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thought they really were creating a new<br />
way of living.<br />
Exactly—she thinks she’s bringing her oldschool<br />
family into the new world. “This is<br />
what is acceptable now.” I guess it’s still happening<br />
nowadays, but she’s just a really funny<br />
character—she’s definitely a character.<br />
THIS OLD<br />
THING? JUST<br />
A CENTURY-OLD<br />
PORTRAIT OF<br />
MYSELF<br />
Did you listen to the music of the ‘70s to<br />
get inside her head?<br />
Of course! I listened to The Carpenters, Simon<br />
and Garfunkel, so many amazing artists.<br />
My mom was actually 14 in 1972, which is<br />
when the movie takes place, so she told me<br />
what she went through at that exact time. I<br />
was just able to talk to Michelle Pfeiffer or my<br />
mom because they were the same age. What<br />
they were listening to, what they were doing<br />
at that time—I could grab off of them. I was<br />
pretty lucky to have that.<br />
Does that mean there’s a little bit of Michelle<br />
and your mom in your character?<br />
Definitely. There’s definitely a bit of both of<br />
them. And because Michelle plays my mom<br />
in the movie, I tried to pull little things out of<br />
her and put them into who Carolyn is.<br />
Was a Tim Burton set what you expected<br />
from seeing his movies?<br />
Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect when<br />
I was going into it. I was like, “I wonder if<br />
everyone’s really cool?” You never really know<br />
how everyone is going to be on a movie, but<br />
literally the minute I walked in, everyone<br />
welcomed me with open arms. They were all<br />
so, so, so nice. And the most normal people<br />
were Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, which<br />
you would never expect. You’d think they’d<br />
be eccentric, in the corner, kind of weird, but<br />
no—they’re just normal guys doing what they<br />
love.<br />
Is there a past Burton film that you would<br />
have loved to have been in at the time?<br />
Of course—Beetlejuice or Edward Scissorhands.<br />
Any of those. They’re some of my favorite<br />
movies of all time. And this movie is really a<br />
lot like Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice<br />
because the original Dark Shadows was so<br />
close to him. Johnny and Tim grew up with it,<br />
so it’s special to them, and I think that’s why<br />
this movie is so special: they feel they need to<br />
do it the right way.<br />
But for your generation—who has<br />
probably never heard of Dark Shadows<br />
before—what do you think is going to lure<br />
them to see the film?<br />
I think just the fact that it’s a Tim Burton and<br />
Johnny Depp movie. That’s an automatic: “I<br />
have to go see this.” But I think it’s really that<br />
in the commercials, Tim is straddling this fine<br />
line of camp and drama. He perfectly goes<br />
MAY <strong>2012</strong> BOXOFFICE PRO 87
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