(Interview with Dee Wallace): The Diverse Dee

AN INTERVIEW WITH DEE WALLACE: 
THE DIVERSE DEE

By Jerry Saravia

Dee in 1977's "Hills Have Eyes"

Dee Wallace in 1982's "E.T."

For anyone who was a teenager or an adolescent during the 1980's, you'd have to be living under a rock to not know who Dee Wallace was. Of course, some of my readers might be a little younger than me so let's refresh the subject at hand for a second. Dee Wallace's most famous role is the divorcee and mother to Elliott in the 1982 Steven Spielberg classic, "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial." She was also howling to the moons as a reporter who is bitten by a werewolf in 1981's funny and spine-tingling "The Howling." Or the mother from 1986's "Critters," not to mention the 1991 cult film "Popcorn" where she was the concerned mother to Jill Schoelen's traumatized Maggie? Or the mother protecting her son from a rabid St. Bernard in 1983's "Cujo" (perhaps the goriest Stephen King adaptation ever). But Dee had started earlier, back in the late 1970's. Who can forget Dee as the young mother whom we all hoped would survive the desert family of psychos in Wes Craven's "The Hills Have Eyes"? With her trademark sensitivity and vulnerability and overall sweetness delivered in spades, Dee was the sympathetic ideal woman for horror and fantasy.

As an actress, she has amassed a total of 196 credits, ranging from small roles in TV shows such as "Starsky and Hutch," "Lou Grant," "Hart to Hart," "Trapper John M.D.," "Cold Case," "Murder, She Wrote," and "The Office" to other notable film roles that were occasionally non-horror including Blake Edwards' "10," "Jimmy the Kid" with Gary Coleman and "Extraordinary Measures" with Harrison Ford, to name a few. She has also served as an executive producer and a choreographer. 

Lately, the diverse Dee Wallace has created her own website, www.Iamdeewallace.com, in addition to a call-in radio show devoted to the art of self-creation, and has written three books: "Conscious Creation," "The Big E," and "Bright Light."She is a trifecta of talent - Actor, Healer, Best-Selling Author.

1.) I think you have been asked to death about "E.T." so let's talk about the highly entertaining "Critters." You had taken on the matriarch role in a few films at that point already, especially in "Cujo" and "Hills Have Eyes." Aside from "E.T," my favorite matriarchal role you have played was in "Critters." Did Hollywood casting agents find it easier at first to cast you as a trusting suburban mother in unexpectedly fantastic and horrific scenarios?

Dee: "I think it just morphed into it. Sometimes I think I am just a really good screamer and have a full access of emotions, and the horror genre is ripe for that. I don't think they tried to create me as that, but it's the way it played out. I love the genre--the REAL horror film, because it has arcs and opportunities to really create within."

Dee in 1991's "Popcorn"

2.) "Popcorn" is another matriarchal role you have played, mother to Jill Schoelen's Maggie. I understand the shoot was fraught with some complications, including the recasting of the Maggie role that went originally to Amy O'Neill who was replaced by Schoelen. There has been a cult developed around this film. What are your thoughts on the film itself and the renewed interest it currently enjoys that it did not initially receive?

Dee: "It's so funny to me. As long as I have been in this business, it is an enigma why fans take to the things they do. At the conventions, people will stand in line for hours to meet an actor whose face has never actually been seen on camera, while a veteran of 100 films is nearby. It's crazy. And it's beautiful. "Popcorn" has indeed become a genre classic. "Popcorn" had so many problems I hardly remember them. Producers changed, money fell out. We were on, we were off. None of it really phased me, because I had just had my daughter Gabrielle ( who is now beginning her own career in a big way) and my husband was with me. All I was worried about was breastfeeding on time!! I do remember insisting that they create it so I could get in and out of the body cast. I remember thinking, 'Geez, guys, I'm gonna have to use the restroom SOMEtime!'"

Dee and her late husband, Christopher Stone, in 1981's "The Howling"

Dee in 1996's "The Frighteners"

3.) A real break from the trusting and sincere Dee Wallace that I think we all love was your role as a murderer's accomplice in Peter Jackson's "The Frighteners." What was the Peter Jackson experience like and, though I have not seen every single film and TV role you have performed, do you wish for more variety, say a comedic role (aside from 1985's "Secret Admirer")?

Dee: "I adore Peter and everything about him. I had a ball murdering everyone. Although my beloved Christopher died during the shooting, I still remember it fondly. Peter is a class act all the way. As far as comedy, I have had two sit coms on, baby! I like comedy if it's good. I hate it if it's corny. Far out, stupid stuff definitely does not rock my boat."

4.) Now that you have worked twice with director Rob Zombie, specifically on "Halloween" and the voice of Trixie in "Haunted World of El Superbeasto,", tell us what kind of role you have taken on in "Lords of Salem," your third film with Zombie, and what kind of atmosphere does Zombie create on the set?

Dee: "Geez. I love Rob. Truly. He is an artistic genius who is a really nice guy. I get to play all sides of Dee: the E.T. Dee and The Frighteners Dee. It's a great arc. He wrote it for me, and I am honored. It is very different from his other films. Can't wait to see the response!!"

5.) Lastly, tell us about your Thursday morning radio talk show, "Conscious Creations." It seems, after listening to one of your broadcasts, that your purpose is to stress the self, that you are the maker of your self and follow your heart, themes that need to be stressed within our consumerist, practically selfless society. Overall, am I on the right page because that is a message that needs to heard?

Dee: "By George, you got it! Both my radio shows focus on taking self responsibility in the creation of our own lives. It is amazingly powerful work, and my channel is clear and correct. The information that comes through astounds us, and we can discern instantly where a person is blocked and why. Tune in, baby! You'll love it!"

For more info on the radio show and her books, Go to http://www.iamdeewallace.com for everything Dee!

Listen to Dee every Monday from 5 to 6 pm PDT/PST on Bright Light on The Awakening Zone~(714) 364-4335.  http://www.awakeningzone.com/Show.aspx?ShowID=34

Conscious Creation, free call in show~(646) 915-9919.  Thursday 8 to 9 am, PST/PDT.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ConsciousCreation