joejamesinterview

Joe (pictured on the right with Ron Jeremy) was a production assistant on Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger 4 . He was not only kind enough to do this interview for Fulci Metal Jacket, but also sent me these photographs that he took while he was on the set. Thanks Joe.

Joe : I became involved with Troma while they were beginning production on The Toxic Avenger -part 4 (which premieres in New York November 2). I just showed up on set and talked my way onto the crew. I started out as the lowest form of crew there is... a production assistant. It was to this day the most difficult and demanding production I've been involved in. The fact that I stuck it out , unlike much of the crew , is something I'm very proud of. During the 5 weeks I was there about half the crew either quit , or was fired. In the time I was there I learn't a great deal. I also had several small roles in the film , including one scene in which I get killed by the Toxic Avenger himself. After the film wrapped I went to New York and worked for Tromas website for about 5 months , so it was like the circus came to town and I joined them.

Joe : That's a funny one, because we were all pretty tight. I got along great with , and am great friends with to this day Dave Mattey who played both the Toxic Avenger , and his alter ego The Noxious Offender. Paul Kyrmse who played Sgt. Kabukiman , and the evil version of Kabukiman has been my friend and collaborator since the day we met. In fact Paul worked on my crew when I shot my first film just two weeks ago, and was a great help. It would be far easier to narrow out who I didn't like. As far as production was concerned , this girl Wanda was a real asshole. She started out as casting and then got demoted to some lower position. But the biggest asshole hands down was the director of photography Brendan Flynt. What a raging douche bag this man is , and if anyone has the misfortune of working with this no-talent hack, be prepared .... he is a huge pile of Ego, urine, faeces , bad hair , ugly wife , and bad eyes. Other than those two it was a party surrounded by misery , and slave labour.

Joe : Now as everyone knows , Troma is quite the low budget guerilla operation. One of the days we were shooting at a school ( the daiper mafia scenes ) and we were getting close to wrapping for the day when I noticed the camera being set up and pointed at the road. Where it was pointing though , there was nothing to film. Soon after the schools fire alarm goes off which was naturally followed by the fire department. In other words to save money , instead of renting fire trucks someone simply pulled the fire alarm and filmed the results. Pretty fuckin' ingenious if you ask me.

Joe : Ron Jeremy was a decent guy. He is such a Troma fan that he worked on the movie for free. Troma payed for his Hotel , and I believe his airfare and food ( if that was what we ate ), but that was it. The funny thing about Ron was that he wasn't just some novelty to have in the film ... he can act , and I mean well. I was shocked at his ability to learn his lines quickly and he had excellent comedic timing. It caught me off guard.

He is definitely a sex maniac though. You'd think a day off from shooting porn he wouldn't concern himself with getting laid , but he goes up to one of the actresses in the middle of the day and shows her his index finger and says "You know why you should masterbate with this finger ?" and she goes "No?" and he replies "Because it's mine". Sleazy, but fuckin' funny.

Joe : O.K. now this is a hard question. There is so much crap out there it's rare to really get hold of a good film....and I like a lot of crap, but I mean unwatchable garbage. Pearl Harbour was god-awful. I mean I didn't go in there expecting greatness , but it was physically painfull to watch. I was warned that it was a love story, but in actuality it was two fuckin' love stories and they never ended. And the Taliban thinks Americans are weak? No one in the Taliban ever had to sit through that torture.

has just started tattooing. In the film I interviewed her while she tattoed me. We got some great footage and hopefully this will be the first in a series of tattoo documentaries. Unfortunately the day editing was supposed to begin was September 11 on 13th Street in New York City. Needless to say the last thing on my mind that day was editing.

Joe : Daunting is a good word , painful is another one. Samantha is her name and the tattoo she did on me was her third and she is greatly improving with each one. The part that hurt wasn't so much the actual tattoo , but when she was trying to shave my leg ( the skin being tattooed needs to be hairless) she was going up and down and side to side. In some of the pictures you can see just above the design is a bunch of blood from the shaving mishap. I had her tattoo the Bouncing Souls logo on me and I'm hoping for permission to use one of their songs on the soundtrack. The tattoo itself came

out great , it's not flawless but I wouldn't trade it for any other tattoo in the world. I have seen plenty of tattoos that people have paid good money for that were not anywhere near as good and not only is she 8 , but this is only her third. She is a great kid and a big ham. Her personality really makes the film ; not the novelty of it.

The most important thing I learned about independant filmmaking , is not to sit around trying to figure things out... you just have to do what needs to be done. If it's your film , or if you're working on someone elses, you need to be fearless and aggressive. Don't be afraid of DV (Digital Video) or even video , you can always transfer the final product to film. The important thing is to be working on a film in some way or another... that is how you learn. Breaking into the film industry is easier than you think , you just have to eat shit one time. By that I mean you have to work as a production assistant for free usually on your first job. This is how you learn the way a production team works and that is how you meet people. Independant film is not a place for the timid , but once you clear that initial hump you know you're involved with something special.