3. Tell us about your acting career…
I know you have been a theater actor for over forty years now. In addition to your stage performances, you have been involved with
films.
· What sort of actor are you?
o
Do you consider yourself a stage performer or a
film actor?
Ø Both, always.
o Are you a character actor, physical comedian, or don’t you have a particular style you prefer?
By this, I mean, Johnny Depp is a character actor; he becomes each character, while Nicholas Cage is basically the same guy in each movie. Both are great actors, but their styles are different. Going a step further, though Johnny Depp is a character actor, just as Robin Williams was, Robin was also a physical comedian. His comedy was full-bodied; he literally threw himself into whatever the joke demanded of him.
Ø Any actor that's any good or has any staying power is a performer that can play whatever the situation calls for. It's necessary because, not only do the venues and mediums change, but so do audience tastes. I am, and always will be, a stage actor.
Ø I've done broad comedy (stunt shows), stage comedy, thrillers, and musicals (playing Oscar Madison to Li'l Abner). I once played a singing banana.
Ø I enjoy television. There you can play more naturally, but the material is usually fairly broad. I love making films, but delicious film making opportunities are few and far between, particularly now that I'm middle aged. I get a lot of offers to play alcoholics wearing wife beaters and dropping the F-bomb every other word. (I turn them down.)
Ø American films are made with young people for young people. In England, brilliant actors work well into their eighties with no slow down. Here, former stars sell aspirins and hearing aids if they want to "work".
· How did you first get into acting? Were you in theater first or film?
o I got into stage acting in a serious way at the age of fourteen. Four family members, including my father, were killed in an arson house fire. The school drama teacher took me under his wing, became a second father to me. Dan Danielowski taught me everything there was to know about theater, acting, directing. Both Dan and Mark Jansen, a fellow class mate and director, lighting and art director, teach professionally today and run their own theaters. The friendships have lasted a lifetime. I had the great privilege of appearing in a show for Mark just last year. (The Sunshine Boys, I had the Walter Matthau role.)
· Being an amateur actress myself, having worked in theater, as well as, on television, I get the different demands of each performance style. However, not everyone will know how these two disciplines compare. Can you explain the different demands required for each?
o First, all require the ability to perform. Beyond that, theater requires a strong memory for lines with a lesser reliance on technique. You take the stage and live the performance from beginning to end. Film requires a precise memory for technique and far less reliance on lines. You must be exacting in your movements to hit marks (so you stay in frame and in focus) and key lights (so you look right for the camera.) But film is shot in individual set ups, usually lasting less than two minutes. You need only remember that much dialogue at a time. Theater requires a presence; the back row of a theater seating 400 deserves the same performance as the front row. In film, the camera will come and find the performance in you, if you let it. It's much more intimate, but difficult to put into words.
· Do you prefer one discipline over the other and if so, why or why not?
o As a performer, I appreciate the intimacy of film acting. I love being on a film set. But it is a very personal thing. I have had friends and family on the set with me and all of them have been absolutely bored to tears. Film brings personal satisfaction. Satisfaction from a public reaction to film is always months and months down the road (if ever). If you need a crowd to like you, then stage acting is the thing.
o On stage, you do a bit, tell a joke, or take a fall and the audience responds immediately. Theater brings instant gratification. But your memory is the only record.
· How did you move from acting to writing and which came first?
Obviously, I laid this interview out with the assumption that your acting career began prior to your writing career, but is that really true?
o I didn't really move from one to the other. I still do both. They’re two different professions with little in common other than they fulfill the need to get inside strangers, figure out what makes them tick, and present those strangers to others for entertainment purposes.
4. Tell us about your amazing writing career…
You are an award-winning, Amazon best-selling author. You have published titles individually, as well as, co-authored the book APPARITION LAKE with your brother, Dan Lamoreux.
· What awards have you been nominated for and which have you won?
o I put awards and contest wins in the same category. In fact, winning a contest as a writer is better than winning an award because in a contest, you get something in the end. And that's what professional writing is all about (according to Stephen King). You write, they give you a check, you pay the light bill = success.
o My first success as a writer was a contest win and publication in an issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Today, it would be called flash fiction, but back in the 80's, it was just a short story. I got a check for twenty-five dollars! My flash fiction story, The Gardener, also netted a nifty win at 99fiction.net. When you're eating a sandwich bought with writing money it just tastes better.
o With awards, you just get an award (and the bitter congratulations of fellow artists that did not win). For the remainder of your career you'll need to dust off both the award and the fellow artists. LOL! Besides, I'm usually the bridesmaid as far as awards go. I have been nominated for a Rondo Hatton Award and a Pushcart Prize. My second solo novel, Dracula'sDemeter, was nominated for Best Vampire Fiction of 2012 by the Lord Ruthven Assembly. I contributed to two Rondo nominated non-fiction books on horror films, Horror 101 and Hidden Horrors. The latter won the Rondo for Book of the Year in 2014 (congrats, editor Aaron 'DR. AC' Christensen).
· Do you prefer to write solo or with a co-author? Why or why not and what are the differences?
o Truthfully, you end up writing solo whether you're collaborating or not. You discuss the project with your co-author, you make plot and character decisions with them, you argue about moments you feel passionate about, and you give and take constantly. But the writing you still do alone.
o The big difference: when I write solo, nobody sees the work until I'm ready to show it. Collaborating means you have to turn your raw work over to someone who will not only be critical, but has the power to change the words. Collaboration requires absolute trust, not just in the writing, but in the character and motivations of your co-author.
o Working with my brother Dan on Apparition Lake was a breeze, an absolute walk in the National Park, because I don't just trust him with my words, I trust him with my life. When we decided to bring that book back to life in a new edition from Creativia, we agreed on a goal, and met it. It helped that he is an extremely talented writer!
