INT: Peter O’Herne

The Arrow
interviews Peter O’Herne

A
few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from some dude expressing his appreciation for
this
little site
that I run. Winds up that the dude was Peter O’Herne, one of the bad
boys in Peter Jackson’s “Bad Taste”. Faster than you can say
“hookers in space”, I slapped an interview his way and this is how it came
out. Thanks, Pete!

1-
What’s your favorite horror movie?

My
fave horror flick has to be Dawn of the Dead….I like good Classic
Horror

films
that are Kick Ass….and we were all fans of that film. But there were a
lot of great films around the time we did Bad Taste….like Evil
Dead…Sam Raimi is great and
the sequels that followed were cool….Evil Dead 2 was great and Army of
Darkness..was hilarious…”Hail To the King Baby”!!

2-
Was there a lot of improv on the Bad Taste set?

Yeah
sort of, we did go out to the shoot with a plan but it changed when we
were all together…… we
kept coming up with ideas to make Bad Taste better…

there
was a lot of laughing on the set…..Funny
thing is that we did have scripted dialogue for the film and we did use
it…..especially in the studio for voiceovers

that
was really funny, Me and Pete had to do our scenes together and we kept
cracking up and the Tech’s were very patient….heehee!!

3-
Have you done more acting since, what have you been up to?

I
did my back in soon after Bad Taste so I have had problems on and off for
years,
so I
had to turn down a guest spot in Braindead–Dead Alive in the party
scene

but
I have been writing scripts for years as I have a love for the industry.

There
is a sci-fi/horror flick idea that I have and a couple of classic zombie
film ideas too + a weird fantasy treatment that needs work but I’d like
to see that happen one day and I’d like to get into a business printing
T-shirts with a kick ass

attitude
to them. I have a lot of ideas + I keep in touch with Pete
Jackson and the boys still. I
have been doing some work for a comic called Zombie Holocaust which is
cool and
I have a few other projects too but I can’t say anything at the
moment…heehee!!

4-
I loved the sheep getting hit by the rocket bit. How did that come
about? Was it in the script?

The
sheep bit wasn’t in the script but it was definitely in Pete’s head.
The
original plan was the sheep was going to be rabid and chase Barry (me)
and Giles all over the landscape and then gets blown up, we even filmed
some scenes where we were running but we didn’t use them. But
anyway, me and Pete were driving home from location and Pete said,
“Hey let’s pull over here I wanna try something.” So we pulled off the road and
set up a makeshift table….like a coffee table. Then we set it with
explosives and a sheep skin rug, we went across the road set
the charges, got the shot ready and BLEW IT UP!!! The rest is really
tight editing.

5-
What was the hardest stunt you had to do?

I
guess for me some of the hardest stuff I did wasn’t on film and
that was helping Pete do his Robert/Derek fight scenes on the side of
the cliff….man that cliff was really
steep and if Pete was filming himself sometimes he just
couldn’t hold the camera at all so it was either me or Ken Hammon who
did some of the camera work….it was pretty dangerous up there…

6-
Was it hard keeping a straight face while shooting?
Yeah, very much so. All the boys had a hilarious sense of humor and there
was a lot of joking on the set and out of 92 mins of finished film there
was about 7-9 hours of rushes and a lot of them were outtakes…..heehee!!

Also
there were a lot of practical jokes too and the one that sticks out is
the joke that Pete played on Mike Minett….Mike would turn up late
sometimes to filming and
we would wait around as a lot of the scenes had all the Boys
in it together. Anyway there is a pic that I sent you I think of Pete
firing an antique gun called a Brown Bess Musket….that was the day of
the joke….hahaha!! So Pete is standing there with this gun and
he says to us boys “When Mike turns up I’m gonna have fun with
Mike”……so Mike finally turns up and Pete points the gun at
Mike (which is loaded with blanks and shouts to him “I AM SICK OF
YOU TURNING UP LATE!!” and Fires “BOOM” Mike was so
shocked he clutched at his chest and we all fell about the place
laughing.

7-
What do you do in your spare time when you’re not killing aliens?

Well
my interests are varied and quite weird……to be honest when I’m not
doing the Gym and pursuing my other projects….I like to kick back
with watching Movies…..I like Pro-Wrestling (watching it I
mean)….and I am a Sci-fi fan too so I like to keep up with what’s
going on there…….things like Star trek…X-files….that sort of
stuff…….I also like Heavy Rock and I keep up with the latest music +
listen to my Faves Like AC/DC….ZZ TOP…Alice Cooper….I like Rob
Zombie as well. That Dude is total performance…I like that and I hope his
movie does well.

8-
You still talk to Peter Jackson? Any scoops on Lord Of The Rings?

I
haven’t spoken to Pete since Oct ’99…..but we usually catch up
sooner or later.
I
could ring him if I want but I give him space as he is doing what he
loves.

I
grew up with Pete and I have known him since I was about 9 years old so
whenever we do touch base it is always the same conversation….MOVIES!!
Heehee!!

As
for Lord Of The Rings, it looks great and is gonna do great.

9-
What’s your favorite Peter Jackson flick?

My
fave Pete Jackson Flick has to be Bad Taste……but I have a fondness
for The Frighteners too. It had a lot of our fave actors in it. Guys like
Jeffrey Combs

cos
of Re-Animator….Michael J Fox cos of Back To The Future……John
Astin cos of Evil Roy Slade……R. Lee Ermy for Full Metal
Jacket….and Dee Wallace Stone cos of The Howling, E.T. and Cujo….all
films that we were fans of when we were younger and inspired us to carry
on….I’m sure Pete is disappointed that Vincent Price and Peter Cushing
are gone now as he would have put them in a film too.

10-
If GOD would come down to earth and tell you to either give up booze or
women. Which one would you toss aside?

Well
if God said that to me I would know a way around it cos I only know

Boozy
Women….I mean ya can’t have one without the other if ya know what I
mean…….hehehe!!

Couldn’t
have said it better myself bud, thanks for the chit chat and come back
any damn time.