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Interview with Duke Hendrix
May 2002 Crimson Celluloid Magazine

Director/Co-writer and one of the actors in KILLBILLIES, what are you some kind of control freak??
Yes, I'm a total control freak, the only thing I can't control is my need for control. I live by the old saying if you need something done badly do it yourself, besides everyone else involved in the film were too fucking lazy
or too stoned to do anything except fuck up takes with moronic giggling.

I must admit to not knowing much about the film. Tell us a bit about the story.
We came up with a basic story line that we could hang our warped gags on, the story is about two feuding hillbilly families. The Mcoys and the Lowborns. The Lowborns prize hog Hank escaped and ate Ma Mcoy at Ma'sfuneral Pa Mcoy serves up hank the hog to the Lowborns a fued is declared and um......hilarity ensues.

John Harrison (he whose word is never questioned) says the film is intense at times. Who are your filmic influences?
Ed Wood Jr is the man, but try making a film to look like Ed Woods, its too fucking hard, its impossible, you just can't set out to make a film likethat. When you do try everything thats supposed to go wrong goes right.
Other infuences would be Paul Morrisey, Tobe Hooper. Sam Rami,Jorg Buttgereit and ofcourse George Romero. But having said that we are probablymore influenced by cartoons like John K's Ren and Stimpy and 60s sitcoms like the Addams Family and the Munsters.

What kind of shooting schedule and budget were you working with? Where was it shot?
We had a budget of 2000 bucks and I'm proud to say we came under budget, We ilmed all the interiors in a 8 by 10 ft room in Petersham Sydney thats why here are hardly any reverse angle shots cause it was so fucking cramped in there. The house we shot in was also on one of Sydneys main highways and under the flight path so if some of the scenes look hurried its because we tried to fit it in before the next 747 would scrape its wheels on the roof of the house. The exteriors were shot in sentenial park, we were constantly
dodging park rangers, I felt like Yogi theFucking Bear.

What particular hardships and problems did you encounter?
Well the first problem happened on the day before the first shoot, our lead actress called and said she didn't want to do it because she is getting married and didn't want her future husband knowing about her past Z grade movie making days. She was supposed to play Sally Mae, so Leon and I had 24 hours to come with something. I remembered an old script we had about carny's and a half man half woman character in there. I looked at Leon and he was like oh no anything but that, the next thing I know I was calling action and Leon was standing there looking exactly like one of those old sideshow freaks it was great! The biggest problem though was the guy who played "Boy" The charecter Boy was to be the star of the film and we got
this guy who is brilliant but a total fucked up piece of work, He lives in a housing comminsion flat with his mom and gay brother who looks like uncle fester, and he doesnt get out of bed until three in the afternoon. On the days he DID turn up we would have to take him to St Vinnys so he could cashin his food stamps because he would spend all his dole money on model kits and comics. The guy is 38 and hasnt worked for 15 years. After a few shoots he stopped turning up, he would promise the whole cast and crew that he would be there but never come, and when we would go to pick him up his brother would answer the door with some excuse like oh he's in hospital he had heart failure last night, then we would wait in the car around the corner until he emerged to go beg for a packet of smokes from the shop up the road and intercept him then.I remember Leon kept saying we should be filming THIS! Luckily we had already shot the alien abduction scene with him
and decided after a few weeks of him not showing that his charecter just doesn't come back from the abduction, we then had to shoot his funeral without him and Leon and I had to do a re write and fit all the scenes we had already shot into a new story.

Was the on-screen talent professional or mainly made up of friends and colleagues?
Leon and I used to run a collectibles shop in Petersham, ya know collectible toys and records, all kinds of shit. that place used to attract a lot of weirdos thats where we met everyone in the film basically, I met Ringo Ray
there when he came trying to sell his old batmobiles so he could pay the rent. We met Grant Biffin our effects guy and Big Daddy Kong our set guy there too and thats where I met Leon, he had the shop up and running before I came into the scene. The only one that comes close to being called a professional would have to be Sven Jonnsen he had some acting classes and really stands out.

Did the casting couch come into play at all?
(laughs) unfortunatley not, when you have a budget of 2000 dollars and making a movie as wierd as ours you find yourself begging girls to be in it. I remember all the girls saying my mom can never see this and I'm like don't worry neither can mine.

The music used in the film has been cited as being excellent. Any chanc of a CD release?
We have thought about it and its something we are going to work towards but there are a few things we need to do before we tackle that.

What kind of release/distribution for KILLBILLIES are you looking at?
We have had some very strong interest in the UK from distributors there but they are so fucking slow, Basically anyone who wants to release it on DVD can have it, first in first served. We have had some interest in the states and a little in Germany, no interest here whatsoever

Future projects?
The Film has been getting great reviews in England and America that couples with winning an award at this years Zombiedance in Austin Texas has gotten a few small investors interested, So the next film is gonna be a vampire flick called " Bloodspit" We have a lot of blood left over from The killbillies and we don't want to see it go to waste.