At no point in the movie “I’m Good At Freaky,” which premieres Thursday night at the Los Feliz 3, is the title character identified as iconic record producer/convicted murderer Phil Spector. But what about that hair?
I talked with “Freaky” director/coproducer Roy Karch, who finished filming the movie in April, just as Spector’s jury pondered evidence that would result in a verdict of murder in the second degree.
GP: Would a reasonable person be forgiven for thinking this is a movie about Phil Spector, even though the imprisoned record producer/crazy person’s name is not mentioned?
Karch: Yes. We shot it while the jury was deliberating. There was a lot of debate while the drafts were being written about how specific we should be, and the question of the gray area kept coming up. But it’s in the dialogue: “I’m the guy who created that Wall. I’m in the back seat in ‘Easy Rider!'”
“James Trivers wrote a magnificent script,” Karch said. “I was brought in at Draft 11, after Trivers and (executive producer/star) Jeff Laine had been working on it for 18 months.”
“I’m Good at Freaky” was originally known as “High Infidelity,” and Laine uses the stage name Solomon King.
While Karch is best known for his three decades in service to the porn industry, directing hundreds of movies from the film and videotape era to today’s HD productions and securing memberships in both the AVN and XRCO Halls of Fame, he has continued to work on the other side of the Hollywood Hills as a production manager for B movies and music videos. “I’m Good At Freaky” is his first mainstream directing gig.
GP: How were you approached for the project?
Karch: I met Jeff Laine at the Hollywood Y where I play basketball. He has a blues band, and I’m a harmonica player. Then one day I got the script from James, and I couldn’t put it down. He incorporeated a lot of stuff from the trial. It was compelling.
GP: The average porn budget is anywhere from $15k to $50k. Five sex scenes, maybe ten performers and, depending on the director, a completed shoot in three days. You tend to finish most of your porn movies in one marathon session. How long was the filming of “I’m Good at Freaky” and how much did it cost?
Karch: The shoot was four days in April in a mansion in Alhambra. As for the budget, here’s a tip I got from one of my mentors, Howard Wasserman, founder and owner of Gournmet Video, which was the first adult company to put out an adult movie on videotape. “The reincarnation of Serena,” in 1979. It starred Serena and the great Maria Tortuga, and her dancing snake.
GP: You are speaking parenthetically.
Karch: Howie Wasserman said, “Whenever you’re discussing anything about money, it never benefits you to tell the truth. So whether you’re talking about your profits or your losses, triple them.”
GP: This was in 1979. Is is still true thirty years later?
Karch: They’ve increased it to ten.
GP: So you’re not going to tell me the budget.
Karch: No.
“I’m Good At Freaky” tells the story of a record producer and a waitress he brings back to his mansion on a date that ends with her death. There are only two people in the movie. Karch originally asked porn performer Stormy Daniels to fill the role of the late-30’s party girl known only as Te Blonde (Lana Clarkson’s name is also not mentioned in the script), but the Wicked contract performer/former U.S. Senate hopeful dropped out, Karch said. So he found a 22-year-old actress just out of college.
Karch: The one who carried the whole game is Monica Lee. She was like the Lebron James of the set. You give her the ball and you just hope everyone else can keep up. She was fresh out of school. We had Stormy Daniels attached. Jeff (Laine) wanted to use my adult contacts to get the Lana Clarkson role. We wanted someone who embodied the notion of “If there’s a party in Hollywood, I want in.” So we read Stomry many times. After working with her for two months, she stopped returning calls.
GP: What do you think happened?
Karch: I think she’s running to replace Sarah Palin. I don’t know. We had 12 days until the shoot. So I started looking for mainstream actresses. I said to them that we had an 80-page script, so how long would it take you to learn it? I got answers like “six to seven weeks.” Then I opened the door and there was this gorgeous six-foot-tall blonde. And she was a little young, maybe 22, and she just lit up the room. I asked her how long it would take her to learn the script, She said, without a beat, “How long do you need?” I said 12 days. She said, “In 12 days I can learn my lines and (Laine’s) lines.”
Karch has used the same crew for all of his projects for 15 years.
Karch: You work with people you like and trust, and I like these guys a lot. In music videos, adult shoots, my e-learning class. My Director of Photography was Jason Sullivan, it was lit by James Nono and his boys at GripDog, and Ken Hurt on the monitors.
One of Karch’s previous forays into the mainstream world was as the production manager of 1993’s “Tuesday Never Comes” with the great Erik Estrada and iconic Karen Black.
Karch: Karen was very sexy. She’s a great actresss. It was a great time. The producers of this movie were the same as the ones on “Dracula Sucks,” which was the first adult feature I produced out here after moving from New York in 1979. It was Seka’s first film. It had Annette Haven, Paul Thomas, John Leslie, Lisa DeLeeuw, Kay Parker, and John Holmes.
GP: What was your impression of Holmes?
Karch: One night John Holmes was making stew for the cast at 2 in the morning, up in this castle in Palmdale. There were crews working all over the property day and night, for seven days. I heard a noise in the kitchen and there’s John cooking stew. He says, “Well people are gonna be hungry tomorrow, No?” He wasn’t an egomaniac. He was eager to please.
GP: Your lead actor in “I’m Good at Freaky” has an impressive wig. How else did you develop the Phil Spector character?
Karch: Developing the title character was really innate to Jeff Laine. He’s vicious, conniving, misogynistic, and paranoid. It wasn’t a strecth for Jeff. He fell right into it. It was written for him to play. There was never a choice.
GP: Do you expect “I’m Good at Freaky” to be controversial?
Karch: Yes. We’re hoping so. Without controversy, what is it? Once the work is done, the rest is making a profit.
GP: Millions?
Karch: At least ten times that.
“I’m Good At Freaky” premieres Thursday, September 24, at 7:30 p.m. at the Los Feliz 3 Cinemas, 1822 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles.
Previously on Porn Valley Observed: The Pornographer at 60; John Holmes book also measured in “Inches”; Misty Mountain Karch/Battle of Evermore
See also: “I’m Good at Freaky” official site; Roy Karch
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