Tonight, an 80's all over exclusive interview with the star of Better Off Dead, Bill and Ted, and the last American Virgin, Diane Franklin, and now your host's Drew McWeenie and and Scott Whiteberg. Hello everybody. Welcome back to another Patreon episode of 80's All Over. I am joined as always by my illustrious co-host, Mr. Drew McQueen. Drew, how are you? I'm good. It's crazy rainy and Los Angeles. And for the first time in a while sitting here in the 80's All Over over studio I can't see the Nakatomi Plaza for my window We were just briefly talking and and I think that the reason that our guests tonight stood out in the 80s is that she Kind of bucked the convention. She was not either the statuesque blonde She was not the Frumpy girl next door who turned out to be cute when you looked at her and a certain light. She was a unique presence in the 80s landscape and we are elated to sit down and talk to Miss Diane Franklin. Hello. Hello, you're both totally excellent. We are going to start off with her cinematic debut, a film that in most worlds might have just vanished as yet another mindless forgettable teen sex comedy but there is something a bit more substantial and a bit more bittersweet about the last American Virgin. Diane I would love to know you're take on that film and that ending all these years later. Oh my goodness I have so many things to say about that. When you're talking about sex, teen comedies, Virgin was the first one. And what I mean by that is it was in 1982, that film was actually made. I mean, although it came out the same time as that time's a rich one, hi, we did it first and we shot it first and when it came out, this was the beginning of playing teenagers where's before say in the seventies they would have adult playing teenagers you mean liking grease for everybody's forty four it's like what i know like you'd like carry they they you know they just always seemed older but in virgin and all the time we were all like really young and uh... and then the next thing was that virgin what is a uh... if you don't know less american virgin it is a time capsule of eighties information the look and the style is eighties that's including my hair which actually kick started the girl here craze of the eighties i can you not my hair book about it and it's on amazon excellent curls of the left american fronch exchange baby the eighties you know that's not a point it is that funny that's funny you i did not i'm going to find that book i did not know you were an author that's hilarious at book was about how curly hair became considered beautiful because in the last american virgin i played this girl who was the dream girl you would never have a dream girl that wasn't blonde and can't you know and it came from like the fox or a faucet seventies you know winged hair curly hair was considered bushy it would be given to the girl who didn't get the guy it would be given to the best best friend. And so for years, I wasn't getting worked because I didn't fit the look, the mold. But when I did Virgin, all of a sudden, because I was portrayed as a dream girl in that film, the girl, the white guy wants to get, all these guys suddenly saw dark curly hair as beautiful, and they went out and looked for all this dark hair beautiful beautiful girls and what happened was I went from nothing able to get a part I acted ten years before virgin hit and commercials and soap opera and theater but I always straight my hair but the minute virgin came out I'm getting lead after lead with curly hair you get Julia Roberts with that beautiful dark curly hair and mystic pizza you get flash. You had dirty dancing. One of the things that really stood out for somebody who was that age to see these movies and sort of be impacted by them at the first time is so many of them are consequence-free. And the thing that Virgin and Fast Times both have going for them is that they are movies where there's responsibility attached to these things. I love that those films are first of all a perspective of the kids. So you're seeing what they're going through. You rarely see the parents in these films. It's just all of what the kids are going through and the kids are going through it don't like experiences. In last American Virgin there is nudity and there's drugs and there's drinking and there's abortion. You know there there are issues, okay? And just the American version was fast times, which gave a happy ending. But Virgin was created by an Israeli director and it's really company. And the last American Virgin was based on a true story. It really happened. This story really happened from beginning to end to Boa's Davidson. And this is a remake of a movie lemon possible, which was an Israeli film. So this is real life this movie. Did you guys see the Israeli film before you began? Because that was, it's one of those things. They're, their background is filmmakers and how they started internationally and came here. I think it's really inspirational. Whether you like their their movies or not these are guys who very clearly were desperate to break into the American market and figured out something that no one here was doing which was that sort of very honest coming of age thing I think because 11 pops up with such a huge success overseas I think they didn't have a doubt that it would be successful in some way.

But I have to tell you, when I got the script for Last American Virgin,

I mean, at the time in the early 80s, I looked at the script and thought, here's a film I would love to play a lead in. I mean, at first I was kind of going, oh, is this soft core? Is this real? What is this, right? And as a young woman, I just was kind of like,

is this worth it to me?

But because it was a lead,, I just was kind of like,

is this worth it to me?

But because it was a lead, and because the girl was portrayed, so it's reverence, you know? The guys were like in love with her. I said, okay, I'm gonna do this film, but I'm gonna give it heart, and I'm gonna give it like my version, you know, of how to portray the character. But what was so fascinating to me is we all, when we got the script thought, we're going

to change its ending.

Like, this is just not going to disband the lyrics.

So we're going to change the sending like this is just not going to be so. And we all of us is a Lauren's to Kimmy and Steve and we're all like we're going to change the sending we get there and boy this is the way the ending is this is my life I have to do this this way and during that time there were huge were huge movies, like, Officer in a gentleman, like, people would pay money to see Chuck heavy-duty films. So it is shocking to me that I have gone through the stages of this film where people were watching it, and then they passed it on to the next generation, and then it played at Lincoln Center, and then it was like, I'm like, and then people are like, oh my god, my god now this is a film where you know film students to watch and they're watching it in college classes and I'm sitting there thinking how did this happen this is a true example of the little film the little guy who makes an independent feature and then like it's hero and you know what Diane when people talk about this movie that ending is almost always what what they talk about Yeah, and did it like when you saw it all cut together did that you know You were about the appropriate age for this movie did that affect you like did you feel like damn that's honest No, I didn't think of it as honest At the time which is really funny. I remember feeling like, did my work to be honest and very real and very raw, but I didn't know if people would understand it. And I think that I was afraid that maybe I would get people like, you know, trying to come on to me and like I was a little bit more shy about it during the time, but it has time passed now when people say to me, oh me i love this film and i grew up with the film and i

love you in the film

i

so get it

died how long did it take for you to realize oh wow this movie actually affected

people in an emotional way

you know i would say not that long ago

i made this when i started doing uh... i do it

signing convention

and make that's probably about ten years ago i started. And people come up to me when I do conventions. And they tell me about how they feel and how their experience was and how it affected their life and their childhood. I had one guy, which is a classic story. A guy, he was so traumatized by that film. And we were, I was in a line with a bunch of other actors

from the film.

We were all came together for a reunion. And he walked down from actor to actor. And I'm at the end. And all the other actors are looking at you like this guy has lost it. He really thinks this is a real film. And this is literally happened. So the guy comes down to me and I see him. And he says to me, I would never have done what you did.

I can't believe you did that.

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