Best known for her role as Casey in the cult classic Return of the Living Dead, Jewel Shepard has had an interesting career with various types of characters. Most recently, she has returned to the horror genre and stars in the lead role in Slasher.com.
Jewel took the time to discuss how she got into the film industry, what it was like on the set of Return of the Living Dead, her passions, and her current projects.
Horror Geek Life: How did you get into the film industry?
Jewel Shepard: My mother never gave me attention. I was never loved. That’s one thing I believe makes actors. The fact that they feel insecure, and they come from not very good situations in their lives and their family backgrounds. They seek the adoration of the fans. And once you get there, it’s a different story. If you get there. And yes, they love you. But they only love you for what they see you in. So what they’re seeing is your created persona of something, and they love that character. They forget that there’s a real person in there that has the same issues as you or I or anyone. Mine was about wanting to get love. I wanted to be loved. That’s what everyone was telling me. “Oh, you’re so cute! You should be in magazines and model…” Well, okay!
And this was back in the time when you always had to have a backup career. Like, remember the typewriter? Everyone had to be able to type, like, 120 words per minute. You actually had typing classes in school. I could never get past 30 words per minute, so I was sucking there. But I was cute!
Horror Geek Life:How did you get involved in Return of the Living Dead?
Jewel Shepard: Well, I jumped at it because I was working at a private strip club. I guess what they would be called now would be dollhouses or gentleman’s clubs. But this was very, very ultra-chic and private. The bottom line was it was men looking at women, and Dan O’Bannon came in there. He just sat there and watched. I wasn’t his type. He would just solicit other people too. He would come in every day, and nobody liked him smoking his cigars, and he was so unkempt. I ended up talking to him because I found him fascinating.
He liked comic books, and at that time, there was this kid called Matt Groening who was coming out with this thing called Life in Hell before he ended up doing this crappy little show called The Simpsons. So these were the people who went to these lousy little comic book stores, and we would meet all of these people like R. Crumb. So we got along well, and he bought all the drugs, so that was alright with me. That’s why we got along even better! We were friends.
In fact, James Karen, Bill Stout, and I were the only ones who could understand Dan’s way of thinking. So when this movie came out, it was originally given to Tobe Hooper, who at the time was working on Poltergeist. He was the director of the moment, and he was offered Return of the Living Dead, and that was the plan, that Tobe would direct it. He thought I would be really great for the character that’s now called Trash — who was called Legs originally — because, obviously, I took off my clothes very well. But I didn’t want to be in a movie where I was naked for the entire scene. I was already naked in all these magazines. I was naked on a stage. Naked, naked, naked! So I was really excited about that, that Tobe was willing to hire me.
And then Tobe got hired for Lifeforce. That was a bigger movie, in those days, for him, so Dan basically cobbled together the cast that he wanted. Then we had to take a year off because he had to convince the production company that he could direct and rewrite John Russo’s script into a completely different story.
George Romero, who was John Russo’s writing partner at the time, found out that there was a movie being made, so of course, there was a lawsuit, and it got put off for another year. Essentially all of us thought that we didn’t get the part. And then, one day, we got a call from the casting director asking if we were available next weekend. We were like, “For what?” He said, “For Return of the Living Dead!” I didn’t even have the script anymore, I don’t know what I did with it. Dan asked me what I wanted to be called if I was going to play the non-party chick because, obviously, I couldn’t play the clean, innocent girl. So I picked a nickname. You know, as a kid, I used to call myself nicknames. I can’t tell you why I thought of it, but I thought Casey was a cool name. But, at that time, I was like, “Casey, yeah!” And now it’s worked for 30 years, and it’s like that really is my nickname now. So yeah, be careful what you name things!
But at the time, it was just another movie. I had done quite a few by then. Before Return of the Living Dead, I did a film called Hollywood Hot Tubs, and that had been the biggest one at that point. But I think the one thing that kept us together, that kept us bonded, was those two weeks of rehearsals and the fact that we had to hang out with each other for a few weeks — all day long, every day. Dan made us hang out. So we all got to really know each other, and we kept in touch. Somedays, I think that that was perfect casting because we are our characters.
If I had done the role of Trash, we would have gotten an X rating. Linnea is not as sexual. She didn’t have a “wow” body or much of anything sexual about her. I had more of a sexual thing, and we were already having problems getting rated anyhow, trying to get the rating board to give it an R rating. If I had done it, it would have definitely gotten an X. I am a party chick in general. So I decided to play a character that was really pissed off about this whole goddamn party, even though I brought my own sh*t with me. You know that feeling like you’ve got to go out, it’s going to be a really great night, but you’ve just got to get there? And then you wonder why you even bothered getting out of bed.
Well, that’s how I decided to play that character. You know, all over the place, doing drugs and drinking. So I thought that if I treat this nice guy like sh*t, it would work well. And then once we realize that all hell is breaking in… or zombies, I should say. They weren’t walking, they were running. We were actually running quite fast because Dan kept yelling, “Run faster! It’s zombies!” And I’m not a very fast runner. So when they caught us, we’d have to do it all over again. I just didn’t have the stamina of having to run a quarter of a mile for every take.
So the zombies are running after all of us, and they caught me several times. And John would just say, “Oh, not again! Can’t you just run faster?” And it actually worked because when he’s screaming, “Run faster!” into the thing, I just got in there and went because I didn’t want to do another fricking take of this thing! Dan’s over there saying, “This is great!” And I’m like, “Why?” He says, “You’ve probably never been running before!” And I’m like, “But I have to run now!” He’s like, “I want your hair flying!” And I said, “But you hired a girl that doesn’t run well.” But I am so fortunate because John is an absolutely fabulous actor. He’s so low-key. He’s like the perfect actor. A lot of acting isn’t done through dialogue, it’s done internally. It’s like you’re really getting to listen in on this private conversation. And I’m a little more over the top in general, not just as an actor but as a person. It was really nice to have that to work with.
Some days the entire cast got along well. And then there were some days when we were working for 17 hours straight, and I’m constantly being caught by zombies, and everyone just wants to go home.By the time we got to the 54th take, I was over there crying because he humiliated me. Dan humiliated me about it like the way he humiliated most folks — mostly the women, not necessarily the guys. I mean, I should have been humiliated because it took us 54 freaking takes to get it! “Go choke a chicken!” What the hell is that line? To this day, I’m writing out posters, and I can’t help but think of that line, like, what the heck? When I picture it, I don’t see the character saying that, I see a chicken on a wood block. Sometimes when I have a particularly sweaty person in front of me, I really can’t help but think of the chicken!
Horror Geek Life: Out of all of the people that you’ve worked with in your career, who were your favorites?
Jewel Shepard:I would say that there are actually three answers to that one. When I worked on Garfield & Friends as a voice actor, I got to work with Jim Davis. I found myself sitting next to George Foreman and staring across the table at Mark Hamill and thinking, “Man, I have a cool job today!“ All I could think was, “Here’s the creator of the George Foreman Grill, and I could remember something that Hamill guy had been in. My job that day had been to be a terrified sheep worker, so that was easy enough. And you sit there, and you get paid for it!
Another recent one was Jean Dujardin from The Artist, who actually won an Academy Award for being the artist. He was absolutely amazing and perfect. He has these great expressions and facial features. It was amazing to see what he could do with his eyes, even off-camera. And to be in a film where everyone was always dressing up from that particular time period, I was lucky because my face looks good for that time period. And to actually be in a scene with that man… he was just amazing. There aren’t that many people who can do that. It was amazing but also very subtle, and then that movie swept the entire Oscars. Yeah, and to stand on stage and hold that Oscar, and it’s so crazy. So that was a moment.
Horror Geek Life: How did you get involved with your newest release, Slasher.com?
Jewel Shepard: Actually, I met Ben (Kaplan), who was the lead in the film, and he is such a nice guy! I was in a TV show called Double Espresso right after the movie The Artist, and he was hired for, I want to say, backgrounds, but it really wasn’t. It might have been something like lights, but you get a bit more attention, and you get a higher paycheck. But that was his job. He was the young photographer type of thing.
Ben says he’s going to be doing a movie coming up and wanted to know if I wanted to star in it. I kind of thought, is this kid for real? But he’s a gentleman. I looked at the script and thought wow, this is actually really good. He sent me to Chip (Gubera), and he wanted to know what I thought. I told him I think there are a few links missing, like what is this woman all about other than being a serial killer woman? She’s from the south because it’s taking place in Missouri, let’s make her Southern, put her in a dress like they did back then — a tighter dress. She would have the fancy silverware that they used, and I would jack off with the spoon to gross people out. I also thought my underarm hair should be really hairy, and you could see it in the bathtub scene.
It was all a bit too much for Chip, though. But I thought since we were targeting a younger age group and I want to gross them out because of not only my age, but I’m crazy. If I sit there shoving food in people’s mouths with this spoon, they’re going like, “What is up with this lady?” even more after seeing me groom myself and jack myself off with it. They thought it was a strong choice.
But Chip is an amazing man because he co-wrote, directed, and edited it. He did an amazing job because, once again, I had to face some of the traumas in my life. I was playing this woman that I decided was nuts, and I had some personal issues.
Horror Geek Life: Do you watch the movies you’ve starred in?
Jewel Shepard:Most actors don’t. If you ever ask anyone, they’ll tell you they’ve probably seen it once or twice by themselves. They’re freaking out because all they can see is where they made mistakes. I do have some panic about Slasher.com. I actually did not see the best movie of all time! (laughs) I only got up to the part where I was singing to the about-to-be-dead guy. I didn’t finish the movie. I don’t know how it ends, but people say they love the ending. But I’m not going to see it. There’s a sneak preview screening on Friday but I’m not going. I don’t like how I look. I can’t help but think about how I would do it over again. I went through most of it saying, “Shoot me horribly, Chip. Make sure I look really bad. Shine that hard lighting on my face. We’re going to make this as creepy as we can.”
In L.A., they don’t have fat actors. If you’re not a size four, they don’t want you. I dared to go up to a size eight or nine. I decided to play this character in a certain way. We didn’t have the money for hair, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my hair. I had to bring the character from where she started to where she was singing that nursery rhyme to that man. That wasn’t even written, I just made that up. As I was singing it, I was thinking, “Oh my! Where is your mind going this time, Jewel?” (laughs)
My thing is, “Am I believable?” Did I get you to believe that this person really exists and that this wasn’t just an actor? People don’t realize what goes into a character. Take the walking — this character was walking differently, swaying. When the camera’s behind you, you have to think about your walk and imagine, “Would this character walk this way?” But you start it off slowly. You give it away a little bit at a time. It’s also hard because movies don’t shoot in order. So at what point are you with this character in this scene?
Of course, we shot the sex scene first. I’m sitting there, I know this guy and his girlfriend is sitting right there. And I’m saying, “You’re not digging the knife into me hard enough, god dammit!” You might kill people in your style, but in my style, that knife needs to go in deeper. He’s like, “Well, I don’t want to hurt you!” You’re not going to hurt me! You think R.A., when he chokes me, he’s being gentle? No, he choked me! When you see that scene, you’ll see that he really did choke me. It’s weird because you think to yourself, “Okay, I’m being choked.” While I’m being choked, I have to try and figure out how to stay in character because these two guys have this sort of relationship.
After he was done choking me, I have to start berating him, but when he was choking me, he had his moment. He was the man. But I knew what it had to look like. So I said, “Choke me hard, man!” He was like, “Okay…” But then again, be careful what you ask for. But most people, when they’re being choked, they’re not happy about it. But to these two, it’s a sign of affection. You have to think of your actual reaction and do the opposite. He did a really good job, though. He really looked “movie” dead. You know how, when most people hear their alarm, they jump out of bed? But when someone hears an alarm in a movie, they just roll over and shut it off. Do you see them just out of bed? No! They’re trained that way. If they jump up, they’ll be out of frame. It’s the same way with being dead. But if you were really dead, it wouldn’t be that way at all.
Horror Geek Life: Do you have any upcoming projects you want to mention?
Jewel Shepard: I have yet to get hired for it, but I did audition for that TV series.
I have turned down roles. I’ll read the script and just not understand that humor, so I turn the part down. It’s not like I have some kind of thing against it. I just don’t get it. So the audience may just not get me in this role. But after this, people may start to make U-turns when they see me. If I wanted to get a boyfriend, I might have blown my chances for that now. I don’t feel as old as I am. I get along much better with twenty-somethings. I don’t know how old I look, but I still feel like I’m in my twenties, or at least really young. I mean, I love to party! What can I say?
