photographer of MGM back in the ‘20s, ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s who created those iconic images of Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, all those famous shots that some of us who love old movies grew up with.

He shot and I got to shoot with him when he was 96 years old and was still using, you know, one of those big old cameras where you put the whole cell into it -- the whole glass cell into it. So the person being shot has to hold perfectly still for ten seconds. And I was really into it because I was so excited to work with him.

And because he’s 96 they told me he will not work passed six o’clock, so I said of course fine. And, you know, six o’clock came and went and it got to be 6:30 and 6:45 and seven o’clock and finally I said, “You know, it’s really passed six o’clock. I don’t want to kill him.” And they said, “No, he loves you. He’s having a great time. He wants to keep going.”

And then Mike Ruiz, who’s a current fashion photographer that those of you on Twitter is the fellow who shot the avatar I have on Twitter. And that was part of a fashion project that he was doing where he and some hair and makeup people had gotten together and would try to shoot celebrities looking totally different than what you usually see them. And so they’ve got my hair all slicked back. They made Brooke Shields look like Joan Crawford, made Carmen Electra look like a flapper.

And so I love doing things like that. I love being part of that creative process.

I got to shoot with Bill King, who was a big fashion photographer in the ‘80s at Bazaar, who unfortunately passed of AIDS.

And got to shoot with Robert Mapplethorpe, who some of you may know was a very famous, iconic photographer of the ‘80s.

And, you know, that was I like doing still photography. And one thing I learned is that a lot of actors don’t work well in front of a still camera. So usually after the first few minutes, the still photographer is really happy because I get what they’re doing and I work with them to create an image that they’re looking for. And I look at it as art not like, oh Jesus, what am I doing here? I have to get out of here -- you know, which some actors for some reason have that approach.

Tim Hogan: Yes I really liked the...

Morgan Fairchild: Oh and designers, you were asking designers. Yes designers I have huge collections of Valentino, Dior, Krizia, all kinds of different ones that I love. I love Ralph Lauren, wear a lot of Ralph Lauren; Versace, a lot of Versace; and then I like finding other designers too. Mark Bouwer, who’s a younger designer is a great friend of mine, and came in for his Halloween party last year in New York and, you know, he did me all up in gold and sequins.

But a lot of fun. I like fun clothes that are interesting.

Tim Hogan: You have status where I imagine they’re lining up to make things specifically for you, correct?

Morgan Fairchild: Well not so much as they were when I was younger. But, you know, the fashion industry is so interesting and it’s changing so much right now, just because of the business model the same as the film industry is changing a lot because the business models have changed. And you see a lot of young designers having trouble getting funding and having to find other ways to go about it and trying to get discovered and get noticed.

Yes Valentino, I have all these beautiful Valentino’s that were just made for the runway and stuff that are gorgeous that he gave to me and (unintelligible) had given me a few things. And, you know, you just never part with them and some of these people just to be around them, just the kind of lifestyle, the world experience that they’ve had, the worldview that they bring to what they do with fashion is quite interesting. And just to get to sit and talk with them and hear stories about the people they’ve worked with and the people they’ve known.

You know, (unintelligible) Audrey Hepburn did the dress for -- the little black dress for Breakfast at Tiffany’s -- and worked with her all those years and, you know, sort of created this iconic idea of the little black dress that everybody’s familiar with now.

So just to get to talk to people, I love talking to people -- actors, designers and artists who have had lives and just talking. And that’s kind of sad on the set these days because all the kids sit on the set and text. They never talk to you. I mean, poor Alessandra on our movie didn’t have much time because she was in every scene, but she talked to me.

But on a lot of the sets now you sit on the set and that’s the way you used to make friends and learn things and talk to people. I mean, my God, I worked with everybody from Vincent Price to Natalie Wood to Roddy McDowall, Robert Wagner, Betty Davis. I mean just talking to people on the sets was fascinating. Jane Wyman just sitting on the set on Falcon Crest and talking about hold Hollywood stories.

And, you know, I’d go to lunch with Natalie Wood and Roddy McDowall and they’d both been child stars and, you know, tell me who really shot who and who’s really buried where, you know. It’s just lots of fun. It was much more fun before texting came along.

Tim Hogan: Well thank you so much for talking with us today. It’s been a real honor.

Morgan Fairchild: Oh well thank you, very kind of you.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Kent Gibbons with Multichannel News. Please go ahead.

Kent Gibbons: Hi. We are noticing an increase on cable as well as in retail of kind of Halloween becoming sort of a full moon programming opportunity, wonder if you’re picking up on that too and if you have any...

Morgan Fairchild: I’m sorry. I didn’t hear part of that. You’re noticing a what that’s becoming what?

Kent Gibbons: That on cable channels as well as like in retail stores where you go in and, you know, there’s already, you know, 12 shelves worth of Halloween candy and the costume stores popping up all over the place on the streets of New York, we’re seeing a pickup in cable channels making Halloween sort of full-month programming opportunity. I’m wondering if you’re picking up on that and being an aficionado of the genre whether you see - you know, why you think that’s happening.

Morgan Fairchild: Oh, honey, it’s marketing. I mean Universal Studios has been doing their Halloween tour for weeks already. You know, it’s like Christmas comes earlier every now. They started. Believe me as soon as they take the witches down, they’re going to put the Christmas trees up. It just seems to be the way of modern marketing. I mean leave no stone unturned approach and saturate the market and try to get as much out of it as you can and start earlier than ever -- whether people are ready to deal with Santa Claus or not.

So yes I haven’t noticed it so much here in L.A., but I’m sure it’s going on. You know, just seems to be the way of the world.

Kent Gibbons: Well I guess with zombies and vampires and, you know, all the rest of it. Do you think that is tapping into something in particular in American culture or what people want to watch?

Morgan Fairchild: People have always loved to be scared. I mean look how well the vampires. Look how well Dracula and Frankenstein and The Wolfman did in the ‘30s when there was a Great Depression.

I mean the two things you can count on when there is a recession and people want to escape is you’re going to have comedies and you’re going to have horror films. And those are the great things that take people out of themselves and take them to another place.

And not to negate all the great, classic, wonderful, really well done movies, but if you get a well done horror movie or a well done comedy, you know, you can just sort of name your price and they rerun forever.

Kent Gibbons: Yes and if you can combine them both, even better, right?

Morgan Fairchild: Well there’s always Bad Santa, you know, one of my favorite movies combing Christmas with, you know.

Kent Gibbons: That’s a good point. All right thanks very much.

Morgan Fairchild: Sure.

Operator: And there seems to be no further questions at this time.

Morgan Fairchild: Okay.

Gary Morgenstein: Well thank you all so much. Thank you, Morgan, for joining us and talking about American Horror House.

Morgan Fairchild: Oh well thank you and I hope everybody enjoys it.

Gary Morgenstein: Thank you and have a good flight to New York.

Morgan Fairchild: Okay. Gary, are you going to call me back in a minute?

Gary Morgenstein: Yes.

Morgan Fairchild: Okay.

Gary Morgenstein: Okay. Bye-bye.

Morgan Fairchild: Okay thanks.

Gary Morgenstein: Thanks everyone. Bye.

Morgan Fairchild: Bye.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen that does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you for your participation and ask that you please disconnect your line.

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