Credit: Rick Savage

          A: My parents were both involved in the entertainment industry- my father Richard Gehman was a well-known author and did a lot of celebrity biographical books like “Sinatra And His Rat Pack” and “The Tall American”. He also wrote “show-biz” type pieces for magazines like Esquire, TV Guide, and Playboy, as well as lots of liner notes for jazz albums. My mother was an actress, singer and dancer. In 1976, we moved from the East Coast to Los Angeles, where she had taken a job at Twentieth Century Fox working with Mel Brooks.

          On my third day in town, I visited her on the Fox lot and was wandering around, watching movies being made. Someone came up and approached me with “Do you want to be in a movie?” Of course I said yes, and after we got my mother’s permission, it turned out to be Roger Corman’s film “Hollywood Boulevard”. I was a huge Roger Corman fan- “Little Shop Of Horrors” was one of my favorite movies, so I begged my mother to let me do it! I played one of the “Wet Nubiles”- in the film, I was standing with a line of girls getting sprayed with a firehose! That was my first movie experience, at the age of Sweet Sixteen.

          A: I play Dutch, a hooker who is on Death Row for stabbing a cop who raped her and then tried to frame her. Dutch is a hard-boiled, predatory jailhouse lesbian, but she is basically a victim of circumstance…and she falls in love with Daisy (Starina Johnson) the lead character.

          They become lovers in prison. Steve and I discussed Dutch and we decided that even though she was a lesbian and tough, she was basically a sweet romantic underneath. We also decided that instead of looking like a bull dyke, she should look like a tough Sixties bitch, kind of like a cross between any of the Ronnettes and Tura Satana- lots of eyeliner, black lingerie and a big bouffant, like a Hell’s Angel mama or a Puerto Rican hooker! Dutch is HUNGRY…for everything

          Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go’s, (who plays Princess) described Dutch as a jailhouse chick version of Sawyer from “Lost”- a sexy opportunist!

          A: I would like for people to see that the intent was to pay homage to classic noir “women in prison” movies, like “I Want To Live” with Susan Hayward, and others of the genre….and I think they will! It’s a loving tribute to that type of B movie, and then some.

          A: I did “Stuck!” back-to-back with two dance gigs, teaching and performing in Missouri, then I went to the movie set in Georgia, and then directly to another dance festival in Northern California, so I was on the road for three weeks straight, that was pretty crazy, shifting gears like that.

          The most difficult thing about the movie was also the most beautiful thing: I went into it thinking it was going to be kind of a black comedy, and thought it would be a lark, but it turned out to be an incredibly emotional experience.

          I mean, I was very serious about learning the lines and prepping for the role, I watched every prison movie you can think of from “Papillon” to “Born Innocent”- I even made a shank out of a toothbrush, Mink Stole and I had a phone discussion about what our cell should look like.

          By the way, it was such an honor to work with her, because she has always been one of my idols…I was also pleased to work with Susan Traylor, because even though we were both in “Firecracker”, we didn’t have any scenes together and were on location for that film at different times.

          Once we got all the women together in the “cell block” our chemistry was intense, REALLY intense, and it quickly turned from being almost tongue-in-cheek to becoming extremely emotional. During the scenes where I am saying goodbye to Daisy as she goes to the gallows, we were both crying hysterically- I ruined four sets of false eyelashes that day!

          Before we shot it, I was wondering if I could actually cry on cue, or if Dutch would even cry, for that matter…I was thinking of ways to access those emotions for acting, and it turned out I didn’t have to, because of the on-set chemistry. In fact, I left the set that day devastated and emotionally drained, and I think everyone else did, too.

          I think the love scenes between Starina and me were very genuine…and it also kind of scared me how absolutely wild and nasty and full of pent-up rage I became during the riot scenes. I was spitting on the correctional guards and yelling with such anger at Amazon ( Stacy Cunningham) that afterwords, I actually stepped back and thought to myself, “Whoa, do I like… have some problems that I’m not addressing?” Like I said, the shoot was very intense.

          A: Yes, from the beginning, I loved the script and had faith in Steve, because he is a genius. But the day it really hit home was the scene I described to you before- where Daisy and Dutch are saying goodbye before Daisy goes to the gallows.

          A: “Firecracker” was another intense experience! It was dark and surreal, and also because literally every person in the movie is getting raped, abused, exploited, bludgeoned to death…you name it! I that film, I played Estelle, a three-breasted cooch dancer in the carnival sideshow. Every day it was a battle to keep my third boob on- it took an hour and a half for make-up artist Linda Sammut to get it in place anyway, and it was so humid on location in Kansas that the moisture in the air would always loosen it- it was like, “Cut! We’re losing the boob!”

          My very first scene in that film was inside a carnival trailer, Karen Black and I were being being held down and raped by a bunch of evil carnies thugs. I was insanely nervous because “Day of The Locust” has always been one of my favorite movies, and I’d watched it the night before we started shooting. So there we were sharing a brutal assault scene, and I was in awe of her anyway and then my boob kept slipping off with these crazy squelching sounds…in hindsight it was pretty hilarious but at the time I was afraid I was messing up the whole scene, and getting of to a horrible start!

          I was also in “Thrashin’ ”, the classic skateboard movie, with Josh Brolin and skate-pro’s like Tony Alva and Steve Olson- that was a particularly wild set! I’ve appeared in lots of music videos, played Mata Hari on “The Top Ten Ultimate Spies” for The Learning Channel and had to get “executed by firing squad” like twenty times in the hot August sun, take after take of dying in an Edwardian taffeta dress, I was like, “Just kill me and get it over with already!”

          I was in tons of 1980’s era movies like ” Rock ‘n Roll Highschool”, “Valley Girl” and “Slamdance”… my band The Screaming Sirens also appeared in Roger Corman’s “Vendetta”, a women-in-prison movie that pretty much started me on my obsession of appearing in one, which is basically why shooting “Stuck!’ was a fulfillment of one of my life-goals.

          I also starred in and co-wrote (with Max Tash) “The Runnin’ Kind” (released by MGM, 1989) a semi-biographical film about an all-girl band, based on my band The Screaming Sirens. We played in the movie as well as acted in it.

Credit: Penny Starr, jr.

          A: My old friend from the punk rock days, the legendary Lydia Lunch, cast me for “Shadow Hours”, as “The Lingerie Woman”. It was for a fantasy/nightmare sequence, I was in a decadent Weimar Republic type of fetish scene. Performance artist Ron Athey was suspended from meat hooks through his skin, there were lots of crazy drag queens on set, it was kind of like a house of horrors!

          That was an amazing shoot- those scenes were shot all night long in an abandoned mental hospital in East Los Angeles and it was pretty creepy! In between scenes, a bunch of us were exploring the hospital in areas were the film wasn’t shooting- dark corridors with rats and pigeons and we saw the hydro-therapy tubs, the electro shock therapy machines, and reading old files on the mental patients that had been there, it was, to put it mildly, quite disturbing, Frances Farmer and Jessica Lange in “Frances” comes to mind.

          A: I’m really busy this year!

          I started doing stand up comedy earlier in the year, but kind of put it on the back-burner in favor of all my dance gigs.

          I’m teaching and performing belly dancing in Egypt in June 2009 at a huge festival, also going to Alaska in August 2009 to teach burlesque and belly dance, and have a ton of other dance workshops – local, national and international through the end of this year.

          Steve Balderson and I shot a couple of instructional belly dance DVD’s last year; one came out already, the other is set for release in July 2009, and I’m also featured on two other belly dance performance DVD’s, “Tales Of Desire” and “By Dancers, For Dancers”, which will be out in summer of 2009.

          I’m also working on two books, one crazy stories from the road, the other about belly dance.

          And I have a blog which I started at the beginning of 2009, www.princessraqs.blogspot.com, so named because my stage name for belly dance is Princess Farhana. The blog features my articles on belly dance, burlesque, and many other subjects….so keeping up with that!

          Also, I need a new acting/modeling agent- anyone out there interested?

          A: Hopefully, in addition to all the dance gigs I already have booked for 2010, I’ll be on the road promoting “Stuck!” and either one or both of my up-coming books.

         

          A: I have written all my life, and lots of my writing is on line, just Google my name and tons of stuff will come up. I also have six books out: books of short stories and poems “Senorita Sin” and “Princess Of Hollywood”; a book of crazy rock ‘n’roll memoirs called “Escape From Houdini Mountain”, and three editions of “The Underground Guide To Los Angeles”- a kind of hip guide book for tourists and locals alike. All of these titles can be found on www.amazon.com. I have recorded lots of spoken word trcks, too, including a full CD called “Ruined”, which was released on New Alliance.

          Additionally, I am a painter- and have had my art in many group and solo shows, and also featured in some of my own books, and on CD covers for other artists as well.

Credit: Don Spiro

          A: During the early days of punk rock, I was a music journalist. I started my own fanzine in 1977, called “Lobotomy” (after the Ramones’ song) and I was friends with Joan Jett of the Runaways, and lived with Belinda from the Go-Go’s. Starting my own all-female band, The Screaming Sirens” in 1983 was a natural progression. I put the band together, and wrote songs and was the singer. We put out a couple of albums, toured all over, and even appeared in Roger Corman’s “Vendetta”, playing in the movie during a bar scene. We also had a song “love Slave” on the soundtrack of “Reform School Girls”.

          Then I started doing spoken word with a bunch of other gals from other bands, including my best friend and noted author Iris Berry, Johnette Napolitano from Concrete Blonde, and Texacala Jones from Tex and The Horseheads… and eventually that turned into a band which we called “The Ringling Sisters”. We put out some poetry books, and did acoustic benefits for a Los Angeles orphanage with people like Henry Rollins, X, Jim Carroll, etc . and made a record called “60 Watt reality”, which Lou Adler (of Mamas And Papas and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” fame) produced.

          Speaking of The Ringling Sisters, and Johnette Napolitano, that is actually how I met Steve. He had just completed “Pep Squad” and wanted Johnette to do the soundtrack for th movie. He came out to LA to have a meeting with her, and she and I had been working on a spoken word and music project- she was producing me. She had a song of mine up on the board when Steve walked in to her studio, called “Super Mega Zsa-Zsa” and the moment he heard it, he said he wanted it for “Pep Squad”. It fit the scene he had it in mind for perfectly, and he used it in the movie. We also became fast friends.

          From there, the Ringling Sisters had a side-project band called Honk If Yer Horny”. It was a conceptual trainwreck- and lots of fun! It was supposed to be a one-night joke band, but it lasted about 6 years. We were a “trailer trash” family… there were like 15 people in it, and we did X-rated country songs with titles like “Gas, Grass Or Ass”and “Hillbilly Whorehouse Junkie Dyke Bitch”. The gals wore curlers, house slippers and like ZZ Top stripper outfits, the guys all looked like they were from “Deliverance”. We all blacked out our teeth, and we even had an Elvis impersonator on guitar. We had fake country star names: I was Canya Fuck-her, we had Tammy Why-Not, Fuck Owens, Spank Williams. It was nuts!

          In 2006, the UK-based house music duo Peace Division used some of my spoken word samples for a record, called “Blacklite Sleaze”. After they edited it, my voice became the lead vocal, and the 45 became a hit in the Uk! It entered the pop charts above Madonna- that was a mind-blower!

          Earlier this year, I also recorded three tracks with another UK recording artist duo called A Different Gear… that will be released eventually and I hope it has the same type of success!

          A: I was always fascinated by belly dance, cause I grew up with “I Dream of Jeannie” and vintage Sinbad movies. I began dancing in 1991, just for fun, and it literally took over my life!

          I have been a professional belly dancer, using the stage name Princess Farhana for over 18 years, and a professional burlesque artist since 1995. I travel all over the world to teach and perform both types of dance. I’m always on planes and in hotel rooms in far-flung locales, sometimes I don’t even know what time-zone I am in!

          Dancing has been the joy of my life- it’s incredible! It changed me so much physically, emotionally, and spiritually…and I also discovered I’m a great teacher, so I can share my passion with other women.

          Steve Balderson followed my around to dance gigs all over the world for the entire year of 2007, and the result was his documentary on me, “Underbelly: A Year In The Life Of Princess Farhana”.

          If you’d like to know more about my dance events, and my instructional and performance DVD’s, visit: www.princessfarhana.com

Courtesy of Pleasant Gehman

          A: That is so tough… It’s probably a toss-up between belly dancing and writing!

          A: My “best kept secrets”- or something most people don’t know about me is that I am a FREAK for anything having to do with extreme weather, the paranormal or criminal forensics! When I am on the road ( which is very frequently!) my hotel room TV is always tuned to “The Weather Channel”, and then if there’s no tornadoes touching down anywhere, I switch to “Cold Case” or any show on serial killers, criminals, ghost-hunting, UFO’s, etc. It’s always been my fantasy to be a weather girl! I practice along with the television set, it’s pretty twisted, I have all the hand-motions down. And every time I see a van full of pro tornado-chasers on TV I’m like, “There go all my husbands!”

          Oh, I’m also a crazy cat lady!