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Joan Severance
interview by Douglas Eby films include: HARD EVIDENCE; CRIMINAL PASSION; BLACK SCORPION II
"Wearing this kind of costume [as the Black Scorpion] is not something I fantasize about. It's not natural, it's not comfortable. I don't see myself as this. But it gives you dramatic license to do almost anything when you're dressed as a bug. You can take charge, kick ass, do whatever you have to do and it's okay. You can blow people up. There are things that are okay for cartoon characters to do, but everyone has problems when real life characters do them. But the whole Black Scorpion shows were characters within a comic, cartoon situation; some of us looked like cartoon characters, but the cops are also cartoon characters, and [my alternate character] Darcy isn't real either. She does have real character dilemmas, but they're much more dramatic to her than to a normal character because she doesn't know how to handle them until her writer tells her.
When the camera rolls, I'm the Black Scorpion, and I have come to save
the day, and the whole pain of the costume and the uncomfortableness of it
goes away, for that moment. And then they yell 'Cut' and my boots hurt, and
I have started studying Jiu Jitsu, which is a lot easier for women; it's not a contact sport. Instead of resistance, you become like part of your attacker, and by not resisting you create a very interesting situation of being able to get out easier. When you're dead weight, in the right position, you win. And in reality, you wouldn't see someone my size kicking seven martial arts experts and winning. Doing the first BLACK SCORPION, we were shooting really late, in crummy places, and I felt totally safe. I would take the costume off, get into my regular clothes, leave my black painted eyes on and drive home through Compton. Now, that wasn't a smart thing to do, but I had the knowledge of what I had learned and felt I could handle myself. I probably couldn't, but I had the confidence. Doing this kind of role has stretched my stamina a lot. My hat goes off to the Schwarzennegers and the Stalones and Van Dammes who play these sort of super-people. It's hard to be a super-person. It takes a lot out of you. So it's a whole different kind of acting, something I had never done before, and here I am doing it again. It's fun, not that the other stuff isn't, but that's a whole other part of your heart and your soul. But this is more your aura, the outside, and all those colors floating there can show and shine."
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This article from:
The Rocamora School
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my shoulder pads hurt. I have a headache right now, wearing this mask. But
I definitely feel, when I'm wearing the costume, that I could scare people
and hurt them. I'm a total klutz, unlike the Black Scorpion; I cannot walk
in heels - she can. She's an amazing thing.