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Interview: 'ClarkWORLD' director Deren Abram - Part II
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When Deren Abram starting asking actors to share their thoughts on the late director Bob Clark for Abram’s cinematic tribute to his old friend, “ClarkWORLD,” plenty of recognizable names signed up.
Jon Voight. Mary Steenburgen. Peter Billingsley.
The cast of “Porky’s,” Clark’s iconic contribution to the sex comedy genre, was another matter.
They balked at not getting paid for their time, says Abram who funded the indie documentary himself.
“Porky’s” cast member Kim Cattrall was the exception.
“She was just a sweetheart. She was happy to do it,” he reports.
Clark had a positive effect on many of the people on his sets. Billingsley, who played Ralphie in Clark’s “A Christmas Story,” credits Clark for shaping his sturdy work ethic.
But Clark’s film achievements didn’t end with catch phrases like, “you’ll shoot your eye out!”
“Bob was ahead of his time. He was a pioneer … even if he failed miserably sometimes,” Abram says.
Clark directed “Black Christmas,” a slasher film that helped create the killer’s point of view element. His 1973 film “Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things” beat other zombie comedies to the punch by more than a decade, Abram notes.
Clark also has his share of clunkers like “Baby Geniuses” and “Rhinestone.”
“He treated each one as if he was making ’Hamlet,’” Abram says.
And he didn’t take his failures too seriously.
One of the first times Abram met Clark the former overhead the director getting flack for making “Rhinestone.”
“I chimed in, ’I kinda liked that movie,’” Abram recalls, to which Clark replied, “it takes all kinds.”
Abram hopes “ClarkWORLD” shows audiences the man behind films like “A Christmas Story,” “Porky’s” and, yes, “Rhinestone.”
“He lived very modestly. He didn’t care about celebrity. He could barely operate a cell phone, but he was always putting films together in his head,” Abram says.
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