Late Night Classics – Private School

Cable television came into my life back in 1982 and a whole new world opened up for me. Its name was ‘ON TV’ and the way it worked was you turned your television to channel three, then you walked up to the box and turned the nob to on. It was primitive and you only got one station. It was here that I lost my cinematic virginity to the likes of Screwballs, My Tutor, and Private School.

This was right before the VHS boom, and studios knew the target audience for the format were men; or in my case, a pre-teen with too much time on his hand. I can’t recall if I saw Private School or Fast Times At Ridgemont High first, but there was a young brunette in both that made every guy’s heart skip a beat - Phoebe Cates.

Something happened along the way. An unknown actress by the name of Betsy Russell stole the show as the hot to trot redhead Jordan Leigh-Jenson. Yes sir, the same Betsy Russell who plays Jigsaw’s ex-wife in the profitable Saw series.

Speaking of Saw, I chatted with Betsy just shortly after she wrapped Saw VII 3D, which will be hitting theaters this October.

Jason Bene: Was acting something you always saw yourself doing as a career?

Betsy Russell: I wanted to be an actor since I was eight years old. I was just doing silly things around the house at the time. I have an autistic sister and my house was kind of chaotic and kind of sad. I was always trying to make my mom laugh so I’d jump around playing all of these different characters. My favorite show was I Love Lucy, and I imitated her all of the time. I think I saw myself on video one time and I was like, ”I look so cute, I want to be an actress.” I started taking theater classes down in San Diego, and I did a lot of plays. I tried to get an agent down there but there just isn’t a lot going on so I was told why don’t you just concentrate on school and to come back when you are sixteen. So I did. I got a Pepsi commercial down in San Diego when I was sixteen. They featured me and it was really fun riding on a horse. I loved all the attention and I felt really comfortable in front of the camera. I thought it was something I had totally forgotten that I wanted to do. I was all set on maybe taking the SAT test and heading off the college, and then I got this commercial and I was like, “Wow, this is exactly what I want to do.” Let me call my cousin who lived in the middle of New York to come live with her. At first she yes, and then she called me back and said, “No, I’m getting engaged, you can’t live with me.” Then I though okay, well, a friend of mind was coming up to L.A. to go to U.C.L.A. maybe I’ll come with her and try to get a roommate closer to home. My dad had a friend [Aaron Russo] who lived here who was a big producer at the time, so he mentored me. That’s how I got Private School.

Jason Bene: How old were you when you nabbed the part of Jordan Leigh-Jenson?

Betsy Russell: Nineteen. I had been here a couple of years and I had been doing small parts. I got my SAG card pretty quick when I did a show called The Powers of Mathew Star. In fact, when I got the show we were supposed to start filming and then Peter got burned and they had to put it on hold for a few months. I was so lucky that when they started production back up when he was healthy, so the casting director, who was a family friend, called me back in. They called me back to audition again and I got my SAG card. I got little parts like T.J. Hooker and Family Ties and little things like that. I remember the audition came up for Private School and my acting teacher said, “If you don’t get this part don’t come back.” So I went and I got it.

Jason Bene: You obviously go all natural for the role. Back then it was a prerequisite for most teen comedies. What were your feelings about doing full nudity?

Betsy Russell: It wasn’t “full”, first of all. I don’t know how that full part got put in there. First of all it wasn’t in the script. That horse scene was not in the script, they added that when I started filming. It’s a story I haven’t had the opportunity to tell very often except to make-up people because I’m bored. The director came to me after the first week of filming with what he thought was a great idea [Horseback scene] because I was coming off sexy and he wanted to push the envelope a little bit. This was before even Bo Derek did it in 10 or anything. And he said we have this idea to yank your top off while you’re riding on a horse. I thought about it and remember thinking that’s not a terrible idea, but I don’t want to have that helmet on while I’m galloping around. I wanted it to be like a beauty shot. I figured it couldn’t be a beauty shot with that ugly helmet on. I said as long as my helmet gets to fly off. I don’t even know how I thought of this at nineteen. As long as my helmet gets to fly off and it’s more like a beauty slow motion natural thing, I said I’ll do it.

I had Phoebe Cates mentoring me. I had lunch with her when I knew I was going to be starring opposite her and she said, “How do you feel about doing nudity?” I said, “I don’t know, I hadn’t really thought much about it.” She said, “Well, don’t worry about it, I had a million nude scenes in Paradise.” She said it is no big deal. When I got the sign off from her, I figured whatever worked for her I would only be so lucky to have it work for me. She was telling me the cutest things. We really became best friends. She was telling me you have to put ice on your boobs, and you got to do this and you got to do that. She said everybody you know that you haven’t seen in years is going to show up on the set that day that you film that. I said, “What are you talking about?” Sure enough managers of restaurants and all of these people were showing up on the set and it was really funny. I didn’t really have a problem with it. I remember thinking this is probably as good as I’m ever going to look and why not have in on film to remember it by. I got offered Playboy at the time also. My grandpa was great friends with Hugh Hefner, and they offered me a very special segment where they were showing five up and coming celebrities - and it was this famous photographer and all this. At the time you really didn’t do Playboy if you were an actress. You were trying to be a serious actress. Of course I thought I was trying to be a serious actress and so I turned down a lot of nudity for nudity’s sake. I really thought that this was that type of movie and it really worked for the movie. I tried to keep it on the up and up in a way. I think I did a good job.

Jason Bene: All these years later and you have someone like me wanting to interview you about it. It left an impression on people.

Betsy Russell: Exactly. As long as they’re talking I guess it cannot be bad.

Jason Bene: The opening of the movie has all the guys doing a ‘peeping tom’ on you which is classic 80′s juevenile fun. Do you recall much about shooting that scene where they come up to your window?

Betsy Russell: I remember our scene in the room and Bubba was right outside the window, so it wasn’t like an epic thing for me. I remembered we had a lot of fun filming it and Mathew Modine really wasn’t thrilled about his part. He seemed like he was way above this type of a movie and he was only doing it to get his feet wet. He really had to go back in that one scene where I keep turning up the heat and making him hot. The first time we shot it he was doing it very realistic. He wasn’t really into the whole slapstick thing. He was much more natural- a serious method actor or whatever. We had to actually go back and re-shoot it. I just remember that more and thinking that just isn’t his thing. He turned out to be a very serious actor and all that, so that’s great. This is a different type of a movie.

Jason Bene: Was it fun to play the bad girl? Was that a stretch for you?

Betsy Russell: [Laughs] Am I bad a girl in real life?

Jason Bene: She’s definitely the…

Betsy Russell: The bitch!

Jason Bene: She gets what she wants so that’s not a bad thing.

Betsy Russell: Well, I think there’s other ways to get what you want and I am not like her anymore. I might have been like her in my past, but know I’ve really come into who I really am. It’s always fun to play a memorable character and it is fun to play the bitch actually.

Jason Bene: Did you get to step outside of who you really are and really play with it?

Betsy Russell: I really never was a bitch. I was really sweet and nice. I was very sensitive. I was always nice to the new people that came to school. I didn’t really have any cliques. Like I said having an autistic sister and coming from that background I just really wasn’t judgemental at all. I always felt like I was being judged. People looking at me like I was from this crazy household or something. So it has always been the easy thing for me to do.

Jason Bene: That probably made you a stronger growing up. It was a humbling experience and taught you not to take things for granted. It matured you past your age.

Betsy Russell: Exactly. It was a great, great experience to get close to this girl [Phoebe Cates] that is such an icon and she was so nice to me and we became such good friends and we still are. Just to be working with her. I think we kind of figured it could be big. After Fast Times at Ridgemont High we thought it could be something great like that. We were just having fun. I was really happy with the role.

Jason Bene: I saw Private School at a fairly young age, so the whole caddyness of girls went right over my head. The film is like Mean Girls with Lindsay Lohan, except is steered towards the male audience. It is ahead of its time.

Betsy Russell: Yeah, maybe so. I really thought there would have been a sequel to it. Too bad there wasn’t.

Jason Bene: After the success of Private School you were an instant sex symbol. Was that jarring for you or did you embrace the title?

Betsy Russell: I embraced it. I just wanted to do more good movies. I kept getting these low budget kind of exploitaion movies, which was fine. In retrospect I guess they were good choices but I didn’t have the best management and all that. I wasn’t directed in a great way. I kept working through my twenties, so that was good. I just really wanted to break into some better movies and I had a real hard time doing it. I kept changing my look. Unless you really have somebody guiding you that knows what the heck is going on with your hair and your look and your management. It’s hard to make those decisions on your own when your family doesn’t know a thing about it. I did the best I could and I think it worked out pretty well. I did find myself thinking that everyone was looking at me kind of funny. I stopped wearing sexy clothes. I was wearing loose fitting clothes for a while. I did feel a little funny about it. I didn’t feel like it wasn’t meant to be. I kind of always wanted to become this actress and just work until I died. Then when I stopped to have my kids it was great, but I just didn’t feel complete with my career. I felt there was something missing. I needed to complete that but when I went back and tried to do it on my own it didn’t work. It’s hard to have little kids at home and try to go out and audition and everything. That was tough. It was definitely great timing [with the Saw series] and everything was just perfectly aligned.

Jason Bene: Speaking of changing looks. You dyed your hair black for the movie Tomboy?

Betsy Russell: That was my natural color. They bleached my hair so I wouldn’t look like Phoebe. The director said, “You should keep it this color, you’re going to work a lot more”. I was getting close to so many things, but I wasn’t getting work after three to six months. I was frustrated. I saw Flashdance and I thought I am going back to my natural color. I cut my hair like her and then I got Tomboy. Then I got Avenging Angel. Then I got Cheerleader Camp. I kept getting stuff like that.

Killer Film can’t thank Betsy Russell enough for giving us an EXCLUSIVE interview about a childhood favorite of mine and Donny’s – Private School. Look for another ‘Late Night Classic’ with Betsy real soon!