Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Celebrities tend to be cagey about the strategies behind their career moves, but not Debbie Harry.
She wanted to act, so she made it happen.
Harrys movie stardom got a tentative start with 1978sThe Foreignerand 1980sUnion Citybut really came together whenVideodromeopened in 1983.
OfcourseHarrys breakout role was every bit as cool and edgy as the New Wave persona shed developed with Blondie.
InVideodrome, Cronenberg cast Harry as Nicki Brand, a Toronto radio host with a fetish for danger.
Aroused, Nicki decides to audition forVideodromeherself.
If you watch Harrys talk-show appearances from 1983, youll see how comfortable she felt with Cronenbergs scandalizing sensibilities.
She still is, and calls him a scientist who anticipated a world mediated by interactive technology.
Youd done a few movies at this point, butVideodromewas very much your breakthrough movie moment.
Had you been actively looking to start acting?Yes, I had.
I had gone on a lot of meetings with casting directors, and I had read for things.
I did have different personal agents at the time, but Cronenberg contacted me about this.
I guess he had a visual idea, so that suited me fine.
I was going to ask whether it was your idea to dye your hair.
I think he was really shocked and disappointed.
I thought it was good for the character, and it helped me to be that character.
For me, it really was just something to help me do the performance.
I had been so firmly entrenched in the Blondie persona.
In a way, Id created the character of Blondie, so this was another person.
It worked out in the long run, but there were a few sticky moments when I got there.
He respected that, which I think is wonderful.
You said youd been reading for parts and taking meetings.
The internet says you were considered forBlade RunnerandTron.
Are those true?Yes.
I think I may have actually done something withTron, just a voice thing.
I dont know if I was ever going to be cast to be onscreen for that.
I dont really remember exactly whatTronwas except that it was inside a video game, right?
Other thanVideodrome,the one that sticks in my mind as a real chance to develop a character wasHairspray.
When you and Cronenberg first got together about this, what did you initially make of Nicki?
And what were your conversations with him like?
She has this stillness about her.
It was really quite simple, just going along with what he had written.
I think he knew exactly what he wanted.
There was a question that we did have: What was she?
Was she real, or was she just a projection?
But she sort of came in and out.
I think Jimmy Woods was fearless.
Hes fearless and aggressive, and that really worked for his character and for setting up my character.
What label did you end up landing on for her?
Is she the 1983 version of virtual?There was no reference.
I think we just went away with her being a question mark.
You mentioned James Woods.
He has a bit of a reputation.
How did you find James Woods during this experience?He was fine with me.
I dont know what year Kathleen Turner worked with him.
Much later than you did.
That wasThe Virgin Suicidesin 99.I think I caught him at a good time because he was a hoot.
He cracked jokes and did funny things on camera.
He was very into it.
But he was just contributing.
I didnt have any real problem with Jimmy.
He always made me laugh.
I mean, everything was very suggested.
It went along with everything else that was being suggested in terms of the horror and the weirdness.
David wrote so many things in that script that are commonplace today.
He was so far ahead of his time.
Hes really quite a genius.
Videodromesits at this nexus.
You talked at the time about Marshall McLuhans influence on the movie.
Transformation is part of all of his films.
All of those characters are into making some kind of metamorphosis.
There are a lot of components to Cronenberg.
I assume you did not actually burn a cigarette on your chest.Well, I have scars.
But no, I did not.
The whole thing was special effects.
I mean, why would they hireRick Baker?
And the other guy I worked with wasDick Smith.
His little studio was full of all that stuff.
He was Rick Bakers mentor.
As far as the burning goes, it was special effects.
You bring the cigarette down and they cut, and then they create the wound.
I dont think they had enough insurance for the real thing.
And what about Nickis murder sequence on theVideodromeset?
That set they created was orange clay.
But I came back after that.
Imback on TVtalking about long live the new flesh.
Its all these different layers of thinking.
Its just a big mind game, really.
My understanding is that you guys started this without an ending.
Cronenberg apparently shot a few different options.
Can you talk about what that process was like?We knew that there really was no ending.
My script didnt have an ending.
We kept asking, Whats the ending?
Whats it gonna be?
You know, actors, right?
Oh God, where are the pages?!
We just didnt know and went along like that.
He resolved his issues and was able to combine different elements from different possibilities.
I dont remember reading alternate endings because I wasnt really given any.
So your experience just involved one ending?As far as I know.
Thats the thing we may have shot scenes that were potentials and he never used them.
I could go look for them.
I know I saved them.
Should I run out and get them?
Well, I would love to look at them, but thats okay.
Maybe you were being humble, but I wonder if you feel differently about it now.
I was just being a bitch that day, I suppose.
But its hard to separate because he didnt want us to see the dailies.
For me, I would have preferred to actually see my performance to shape a few things perhaps.
I think he didnt really trust me or he wanted it to be sort of disassociated somehow.
Videodromedidnt make a ton of money, but its become a huge cult movie in its own right.
Your next really big role, as you said, wasHairsprayabout five years later.
What sort of movie opportunities come your way afterVideodrome?Not too many.
It really was a circus.
But that was then.
At that point, it wasnt.
No, theHairsprayset was so much fun.
Those kids and that music and all of that dancing?
Nobody wanted it to be over.
When he said, Okay, its a wrap, everybody went, Oh no!
All I can equate it with is those big headpieces the showgirls used to wear in Vegas.
Maybe they still do, I dont know.
They take a little bit of balancing.
Any other definingVideodromememories that stick out to you?
It really etched into your brain.
I thought that was kind of special.
Thats what he does.
Thats why people sometimes find it hard to watch his movies.
Some people couldnt watchVideodrome.
There werent so many censors cutting things back.
