Title: Still A-Frid of a Vampire
Author: Michael Culhane
Publication: Famous Monsters of Filmland
Issue: May/June 2012
DARK SHADOWS changed not only TV, but your world. You live in a world where DS brought you sympathetic vampires, Anne Rice novels, and TWILIGHT. This was not simply horror. DARK SHADOWS was a unique pastiche of gothic suspense played out in the strangely appropriate format of soap opera with its need for daily addiction. In its wake, we have pulled horror storylines into the mainstream of our story as a culture.
We’ve spent many it fond moment with Jonathan Frid, who is relatively new to the art of taking credit for what his character, Barnabas Collins, has meant to audiences and to popular culture, but there’s nothing new about his generosity with fans. He gave us his time and kind attention, and here’s what he had to say to us about Barnabas Collins.
Famous Monsters. What did you discover at the heart of the character of Barnabas as you were playing him?
Jonathan Frid. Barnabas, at the beginning, is a displaced person with this terrible compulsion and fear of discovery. He is very much alone, trapped inside what he has become. Once the writers showed how it all came to be, the man Barnabas once was begins to emerge. It is almost as if he can shake off the dust and begin again—except that his past keeps returning in the form of Angelique.
FM. What do you think would surprise most people about the character of Barnabas who are being newly introduced to him?
JF. That he is capable of great evil as well as good. He kidnaps Maggie Evans, frames Willie, chains up Adam, murders a number of people, with great glee. He is not your classic hero of the storybooks.
FM. Your contribution to the character of Barnabas guarantees his placement in the pantheon of classic tragic characters. Tell us what you brought to the role that you think made such a lasting impression.
JF. I think there was an immediacy that registered with the viewers. We let the story tell itself, to a certain extent, and we let: the viewers bring their own imaginations into play. We as actors tried not to get in the way of that. But also, I played the role as a dramatic actor, and the role of Barnabas has aspects of many characters I had played and I could relate to those, draw on those: Richard, Caliban [both Shakepeare].
FM. What about Barnabas makes him more human than ‘monster?
JF. He is seeking to recreate a lost love, and he has this difficulty moving on. He loathes what he has become, but thinks he is trapped; and, to some extent, he is, because of this one mistake he makes as a young man in Martinique.
FM. And what is his most monstrous characteristic?
JF. Besides being a murderer? He has this thirst for vengeance and it overpowers his good sense.
FM. In what way do you anticipate watching Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins attempt to reanimate the character you made indelible in our culture?
JF. I expect he is going to make the character his own, and that is as it should be. He is a very talented actor.
FM. What similarities to the dark and terrible side of Barnabas do you find in other roles you have played?
JF. I’ve mentioned some of them: Caliban, Richard. In the movie SEIZURE, which Oliver Stone directed, the character I played betrays people close to him, who trust and depend on him.
FM. What other classic horror figures or roles do you think you would have enjoyed playing and why?
JF. I don’t know. I don’t think of the roles as horror roles, although there is certain evil in play. I suppose the monk in Hunchback of Notre Dame. I have played a number of wicked clergymen. When we were doing DARK SHADOWS, someone else got to play those classic roles: Mr. Hyde, the Wolfman, Frankenstein.
FM. FAMOUS MONSTERS magazine featured DARK SHADOWS four times on its cover when the show was running. What can you say to fans who loved the DARK SHADOWS series and are awaiting the new film with a mixture of enthusiasm and nerves?
JF. I’m grateful to you all and I’m looking forward to the new-film. It will be different than the series. It has to be. And that’s fine.
FM. What about DARK SHADOWS made 20 million kids run home from school?
JF. It was different than anything else that was on at that time. People engaged with the characters, cared what happened to them. Some of the storylines, some of the acting, the writing, when it came together, it was very good. And when there was a mistake or something didn’t work, we just very quickly moved on. The viewers, like the actors, wanted to know what was going to happen next. The story could move very quickly and if you missed a week or two, it took a little while to figure out what was going on. When you did, you could find yourself in an entirely different time period, or in some band of parallel time.
FM. Johnny Depp and Tim Burton were fans of the show themselves as kids. What do you think they’ll bring to DARK SHADOWS that will take it in a new direction?
JF. That’s a question better addressed to them. It is more than 45 years later. So much has happened. They’ll bring everything they’ve done before to this new story—the characters, the plot line can’t be the same, and shouldn’t be.
FM. Kathryn Leigh Scott told me you had a great experience on the set in London, that you met Johnny Depp and that he said “‘none of us would be here without you.” Tell us what advice you were able to offer to Johnny about the role.
JF. I would not have presumed to offer any advice. We were really there very briefly, for a cameo. It is Johnny Depp’s movie, and Tim Burton’s.
FM. What was it like interacting with the new cast alongside some of your former colleagues from the original series?
JF. It was good to get together with David Selby and Kathryn Leigh-Scott and Lara Parker. In recent years, I’ve only seen them at the DARK SHADOWS festivals, and then only briefly, because I tend to hole up on my own working on my own performances. I did do some scenes from MASS APPEAL with David at the last festival in New York, and I was pleased to have that opportunity. He was wonderful to work with.
