Exclusive Interview: P.J. Soles on Halloween and Carrie

CraveOnline: I was rewatching Carrie recently and there’s a detail I never noticed. When you’re getting your hair dried, your cap is on top of the hair dryer.

P.J. Soles: Yes. [Laughs] I did that to see if Brian De Palma would notice it, because he’s the one that at the first audition, the second audition and even at the screen test when I got the part, he’s like, “Don’t forget your hat.” I was just… “Man, this guy is so obsessed with my hat.” And then he wanted me to wear it during the prom. I was like, “But I’m going to have a prom dress on. That’s going to be pretty weird. He said, “Norma has to always her baseball hat.” So he threw this little scene in with us. It literally took ten minutes. We’re under the hair dryer and I thought, “I’m going to put my hat on the hair dryer.” Brian came in and he just laughed hilariously. So it was sort of a tribute to him. “Norma always wears her hat? Here, it’s going on top of the hair dryer.” [Laughs] Very good of you to spot that. I don’t know that everybody does.

 

I’ve seen it five times. I only just noticed it. Where did you get that hat? Do you even remember?

I had just moved from New York to L.A. like two weeks before I had auditioned for Carrie, and I heard there’s lots of sunlight out there. I was a model in New York and I just wanted to be careful so I picked up a baseball hat, because I kind of dress more tomboyish than pretty. Since I was modeling I always modeled cool clothes, but I liked to wear funky jeans and t-shirts. I picked it up really just to protect my face from the sun in L.A., and I happened to wear it to the audition, so.

 

My first P.J. Soles experience was actually Rock ‘n Roll High School.

Oh wow!

 

It’s just a wonderful film.

Aw, thank you. I love it too.

 

There’s a scene where you get to rock out with The Ramones in your bedroom. Can you tell me about that?

Yes, I will tell you. The amazing part about that is that it was day one of shooting. So again, like Halloween, we had a 21 day shoot schedule. And I had never met The Ramones, nor did I know about them. I didn’t really like their music and I had to be their number one fan. This was filmed at a private house, and the first shot that I filmed for Rock ‘n Roll High School was Joey Ramone leaning over me, singing and spitting in my mouth. [Laughs] I was horrified! I always thought that was a very strange way to start the shooting of that film, but that was it. That was day one.

 

Did you become a fan of theirs over time because you knew them? Or are they still not for you?

No, I absolutely love them now. I especially love Joey Ramone’s last album, when he sings “Wonderful World.” I think he was an incredible stylist. I love Johnny. I just love their music. It’s such great bubblegum pop, is what I call it, and I can’t believe I just couldn’t even hear it at all when I was making the movie. It didn’t compute into my brain as music. [Laughs]

 

What can you tell me about Stripes? I only actually just discovered Stripes very recently.

Really?!

 

Yeah, my ex-girlfriend was like “You haven’t seen Stripes?!” And then I found out you were in it, and I’m like, “Why haven’t I seen Stripes?!” So we sat down and watched Stripes.

Classic Aunt Jemima scene! Come on! [Laughs]

 

Tell me about shooting the Aunt Jemima scene.

That was a funny scene because that too was totally improvised. It was three o’clock in the morning, we had to wrap it up, but we had to shoot one more scene of when the two characters get together and get their first kiss in. Whatever. It was supposed to be done outside on a hill watching fireworks, but it was pouring rain so we came inside the house and we literally just walked into the kitchen and Bill [Murray] opened the refrigerator and took out a carrot. He looked at me and I was like, “What are you going to do with that? It’s somebody’s carrot. Put that back. We’re just using the house as a set.” And then Ivan [Reitman] just sparked to it and he went, “No, no, no, bring the carrot here. Bill, go, go, go. Do! Do!” Then he went to the drawer and picked out the ice cream scoop and the scene just completely unfolded with Bill’s craziness and me just going alone. We shot it in 20 minutes. It was ridiculous, and it’s one of my favorite scenes ever.

 

The fans all focus on some of your bigger movies like Carrie and Halloween. What film of yours do you think deserves another glance, if it didn’t break out?

I love Rock ‘n Roll High School, and there are a lot of people who have not seen that, but because they’re coming out with more and more DVDs and homages to The Ramones, the fact that they started punk music and all that, that’s being seen more. But… Soggy Bottom, U.S.A. It’s a terrible title but it has every great actor that you would know in it. Ben Johnson, Annie Wedgeworth, Dub Taylor, Don Johnson plays my romantic partner in the movie. It’s set in the 1920s. I play a songwriter too, just like Riff Randell. It’s the cutest, sweetest, funniest, best movie ever and I wish more people would know about it, but it’s never played on TV. I don’t even know if you can get it on DVD… Yeah, you can get it on DVD. It has a picture of me and Don Johnson on the cover. It’s really a terrific movie. It’s a little Disney-esque, but it’s really good.


William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.

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