And another archive interview (rescued from the Vaults), Bad Taste icon Pete O’Herne!
L.R: How did you come to be involved with ‘Bad Taste’?
P.O.H: That Question is pretty easy……..I grew up with Pete and shared the same enthusiasm for filmmaking and I was involved with pretty much all of Pete’s projects. i was in his war film that he made as a kid so I would imagine he has all the scenes of a 12 year old Pete O’Herne running around dressed as a german soldier…….we moved on to other projects as we got older.. namely Curse of the grave walkers where i played Murnel who was the head vampire and various other characters that Pete got to kill as he honed his spfx skills……all of this was because we were fans of Hammer Horror and the such……we also did his rendition of james bond too with a short film…..where once again i was the villian……and he as the hero. this alll made for quite a few funny looks from the public as we filmed on location.
L.R:The character of Barry seems to fall into a mid-ground between
action hero, and bloke on the street, How much of the character was
your creation? Who influenced your portrayal
P.O.H: Thats an interesting question, my character of Barry was created in the fashion of shows like “the Professionals” with a certain amount of not really being sure of what lay ahead with what the Aliens were up too. we were sort of just dragged in by Derek, not that we couldn’t handle ourselves just that we were’nt gung ho in anyway…..sometimes i would say hey Pete why don’t we play it this way and if it worked well Pete would use it……..like the scene’s of me cleaning up the blood was really a lot of me saying to Pete hey we should have me concerned with the messiness of the room. I couldnt say if any character in film ever influenced me to be the character i was in BT…….but more that the story itself had a large part to play.
L.R:Just how many parts did you play in the finished film?
P.O.H: I think all up I played quite a few parts in the film although I am not sure the exact figure now, but I played one of the Aliens that was shot down by the door as we were firing at the entrance soon after rescuing Giles. wow that is a tough question to answer, I was also the Alien who had his gut cut open on the deck. I think all up I must have shot myself a dozen times….HAHAHAHAHA ! ! ! ! !
L.R: Ok, this is a standard question, but I gotta ask: What is your
favorite story from the filming of Bad Taste?
P.O.H: Well I have a load of anectdotes from those days that would make for a great commentary on a DVD one day but my fave still has to be the time (sorry Mike) Where Pete was firing the brown bess musket on location at Gear Homestead, and Pete said to the boys who were there ok when Mike arrives I want to play a joke on him, pete loaded up the Musket with a bit of powder (no shot though) and when Mike rounded the corner Pete yelled out too him “I am Sick of you arriving Late! where have you been!” then fired the Gun at Mike, Mike was quite surprised at this and jumped back clutching his chest……we all burst out laughing…..HAHAHAHA!!!
L.R: How involved were you in the behind the camera side of the production?
P.O.H:I was pretty much involved in just about all of it, if I wasnt in front of the camera I was shooting it some of the time Pete couldnt do the scenes so i would take over as camera man…..or I would be manning the squibs ( spfx gunfire) and such. Pete had his Super 8 camera there too which we would shoot the behind the scenes style plus also I would be taking Still shots for our own record. Then there was the lugging of heavy equipment to the locations required and as we didn’t have the money to buy the gear needed Pete made his own equipment Like the homemade Crane or the Tracks for the tracking shots…….The Tracks were wooden and were quite long + made of 4 x 2 we carried those up to the clifftops for certain scenes needed…. ……now that was dedication 🙂
L.R: How hard was it to maintain your enthusiasm over the films 4 year gestation?
P.O.H: at times it could be difficult as we all had other lives to think about girlfriends and family things like that also over time people at your work area would find out what we were up too or maybe other mates who weren’t involved with filmmaking would say comments like “Man you are wasting your time” or “Stop chasing rainbows ” and you would by certain comments think well is it worth it ?……then I would go over too Pete’s house and we would maybe watch a new film that he had hired things like Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Evil Dead that would always raise our level of enthusiasm or maybe keeping up with the latest news via magazines like “Fangoria” or the “Forrest J Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland”
L.R: Did you ever think of quitting the production at any point?
P.O.H:Not me no I was there through thick and thin….after all I had been doing this since we were kids so this was just natural progression.
L.R: How did you feel when the New Zealand film commission stepped in to pay for the finishing up of the film? Did this surprise you?
P.O.H: It did surprise to say the least….as with any filmmaker that goes through the process of dreaming, writing then applying for funding only to have it turned down which did happen a few times with Pete…….so he would go back too the drawing board……..then plug away with it from his own cash and ours too Pete said to me “Well I am going to take a tape in of what we had filmed so far to the film comm and after seeinng this they agreed to give help to BT which shocked us as it’s not really a genre that most Film body’s wish to lend thier name, we were relieved when they said yes though and the people from the film comm, guy’s like Tony Hiles, Jim Booth and Vincent Burke and Caroline Girdlestone. these people were there to see the money was used wisely….but they were totally behind the project and at no time did we have to tidy the content up or cut things out according to censorship appeasement it actually became Zanier because of them 🙂
L.R: What were your feelings when you saw the finished product?
P.O.H: Well we had the premiere at the Embassy Theatre in Wellington city and it was quite packed there were a lot of friends and family there (at times your harshest critics) as well as the public……I was quite apprehensive about the showing as I could only see the film from my involvement………but the laughs came fast and the screams of encouragement to derek as he wielded the chainsaw followed by a standing ovation made me feel really happy that the project was worth the time and effort.
L.R: How difficult was it to keep the 5 o’clock shadow the same for 4 years?
P.O.H: I would get a lot of flak at work regarding my scruffy look to which i explained away with being in the film it was only ministry of transport i was working with so I didnt care……if i wanted to go out to dinner one night it was hard not being able to shave to look halfway decent….but the upside was I only shaved once a week so I was lazy for a cause and that suited my thinking patterns anyway 🙂
L.R: Were you surprised at the massive success of the film?
P.O.H: Pete made the film purely for the Video market……at the time there were a load of movies to choose from and we defiantely saw a niche there for BadTaste, I always felt that it could have done well based on that part of the marketing but I didnt think it would be as cult as it is now it kind of just stays there waiting for a new generation of fans to come along and admire it or inspire them to have a go as we did. We also heard of certain showing where the audience would shout out certain lines from the dialogue as thier fave scene came up. That is great to hear about.
L.R: If you had to do it all over again, what would you change?
P.O.H; I dont think I would change a thing at all…………it was one of the best times of my life……both from a fan of filmmaking POV and from a laugh POV.
L.R: Were you surprised when Peter was given the job on Lord of The Rings?
P.O.H: As I know Pete I am not surprised at all…..he was pitching it for years plus he is a big fan of the story and a big fan of Fantasy films in general part of when we were growing up Pete and I would film certain scenes as a tribute too a film that we liked at the time…..and thier was a time when we watched just about every Ray Harryhausen or Jim Danforth film going we loved the Sinbad movies and jason and the argonaughts film and at the time we would make our own short films using limited resources from what was available.
L.R: And finally, would you be up for a sequel?
P.O.H: Yea mate I would be in for a sequel for sure Pete has always said he would love to do another………I think we would all be up for one and the pay might be a little better this time round too….HAHAHAHAHAHA ! ! ! !
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