Cassandra Peterson has played Elvira, Mistress of the Dark — horror hostess, sex symbol and bankable brand — for over 30 years. In an industry full of exploited starlets, she's turned the tables and built an empire. To paraphrase Jay-Z, she's not a businesswoman; she's a business, woman.
Ahead of Peterson's appearance at Supanova, we talked to the Halloween icon about what your costume really says about you, her years as a 'virgin groupie', and why she turned down Hugh Hefner.
Halloween is fast approaching. Do you still enjoy it, or at this point is it like, 'oh God, not Halloween again?'
No, I really do enjoy it! It's always been my favourite holiday, even when I was a small child, because I worked in a costume shop. My mother and my aunt ran a costume shop. So ever since I was seven years old, it's been the holiday I most look forward to and the holiday where I'm the busiest and working the most. I was always helping my family out in the costume shop for Halloween, so it's always been this funny mix of excitement and dread. That's still how it is for me! I look forward to it and I have a blast, but it's also really, really exhausting because I work every day for a couple of months.
You used to wear costumes from the shop to school on a regular basis. How did the other kids react to that?
Not very well. I was always a weird kid; a misfit. I always thought if goths had been invented back then, I certainly would have been one. I just loved playing dress-up! I was into cosplay before it was invented, I guess. I had access to these fantastic costumes, so I would just end up wearing them! I'm sure everybody thought I was very weird. I guess that's how I ended up the way I am now.
People used to dress up as ghosts or goblins for Halloween, but now they tend to wear risque, sexy costumes. Do you think you can take some of the credit for that?
I sort of think so, yeah. I think Elvira was the first costume that was out there on the market that was really sexy. Now, it's so funny, my costume company actually said to me recently, 'this year we're going to make a sexy Elvira costume'.
As opposed to...?
I know! What's a 'sexy' Elvira costume? They said they were going to make it lower cut and shorter. So my costume's not sexy anymore, apparently. I don't know... I know the sexy costumes are the biggest selling segment of costume sales here in the US. It's an opportunity for people, you know? Everybody has to go to the office everyday dressed in these really staid, boring clothes. Halloween is an opportunity for them – especially the women – to dress up like hoes and not be blamed for it the next day.
Conventions like Supanova are kind of like Halloween, I guess, with all the fans in costume. What do you think somebody's costume says about their personality?
It's funny you should say that, because I have really noticed over the years that so many people will wear a costume that brings out an aspect of their personality. I saw somebody who was really, really overweight, and they were dressed as a Hershey's Chocolate Kiss. I've seen so many other people... it's kind of like a Rorschach test of your real, hidden personality. Be careful of what you wear, folks, because it says a lot about you!
What do you think the Elvira costume says about your personality?
Oh, lordy! I hope it portrays the three things I think Halloween is all about, and that's sexy, funny and spooky. That combination is what Halloween is all about, and I think Elvira personifies that.
You worked in a Vegas nude revue while you were still a virgin. It seems like there's an element of playing dress-up in that – what attracted you to that line of work?
You know, growing up, the people I loved on TV were Morticia Adams and Ginger from Gilligan's Island – dark, sexy women. I loved their look, I loved what they were doing. So I think I was playing make believe and wanting to be that person, and that led me into becoming a go-go dancer. I don't know how it led to that, but those were people I looked up to. I wanted to be like them because they were strong and cool and sexy, you know?
As a young woman, was that an intimidating world to step into?
Not for me! I just wasn't socially cognisant of being embarrassed. I was just like, 'yeah, whatever!' I was pretty ballsy. In fact, I realised just a few years ago that the Elvira character really is me when I was a teenager. I had no rules, no boundaries, and I didn't care what people thought of me. As I got older I developed those social graces, thankfully, but Elvira never did. Elvira just remained that person that I was as a teenager. I was just a know-it-all smart-ass, you know?
You had some fairly interesting experiences back in those Vegas days, including a particularly unpleasant one with Tom Jones. That seems like the sort of thing that would put you off sex for all sorts of reasons, but you went on to become this international sex symbol. Did it shake your confidence?
No! You know, I was always attracted to famous people, to musicians, to actors... those were the guys I always went after. When I was young, I was a groupie, even though I was a virgin. In a book [Pamela Des Barres' Let's Spend The Night Together: Backstage Secrets of Rock Muses and Supergroupies], there's a whole chapter on me called 'The Virgin Groupie'.
I was trying to meet these guys... I don't know what it was, I just had a compulsion about meeting famous musicians and actors. Everybody from Jimi Hendrix to Jimmy Page to Elvis and, yes, Tom Jones, and later Robert DeNiro, Jon Voight... I don't know. I had a thing about it. I guess other girls were out having sex with Bob from down the street while I was busy trying to conquer famous guys. I don't know what was wrong with me. Luckily, I got over that. I grew out of it.
After that Vegas period, you created Elvira, who continues to strike a chord with horror fans to this day. If it weren't for Elvira, would you still be a horror movie fan?
Oh, yeah! I could not possibly do this job if I didn't love horror movies. I grew up surrounded by horror stuff, first of all with the costume shop, and then when I was in second grade, my cousin took me to see The House On Haunted Hill starring Vincent Price, and I was just blown away. By Vincent Price, by that movie... I was scared to death, but at the same time, very drawn to it.
After that, I never missed a horror movie when it came to our town. Usually the Hammer films from England, or Roger Corman films, or the Herschell Gordon Lewis films, like The Tingler. I just became obsessed with those films. When other girls my age were collecting Barbies, I was collecting monster kits. Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy – I was building and painting these kits. I was really into it, I was really attracted to it. That was certainly a clue as to where my career was going.
What do you look for in a Movie Macabre [the show Elvira hosted that aired B-grade horror movies]? What's the difference between an A-grade movie that wouldn't work in that context, and a B-grade movie you can have fun with?
Because I'm basically a comedian, I have to have films that have something to make fun of. Those are generally the movies from the '50s and '60s that were so naïve and innocent; something with a cheese factor. Those are my favourite films; those are the movies I grew up with and I love them.
I'm not such a gigantic fan of a lot of the movies that are out now; these so-called 'horror' movies that are more like the evening news. I don't like gore for gore's sake. I mean, I don't mind gore at all, I'm all for it, but it has to have an element of humour or camp to it. Like Evil Dead 2, that's a great example. The original Dawn of the Dead, American Werewolf in London... these are older films, but I love that they combine a little bit of humour and campiness and horror together. That's the stuff I really love.
You mentioned that you see yourself as a comedian, and your career outside Elvira reflects that. You were in the Groundlings. You were in a Fellini film! Do you feel like Elvira has prevented you from taking on more of that work? Does that bother you?
No. I think I had a moment there for about ten minutes where I wanted to do something else, rather than just keep doing Elvira all the moment, but I quickly realised I must have been out of my mind. The difference between me and someone like, say, William Shatner and me is that I own my character 100 per cent.
Anything I do with my character, any licensed costumes you see, any of those licensed items, I get the money from that. When I appear somewhere, I get the full payment. I don't have to give half of it to Universal or Paramount or anyone like that. My character is a complete, total business. I'm not just playing this character I wish I could get away from; I'm playing this character that I'm trying to build up all the time. There's a big difference.
I finally realised that when I was offered a few parts in sitcoms, offered to do some pilots, and I figured out the money I would have made for a whole year's work would have been less than the money I would have made in one month as Elvira. It was ridiculous. So I stuck with Elvira, and I don't regret not doing other stuff.
When friends ask me to do things, like when Paul Reubens asked me to do a cameo in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, I love to do it for a change of pace. But I don't have an agent and I certainly don't go out looking for acting work, so there you have it.
You've refused to pose in the nude as Elvira, even though you've done it as Cassandra Peterson. Why have you chosen to draw the line there?
It was really funny! I was asked by Playboy, and offered an enormous amount of money, to pose as Elvira in Playboy. I really had to think long and hard about that because of the amount of money they were offering. And really... I'm not shy, whatsoever, and my body looked great at that time, so I thought there was no reason not to do it.
But I went to a convention and I took a poll of my fans and what they thought, and believe it or not, they thought I should not do it! They thought there was this element of mystery to Elvira; that part of the reason she's so sexy is that you see almost everything, but not quite. They thought if I lost that, it would never be the same, and I agreed with them.
I also appeal to a lot of children, a lot of pre-teens. They really seem to love the character, and I didn't want to blow that whole thing out of the water, either. I wanted to keep Elvira... I wouldn't say family-friendly, but not too trampy.
Cassandra Peterson will appear at Supanova Brisbane (RNA Showgrounds, November 9-11) and Adelaide (Adelaide Showground, November 16-18), both as herself and in character as Elvira. Unpleasant dreams...
