AS PART OF OUR CONTINUING CELEBRATION OF THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BLOB, WE DIP INTO OUR ARCHIVES FOR A VINTAGE INTERVIEW WITH ACTRESS ANETA CORSEAUT:
The
late actress Aneta Corseaut is best known to TV fans for her
long-running role as school teacher Helen Crump on the legendary Andy Griffith Show series. Back in the early 1990s, she granted an exclusive interview to Cinema Retro Editor-in-Chief Lee Pfeiffer for his book The Official Andy Griffith Show Scrapbook. During the course of the interview, Ms. Corseaut recalled filming The Blob:
"It
was done by a group of very religious people who thought if they made a
science fiction film, they could raise enough money to do religious
movies. Everyone connected to it was so religious: the producers, the
director. I remember Steve McQueen drove the producers crazy! He was
more of a maverick in those days, real hell on wheels. Every day the
filmmakers would go into prayer meetings- they would pray to everything
including the makeup brushes! They would always finish by saying, "And
save us from Steve McQueen!" They worked us about eighteen hours a day
on that picture. I ended up with pneumonia from the scene where we were
locked into a freezer.. They gave me two hours off so I could get a
shot from a doctor! When we were filming, I always kept moving around
so my back was to the camera as much as possible. When it opened, I
left the country and hoped it would blow over. Of course, it became a
big hit quite by accident but I haven't seen it in about fifteen
years." (Interview copyright Lee Pfeiffer)
(SEE WRITER HANK REINEKE'S RELATED STORY FOR EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE OF "BLOBFEST '07" )