July 21, 2008

FRIGHT fans, you are in for a treat! We were fortunate enough to speak candidly with actress/jewelry maker TUESDAY KNIGHT, who took over the role of Kristen Parker (originated by Patricia Arquette) in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER! We asked Tuesday about her experiences facing off against Freddy Krueger in the Renny Harlin directed NIGHTMARE entry. She also talked about her company TUESDAY’S HIP VINTAGE, which boasts clients such as Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan & Paris Hilton, as well as the “almost-made” Madonna bio-pic, her strained relationship with Lisa Wilcox and what it was like appearing on THE X-FILES! (David Dochovny’s a doll! Gillian Anderson is not!) Fiends, this interview has got it all! Read on!- By Robg. – 7/08

First and foremost, what are your earliest recollections of the horror genre? Do you remember the first films to really scare or have an impact on you? Left an impression on you when you were a kid?

THE EXORCIST! That freaked me out! I remember I had to sleep in my parent’s room for a week after seeing it.

I still have trouble watching THE EXORCIST even now as an adult!

Uh-huh! It freaked me out, and then I became friends with Linda Blair and I still can’t get it out of my head. (Laughs)

Would you say you became a horror fan back then as a kid or did it take a little while for you to revisit the genre?

No. I’d say that THE EXORCIST scared me to death. I think when I first became a horror fan, honestly was when I saw the first NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. That’s when I started getting into watching them. After NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, I wasn’t into doing them per se, but I definitely became something of a horror film buff and I would look at a lot of those movies.

Let’s go back to the beginning. Tell us a bit about the origins of your acting career? Because I know you did both music and acting, so which came first and was one outlet meant to nourish another, so to speak?

Well, when I first started, I started acting when I was younger, and I did a lot of funny shows like MOD SQUAD and THE BRADY BUNCH. It seemed like a whole different world. But then once I got to be around 18, 19, I really got into music. Music was my thing. Oh, also, my dad (Baker Knight) was a musician and a songwriter. So, as a kid I was always in our living room with Ricky Nelson and Frank Sinatra and performing for these people. It was just a really nice audience and I had no idea who these people were. (Laughs)

Well, that’s quite an audience to have!

Well, I didn’t really know them yet! They were just my dad’s friends. Do you remember the band THE RASCELS? They were in there too. So, just from being young, I really got into singing, and then I think until I was about 24, 25, it was all about music. I did a record deal with CBS and another one with EPIC, because the first one that I did, they didn’t like the producer and I did. If it was me now, I would’ve said “Too bad, that’s what you’re getting, ‘cause that’s the me that I am! That’s the music I do!” But that wasn’t what I did. I was young, and they said, “Well, we want to make you more into this Cyndi Lauper, rock-‘n’roll Madonna thing.” So they took me away from my producer and my band, so everyone hated me and then I did a second record.

But right when that second record had reached a little bit of success & one of the tunes was in the top 5 dance hits on the charts, I had the audition for NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4. And when I went in for that, I knew when I got that role, it was going to be between that role or going on a tour. And I thought, “There’s no way I’m passing up Freddy Krueger!” (Laughs)

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER was literally at the peak of “Freddy-mania”. That was as popular as it got. So, do you remember what your audition was like for the film?

Oh totally!

And obviously, you were a fan of the series prior to your movie?

Oh yeah. I remember they told me I was going in for Renny Harlin and that they were trying to replace Patricia Arquette. When I hear something like that, I either go the route of not trying to look like the actress at all and doing my own thing, which is completely different, or I go in quite like them. So, I went in a lot like her, I watched the prior movie and saw what she was doing, although I think I brought my acting to a more elevated state. (Laughs) I mean, I love her! I thought she was good, I was just trying to maybe bring more color to it.

So, I went in like her and Renny basically hired me on the spot, which was really insane, because I’d never had that happen. It was literally my second job in film. The first one was GENERAL HOSPITAL, but this was my first film and I thought “Oh my God!” The second day (of auditions), we picked the other people to go alongside me, which was Lisa Wilcox (which was a huge nightmare in a whole sense of the word and in more ways then one!) and I picked Andras Jones. And Brooke Theiss. And Toy Newkirk.

He had me read with all of them, and he’d ask me, “Who do you think was good? Who do you feel you worked best with?” And so, I picked them. There was a girl who was really, really good who was also trying out for Alice, and … all I can say is damn. (Laughs) This other actress was really good, and she looked like Andras, so it would’ve looked like they were brother and sister. But there was something about the hiddenness and the pretentiousness of Alice, something that Lisa had that was a little more shallow – You know how Alice is just a little more introverted with her own things going on? Her dreams and her imagination? She comes off as reserved, non-social.

It seems you didn’t have any intimidation of taking over the role of Kristen Parker from Patricia Arquette? Considering how fast they made NIGHTMARE 4, once you got started, did you try to mimic what Patricia had done before, or did you not even have time to think about that and just played Kristen your own way?

Well, in the beginning I was looking at her and watching what she had done, and I was watching for what she brought to the character. But from then on, I just dropped it and brought myself to the character. That’s what I do when I work anyways. Back then, I was new and it was OK for my agent to say “I want you to go in and just be like Patricia Arquette so they’ll hire you!”

But Renny really wasn’t like that. He wanted someone that looked like her, but would also do something different from her. Maybe be a little bit more stronger, bigger, or just different. So, once I showed him the way I was going with it, he let me go. And Patricia Arquette, I ran into her at a Blockbuster once and she came up to me and told me what a good job I did!

Oh wow! I always wondered what she thought of your take on the character!

Yeah, that was really cool.

I know that NIGHTMARE 4 was locked down to a set release date in August of 88. Was it a fairly fast production?

It was, but it was such a heaven sent thing for me, because when I was done shooting, I said to Renny, “I’m a song writer. And if you give me a day, I’ll write something for this movie.” And what I did actually ended up being the title song. (Laughs) It was really fun! I went to the studio with my partner. We literally spent 3 hours on the song, came out, drove it over to the office and Renny came down with Rachel Talalay, and he said, “Ok, play it for me.” So, I opened the car doors and blasted it, and he said he loved it, freaked out and took the tape. And I really didn’t know where the song was going to go in the movie, so when I sat down at the premiere and saw that it was the title song, I was pretty stoked!

That’s awesome! To have your first big gig be a NIGHTMARE film and then to be doing music, and have your song be the opening track to the film, that’s just so cool!

The only bad thing about it was that they really screwed me. They didn’t put my song on the album! They did not put me on there because it would cost them more money, and they knew I was sort of new to it, so they basically just took the song – I just now got a copy of it, if people go to my fansite, I can send it to them, because I’ve never really had it myself! That was crazy. That was really not cool. I obviously didn’t know what I was doing at that point, and they fooled me with some sort of contract that made it so that they didn’t have pay me anything for it.

Wow. Well… you have to take some consolation that at least it’s there in that movie forever.

At least it’s there in that movie forever. You’re right. It was in God’s hands and that’s how it was supposed to be. So, I just take that as an amazing blessing and I thought it was awesome.

I spoke to Ken Sagoes from NIGHTMARE 3 about a year ago for ICONS…

Oh, I love Kenny!

I know on NIGHTMARE 3, a lot of those kids got preliminary time just to hang out and get to know each other. Did you guys have anything like that on NIGHTMARE 4 where you got to know the rest of the cast before shooting?

No. We really didn’t get a chance like that. It was set over in Simi Valley, so we’d get up and meet over there for work, do our scenes. There wasn’t that advantage. And usually there is something like that like, for example if you’re going out of state to shoot something.

Well, ‘cause you’re all stuck together in the same hotel!

Yeah, but we didn’t get anything like that on NIGHTMARE 4.

What about Andras Jones, who played your boyfriend Rick? How’d you guys prepare for your cinematic relationship together?

Well, ya know, we started going out for real, so that kind of played it’s own part into the life of it.

You guys dated during the movie?

Yeah, while we were shooting it. Uh-hm. (Laughs)

NIGHTMARE 4 was shooting just as a writers strike had begun and I know there were various changes and multiple drafts of the script. Was this challenging for you and the actors? Do you remember any radical changes?

No, not really. Everything (from the original script) was kept. The radicalness might have been more on how to shoot it and what to do with it. I think for the actors, it was script changes that were pretty much relative. There were a few action things that were tough on me, because I got hurt on the film several times and no one seemed to care about it! (Laughs) Either the stunt person wasn’t there or whatever it was, there were a few times where, I really hurt my eye on one scene.

And I’m on this catwalk for another scene, I did this thing and hurt my leg. By the end of it, I was just so exhausted, because at the time I was working on GENERAL HOSPITAL. 2 jobs, which was not too bright! But when you’re that age, you think, “Well, I have 2 jobs! I’ll just never sleep!” (Laughs) Then you get sick! So, I was passing out a lot. The last part of the shoot was very hard for me.

I wanted to talk a little bit about working with director Renny Harlin? Because this was so early in his career and he obviously went on to direct several high profile movies after NIGHTMARE 4.

It was only his 2nd feature because he had done PRISON before NIGHTMARE 4.

Right, PRISON was his first American film. And the stories on the DVD of him and Bob Shaye not seeing eye to eye in the beginning are pretty hilarious. I was wondering if you had any stories you can share about your experiences working with Renny Harlin?

Renny and I worked together amazingly. We really got along great! Everyone thought Renny and I were sleeping together the entire movie. (Laughs) And I found that out later. But I was like, nope, one guy and it wasn’t even happening there. But Renny was over protective, and I think a lot of people didn’t like that. I got along great with all the guys, because I’m a tomboy and I was friendly and open. And Lisa (Wilcox) was not like that. We couldn’t get her to come talk to any of us. Um, Renny didn’t really care for her that much. Renny was very professional, very creative and really had some cool ideas for Freddy.

It was so neat to see these different ways that he was having us do things, because he was trying to make a film here that we wanted to make be the most successful NIGHTMARE, which is what it became! He really put some cinema into it. Just something that was not in the other ones. Especially like 2, which I didn’t like very much. He really added a lot to this one, and I think he was really patient with everybody. I have a funny story about Renny. We were getting ready to do this scene on the beach. So, I was going to wear that little Hawaiian bathing suit.

Renny was like, “We’ve prepared your wardrobe for you, so once you get it on, we’ll double check it and get ready!” So, I said, “Yeah, no problem.” I go in there, and literally, this bathing suit was about as big as a band-aid! It was like one string of that Hawaiian suit. So, I come out and I’m like, “Um, Renny? Are you kidding me? I can’t walk out like this!” And he goes (in Finish accent), “Oh Tuesday. Oh Tuesday. It looks so wonderful with your buttocks! It looks so real, it’s lovely and everyone will love it! It looks great!” (Laughs) And I said, “You are crazy! You better sew me on a little skirt, right now!”

So, this lady had to come in and sew that little skirt on! So, that was one thing. And he also did it with one of my other costumes, this night shirt? It’s the part where I’m sitting on the window of my house lighting a cigarette, while I’m trying to stay awake. If you look in the scene, the shot only goes up to my waist, so it looks really good in that shot. But then he wanted me to wear it while I was running, and while I was running the thing was blowing up to my chin! “I can’t do this!” (Laughs) It was really funny and he was such a funny guy. I had a blast with him!

Again, going back to the peak of “Freddy-mania”, I remember hearing a story from Howard Berger, the FX guy about the beach scene. I believe he said by the 2nd day of the beach scene shoot, word had got out they were shooting a new NIGHTMARE movie in that spot and hundreds of fans showed up and surrounded Robert Englund’s trailer hoping to get a glimpse of him as Freddy. Do you remember any of that from the “beach” day?

Yeah, I was in the trailer when it happened! It was insane! I was talking to Robert at the time and I said, “This is so frightening.” But he was like, “This is just what happens, the fans love Freddy.” Their love for him was almost tipping the trailer over! (Laughs) I was saying, “I know that they love you, but could you tell them not to tip over the trailer?” (Laughs) So, he’d open up the top, the skylight and would say, “Hey guys, be cool! Don’t tip us over!” I mean, I’d go in there and talk to Robert about the TV series, FREDDY’S NIGHTMARES.

Yeah, it took hours to get that make-up on, so I figured he’d have plenty of time to chat then.

Oh yeah! I had make-up on too. We were doing the beach scene, and they had this one scene, I can’t remember why? But they had a prosthetic of my chest where I had boobs with no nipples on them! To this day, I wonder, was this for Renny’s home? I don’t know what it was for. They ended up just taking it off me and doing (whatever scene it was for) a different way. It was just so weird that he wanted me to sit up with boobs with no nipples!

I don’t know, maybe it was a wacky nightmare idea or something?

Exactly! I think it was one of those ideas where it was like, “Ok, we won’t do that.” (Laughs)

You played “Elm Street’s last brat” and you have a fairly memorable death scene in the first half of NIGHTMARE 4. What do you remember about shooting that boiler scene?

I know I got really hurt in that scene, I’ll tell you. You know the scene where I’m at the table with my mother and she’d given me sleeping pills. Which by the way, Brooke Bundy who played my mother was great and such an amazing actress. I love her and we became good friends. Um, ok, so I fall through and I end up on the ceiling?

Ok, obviously you know that was shot on the floor with slates going up on the wall. I had to climb over those at least 7 times. I swear, the whole insides of my thighs and my legs were black and blue! It was crazy! Then I had to come down and fight with Freddy! That however, was just so amazing and so surreal for me. It was a dream come true! I had my convictions, I knew what I was doing there and I knew what I wanted out of it, but working with Robert (as Freddy), it was just… really heavy!

Robert as a person is just so amazing, and so full of character. But when he gets on that outfit, it scares you! Even though I know its Robert underneath there! He gets into it and he’s so funny. The way he does Freddy is so brilliant. I mean, Freddy is funny! (Laughs) Freddy has a really good sense of humor! So, he was just walking around me in that Freddy way, and we started doing the scene and it got really heavy. We had this face-off and it was just awesome. I had a great time. Robert and I get along so, so well.

It’s so funny, you meet Robert and he’s just such a nice guy that it’s hard to imagine him as that terrible character!

Oh, I know! And what’s kind of a drag, unless you’re working with him, you don’t get to speak to him a lot because he’s so bombarded with fans! And some of the conventions we’ve done together, it’s kind of hard because he’s always surrounded! A few years after NIGHTMARE 4, about 3 years later, he was working on another project and I saw him there and we started talking and he said, “You know something. When I went to Japan and did my little Freddy tour, people were more excited to see you!” (Laughs) I said, “What?!” He goes, “Yeah. Here I am, the one there, and all these pictures up on the wall are of you!” How ironic is that? That really made my day. And it’s funny, because now in my present life, my jewelry is really big in Japan.

You’re huge in Japan! I love it!

They like blondes! Or anyone that looks like Madonna! (Laughs)

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought I read somewhere that you were once going to take part in a Madonna bio movie, which I thought was a fantastic idea, because even back from NIGHTMARE 4 I thought you had a striking resemblance to her.

Actually, what happened – the real story. I did a movie called MISTRESS about 4 years later with Robert DeNiro and Christopher Walken. It was this great ensemble and I was this new kid on the block. It was just amazing to be able to work with all the people on that, whom were all so nice and so wonderful to me. What happened was we had had the premiere for MISTRESS, and a group of people were hovering around me after the show and they said Madonna had sent them from Maverick. They were calling her MO, which was her nickname then. I had no idea what that was! “Who’s that?” (Laughs) “Um, Madonna?” “Oh, OK, I’ve heard of her!” (Laughs) And so, through the beginning of my acting career, I really struggled because I’d always hear, “No, she’s great. We really love her. But she just looks too much like Madonna.”

So, here they said, “We came out to look at you. And Madonna’s going to freak out when she sees you.” Basically, they were scouting me to play her, and after that night, the company hired me to play her. So, we did get together and we did start, and did some stuff together. I got to do some of the tunes, which was really great. And then, they decided it just wasn’t time to do a bio film, because she was only probably in her early 30’s at that time? So, to do her life story up until that point, it would’ve ended her story at 35 when there was so much more she was going to do, you know what I mean? So, they decided to do it in another 10 or so years or whatever it was. Regardless, it was great. I was happy anyway to be involved in it. Because let me tell you, FOX offered me the role of Madonna in their portrayal of her story, and I passed because there’s no way I’m going to do something without Madonna’s ok and without her there sitting next to me. She was great though.

I actually have a funny story about first meeting her. I went to Warner Brothers one day and I had an audition for a movie called DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN. And it was her part. So, it was funny, she walked in and I was walking behind her, and my assistant goes, “That’s Madonna.” And I went, “Oh God. We’re dressed alike!” And my assistant said, “Yeah, you guys look alike!” So, I thought, “Oh no.” So, she walks in and then I came in. She saw me and started making these lewd masturbatory moves to me, as if they were supposed to scare me or freak me out or something. Well, I did them back to her. And she just thought it was funny and really cool. Later on when I told her that that was me, she was blown away. Because she remembered it, but as a whole other girl. She said something like, “Wow, fucking you would be like fucking myself.” And I go, “Yeah… but better.” (Laughs) She’s really so sweet and has a huge heart, but the thing with her and even someone like Deniro, people are just so afraid to go up to them just to say hi.

You did later end up working with Madonna for her recent video 4 MINUTES and her tour, right?

Oh, with the jewelry? Yeah. There was always some kind of connection back to her. Luckily. And it’s always really a joy and exciting to do something with her.

Well, sure, it’s Madonna! Now, I can only imagine what this must’ve been like for you, but… what was it like to see NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4 for the first time on the big screen?

It was so amazing, I just couldn’t believe it. I just remember running down the stairs after I got the part, sobbing and saying to myself, “I can’t believe I got the part!” So, when I sat down and they started the New Line logo, and then my song started, I was so thrilled. It was crazy and I was on cloud 9 for the entire movie. It was so surreal. There I was, and what was so cool was that at the end of my song, it goes right into the NIGHTMARE music!

Like they mixed it right into the last note! I thought that was so cool! I felt like I’d finally made it. It was really awesome! And when I started getting calls from people telling me my song wasn’t on the album, I gotta say, I didn’t take any action against it, because it was like you said before, this is the way it turned out. I have to watch out because most times I’m overly giving. And I really need to stand up more when I think something is wrong.

But with that one, I just felt really blessed to be in it, and to have the title song was a dream come true. The whole thing was amazing! I became friends with people from that. So many things came out of that experience. I have to say, Lisa Wilcox was not one of them in the beginning at all. Our relationship was a whole other thing. That was something very different from the very beginning when I met her. The other people I remain good friends with, Kenny, Toy, Rodney.

I had such a good time talking with Ken (Sagoes) for ICONS last year. I mean, I grew up on the NIGHTMARE films, so for me, it’s such a treat for me to talk to you guys!

Ken said in one magazine that he liked working with both of us, Patricia and I, but that I filled her shoes fine and that there was nothing lost, there was more gained, and that he really got to know me better. And so that was cool. Of course, Rodney (Eastman) hated me on the film! (Laughs) I tell him that now, and he goes, “I did not! I did not! I loved you!” And I’d say, “You did not, you hated me because I wasn’t Patricia!” Because he and Patricia had a love affair on the set of 3. So, when I came in, he was like “Ok, that’s not her!” So, I tease him about it now giving me such a hard time then. But he’s really cute.

You got to come back and do a bit part in WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE!

Yeah, boy was that shocking! Wes, I can’t believe what he said about me in the commentary! It was so sweet. Our meeting was so brief before and I knew he liked my performance. I think he thought 4 was the next best one to the one he did. But for NEW NIGHTMARE, he picked me out for that scene, he didn’t ask anyone else (from 4) to come back! And I couldn’t believe it!

It’s a cool scene because you get to see some characters from the first movie there too!

They didn’t ask Lisa (Wilcox) back, but they got into a big thing with her and they won’t work with Lisa again because of some other stuff. But I was looking for Andras or even Kenny or Rodney! They were the NIGHTMARE guys those two!

I told Ken this – I like NIGHTMARE 4, but I pretend the first 20 minutes never happened because as a kid I was just so upset that they killed him off.

I am too! I am too. I hated that he died in the movie. Those guys (Kincaid and Joey) should’ve gone on longer.

What do you remember about shooting NEW NIGHTMARE and reuniting with people you worked with on 4?

Well, it was weird for me because I was united with people I didn’t work with. I didn’t know the people from the other films. But Heather (Langenkamp) and I got along immediately. We were hanging out a bit and she was so, so great. I was waiting to see other people from my film, but there was no one there, and I didn’t understand why. I found out later when I listened to the commentary, Wes says, “Tuesday Knight. What a great actress. And what a trooper. I had to have her back.” That is so strange to me! Because we only met a few times, and it was always really great when we met, but I had no idea.

How much involvement did Wes Craven have in the 4th film when you did it, because at that point, I thought he was just a producer on the series and just kind of overseeing it?

None. Nope. I had just met him at a function for New Line and then he came to see PART 4. But I was very shocked and I felt really honored on NEW NIGHTMARE. Andras is always teasing me about it. “Oh, nobody else got a call! But Tuesday did, because everybody likes Tuesday!” (Laughs)

Everybody does like Tuesday! Come on! So, you have a jewelry company now called TUESDAY’S HIP VINTAGE, but you actually started a company in 2000 called TOEBRIGHTS? How’d TOEBRIGHTS begin and how’d Lisa Wilcox become your partner with that?

Basically, I was doing a lot of movies, and suddenly I just felt like I needed to take a break. I was talking to my father about some stuff, and I had always been making jewelry and doing art. Well, Drew Barrymore was the one that told me I really should get my jewelry out there and make jewelry for celebrities for events and things like that. So, I thought cool. So, I started to do it and I was working out of my home and my mom was working with me and I was basically doing all the jewelry all during the night, and during the day she would take it to meetings. It started doing really well, and it started to get really busy and I just couldn’t make enough pieces to fill the orders. So, oddly enough after 13 years, I’d never run into Lisa, but all of a sudden I started running into her a lot in Studio City where we both lived very close to each other at the time, and I just ran into her and we’d chat. One day, out of all these random multiple meetings, the meeting that made it all happen, I ran into her in STAPLES, she was in line ahead of me, and she was extremely skinny, and I looked at her and I recognized her and she looked really bad and I thought “Oh my God, what is wrong?”

Now, our first meeting on the set of NIGHTMARE 4 was very stressed. She never liked me on the set. All of us felt nothing but really coldness from her. It seemed like we weren’t good enough to hang with her. She was the early Gucci girl, you know what I mean? Just way above everybody else. So, we did not like each other when we made the movie. No matter what I did to try to open up to her, no matter how many times I tried to go up to her, we were acting and it looks like (in the film) we really like each other. But it was hard. But the movie came out really good!

Well, then you’re both fantastic actors because I bought you both as best friends in NIGHTMARE 4.

Yeah, for some reason, we were very believable in those roles. But I always felt bad. I felt inferior to her, I felt like well, she’s better then me. Flash forward to 13 years later after I saw her in STAPLES, we go have lunch, we decided we were going to talk. I went home and told my mother, “Oh my God! Lisa Wilcox is calling me! She hated me before, I don’t understand. She’s being so nice! What’s going on?” I was jazzed about it. And so, we met and had lunch and she explains that she’s on the verge of a breakup, and that it just devastated her.

She was completely heartbroken, and I had just come out of a marriage as well, so we feeling out our words with each other by just talking. She asked me what I was doing, and I told her. And I told her who some of my clients were and I showed her the jewelry and she just really flipped out over it. And she was like, “Wow, this is amazing.” We had another investor that was coming in, and Lisa said she would like to be that investor. Well, my other partner said “If you work with her, then I’m not going to work with you.” Because she wanted the most money for the deal, ya know?

And I said, “Well, you know what? I choose Lisa.” Because I believed in her and thought she was genuine. So we started our business in 2000 and we started doing really well. We found an investor, we got with them. They put us up in a great office. I was making the designs and she was basically running the office. So, she was doing the marketing and I was making the jewelry. Basically we did that until June of 2007, where then I found out that she had gone behind my back with the other partner that we had, the one I initially had, she went behind my back and they decided to get rid of me, do the designing themselves and take the credit for I guess everything.

Basically, I was locked out of my office. It was… I had never been hurt to that degree ever. It just completely broke my heart. I couldn’t believe she didn’t have my back. I couldn’t believe that she would even be in cahoots with this other woman. I was in tears for 3 months! It was really horrible and it hurt and it was terrible and I couldn’t believe it. Um, I made all new designs for my thing, all new clients. A lot of the clients that were with them left. A lot of the celebrity clients came with me, because I was the designer.

A lot of people thought it was a really shitty thing to do, so they came with me. I didn’t ask them to, I honestly wasn’t even in the place to ask them to. I was so heartbroken. This is something that I made in my house, that I designed, that I did. I put everything together, and then this happens, and it came right at the end of when my dad died. My dad had passed away, and I was very weak at the time, and it was a time where they hit me where it really, really hurt.

Was there something specific behind the decision to cut you out? Or was it money issue? I don’t get it?

I have no idea! I don’t have any idea why they did it, to this day.

The positive thing is that TUESDAY’S HIP VINTAGE came out of this negative experience.

Yes, it did. And I’ll tell you, in hindsight, I’m so glad I’m not there anymore. And I will tell you a few things, when you say money? Yes, it was centered around money. It was basically that I was asking too many questions about “Where’d the money go for this? Where’d the money go for that?” It was that kind of a thing.

Which literally goes back to what you said earlier. You used to not stand up for yourself and used to let things go when you were younger. But here’s a case where you finally did speak up, and look what happened?

Exactly. Now, if I would’ve seen where I was going to end up now? I would’ve been totally cool with it! (Laughs) But that was about the lowest thing you could’ve done to me at the time. That was my baby, my company. It was my everything, my soul, my art. I gave everything I could possibly give, and to have that happen. It happened 7 years later? I’ll be honest, there were times when I had conversations with Lisa where I’d say, “I feel like you never really have my back. I feel like, I know you really like me, but there’s sort of a hate line running through that.” A lot of people would say “Oh, she’s just jealous of you” but I don’t even think that way! I love pretty women, I love powerful women, I work with them. I’m not in a competition with anybody. I don’t care about that stuff. And I think that’s one of the things that opened up my heart to let her run a business with me. I mean, really? Do you think any other girl would’ve done that for her? After the way I was treated on the set? No, probably not. I was really a friend to her through a lot of stuff that was very hard for her that I went through with her. I was so shocked. I couldn’t believe it.

It’s one of those things in life that just hits you in the face like a Mac truck, and you do not know why or what or anything. I’ve seen her one time since the whole thing happened. I had to go to a mediation type of thing, and the guy told me that she was falling apart and crying because of our friendship. I thought, you know what? Screw her. Our friendship? Anytime in this whole year, she could’ve stood up and said something for me, and she didn’t. And she seems to have this big feeling that somehow I betrayed her in some weird way by leaving, and I left because I was pushed out. And because… would you want to work with people that did that to you? Would you want to go back to a company like that and ever trust them again?

No, it’s like being in a relationship and being cheated on!

Yes, exactly. But worse! Because… Ok, maybe not worse, that’s pretty bad too. (Laughs)

They’re both pretty bad. (Laughs)

They are really bad, yes. And they are really heartbreaking. And I thought “Gosh, Tuesday, you should’ve listened to your instincts.” 13 years ago you listened to them, and you just got excited about being her friend and you thought it was real and gave it all away. Since then, I’m unfortunately a lot more closed of a person then I was before. I used to be completely open and I helped anyone that I could, but we’ve taken people for what they were showing me, for face value, know what I mean? After this, I tell you, I make sure about everything. Now, I have no partners at all. Now, I’m just totally exclusively my own company! And I have people that have shares, but I would never do partners again ever. Never.

Let’s talk a little bit about what’s happened since you went solo, because some of your clients include people like Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, which are good people to have as clients!

Most of the people I met, I met during my TOEBRIGHT run. And we did many shows, we did the Academy Awards, we did the Emmys. We were asked to do private parties for famous people and put gift bags together. I made really good relationships with all of them. And when this whole thing happened, Kim Basinger, who was one of our clients, she heard about the story and knew I lost my dad too, she wrote me the most amazing letter. I couldn’t believe it. And Stella McCartney, she is one of my clients now. She wrote me the most amazing letter, it’s the forward for my catalog. It’s unbelievable. But the people heard about what happened and for some reason, they came to me at HIP VINTAGE, my new company and asked what happened. A lot of people went to TOEBRIGHTS to make orders and talk to me, and they were saying that Lisa and the other girl were telling people I was on vacation.

Wow.

Which is pretty crappy too. So, people were looking for me, and finally somebody noticed I was doing this and it was up all over the web. Because right now, my website, my new one is not even up yet. The big, wonderful website isn’t even up yet, it’ll be up in a week. So, it’ll be up and people will be able to purchase stuff from there. People knew about it, so people started asking me questions and you (ICONS) are the only people I really opened up with about the whole thing. PEOPLE magazine and certain people have asked me little things and I tell them a brief story. I’m not trying to bad-rap Lisa. I’m not trying to say anything like that, I’m just trying to say what my situation happened to be with her and how much that hurt me. I can just tell the truth about it and that’s it. When I tell people the truth, they didn’t want to work with her.

And there were honestly times during the course of us working together where people would call me and say, “We don’t want to talk to your partner. She’s too difficult. We don’t want to deal with it.” And I took care of them. And she knew it. Lisa knew it. I would have to tell her, “Well, this department store doesn’t really wish to speak with you. I don’t know if you were having a bad day or something?” So, most of my contacts came from there, but then all of a sudden, there was an article in IN TOUCH called “Why Britney Doesn’t Wear Underwear.” (Laughs) It was me telling what had happened and it was a really nice story. And that’s when Britney moved over and started coming to me. And then Jessica Simpson, I did something for her afterwards. And then Angelina Jolie. Then it just seemed to be people that weren’t clients at TOEBRIGHTS. So, I thought “Wow, I’m getting some new people on my own.” As with anything, even if you’re successful, you’re always you, and you’re always going to be you! (Laughs) You’re not a facade. You’re not the Tuesday or the Robg that everyone out there might see, we’re real people. It’s sort of like they knew my story and heard of it. But nobody has really put it out.

Well, I’m so glad you were kind enough to open up with us, Tuesday. I mean, I grew up on the NIGHTMARE films, and while I love horror films, I’m just an avid fan of all kinds of films.

Like me! I love every genre of movies too.

I love all movies. But I have a special place in my heart for the horror genre because it was a very important part of my upbringing. It was something that was always there for me.

I love it too! Have you seen a movie called DEAD SILENCE?

Yeah, of course! James Wan directed that one!

It’s awesome! Oh my God, I love it. Heather (Langenkamp) did an effect on it.

Oh that’s right, because her husband is David LeRoy Anderson, the FX guy!

That movie, I had no idea with that ending! It fooled me completely! And also that woman, Mary Shaw? She scared the shit out of me! I can’t even watch the menu of the DVD! Have you seen THE GRAVEDANCERS?

Yeah, of course! Mike Mendez directed that one!

Oh my God! I love that one too! I love their movies! Those directors are doing great movies. GRAVEDANCERS? That smiley face?! And in DEAD SILENCE, I can not take it when Mary Shaw is on the stage! And the little kid finds the puppet under his seat?

Let’s talk about X-FILES because you did an episode. I love X-FILES, but I honestly only consistently watched the first 4 seasons and then after that, I’d catch random episodes. So, you were in “Trevor”, which was a Season 6 episode. What was that experience like? I hear David Dochovny is a prankster on set? Is that true?

Uh, he is, and he is wonderful. But the woman is a nightmare!

Gillian Anderson?

Yes. She was the nastiest woman I’ve ever worked with on anything. I almost walked off, and the reason I didn’t was because of David, because he was such a doll. And of course the money. They were giving me good money to do it. Gillian was like, “Oh, you’re the guest star this week? Oh, I don’t sit with guest stars. No, I’ll only talk to children guest stars.”

I mean, unbelievable. I’m in a scene with her, and we’re walking out the door and it was really cold where we were. So, I just say, “God, it’s really quite chilly.” And she looks at me and goes, “I have no idea what you think is chilly or what you’re talking about. Or any concept of you.” And I just looked at her, nodded and said, “…Great. Ok.”

Rob Bowman directed your episode, and he directed the first movie, right?

Yeah, Rob Bowman was very informative and he really knew what was going on. I thought it was very strange that during our scenes, our takes, Gillian was never getting directed. Ever. I thought that was weird, because Rob would go up to David and talk to him, give him direction. I was wondering what was going on. It turned out, Rob doesn’t direct Gillian anymore because she’s too difficult. She has to be on the show because it’s her show and people love her. But at that point, she just was doing everything the way she wanted to. That was fine with David because he basically just works off of what she would do. David and I were having a really fun time though, because the woman who’s house we were shooting at? She had baby pigs. (Laughs) We loved them! But every time we’d go to see the baby pigs and turn the lights on, they’d start squealing because they were afraid of the lights! We’d say, “We’re not going to hurt you! We love you!” (Laughs) There was another time we were all sitting there together and Gillian literally had her assistant move her chair away from me and David and the other guest stars.

Well, that’s Hollywood for you! Or… Vancouver.

It totally is. She was very much like, she had an army sergeant thing going on. She was chain smoking cigarettes. And pacing a lot and everybody was afraid to go up to her except for the little boy! The episode was called “Trevor” and the kid who played Trevor, she loved him. They were holding hands and singing songs, but she didn’t like any of the other people! (Laughs) It was weird, and it’s hard when that happens. I think, as an actor, I have worked with lots of big actors. I’ve had the good fortune to be in ensemble pieces with great actors. I got to do Billy Bob Thorton’s movie (DADDY AND THEM), which was packed with great people.

And I always go in there thinking “I’m so lucky to be here.” It’s really dishearting when the person you’re working with or that you know and really enjoy watching just turns out to be a nasty person. It really ruins it for me, I have a problem with that. People that I’ve met that just treat other people poorly. There’s no excuse for it. There’s no excuse to treat anyone badly on a shoot. A carpenter is no less important then an actor. Everyone’s doing hard work. Oh my God, they do so much! On MISTRESS, at lunch, I’d get in trouble because I didn’t want to go get food before the extras! They make us go up in front of people that are waiting to eat and it isn’t cool. It always just hurts me when people don’t treat other people nicely. I don’t like that.

In closing, in retrospect, how do you look back on your experience doing NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER and being a part of that legacy? How has it affected you personally, especially now looking back on it?

Well, looking back on the film and doing it was really pleasant. It was great and I have some really great memories. There were some difficult times, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I mean, what a great, great opportunity! I still think it’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever done, and it is. I think now looking back, the only thing I do regret, and it sounds so horrible, but it’s my relationship with Lisa. If I hadn’t done the movie, I wouldn’t have had to have gone through this whole ordeal with her. But you know what? That’s not really a good way to look at it. They’re very separated. Even when I was working with her as a person, it never seemed like I was working with that same girl that played Alice. It was so separate. But all in all, it was a really wonderful experience, and I felt so lucky and thrilled to death to do it. I’m really grateful and glad to have been part of it.