Lloyd Kaufman
To most people, the name Lloyd Kaufman doesn't mean anything, but to the people out there who actually know ANYTHING about the industry and independent movies, he is a big name! The man who created Troma films alongside Michael Hertz is the man who I was able to interview over the phone. I called him up the other day and this is how the interview went....
I first called up and got the lovely assistant Marie, who then after a couple minutes cause my phone was going haywire, she transferred me to Lloyd himself.
Lloyd: Marcus? Sorry Lloyd Kaufman.
Marcus: Thats ok, How are you doing?
Lloyd: Good how are you?
Marcus: Doing good..
Lloyd: Great...
::I had to switch phones at this point cause my voice was way to low::
Marcus:: How's that?
Lloyd: Much better
Marcus: Great, ok , I have about 13 questions for ya....
Lloyd: Ok Fire away....
Marcus: Tell me about yourself, What is the real Lloyd Kaufman like? Hobbies, Interests, Favorite things to do?
Lloyd: No nothing, Just movies.
Marcus: (chuckles)
Lloyd: That is it. And the only thing that is important other then that is having one or 2 friends and maybe a family...maybe. Thats it! Thats all there is...planning suicide, offing myself...
Marcus:: (Laughs)
Lloyd: So thats that...what else?
Marcus: Ok, You have such a love for movies, what are your favorite movies of all time? And which ones from Troma are your favorite?
Lloyd: Well I like Chaplin, and Keaton, and John Ford and Howard Hawks, Preston Sturgess, Remwaw, Andy Warhol, Dan Brackage, I think the great movie is the "mesagucci" a Japanese film Princess Yang Wa Fa, I only saw it once cause I didn't want to spoil the experience. I saw it 25, maybe 30 years ago. And I know if I see it again I will be disappointed.
Marcus:: That usually happens with me to...
Lloyd:: It's like the first time you have sex...you always try to capture that...brief moment.
Marcus:: (Laughs)
Lloyd:: In my case it was with a pig so....thats in a nutshell...is most of what I am really inspired by...kind of the classic films.
Marcus:: Yeah, I read in alot of places of how much of a influence Roger Corman was to you.
Lloyd:: Yes ummm in the sense that he proved to me as a young stupid idiot that one could make a provocative and well acted and well scripted low-budget movies. And based on the Roger Corman's success I stupidly went in that direction as an independent film maker. How stupid was that?
Marcus:: Well alot of people are pretty glad you did!
Lloyd:: Well Thank you...I appreciate it.
Marcus:: You and Michael Hertz formed Troma in 1974, how did
it all come to be? Did you foresee it becoming as big as it is today?
Lloyd:: Yeah when your 19, 20, 21...even when you are 41!You always see some hope, you always believe in success...but when you get to 51...then you realize it's time to blow your brains out! Well...I don't want to go into that part! But when you are very young...anything is possible! Why do you think these guys go off to war? They think they are not going to die! They don't think they are going to die! If they thought they were they wouldn't go! It's a volunteer army! So it's the same thing with making what we did...we figured hey, we're gonna make millions of dollars! We are going to get Oscars and everyone is going to love us! Instead... 30 years later, we are detested by everybody . . . the mainstream blacklists us . . . we are a pariah so basically...we basically didn't know the word, the word failure was not in our vocabulary. However it was in our reality...(chuckles)
Marcus:: (Chuckles) From what I understand, Beware! Children at play received the most amount of hate mail? Why do you think people took the least amount of liking to it?
Lloyd:: I do not think Beware! Children at play did not receive as much controversy as say...Blood sucking Freaks. Actually the most hate mail we ever got was from the Toxic Avenger where the dog gets shot. People were very upset about that...it's ok when the little boy gets his head squashed by the wheel of an automobile but shooting a dog...I mean...ya know...thats a terrible thing. But Beware: Children at play I guess people don't like the idea of parents killing children..it must have been offensive to a small number of usual agitators people love that idea....I can't imagine anyone being stuck by it. Blood Sucking Freaks may have raised a few eyebrows though...
Marcus:: Well thats the kind of thing ya gotta do nowadays...always good to see that!
Lloyd:: Yeah, we didn't make beware! Children at play, we own it, but we didn't make it. It was made by a very talented young man named James Ivory....
::at this time, someone came into the office and a extremely important conversation began to commence...about Ferocious Female Freedom fighters and Megan Powers head of Troma Video has images for the DVD box. I was able to hear alot of it and it does sound pretty gory...cut her head off and put lots of blood he said....thats what I like to hear!!! Lloyd came back and we continued with the interview::
Lloyd:: Sorry about that...we were having a very intellectual conversation about Ferocious Female Freedom fighters....so umm any rate....where were we? We were talking about....suicide!
Marcus:: (Laughs)
Lloyd:: We just bought a German movie which is all about
suicide so it will be really good.
Marcus:: (Laughs) So what movie is that?
Lloyd:: Well the German title is "Final Cut dot com" (hopefully nothing like FEAR DOT COM) but I think we are going to call it "Suicide"...or "Suicide Dot Com"
Marcus:: Sounds good, Well speaking of buying other films. Troma just bought the "Stenhol Syndrome. Are there going to be any more Italian horror acquisitions to be released in the near future?
Lloyd:: Yeah we did buy it...and well...we released "New Gladiators" isn't that by Lucio Fulci? Thats on Troma DVD! Thats a beautiful, beautiful, master to...unblemished. You must see it, not a scratch on it! New Gladiators...with Fred "The Hammer" Williamson. You oughta check that out! By Lucio Fulci...the guy who brought you the beyond....
Marcus:: Yeah and Zombi!
Lloyd:: Yeah and Zombi! Exactly! And the new Gladiators came out 15 years after that boring movie with the Australian guy called Gladiator. A guy who is 15 years older...then the gladiator...(chuckles) Speaking of time travel...yeah.
Marcus: Yeah...(chuckles) The Toxic Avenger....Toxie....people
seem to LOVE Toxie! He is more 
popular now then he ever has been!
Lloyd:: You're right! That's cause women love Toxie! It is usually the superhero types....it's young fat kids that love them....young fat boys and we get young fat girls AND young fat boys! Toxie, he is romantic! He takes care of his mother and he is honest with his girlfriend, who becomes his wife obviously later on and women really like him! And he has got one hell of a body! Alot of women like ugly men with good bodies...alot of women who like ugly men with BAD bodies! Just talk to my wife!
Marcus:: (Laughs)
Lloyd:: Ok, keep going...
Marcus:: While we are talking about Toxie, are there any plans for a Toxic Avenger 5?
Lloyd:: No. There are other people that have plans and if they can get the money...we will be happy to do it. If there is anybody out there in Marcus land that wants to invest in Toxie 5, we're there for you! But we got other fish to fry! Actually we got other chickens to fry for we are going to do Poultry-giest. About the fast-food business and zombies...and we want to do Schlock and Schlockability. Yeah, those would be the 2 next! If there ever is a next!
Marcus:: (chuckles) Wow...I will have to keep my eye out for those!
Lloyd:: Yeah...those are the next 2 we are developing. But the next 2 in house projects are "Tales from the Crapper" which is the first dog pile 95 DIGITAL Troma movie and then "Parts of the Family" it's a zombie movie that was shot in Belgium. Ya know Belgium is famous for zombies! That is where the European Union is based.
Marcus:: Wow, thats pretty cool.
Lloyd:: Yep
Marcus:: My friend Kristy wanted me to ask you a question. You have gotten to work with the beautiful Debbie Rochon and Tiffany Shepis (I had problem pronouncing her name) What are they really like?
Lloyd:: Well...we discovered them.I think it's pronounced Shep-es" Yep, her debut was in Tromeo and Juliet!
Marcus:: Damn....and now they are major horror icons!
Lloyd:: Yeah, and they are great! They are both stars and love independent movies!
Marcus:: Is there anything planned that includes these two?
Lloyd:: Any movie that I make or any movie that Troma produces we would offer them parts. Without a doubt. Whether they would be willing to accept them ya know they are getting to be pretty famous and commanding high salaries and we may not be able to afford them. But if they are willing...we would certainly want them. Debbie has been in about 8 of our movies which is very nice. She can make alot more on the big movies as opposed to those Troma movies!
Marcus:: Troma's Edge TV is a pretty good show, what gave you the idea to make Troma into a TV show?
Lloyd:: We had one of our fans in the UK, did a documentary about us. And it got on to national television in the UK. Thats stands for United Kingdom thats another word for those funny people who speak with an accent!
Marcus:: (Laughs)
Lloyd:: At any rate, it got on their national TV and was a huge hit. And then a TV executive said he wanted the Troma humor to be the basis of a half hour comedy show.
Marcus:: Why hasn't it been aired in the US?
Lloyd:: Because there is economic black-listing in the US.
Unless you are a part of one of the devil worshipping international conglomerates...You
can not get your art to the people. Cause the movie theatres, the TV stations,
the cable systems, the newspapers, the video stores like Blockbuster they are
all owned by a handful of plutocratic conglomerates! The movie industry is the
private preserve of the "elite" and they black-list, economically,
Troma. Among others, we are the only studio thats lasted 30 years! There are no
independent movie studios around that are more then 2 or 3 years old. Other the
Roger Corman's company.
Marcus:: Yeah I mean nowadays the best films seem to be independent films!
Lloyd:: INDEED! But the ones you are getting to see in your movie theatres are being brought to you by divisions of Disney and Paramount. They aren't brought to you by independent studios. They have the Miramax label right? Those are divisions of the conglomerates! They are not really independent. And some of them are really good movies BUT you don't get to see the movies of Alex Eglacious or Shinyard Sukamoto or Taka Shim Mi Kay. You don't get to see those in your movie theatre cause they don't come out of the anus of these giant conglomerates unfortunately! And WE are totally blacklisted...except for you THANK GOD! Cause there are hundreds of thousands of people just like you, who search and crave and thirst for something that is truly artistic!
Marcus:: I always seem to find the movies at Best Buy...I always wondered why I could never find "The Toxic Avenger" in Blockbuster!
This is the end of part 1 of the Lloyd Kaufman, the rest is on the second page so click part 2 to go hear more from the Troma owner....