A Nifty Candy Clark Interview from 1983

Most of the YouTube videos of Candy Clark are of her -- dutifully and I think gratefully -- going to hot rod shows to salute her Oscar nominated role as Debbie Dunham in American Graffiti. She's signing autographs and signing merchandise and telling the same old stories about making that movie(but they were NEW stories at each signing to those who heard them.

The inspiring story is about just how long and hard and competitive the struggle was for Candy Clark to GET that role in American Graffiti. But she got it, and she got her career.

Another funny story is about how she rode up with Charles Martin Smith(her acting and semi-romantic partner Terry the Toad in AG) from Los Angeles to San Francisco....with the VW van breaking down on the way(they were expected in SF for wardrobe.) Clark was with Jeff Bridges at the time, but imagine: she took a multi-hour car journey with Terry the Toad FOR REAL to get to know the actor. Probably helped.

Another funny story -- told by all AG veterans -- is how freezing cold the weather was even as they were playing a "summer story" in lightweight clothes.

Almost all of these interviews with Candy Clark are with the extremely youthful "well-aged" woman that she has been through her sixties into her seventies (George Clooney recently met her and thought she looked...14.)

But there's one in the group from much earlier in her career, with a much younger Candy Clark answering the questions of a Dallas-area female interviewer. THAT's the keeper. A fine look at the Young Candy Clark, without Debbie Denham's big blonde wig on her head(I swear that wig took over the character, Candy Clark never looked like that again.)

The interviewer is a perky woman of middle age named Bobbi Wygant. And I guess the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area was/is BIG for movie star promotions because ol' Bobbi talked to some big ones in her time: Bruce Willis and John Travolta(not together) for Pulp Fiction; Dan Ackroyd John Belushi and John Landis for Blues Brothers, and women like Sally Field and Sharon Stone.

But Candy Clark's interview is a bit different. Because she is FROM Fort Worth -- evidently the biggest star from there -- and is clearly happy to be promoting a movie back in her home town. Clark tells Wygant that she will be visiting both her mother and her best friend from High School "on this trip." One feels the connection of a "local." And Candy Clark lets that Texas accent come to the fore more than she usually does in her roles. THAT said, the remnant of the Texas accent is another reason that Clark was so great AS the gal in American Graffiti and in other roles. She doesn't SOUND like other actors.

This interview was from 1983 and Candy Clark promotes her new movie -- uh oh, Amityville 3-D -- with great wit, intelligence and poise. Its a pleasure to watch her react to the questions with modulations of facial expression and voice(sometimes a whisper) that tell us: there's a reason this gal made it a certain distance, but she really should have gone FARTHER. I suppose too many movies like Amityville 3-D did it. She also did a lot of TV.

Wygant reminds Candy Clark that she has just had a big hit in Blue Thunder(a helicopter thriller with Roy Scheider) and suggests it will get Oscar noms. Clark is a bit incredulous but game: "Well, maybe Malcolm McDowall...and Roy Scheider?" (No THAT wasn't in the cards.)

Clark tries to cover up the "spoiler" of her grisly death by fire in Amityville 3-D, but Wygant says: "But the scene is in the clip" and Clark confusedly says "The scene is in the clip?" and looks over at an unseen aide, like "how busted am I?" She then puts great verbal spin on the fact that her character returns as "bones." (Or as she says it, "Bonezzz.")

I know that actors and actresses do 1000s of these interivews on a demoralizing basis, giving the same demoralizing answers...but there was something about THIS one(maybe the fact that we get to see the YOUNG Candy Clark again, maybe the fact that she gets to talk for awhile) that just felt better than usual to me.

But there's a moment, near the end, where Clark's expression is kind of interesting, sort of telling.

Wygant says "OK, just one more question." Candy Clark's face seems to darken, she seems perturbed, she hunches her shoulders, takes a deep breath...and then answers.

What does this mean? She was angry to HAVE to answer one more question? She's angry she only GETS one more question? She's just tired of having to act happy? A weird moment. A true moment. A Candy Clark moment, I guess.

When all is said and done, I think the most poignant thing is that the interview is from 1983. For those of us of a certain age, we remember 1983, but it was a long time ago. (The year of Return of the Jedi, Terms of Endearment, and Scarface...as well as Amityville 3D.) We were all younger then.

But Candy Clark looked better than a
lot of us did then..