![[Flounder and Sissy]](http://www.acmewebpages.com/graphics/sissy.jpg)
Photo by Christine M. Loss |
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Animal House has always been famous
for its fascinating females, from Katy and Marion to Mandy and Babs to Shelly and
Clorette. But none is more adored than Flounder's Harrisburg High girlfriend, Sissy.
With her blue party dress, pearl necklace, neatly pinned up blonde hair and lovely
face, she provides the perfect complement to Flounder at the Toga Party.
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| Q | Animal House was your only movie. How did you get involved with the project? | |
| A |
I
had only been at the University of Oregon a couple of months, and lived
briefly in a dorm. My roommate was a theater major -- I was not. She
heard about the casting call for Animal House and knew that I was working
my way through college. She suggested that I go sign up to be an extra.
I was doing math homework at my desk, and I just got up and walked to the EMU (Erb Memorial Union). I guess I should have at least checked the mirror. I met the local casting director at the EMU and she took a Polaroid of me and asked me to come back the next day. When I went back the ballroom was filled with people: about a hundred girls seated on one side and a hundred boys on the other. Michael Chinich, the Casting Director, came in, walked down the aisle, and pointed at me.
I was sent to the front
of the room and more information was taken. I was given the address of where to
meet John Landis the next day. We met outside, with some of the crew milling
about. I talked with John for a few minutes.
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| Q | I thought they only used local extras for non-speaking parts? | |
| A |
They originally had an actress
in mind for the part of Sissy, but after talking with John, I learned I had the
part. It was a speaking part, ("Hi!"), so I was to be paid much more
than the $2.25 an hour I would have made as an extra. Since I was
living on $4500 a year back then, paying for tuition, books, housing and
everything else, this was great news.
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| Q | What was it like making the film? | |
| A |
Everyone was always
very friendly and professional. I was pretty much the youngest person
in the cast, which makes sense because they were all playing college
students and I, a high school student.
I was allowed on the set while different scenes were being filmed, but my actual "scene" took 2 1/2 days, done in five different parts, usually on the first take, and each part filmed out of order. The part where we walk from the Lincoln into the Delta House was filmed last on a different night. John Landis himself threw the beer at us during the toga party scene, but he came over and very nicely patted my face dry with a towel after he did it. When Flounder and I are doing the twist, we are not doing it during the same time as the [other] toga party [scenes]. Our "dance" was spliced in and we filmed it upstairs at Sigma Nu, not in the basement. Extras were behind us dancing and beer was in front of us, being thrown, but not in bottles this time. So I was able to watch the toga party dance when it was filmed, but not actually dance during it.
People have asked me if the beer bottle really hits me. Well, it did
hit the top of my hairdo, but it was made out of sugar and smashed into
the door behind us, shattering all over us. We did several takes of
that part, with beer bottles wizzing past our heads, but they liked
that take the best.
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| Q | Did you film any other scenes, that were later cut out? | |
| A |
Some of the cast wanted me to be
in other scenes, but Sissy was supposed to be back at Harrisburg
High as a junior after the Toga party. One of the assistant directors
decided that it wouldn't work.
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| Q | Did you get to know any of the other cast members? | |
| A |
I met John Landis' girlfriend,
who was tall with long dark hair. I would chat with her over the next
few weeks, as I did with almost everyone else involved in the film.
Stephen Furst (Flounder), who was married to a New York model, was very nice and always made sure that I met everyone. The people who were the nicest went on to the greatest successes, which I think is very cool. Karen Allen (Katy) was very friendly and assumed I was an actress from SoCal. She was an actress in New York. I always think of Thomas Hulce (Pinto) as Tommy, because that's what everyone called him. Tim Matheson (Otter) liked to flirt. I was in the makeup chair next to his when he was having the blood capsule installed in his mouth for his motel Hitler youth beat-up scene. I first met him in the EMU when they were filming there. We talked. I had a boyfriend and told him so. But he was fun to look at.
Bette Midler was dating Peter Riegert (Boon) at
this time, but I missed when she visited. Stephen Furst told me he was
struck at how petite she was. I met Mel Blanc's son, who was being
trained by his father to perform the voices for Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny,
and the rest. He was dating either Mary Louise Weller (Mandy) or Martha
Smith (Babs).
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| Q | What about John Belushi? | |
| A |
Stephen Furst introduced me to John
Belushi and he was very quiet and polite. While filming at the Sigma Nu everyone
would hang out in the basement, in a room next to the Toga Party dance room.
It was around Halloween. John Belushi was flying back and forth to New York to
do Saturday Night Live. He would practice his guitar smashing scene in
front of us in that room. I talked with his wife Judith, who played his date at
the toga party and also, in the movie, she is sitting behind Stephen Bishop on
the stairs as his guitar is being ripped out of his hands.
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| Q | After Animal House, did you ever do any more acting? | |
| A |
No. A talent agency from LA did contact
me that year, but I was very young and very broke and really didn't know how to proceed.
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| Q | So what have you been doing these past twenty years? | |
| A |
I graduated a year later from the
University of Oregon, married that fine young boyfriend, had three great
kids, traveled to Greece, Asia and all around North America. Oh, and
people tell me I look just the same as I did back then!
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