This quirky new film has former SCTV cast members behind it. Anne Brodie spoke to them about death, pets and Tim Burton.
“I think kids can handle a lot” says Catherine O’Hara. “They’re more accepting and open than we think. A story about a dog dying, they’re with it. It’s not like “A dog died. Oh my God, this is too much. It’s beyond my years!”
O’Hara has faith in kids and in Frankenweenie writer director Tim Burton. She and long-time pal Martin Short play six roles in Burton’s signature dark but amiable horror comedy, including the parents of a boy who brings his beloved dead dog back to life through electric shock. O’Hara, Martin Short and I met in Toronto this week to mull over this strange subject matter.
Short remembers his first brush with death. “The first loss is invariably the loss of a hamster or a mouse or a … (sob) … goldfish. I loved my goldfish. He could say his own name. It was [glub glub]. But one day my father had had a gin and ginger. Or two. And he was cleaning it over the sink and he said “The little sucker just slipped right out of my hands.” Gin and ginger, no ice. My father used to hate that we would go into the fridge and take one of his cold ginger ales and put ice in it. “There’s warm ginger ale in that room! You can open it up but if you’re going to put ice in it doesn’t matter! Take the cold one!”
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