Interview with writer and actress Barbie Wilde

NOTE: This interview was first published on Examiner.com until the site ended on July 10, 2016. Kellie Haulotte is the author.

I got the chance to ask Barbie Wilde some questions about her acting career, her writing career, and what it was like being on the music scene in the 80s with her band "Shock." As Hellrasier fans know, she played an iconic role in "Hellbound: Hellraiser II" as the Female Cenobite.
Wilde also recently wrote a book called, "Venus Complex," which has been getting some amazing reviews since it's been published last year. I highly recommend checking it out here at Amazon. She's written short stories too; I remember reading her short story in the anthology, "Hellbound Hearts," with her story, "Sister Cilice" and it was one of my favorites from the book.
So read her answers below and learn more about her career and her thoughts on the paranormal.

1. Okay let's start off with a fun question, so what was it like to play a Cenobite?

Well, first I had to spend a few days in makeup and costume tests. The makeup crew made a cast of my head (not a good experience for a claustrophobic) and then designed the prosthetic Female Cenobite makeup to fit my face. When filming actually started, I would have to be at Pinewood Studios around 6 AM, or earlier, and spend four hours in makeup, then another 30 minutes being laced into my cenobite outfit. After that, I’d be thoroughly KY-Jellied to make me look slimy, plus the added gore, of course.
It’s an odd thing to look at yourself in the mirror and see a cenobite staring back. It was quite an uncomfortable and suffocating experience, so I used those feelings in my performance. (By the way, my “suffering” was nothing compared to Nicholas “Chatterer” Vince and Simon “Butterball” Bamford, who had to wear very uncomfortable costumes and masks for hours on end. Kenneth (Dr Channard) Cranham was in makeup for six hours for his cenobite makeover and I think that Doug Bradley was in makeup for around five hours to transform him into Pinhead.)

2. What made you want the Female Cenobite role in "Hellbound: Hellraiser II?" Besides being one of the coolest roles in horror history.

When I was asked to go to the audition, I was a bit apprehensive, to tell the truth. The casting director had just said the audition was for an actor to play a “cenobite”. I was convinced that I was going to be offered the role of the Chatterer, who I’d found very disturbing in the first “Hellraiser” film. (I also hated mask work.) I was very relieved to find out that they wanted me to play the Female Cenobite.
As far as the audition is concerned, I simply went in and had a chat with the director, Tony Randel. I don’t know why I was chosen: perhaps it was because of my mime training. (Clive had used a lot of mimes in his plays that he’d written and directed previously, before he went into film.) Mimes were used extensively in films like “Star Wars” and “2001: A Space Odyssey” to play characters in heavy costumes or prosthetic makeup. Along with a lot of other mime artists, I spent three weeks training to be a mime ape for “Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes”, even though in the end, I wasn’t cast in the part. Lucky for me, as I believe that the mimes playing the apes in that film had to wear their furry costumes in 120 degree heat while they were filming in Africa!
Getting back to “Hellbound”, you have to remember that although the first “Hellraiser” film had done pretty well at the box office, we were still working on a small British cult horror movie sequel. The long-running franchise was far ahead in the future, so I wasn’t thinking of horror history at that point. I was simply an actor faced with an audition for a part. At that stage, I couldn’t visualize that this role would become so meaningful to me in the coming years. I think it’s wonderful that even in 2013 people still respond to the Hellraiser mythology that Clive created. And it was through “Hellraiser” that I met brilliant folks like Pete Atkins (who wrote the scripts for “Hellraiser II” and III), Ken Cranham, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, my lovely cenobites: Doug Bradley, Simon Bamford and Nicholas Vince, and the fantastic makeup and effects crew from Image Animation. And last and absolutely not least, I met Clive Barker, a genius who never ceases to amaze and impress me with his fantastic writing and art.

3. If you had the chance would you star in another “Hellraiser” film?

If the script and the part were right, absolutely!

4. I'm curious, what are some of your favorite horror films?

I do like modern horror movies like “Audition” (1999) “The Ring” (2003), “Constantine” (2005), and “Sinister” (2012), but I prefer the old fashioned horrors like “The Curse of Frankenstein” (1953), “The Horror of Dracula” (1958), “Night of the Demon” (1958), “The Innocents” (1961), “The Haunting” (1963), “The Exorcist” (1973) and “Exorcist III”(1990), “Halloween” (1973) and any movie starring Vincent Price or Peter Cushing.
Also, because my father was a big fan, I love sci-fi horror like “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1956), “Alien” (1979), “The Thing” (1951 and Carpenter’s version in 1982), “Predator” (1987), etc.
As for serial killer films, my favorites are “Psycho” (1960), “Se7en” (1995), “American Psycho” (2000) and “Hannibal” (2001).
Favorite TV Shows are still the original versions of “Twilight Zone” and “The Outer Limits”, although “True Blood” is pretty damn cool.
There is a certain kind of nihilism in some modern horror that I'm not particularly fond of. Torture porn leaves me cold, for instance. Although I’ve watched films like “Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and I can appreciate them on a certain level, I don’t particularly enjoy them. It seems to me that there are few horror movies today that have the underlying intelligence, sensuality and mythos that Clive imbued in the early “Hellraiser” movies.

5. Not only have you been in horror but you have been in films like “Death Wish 3," so what was that like filming with Charles Bronson?

“Death Wish 3” was a crazy experience. Charles was a real gent and Michael Winner was an extraordinary character to work with as a director. Very funny in a waspish way, but heaven forefend if you get on the wrong side of him!
Basically, I had to run around with a gang, threatening people, throwing a couple of beer bottles at Charles and veteran actors such as Martin Balsam and Ed Lauter, and basically act like a disaffected street punk. I do have a great moment where I scream my head off after witnessing Gavan O’Herlihy, the leader of our gang, being exploded out of a building with some of Bronson’s awesome fire power.

6. You have also been around the music business too from being the co-founder of the music group "Shock," and writing and presenting TV shows about music. It's impressive. Who were some of your favorite bands that you have worked with?

I’ve really enjoyed everyone I’ve worked with. It was brilliant being in Shock and supporting Ultravox, Depeche Mode, Adam and the Ants, Naked Lunch and Gary Numan back in the early 80s. I loved interviewing Johnny Rotten, Cliff Richard, Iggy Pop and the B52s in the mid 80s for the TV Show “Hold Tight”. All the folks I worked with were all such different characters, and yet very professional in their own individual ways.

7. Let's talk about your writing career now. You wrote a book last year called, "The Venus Complex," what inspired you to write the book?

I’ve always been interested in the criminal mind, even when I was a kid. I used to drive my mother crazy because I didn’t want to read “little girl” books, just sci-fi like “John Carter of Mars” and detective stories such as “Sherlock Holmes”. (I even made up a back story for Professor Moriarty to give him a bit more personality.)
When I came across the phenomena of the serial killer for the first time, I was fascinated by these humans who felt no empathy for others. (Personally, I consider myself a very emphatic person.) I was inspired by books by authors like Colin Wilson (“The Criminal History of Mankind” and “Order of the Assassins”).
I also had a friend who was a dominatrix who once confessed to me that her greatest sexual fantasy was to sleep with a serial killer. I was appalled but intrigued. I realized that no one had really explored the sexual mindscape of a serial killer in the way that I wanted to. And finally, I had a doozy of a dream about a serial killer and sharks one night and that really kicked off the idea. I wrote from the viewpoint of the killer and it was very interesting writing from the male perspective.
Here’s a blurb about “The Venus Complex”:
“A man rises out of an abyss of frustration and rage and creates works of art out of destruction, goddesses out of mere dental hygienists and beauty out of death. It’s also about the sickness and obsession that is LOVE. Enter into Michael’s world through the pages of his personal journal, where every diseased thought, disturbing dream, politically incorrect rant and sexually explicit murder highlights his journey from zero to psycho.
And here’s a short review of “The Venus Complex” from Gabino's Top Books of 2012, HorrorTalk:
“A novel by a female Cenobite that gives the world a smart, artistic, cynical, cultured serial killer who could give Hannibal Lecter a run for his money. On top of that, this is a poignant, funny, sexually-charged, hardcore critique of popular culture and a deconstruction of relationships, academia, and art.”

8. Do you have any advice for up and coming horror writers?

“Never give up! Never surrender!” – Is one of my favorite quotes from the movie “GalaxyQuest” and it’s very apt for anyone who wants to be a writer!

9 Since I write about the paranormal I have to ask, do you believe in ghosts?

I was an exceedingly paranoid child and I was scared of everything. My ability for catastrophizing was legendary. I was convinced that there were aliens in the basement trying to possess my parents, that boogiemen were lurking in my closet, and that there were face-eating spiders nestling under my pillow. (Boy, did I had a fun childhood!) It took me a long time to get over my fears, so I don’t believe in monsters any more, unless they’re the human kind of course. (Although the jury is still out on the face-eating spiders.)
However, ghosts are a different matter. I think that there is a possibility that ghosts may exist, not necessary in a spiritual way, but in a multidimensional way. Science has yet to catch up with all of the mysterious phenomena that is out there, so one day they may prove the existence of the apparitions that we call ghosts.
As Shakespeare said:
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
- Hamlet (1.5.166-7), Hamlet to Horatio

10. Last but not least do you have anything else that you want to share with the readers?

I want to thank all the fans of “Hellraiser” for their support and enthusiasm over the years.
And if anyone is interested in finding out more about my short horror stories (I have six stories in published or about to be published in various anthologies) or “The Venus Complex”, they can either look me up on Amazon, or go to my website for news, reviews and interviews: www.barbiewilde.com

I want to give a big thanks to Barbie Wilde for taking the time to answer my questions! It was highly appreciated!