Episode 86 : Chris McCorkindale with Michael Plumides

Rob Ridenour Ryan Danhauser and Michael Plumides talk with Christine McCorkindale about Nightbreed and her experience with the resurgence of its popularity.  Jose was on vacation for this one.

Show Notes:

Revelations Stage Play The Blank Theatre in Hollywood 1/26/2015

https://clivebarkercast.com/2014/11/27/clive-barkers-revelations-a-stage-play/

Future site of Chris’ pottery sales.

Sassiceramics.com

Ghost Trek TV YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/user/GhostTrekTV

web www.clivebarkercast.com

iTunes (Leave a review!), Podomatic, XBOX Music Store, Tune-In Radio, Stitcher, Doubletwist, Blackberry and Pocketcast.

Facebook and Join the Occupy Midian group

Twitter: @BarkerCast | @OccupyMidian

forum: www.clivebarkerfans.com/forum

Theme by Colin Lacativa

Transcript Below

DANHAUSER: All right, so this is episode eighty-six of the Clive Barker Podcast with Christine McCorkindale. So, our listeners would know you of course as Shuna Sassi in Nightbreed. So, when you started work on the film, were you already living in England at the time?

MCCORKINDALE: Yes, I was. I was living in London and studying physical theater with David Glass.

DANHAUSER: Oh wow. Okay.

MCCORKINDALE: Who did the movement choreography on the film.

DANHAUSER:  When you got the job was it always going to be that character? Or did they design a character for you after you had already been hired?

MCCORKINDALE: No, no, no. The character had already been designed and David Glass thought of me as a good match for the character because I had been taking his classes and working with him and he was familiar with my movement and my range. So he took me to meet Clive Barker and Clive showed me drawings and paintings of Shuna Sassi. We talked about what the character was like, and her movement qualities were like, and what was going to be expected of me physically. It was mainly a very physical role. I mean, I don’t call myself an actress. I was a dancer and then I was into physical theater for a while before I completely left show business.

DANHAUSER: What was the process like of putting all the makeup and costume on?

MCCORKINDALE: That was the hardest thing. I basically I had to be up at three in the morning.

RIDENOUR: I take it you’re not a morning person?

MCCORKINDALE:  I’m not a morning person.

(Ryan laughs)

MCCORKINDALE: I’m just rolling over at three or four in the morning. So, I’m not a morning person. I was living in Brixton at the time and it was like a good hour’s ride out to Pinewood Studios. I’d get there around four or 4:30 in the morning and Mark Coulier was there and he was great to work with. He did the makeup for that Meryl Streep movie. What was it called, Julia? No, no, no, it was the Margaret Thatcher movie. Yeah, yeah. Same Guy. Very talented. I just had to sit in that chair between seven and eight hours.

DANHAUSER: Did you fall asleep?

MCCORKINDALE: Yep. I tried to doze for the first couple of hours and then after they put the head dress on, I couldn’t lean back anymore.

DANHAUSER: Oh yeah.

MCCORKINDALE:  It was like torture. It was torture.

DANHAUSER: (laughs) Yeah.

RIDENOUR: Yeah, a lot of actors say those type of roles are the hardest because of putting all of that stuff on.

DANHAUSER: Yeah.

MCCORKINDALE: I didn’t get to watch anything. This was before we had tablets and wi-fi.

DANHAUSER: Oh yeah.

MCCORKINDALE: Yeah, so I couldn’t even like play boggle or look at Facebook on my phone. This was in the days when people had to sit and be bored.

DANHAUSER: Yeah. (laughs) It’s hard to remember that now.

MCCORKINDALE: Yeah, it is.

PLUMIDES: What did you use to remove the make-up?

MCCORKINDALE: I don’t remember because it was like, by that time-

PLUMIDES: Was it like it gasoline smelling stuff?

MCCORKINDALE: No, we would just pull it off I think. It could have been vaseline. I think I worked a total of six or seven days over a period of two weeks.

DANHAUSER: Okay. And what was it like to work with Clive Barker?

MCCORKINDALE: It was great. It was like working with a big happy kid. Very creative. It was just a lot of fun. Yeah. And having seen more of the footage from the director’s cut, I’m more and more impressed with how, you know, because he got some good movement out of me and everyone else. I mean he did a good job.

DANHAUSER: Yeah, we got to see for the first time those test screening of the dream sequence with you and the other actors without costumes.

RIDENOUR: That was pretty cool.

DANHAUSER: Yeah. So, you’re recognizable there.

MCCORKINDALE: So that’s me in rehearsal gear, right?

DANHAUSER: Yeah, exactly.

MCCORKINDALE: Yeah. I saw that for the first time a couple of weeks ago and-

PLUMIDES: Have legwarmers?

MCCORKINDALE: NO. I don’t think so.

(Michael laughs)

MCCORKINDALE: It was like, wow, this is the first footage of myself on film. Like without a lot of makeup or anything. I really liked, you know, it’s like, it was just, it was really cool to be able to see myself and marvel at how skinny and limber I was.

DANHAUSER: So, you’ve moved out of that now you’re into the I.T. department at Harvard Business School, right?

MCCORKINDALE: Yeah. I work in executive education. I support the software that the staff and our participants use. It’s a very demanding job and I think my IT days are drawing to a close, I think I’ve had enough. Yeah.

DANHAUSER: So, what made you switch from choreography to I.T.?

MCCORKINDALE: I was never a choreographer. I was a dancer and dancers have a very short career span. Very few dancers go beyond 30. For me, I think it ended a little early because I had a broken bone in my foot from working on a student film. It took a while to diagnose. It was very subtle, but it was there and I just think after a while your body starts to hurt. I was just getting bored and I went back to school and I studied yoga. I supported myself by teaching yoga and doing secretarial work in temp offices stuff and teaching yoga while I went back to school.

DANHAUSER: Another actor on Nightbreed, Catherine Chevalier teaches body movement in London.

MCCORKINDALE: I’ve heard, I’ve heard. Yeah, she was a really nice lady. I have a funny story about her because the whole time I was on set, none of the other cast members met me as myself. I was always in full makeup, including Catherine. So, I think it was a year later I was at a friend’s party and there were a lot of people standing around outside and I recognized her. She was talking in a group of people, she was at this party and so I just kind of hovered around her and being playful and saying, “I know you and we’ve hung out and talked, but you don’t know who I am.” And the sound of my voice she seemed to recognize it, but still wasn’t sure by the end of the conversation who I was. I can’t remember if she ever knew it was me, but yeah we had a lot of fun. She didn’t know who I was for the longest time.

DANHAUSER: That’s awesome. So, speaking of your voice, is that your voice saying, “I dreamt him” or was that dubbed in later?

MCCORKINDALE: Good question. I remember speaking the line. I certainly spoke it more than once. There was more than one take. But when I hear it and I think, wow, is that my voice? It sounds very British and it sounds like was treated so it could be mine. I did sound much more British when I lived there and I’ve probably made a point to say it like that. They lived there for four years, but the way it sounds they treated it in some way. So, I don’t know if that’s me or not. I wish I knew.

DANHAUSER: That line is really interesting because it kind of puts this importance on a relationship between Shuna Sassi and Cabal and it kind of hints at something important that doesn’t come back later on. Did Clive Barker give you any reason or backstory about why you said that or why you guys dreamed about each other?

MCCORKINDALE: No, never got that. I heard rumors of a sequel where something happens with Cabal and Shuna Sassi.

DANHAUSER: Okay.

MCCORKINDALE: But after the theatrical release, I think the idea of a sequel went away.

PLUMIDES: But speaking of sexy relationships–

(Ryan laughs)

PLUMIDES: I wanted to ask her and I’m sure you guys would want to know this too, but wasn’t there a sex scene between Shuna Sassi and Peloquin? It was only meant for the opening credits, right? There were no lines or anything like that.

MCCORKINDALE:  There were lines that I spoke when I walked through a curtain of snakes, which unfortunately did not survive. It has not seen the light of day.

DANHAUSER: Yeah. They don’t have any sound for any of that part.

MCCORKINDALE: I know. I mean you can see us after we’ve walked through the curtain, but I did say a line at the time. And I don’t remember what it was. I think honestly, I think I was so sleep deprived. I’ve seen some footage of the love scene, but I have no recollection of it and it’s like, I know he was gorgeous man. Was it Oliver Parker?

RIDENOUR: Parker, yeah.

MCCORKINDALE: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Gorgeous guy. I can’t believe I did a love scene with this guy and I hardly remember any of it.

(Ryan laughs)

MCCORKINDALE: That’s what having to wake up three in the morning will do to you.

DANHAUSER: Oh, gosh yes.

MCCORKINDALE: The love scene was it took place with me standing over him on the bed, like he’s lying on a bed, being covered in snakes and I’m standing around. I’m just writhing over him. I don’t remember any speaking. Do you remember that we had do this several times and every cut we had to run after the snakes. We all had to chip in and grab those snakes and put them back.

RIDENOUR: You get to see some of the behind the scenes footage of that on bluray release of you all chasing the snakes.

 (Ryan laughs)

MCCORKINDALE: I haven’t even seen the whole bit of that whole thing.

RIDENOUR: Make sure to check it out because it’s pretty funny.

DANHAUSER: It took me like a week to watch all of the features.

MCCORKINDALE: It’s a lot. You can’t do it in one night.

DANHAUSER:  That’s for sure.

MCCORKINDALE: Okay, so I have that to look forward too.

PLUMIDES:  I know how excited Cliff MacMillan was when he found that footage.

DANHAUSER: Oh yeah.

PLUMIDES: And how he wanted to put it in, but I guess as like you said Ryan, there’s no sound on a lot of this footage. They’d have to go back and ADR everything.

DANHAUSER: And he told us in our interview with us that was getting restored in the movie. So we got a lot of people’s hopes up about that.

RIDENOUR: Yeah, I remember him saying that in that Podcast.

DANHAUSER: Yeah. But you know, no big deal.

PLUMIDES: I mean how hard would’ve it have been to really fix that?

DANHAUSER: Yeah, yeah. Well I think they decided that that was the only meant for the credit sequence and they couldn’t figure out where in the movie it would go. But I thought that it would go in the scene when Lori and Boone are going across the bridge and trying to get out of Midian.

RIDENOUR: That’s how it’s written in the script.

DANHAUSER: Yeah.

MCCORKINDALE:  You have a copy of the script?

RIDENOUR: Yeah, I have the second draft.

DANHAUSER: Yeah.

MCCORKINDALE: Nice.

PLUMIDES: Is that in PDF form?

DANHAUSER:  Yeah, I think it does exist in pdf. There was one point where somebody had posted it on Occupy Midian and I think we could get it for you.

MCCORKINDALE: Nice.

DANHAUSER: So, Christine, did you save anything back from Nightbreed?

MCCORKINDALE: Did I save anything?

DANHAUSER: Yeah, do you have any souvenirs from that time?

MCCORKINDALE: Well, I’ve got two or three Polaroids that were taken with me in the Shuna Sassi costume having a beer with Mark and I think Little John.

DANHAUSER:  Oh wow.

MCCORKINDALE: So, that was hilarious. I had the head-piece, the mask.

PLUMIDES: The original.

MCCORKINDALE: The original mask. They gave it to me. I stored it for years and years and years in a trunk with my Halloween gear and it just rotted. It just started rotting. And I hated to do it, but I didn’t know how to save it and preserve it. And I finally threw it away.

PLUMIDES: Wow.

RIDENOUR: That’s too bad. That really stinks.

DANHAUSER: Yeah. But those things are only meant to survive for the movie. Yeah. That’s too bad.

MCCORKINDALE: It’s amazing that lasted as long as it did. I honestly, if I’d known that I’d be talking to you today, and going to these conventions, I would have found a way to preserve it because I probably could’ve made a lot of money off of it.

DANHAUSER: Yeah, that was another thing I wanted to ask you too about how do you like this resurgence in Nightbreed fandom and the convention circuit and all of that?

MCCORKINDALE:  Just really new experience and quite a change from Harvard business school as you can imagine. It’s been fun. It’s been a lot of fun. I can’t say that I’m rich yet or paid off my house, but it’s been fun.

DANHAUSER: I remember one time I was at a convention and I was in line for Robert England. And somebody in that line was saying that he made something like $20,000 a day from autographs at those conventions.

MCCORKINDALE: The big stars, that sounds like a lot, but I’ve seen people lining up for the big stars like at Dragon Con. James Marsters was across the hall from me the that played in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and people were lined up for hours to get meet him.

PLUMIDES: And you never imagined how the people like Norman Reedus.

DANHAUSER: Oh man. Yeah, yeah. I was in the line at Texas Frightmare Weekend for Roger Corman and that one went around and around and outdoors.

PLUMIDES: Yeah, I’ll tell you someone who might blow your mind at these conventions, Zak Bagans from Ghost Adventures. You’ve got moms and daughters wrapped around buildings.

MCCORKINDALE: Yeah. I haven’t had any waiting for me like that yet, but maybe five people at a time. No more than that. Michael has said that I should make an announcement about my pottery. I have just started selling my pottery at the convention.

DANHAUSER: Oh, neat.

MCCORKINDALE: This is my antidote to Harvard business school and I.T. is like getting my hands in wet clay and on a wheel and it’s keeping me sane.

DANHAUSER: Wow, I think if there’s something that could be the opposite of I.T. maybe that would be it.

MCCORKINDALE: It is. It’s wonderful.

DANHAUSER: That’s great.

MCCORKINDALE: It really is.

PLUMIDES: What’s far out is that she might be at Mad Monster Party this year. Maybe.

DANHAUSER:  Oh, yeah?

MCCORKINDALE: I am working on a design for Nightbreed mugs and tankards.

DANHAUSER: (laughs) Really?

MCCORKINDALE: So fans can drink a beer out of it. Yeah.

RIDENOUR: I love that idea.

DANHAUSER: Yeah, that’s cool.

RIDENOUR:  I’d love to get one of those.

DANHAUSER: Do you have a website address that we can put on the blog post?

MCCORKINDALE: I have a domain, but I haven’t done anything with the website yet because the last thing I want to do when I come home is get online and code a website. It’s sassiceramics.com. You may even get an error message.

PLUMIDES: You can take some pictures and put them up on Occupy Midian.

MCCORKINDALE: Yeah.

DANHAUSER: Yeah, please do. So, sassiceramics.com?

MCCORKINDALE: That’s right. I may start selling things on Etsy soon.

DANHAUSER: Okay.

RIDENOUR: Okay, yeah.

MCCORKINDALE: Yeah. Since I’m procrastinating so badly about the website. I do want to create an online store and I can only carry so much to the conventions. The stuff that I’ve sold at the conventions is not even horror related. When I‘m not talking about Nightbreed and Shuna Sassi or doing I.T. at Harvard Business School I’m probably at the beach surfing or wind-surfing, ‘cause that’s what I really want to do.

DANHAUSER: Well that’s cool. Yeah, I definitely am interested to see those.

MCCORKINDALE: Great. Okay. Alright.

PLUMIDES:  Are we good Ryan?

DANHAUSER: Yeah. Thank you so much for agreeing to talk with us.

PLUMIDES: What’s next for Occupy Midian, What you guys got up your sleeves?

DANHAUSER: Well we’re working on trying to get the web site back up. We don’t own that and it’s been down for a few months. We want to hang in there until there’s a European release of Nightbreed, because if we took down Occupy Midian now people would be upset. It’s like, “Oh, now you got what you wanted, now you’re giving up on us.”

RIDENOUR: Thanks for coming on.

PLUMIDES: Yeah. And thank you very much. Anything else you want to add?

MCCORKINDALE:  No, just buy the Director’s Cut. It’s so much better than the theatrical release. And look out for sassiceramics.com.

PLUMIDES: And I ended up getting a credit on there.

DANHAUSER: Yeah, for sure.

RIDENOUR: Take care.

MCCORKINDALE: Bye.