Adrianne Ambrose: P.J. Soles Interview

AA - I know you lived abroad when you were growing up, but if you couldn’t live in the United States, what country would you live in and why?

PJ - My father was from Holland and my mother was from New Jersey. They met in Germany. Her first husband was killed in war and she went to visit his grave. My father had been captured and was a prisoner of war for his work on the underground.

So maybe Holland. I have a lot of really cool cousins in Holland.

In my heart I’ve always had a special place for Switzerland. As I’ve grown a lot of the political aspects have changed, but maybe Lugano Switzerland, if I could afford it.

Having said that, I love California.

AA - I love the idea of a line of shoes called P.J. Soles. If you were to design a line of clothes, handbags, furniture, whatever, what would it be?

PJ - I thought of a clothing line called Riff Raff from my character in Rock and Roll High School, especially after Madonna came out with her line, but they’d be kind of similar. If I did do a shoe line, they should be slippers that go with pajamas. So you’d have your soles for your PJs. PJs for your soles. P.J. Soles.

AA - What kind of conventions do you usually do and where will you be appearing next?

PJ - I’ll be at Chiller April 29^th – May 1^st. That’s probably the biggest horror convention out there.

I’m also very excited about something I’m doing with my friend, Mike Clark, actually we became friends through a convention. He owns Movie Madness Video in Portland. It’s their 20^th anniversary and he pointed out that’s it’s the 30^th anniversary of Stripes. I said thanks a lot for reminding me, but we decided we’re going to do a screening. He went out and talked to Columbia and actually got a 35mm print of the film. So the viewing is going to be on film, not DVD, it’ll be just like in the theater. I’m going to introduce the movie and do a Q&A. We were talking and we decided we’re going to do it on Armed Forces Day. All military personnel get in for free with a military ID and I’ll give them a singed photo. Plus, we’re going to donate anything else to The Fisher House foundation. I don’t know if you know who they are but they do a lot of good stuff for injured military personnel and their families. My son is a commander of a coast guard cutter in Key West so anything we can do for military personnel.

AA - What’s a movie you worked on that you think deserves more attention than it’s received?

PJ - Probably Soggy Bottom USA. If they’d change the title that would have made it more interesting. The list of actors in that was incredible. Soggy Bottom was the name of the town where it took place.

That and I guess Sweet Dreams. It got a lot of attention but maybe deserves a little more. Jessica Lange was fantastic. I played Ed Harris’ girlfriend before he meets Pasty Cline. Then he goes back to her when his wife is in labor. That was kind of a rotten thing to do. I didn’t play a nice girl.

AA - What can you tell us about your role in Private Benjamin?

PJ - That’s funny because my son just recently watched that movie with his girlfriend and he asked me about my character, Wanda Winter. He asked me, “How did you know how to play somebody like that because I know a lot of people that are like that?”

My mother is the one that taught me about hospital corners and how to bounce a quarter off the bed.

Poor Wanda Winders. She was a goodie two shoes that gets caught sleeping with Craig Nelson. (laughter)

AA - What’s the project you have coming out next that you’re excited about?

PJ - I am going to be in a short film called The Show by Matt Russell. I met him at a convention in Chicago when he was just a kid. Maybe about fifteen. He kept coming back in the line to my booth and just desperately wanted to talk about how much he loved Halloween. Finally I said, meet me after the convention and we’ll talk. He told me how much he loved John Carpenter and just loved all of his movies. Right now he has a screener job for a studio at the moment, but is working on a short film adapted from a book called The Show. He wants me to play Mom and he’s putting together funding. I told him it’s going to take ten years if he really wants to be a screenwriter, but he’s doing it. He’s been out here three years, but he’s making a lot of progress.

AA - What are you working on currently?

PJ - I’ve always written poetry and always written song. My first husband was a singer songwriter. I’ve married to a musician, an actor and a stunt pilot so I’ve got everything covered. My marriages have been as varied as my movies.

I actually wrote a song for Soggy Bottom, but the producer’s son got his song in instead. I wonder why?

Current my boyfriend is a musician and my daughter is in a band called Jo Nash with her boyfriend. (You can check it out on Youtube under Ashley Holm songwriting session number 5

They have eight songs on a CD that they are currently getting mastered.

I have written poetry and lyrics my whole life, but in the last two years I’ve been working with my daughter's boyfriend and my boyfriend. We’ve written five country songs. T-bone Burnett is a friend of mine, he’s heard them and he loves them so we’re trying to get them out there.

One’s called Going, Going, Gone. It’s about a guy trying to get over the death of his girl who died in the war. There aren’t any songs out there about a female soldier dying so I thought that would be interesting. I guess we’ll see what happens and if anybody wants to record them.