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TV: Annabeth Gish Talks “Bag of Bones”, Believing In Ghosts and Loving ‘Insidious’!

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The new A&E Mick Garris-directed adaptation of Stephen King’s “Bag Of Bones. stars Pierce Brosnan, Melissa George, Annabeth Gish, Anika Noni Jones, Matt Frewer and Jason Priestly.

Recently I had the chance, along with a few other journalists, to hop on the phone with Annabeth Gish (Mystic Pizza, “The X-Files”) for a lengthy chat. Gish, who plays Brosnan’s wife, “Jo”, in the series got candid on a number of topics including her favorite Stephen King book and her belief in the paranormal.

‘Bag of Bones’ is the story of grief and lost love’s enduring bonds, an innocent child caught in a terrible crossfire and a new love haunted by past secrets. Bestselling novelist Mike Noonan, played by Pierce Brosnan, is unable to stop grieving after the sudden death of his wife Jo. A dream inspires him to return to the couple’s lakeside retreat in western Maine where he becomes involved in a custody battle between the daughter of an attractive young widow and the child’s enormously wealthy grandfather, the mysterious ghostly visitations, the ever-escalating nightmares and the realization that his late wife still has something to tell him.

Hit the jump to check out excerpts from the interview! Why were you compelled to take this role? Especially since you technically die in the first 10 minutes? “Of course every actress wants to be featured throughout to fulfill her storyline, but I felt like the character of Jo was so clearly drawn and her essence is throughout the film. So in that sense she kind of resonates. I also wanted to say yes for several [other] reasons. I’ve worked with Mick Garris [director] before and I adore him, it was another Stephen King project, and I resect him immensely.

Was there anything physical about “Bag Of Bones” that was tough for you? “Definitely. This project has, oddly enough, been very physically challenging for me in terms of prosthetics. I had to do a four hour makeup job to become the zombie/ghost Jo. That for me became very scary. You get claustrophobic and you have to wear all of this gunk all over your body. That was challenging. And the scene under the bed was challenging, we would be under the bed when we were children but I don’t know when I’ve been under the bed recently. They had to pull me with velocity from under the bed.

Are you attracted to horror? Specifically Stephen King? “Yes but not horror for horror’s sake. Between the “X-Files” and my two Stephen King projects, it’s not horror for horror sake. It’s not to scare the bejeezus out of everyone, it has to be a story with real drama, real heart and mystery. And I think that’s what kind of delineates this project. It’s not just about zombies. It’s about three love affairs. And solving a mystery. This is about race. It’s about genealogy. It spans the whole [gamut] of things people will be drawn to watch it for.

Were you a fan of Stephen King’s before the two projects you’ve done” “I [began] reading him after the first one, after “Desperation”. And then a seminal book of his that is on my bedside table is his book ‘On Writing’.

Is there something that scares you? “Yes. I’m pretty scare-able. It’s probably why I like doing horror because my imagination takes me places. I kind of believe in ghosts, I believe that spirits can exist and wander around. So that scares me. But I feel like the things that really scare me are catastrophic events, like my children, husband, family being harmed. Something like that.

Have you ever had a paranormal experience? “I have met some ghosts before. Let’s just put it that way. I have danced with a few ghosts.

You can’t say where or when? “I don’t know how you can. If you’re inviting this world in and you’re open, I don’t know how you can help but be sensitive to it. Maybe it’s just what I’m drawn to. I’m not opposed to believing in it, that’s for sure.

You mentioned that you didn’t want to choose projects just for the sake of horror. That it was a combination of story, plot and character and other elements that you need. Are there any horror films that off the top of your head you’d consider touchstones of that model? “‘Insidious’ with Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne. It scared the bejeezus out of me but I couldn’t turn it off because it was so intriguing. That’s a recent example that captivated me the whole time. And again because there were so many human, complex issues.

As someone who has done both TV and Film, with storytelling possibilities in film constricting and possibilities in TV expanding, what’s your take on both mediums as an actress? “I think television is definitely the wild west now. Between the internet and television it’s all going to break wide open. As evidenced by how many film actors are coming to TV it’s kind of the place to be. However, you can’t replicate the experience of going to the movie theater and getting popcorn and watching the big screen. There’s still that experience that you can’t recreate at home. It seems like it’s an expansive time for everything these days and that film will have to expand. It’s all shifting but hopefully expanding overall. Otherwise are people going to stop going to movies? That would be sad.

The “Bag Of Bones” Two Night Miniseries begins airing Sunday, December 11th 9/8c on A&E.

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Interviews

“I Don’t See Retiring from This” – Joe Bob Briggs Talks New “Last Drive-In” Format and the Show’s Future [Interview]

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Hey everybody, have you heard the news? Joe Bob is back in town!

The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs has returned for its sixth season on Shudder. While the show’s format has been slightly revised adopting a new biweekly schedule with one film instead of a double feature the beloved horror host’s approach is much the same.

“It didn’t really change anything,” Briggs tells Bloody Disgusting. “We were crowding all of our movies into 10 weeks once a year and then having specials, and we found that people would rather have more weeks. It’s actually more movies than we had before.

“And some of the people on the East coast fall asleep in the second movie,” he laughs. “It’s about a five-hour show when it’s a double feature because we talk so much. Also, it’s hard to get thematic double features every single time. So our specials are still double features, but our regular episodes are single features.”

The season kicked off last week with The Last Drive-In Live: A Tribute to Roger Corman, celebrating the legendary filmmaker’s first 70 years in Hollywood with a double feature of 1959’s A Bucket of Blood and 1983’s Deathstalker. The special was filmed live in front of a fervent audience of Briggs’ fan base lovingly dubbed the Mutant Family at Joe Bob’s Drive-In Jamboree in Las Vegas last October.

In addition to his usual hosting duties, Briggs conducted a career-spanning interview with Corman and his wife, fellow producer Julie Corman. They were also joined by one of Corman’s oldest friends and collaborators, Bruce Dern. In a heartfelt moment of mutual admiration, Briggs and Corman exchanged lifetime achievement awards on hubcaps.

“I’ve known Roger for about 35 years, so I’ve only known him for half of his career,” Briggs chuckles. In his long history of reviewing, interviewing, and talking about Corman and his legendary work, one emblematic encounter sticks out to Briggs.

“I remember the very first time I went to the Corman studio, which was a lumber yard on Venice Boulevard. He had a standing set for a spaceship control room, a standing set for a strip club, and I think he had one other one, and then he had all of his editing facilities there, but it was still a lumber yard. They had not really changed any of the buildings or anything.

“He’s showing me around the studio, and we were walking past a pile of debris, and I said, ‘Roger, is that the mutant from Forbidden World?’ It had just been thrown over in a corner. And he just said, ‘Yes, Joe Bob, I believe that is. He was apparently no longer needed.’ I said, ‘Roger, you gotta get with it! That stuff is worth money.’ But he was like, ‘When the movie’s over, the movie’s over.’ That was Roget to a T.”

At least part of Corman’s longevity can be attributed to his shrewd business practices and pragmatic approach to the industry, which has included working in every conceivable genre of cinema. “I couldn’t think of a single genre he has not made,” Briggs says.

“When we did this interview at the Jamboree, I said, ‘I’m gonna name the genre, and you tell me what you love about that genre,’ and every comment that he made involved money and box office performance,” he snickers. “None of it was involved with love of cinema, although I did get him to say that his favorite genre is a genre that he didn’t dabble in much other than his first movie [1954’s Highway Dragnet], and that was film noir.”

While the fourth annual Drive-In Jamboree is still in the planning stage, Briggs is delighted by the event’s continued success. “The Jamboree is something that we literally just threw together. We’ve had three of them now. It’s something where we just show up and try to come up with programming for each day.

But I really think the Jamboree is more about the mutant family meeting the mutant family. It’s more about people who know each other online gathering and partying with each other in person. It’s not so much about what movies we have. I mean, we always have an anniversary movie, and we always have some special guests and everything, but it’s more about the gathering of the mutants. It’s fun from that point of view. They’re exhausting, I can tell you that.”

The zeal among Briggs’ audience has only grown over the years, from hosting Joe Bob’s Drive-In Theater on The Movie Channel from 1986 to 1996, to MonsterVision on TNT from 1996 to 2000, and The Last-Drive-In on Shudder since 2018. “I’m amazed, having been in the business for this many years, that I still have a show at this time, because they say you can’t repeat TV,” Briggs notes.

“Nobody wants to see old TV, and yet I’ve done the same show three times on three different networks, and every time I try to change it everyone says, ‘No, no, don’t change it! That’s the part we love.’ I always want to do something new, and I’m always told, ‘No, you’re the CEO of Coca Cola who went to New Coke.’ You can’t do that. People will revolt. So we’re still doing it.

“It’s one of the few shows that I know of that’s just sort of grown organically over, gosh, almost 40 years. We’ve just added elements to the show. We try things. If something doesn’t work, we throw it away. If something works, we do it forever!”

The mutant family will be happy to know that Briggs plans to continue hosting and writing about movies for as long as he’s able to. “I don’t see retiring from this or retiring from writing. I’m primarily a writer, and the good thing about writing is long after they don’t wanna see you on TV anymore you can still write.

“The difference today, though, is I was pretty much the only guy doing genre films when I started. Now, there are academics that do it. There are entire books written about Dario Argento and Tobe Hooper and even lesser names than those, and there are, of course, a massive number of websites, including your own, so that when something comes out today, there’s immediately a hundred reviews of it; whereas in 1982, I was sort of the only guy, because the movies were considered disposable trash. So I have been surpassed in my deep knowledge, because who can keep up with all that? It’s impossible!”

Diana Prince, who serves as Briggs’ co-host Darcy the Mail Girl and was instrumental in getting him back in the hosting chair, has been promoted to an associate producer this season. “She was sort of always the associate producer, but I guess they finally gave her the title,” Briggs explains.

“Diana Prince is in on all the decisions about programming. I always listen to Austin Jennings, the director, and Diana Prince, the mail girl, because they come from opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of what kind of movies they wanna watch, and we try to strike a balance between. You know, she’s not gonna vote for Possession, and he’s not gonna vote for Mountaintop Motel Massacre,” he chortles.

“They’re probably the principal advisors, as far as what we show. Of course, [Diana] has a lot of social media clout, and she’s extremely knowledgeable about pop culture. Wow! She has seen everything. She’s seen more than I’ve seen!”

While surprises are part of the fun of The Last Drive-In, Briggs previews some of what’s in store this season. “The place we normally live is the neglected ’80 slasher, and we still live there,” he assures. “But we’re gonna pay a lot more attention to the ’70s especially. I’ve always thought the ’70s are more interesting than the ’80s anyway. And we’re gonna pay attention to some really recent stuff.”

He teases, “We’re gonna bring back Joe Bob’s Summer School, which is something that we used to do at MonsterVision. And we may have a marathon. There’s a possibility of that. But I’ll be digging this new format of being on every other week between now and at least up to Labor Day.”

While Briggs’ hosting format hasn’t changed much across four decades, the world around him certainly has and that’s why The Last Drive-In remains relevant. He points out, “In the era of streaming, where everything is menus and there are thousands and thousands and thousands of choices, we are that thing called a curator that can direct you to the fun places on the spectrum of streaming.

“Streaming is very confusing for people, and a lot of people don’t like it for that reason. I hope what we’re doing is cutting through the weeds and bringing things into perspective. And, you know, it’s just more fun to watch a movie with us!” he concludes with a Texas-sized grin.

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