Quotes

[on being directed by Sean S. Cunningham in Friday the 13th (1980)] He's underrated as a director; he also doesn't give himself any credit as one. He kind of shirks it off as, "I just needed the money," or "I was about to lose my house so I made a scary movie." But the fact is, he surrounded himself with the best casting people from New York City, Julie Hughes and Barry Moss, who knew all the best young talent in New York. The pool of people they brought in, and of course Betsy [Betsy Palmer] and Walt Gorney, they were fabulous actors; so he was smart enough as a director. It was a long casting process; Sean was looking for certain dynamics, the kids next door. He realized that it's not going to be scary if you're not invested in the characters. Now you watch movies, and you hope they die. Right from the get-go you care about our characters, from the time Annie jumps in the truck.

[on her Friday the 13th (1980) character] Alice is quiet, introspective, and artistic...she's human. Alice is a fighter but not a warrior until the situation calls for it. Then she discovers the strength within herself to become that survivor! She's able to harness her fears and get her focus - not brilliantly, mind you, but she manages to pull herself together and become that warrior when pushed to the edge. Alice realizes that she wants to live - desperately! Her survival instincts kick in and she finds that deep inner strength that gets her through the night. I believe this is why so many people relate to Alice. We never know what we're capable of until tested.

[on the characters in Friday the 13th (1980)] You find at least one character that you can identify with; that's what Sean [Sean S. Cunningham] was going for. Whether it's Annie, who's timid, or Marcie, the vamp; or Kevin Bacon's Jack, or Harry Crosby's Bill - nobody didn't love Bill. You cared about them when they were killed, and that's what makes a good horror movie. You have to become invested, and then it becomes riveting.

We're all survivors in some way, aren't we? We can all relate to having to get by and survive in this world, especially as things seem to be getting much tougher everywhere.

[on special effects make-up artist Tom Savini] A genius...CGI can't hold a candle to him.

I love the rollercoaster ride of a good horror flick! I remember enjoying old monster movies and Chiller theatre on Saturday mornings growing up in New York.

[on Friday the 13th (1980)'s female murderer] In terms of women not being victims, or a woman being the killer, it hadn't really been done before. And sometimes I think about if it was accidentally empowering women, or if they just wanted to do something that had a twist. And who would have ever guessed that the killer could have been a woman? A sweet lady, too, Betsy Palmer. No one saw that coming.

[on Harry Manfredini's iconic Friday the 13th (1980) score] He gave each character a little libretto. So even when the killer isn't onscreen, but they're around, you hear their theme.

[on her passion for art] My mom had me acting from an early age; I was always on sets. So I had my 64-pack of crayons and was always drawing and painting. I was blessed with having two passions; and throughout high school I still acted, I just had to keep my grades up. But my favorite classes were art and painting, which they don't even have in school anymore, which is such a shame. It's an outlet; if I didn't have art or acting, I would have been a very troubled kid. I know for a fact that it allowed me to become who I was; by the time I graduated high school I had an acting résumé from here to there, and I was accepted into FIT, the Fashion Institute of Technology, so both of my passions were right there!

I was invited into Tom Savini's special effects studio on set at the camp while filming Friday the 13th (1980). He is a bloody genius! To watch Tom and actually see the way he created his special effects transformed any fears I might have had into pure appreciation for his artistry. I was able to see how the "scares" were conjured up and devised. Pre-CGI days!

[Learning from Betsy Palmer, who played Mrs. Voorhees]: Well here's one of them... Harry and I were back and forth... I loved the fact that, because they did not introduce a character that you could play along with at the beginning of the movie in the diner scene... they had tossed around the idea of re-doing that after they had gotten Betsy Palmer to play Mrs. Voorhees. But when we first started, they actually hadn't gotten their lead lady to play that role, they were thinking about re-doing that and plugging her into it. And we ran out of money as you well know. So Harry came up with the brilliant idea of doing a P.O.V. for the character, thus establishing Mrs. Voorhees with the music. Which I thought was absolutely brilliant. I knew that the music he had for the P.O.V. camera, but he went through the entire movie and made specific notes down to where I blinked, he was showing me, and took breaths... And Mrs. Voorhees actually had her own music cues, P.O.V. cues and the camera had their separate music cues. So I thought that was phenomenally interesting. And watching it from the top with him, you know, it was like, 'Oh my goodness. You did.' and thank goodness because that way the audience actually had a chance. You know, that their was someone else and they were plugged into the music. You know, I watched it and I knew there was somebody ominous watching but I didn't know specifically that that was a different music thread, then the camera P.O.V.

[Of Betsy Palmer]: Betsy Palmer left me a phone message from a convention she was attending, saying 'They made me watch the movie & I can't believe how really good it was! And you, Adrienne, were wonderful and oh, my, how fabulous was our fight on the beach?...' She went on and on; astonished at how solid the movie was and how it held up & about "our" chemistry on film and the calibre of acting! That was incredibly special to me because that's the first time Betsy's watched Friday the 13th on the big screen in ages and realized that it was something to be proud of. I am so happy she's finally embracing our Friday the 13th!

[on her call to step back in front of the camera]: Betsy Palmer and I at the time had the same convention manager. She was contacted to ask whether we'd be interested in reprising our roles or having some sort of cameos in the 2009 Friday the 13th remake. But then alas the producers decided within about a week, that they wanted all the characters to be new and didn't want to use anyone from the original films. So Betsy said "Fuck 'em" and I said: "darn it" (!) But you know what? I honestly believe it was meant to be. They called right before I found 'Walking Distance' (the original title for Psychic Experiment) so what it did for me was by them turning me down it got me busy reading other scripts. The script for Walking Distance was so wonderful and that's what actually kick-started me into doing films again.

[Who talked about in 2016, as to who did it on Friday the 13th (1980)]: But it is! Just listen to the music. I learned that from Harry; Lord knows you watch it enough times, my "happy campers" [fans] watch it how many times a year-you learn things. And it is kind of a mystery-is it Crazy Ralph? If you notice-and I'm sure you do-it's not like the credits were up front. And you knew Betsy was in it, but you didn't know when or where she would show up. And then it goes on, and she hasn't shown up, so you forget she's in it. So, to me, it kind of was like a whodunit. We threw in the red herrings here and there.