Were your parents open and accepting of your passion or did you have to sneak around to watch horror and other films?
Steve Johnson: No, my parents were very supportive. In fact, they took me to see The Exorcist when it came out, and it’s a film that still terrifies me to this day. I was about twelve, so imagine what that did to my little mind.
This is pretty amazing, but when you were still in high school you had the chance to show Rick Baker your portfolio. Can you tell me how that meeting came to be?
Steve Johnson: Yeah, it was really interesting, and there is a story about that in the first book of my series. I was a good student and never wanted to get behind, but I was out of school one day because I was sick and dying in bed. My mother had a little television on in the background, an inane game show called Dialing For Dollars was on. She yelled out, “You have to come here and see this!” because she knew I was a big Rick Baker fan at that point. I had seen The Incredible Melting Man three times in the theater, and of course I had seen Star Wars, and read everything I could on the man from Starlog Magazine to whatever.
So I went out to the living room and there he was, he was promoting his appearance at one of the first ever Sci-Fi conventions in Houston, I had convinced my mother to drive me down there and I had a little portfolio tucked under my arm as I waited in line. I was shaking, but he was very gracious, looked my portfolio over, and I even started to correspond with him at this point.
I wasn’t just doing make-ups to impress him anymore, I was doing it for professional critiques. The minute I graduated high school, I packed up my car and drove out to see him, but I wasn’t good enough to work with him at first. He introduced me to Rob Bottin and Greg Cannom, and I did several films with Rob Bottin all the way to The Howling. After that I started working with Rick on An American Werewolf, and did several films with him.
Wow! Let’s rewind a little bit. Your first project was working with Greg Cannom on a film called The Galactic Connection. What did you do to work on the film, and why was it not released?
Steve Johnson: Well, it’s a funny, funny story, and in one of the volumes there is a really hysterical chapter on that movie. It was the brainchild of a retired optemetrist who was bored and decided to make a silent movie about cavemen, but there were also aliens who were directing the evolution of mankind through these cavemen. It was just a disaster, it was my first movie and I thought that was what filmmaking was like. I had a larger crew on my home movies, and I was like “Holy s**t! This can’t be what it’s like.” But I wish I could get my hands on that movie, it’s probably hysterically funny.
You also had the pleasure of working on both The Howling and An American Werewolf In London. But I had to ask, in regard to the famous transformation scenes on both films was there ever any issue not making a carbon copy of The Howling, or did it all run pretty smooth?
Steve Johnson: There was an issue, but originally Rob Bottin was Rick Baker’s apprentice for many years, and when John (Landis) decided to do the transformation, Rob Bottin was there, but John could not get his financing together and Rob left Rick to strike out on his own. Ultimately, Joe Dante hired him for The Howling and Rob was now doing his own thing. He had been cut off from American Werewolf and The Howling did come out first. But, in regard to Rob Bottin being ripped off, the exact opposite is true.
I was always curious about the zombie make-up on American Werewolf. Where did the inspiration for the look of the undead stem from? Because before that we never really saw the rotted, ripped up look in American horror before, so where do you and the crew get that inspiration?
Steve Johnson: Well, not only did we have outstanding transformation techniques, but we also had the Jack puppet, which I don’t think has ever been done before at that time. Maybe Jim Henson would be the only other one. I think that groundbreaking FX had to do with the relationship with John Landis and Rick Baker. It was an actual friendship that they had, not just employee and employer.
After that you received work for Ghostbusters. Did you have any idea what you were stepping into, and did you have a feeling that this film would become the monster it’s become?
Steve Johnson: I had no idea, I was really young. I had no idea, I read the script and it was unique, but everything’s a crap shoot, you just don’t know, The actors, the directors, the way the studio backs it are all factors of it being a success or a flop. But I had no idea, we were just having fun.
When you are at the table trying to come up with concepts, for Slimer for example. Where does that inspiration come from?
Steve Johnson: Well, they had an art director named Michael Gross, who passed away unfortunately, but he had a team of artists and before I came on the project all of the ghosts were already designed. When I came on, Slimer looked nothing like he did, so I started creating three dimensional things, with Ivan’s (Reitman) input, with Dan (Aykroyd) and Harold Ramis’s input. We developed it together as a team to the specifications Richard Edlund wanted. Of course it had to be transparent, had to be able to fly, and we had no idea what to do with it, but figured it all out after the fact.