Cathryn de Prume
from Dead Time Stories

How did you get involved with DEADTIME STORIES? I sent in a headshot to an ad I saw in BACKSTAGE magazine for a different film that Jeff was doing. I didn’t hear anything back. Then months later, I saw an ad for DEADTIME STORIES and submitted my headshot again. Well it ends out that Jeff still had my headshot from the first submission but lost the contact info. He held onto the photo and was showing it to people saying, “This is who I want to play Goldi-Lox!” So when he got the second submission, he called me up right away.

What were your first thoughts (on playing GOLDI LOX) after reading the script? I thought it was wacky and fun. I always find myself attracted to stuff that is different than the Norm, material that’s ‘outside the box.’

Tell us what making the movie was like for you? It was Fun! I love the character because she’s so zany. A Psycho, psychic killer. I love the fact that I could movie bodies around and be dominating over my dead men (laughs). It was a lot of fun. And Jeff let me really play and get creative like in that scene you pointed out (in an earlier conversation) where I was sharing my drink with a skeleton and pouring this bright orange soda into his skull, well that was something I just thought of in that moment.

What was your favorite scene in the movie and why? Hmmm…I had a lot of fun when we went to the pizza parlor…and the waitress was mean to me and so I kill her. That was a lot of fun. We were all just like this weird family. See, I come from a really weird family… growing up in Brooklyn… and I was always so embarrassed, I mean we were like the Munsters. You had my mother who is from Russia and is really eccentric and wore these really wacky clothes. She had her own point of view about everything… like health food… she called everything junk food and poison.

And then you had my father (who’s not alive anymore), he was this really nerdy guy, and then my brothers were these hyperactive lunatics… one of them being my brother Ivan who was the drummer for WHITE ZOMBIE. So we were just like this crazy family. And I was kinda like the blonde in the Munsters, seemingly more normal. But every time we’d go out to eat it would be like- OH GOD, Don’t Look At Us!! We’d be so loud and people would be so annoyed with us. So I totally related to that scene because we went in as this eccentric family, THE BEARS, and I felt very at home (laughs).

What was it like working with Director Jeff Delman?

Jeff is great. He’s very open and makes you feel very relaxed. He was open to my ideas. He likes to collaborate. He isn’t like somebody that would say “alright, this is how it’s gonna go and that’s it.” That’s what’s so cool about the movie we did recently (RANDOM SHOOTING IN LA), he even wanted me to help write it. It meant a lot to me that he trusted me as an inexperienced writer at the time. He sees beyond the goofy, wacky, even ditzy characters I’ve played. He sees my intelligence and creativity. To me the best actors are always the ones who bring something to the party. When I direct, that’s the kind of actors I like to work with. When I’ve written a character in a certain way and somebody comes along and brings even more to it, there’s nothing better.

What about The guy who played BABY? He was a pretty hilarious character! Oh my god, I wonder what has ever happened to him! He was hysterical. I don’t know how they found him. He was like Herman Munster. He was perfect.

What are some of your favorite movies?

One is FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE, it’s a Chinese movie. It’s a story about an opera company in China and it’s just so passionate and wild. You’re transported to this whole other world. I adore that movie. Another one is AVALON. Barry Levinson directed that. It’s a very personal story about a kid growing up in Baltimore and his family and how things change over the years.

I love a story where you get the sense that somebody has really put their personal life into it. Another film is MYSTERY TRAIN by one of my very favorite directors, Jim Jarmusch. It has such unusual characters nd gorgeous cinematography. All these movies I’m talking about have unusual characters. I grew up in Brooklyn in a rooming house. On the upper two floors we would rent out the rooms to bizarre, interesting people from all over the world. Some of them were half insane! So I grew up just mesmerized by strange characters.

So then a lot of your acting inspirations were actually these people who came in and out of your life, more than say an actor from a movie? Exactly! I mean I definitely have some actors who have inspired me like Meryl Streep, she’s just the acting god. And Lucille Ball is another Favorite. I’d just die laughing watching her. Before I even understood what acting was I wanted to be LUCY. I wanted to be funny and make people laugh. Lilly Tomlin is another inspiration. But really I got most of my inspiration from characters in New York.

What does Cathryn de Prume share with Goldi Lox? My Family. That’s where it really makes sense when I look back on it. Being part of a lunatic family. They weren’t murderers or anything- they were just whackos! And instead of bodies in the basement, we had crazy tenants upstairs. Where did you see the finished movie for the first time and what were your thoughts on it? Ya know, I really don’t remember. I believe in was in a theater. I definitely know I was thinking it was a wacky movie and I was proud of it. And being so young, it was exciting.

Tell us what you are doing these days and some of your goals. I want to be directing, writing, creating my stuff…tons of film and television. I’d love to act in great films that move people in some way. Make them laugh and cry. Shake up people’s perceptions of things. I really love working with people who are creative and bold. I love good stories. I tend to bit a little old fashioned in that way. I can be wild and crazy but then I love a good story with a beginning, middle, and end. I love a hero going through something and then coming out the other side where they learn something about themselves.

In recent years you seem to have gotten more into writing. Was that something that evolved after your move to California?

I think it came out of me because of the frustration of being an actress. It came out of reading all these scripts and saying, “You know what- I could write this better!” or reading a script for something I’d be auditioning for and saying to myself, “Wow, that’s the best part they could come up with for a woman? Why does the woman get that part yet the guy gets THAT part! So it’s partially my dis-satisfaction with scripts. Writing lets me get out what I want to say. As an actress I can put my heart into something and bring out what the writer intended…but I really have a lot that I want to say and I can do a lot more of it as a director and as a writer than being just an actress. Sometimes the challenge in being an actress is being able to put my heart into someone else’s words... then again that process can cause you to find something about yourself that you never knew you had in you. That’s what is so exciting about acting. You grow so much as a person. You can take on a role and then find out, “WOW- I didn’t know I had that inside of me!”

What types of movies have appealed to you most in recent years? I like movies where there is a female lead. Like this whole TOMB RAIDER thing going on with Angelina Jolie. It’s really cool and she’s really believable as this fun action hero. You know, I have to admit, Nothing against female leads but seeing TOMB RAIDER just makes me want Spielberg to hurry up and make the 4th INDIANA JONES movie! Oh yeah, I love INDIANA JONES! Those are some of the best movies ever.

Well maybe you can try out for the female lead in the 4th one that they’re supposed to start shooting next summer! Let's see if INDY can handle "Silyotka!" Really? They’re doing a new one? I didn’t know about that. Wow- well that would definitely be fun! You know, if you study the films made in the 40’s, there were so many woman characters that were strong, intelligent, professional, and sexy that were leads. Kathryn Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck… Now so often the women leads are victims, usually weak, or just sex objects. Women back then were portrayed as strong and had the whole package. Now a lot of that seems to be gone.

We have to bring that back. I know that the audience of a movie tends to be a young male market. I went to see the new MATRIX when it opened and like 80% of the line was men. More males go to the movies. But we gotta get the women out. Then you’re gonna have to make a good love story! (joking) Yeah, there’s Love stories, but then there’s stuff like LIFETIME and I’m not crazy about that channel. I think that channel gives women in movies a bad rap. Who wants to see women sitting around and worrying about things. I want to see women HOT AND SEXY and fired up and passionate- fighting for something! I don’t want to see them just fighting to improve the PTA meetings.