Pittsburgh 2026 Horror Realm Convention Part 1: Andrew Divoff and Caroline Williams

The Fisch Bowl Podcast had the pleasure of attending Pittsburgh's 2026 Horror Realm Convention, and interview many actors and filmmakers behind the scenes of your favorite horror and sci-fi films! Today's episode is with actor Andrew Divoff from Wishmaster and Another 48 Hours, and actress Caroline Williams known from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 and Leprechaun 3.

Transcript

Welcome To The Fishbowl

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Attention all the fishes in the scene. Welcome to the Fishbowl with Sam Fish.

Andrew Debau Joins The Bowl

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Sam Fish the Fish Bowl here at Horror Realm Con 2026 with the infamous, the villainous Andrew Debau. Thank you for taking the time to swim in the bowl with him. Thank you, Fish. Absolutely. As I started to tell you yesterday, I've literally been following your career since I was a kid. So many roles, not enough time to talk about everything. Number one, obviously, Wishmas. Thank you. I've interviewed Robert Kurtzman, the director, and one of the masterminds behind the makeup and everything. Any stories from the set uh makeup process?

Wishmaster Mask Work And Voice

SPEAKER_02 0:51

You know, um really the story, when especially when I think about Robert, was how we uh we sort of collaborated and and and the collaboration became really at first it was the question, what do we do with the voice? And uh and uh with a bit of uh serendipity, so after after having first started taking my lunch breaks and and eating whole food and trying to get that into the into the mask, uh which was uh apropos of that, but but one of the things that Robert said to me was we're really gonna have to exaggerate to make that mask move, and uh even the slightest gesture. So you'll feel like you're overacting, but really go for it. So we got that, but then I noticed after lunch that uh one of the most humbling things was uh was having the uh the makeup crew pick out pieces of food from between the mask and my face, and I I said, Well, we have to uh we have to stop that and we have to change it. And so what that became, my lunch essentially became a protein shake. And because of the whey and the protein shake, thankfully that that got the voice, it made the voice a little more gurgly. And so the first night we were down in Wilmington and we filmed uh the scene just outside of the well with Buckflowers at the dumpster and with Reggie Bannister in the pharmacy. And I think the end of that that whole scene was was uh Buckflowers running away after he sees that this is a monster. And I and I do that. Uh my one of my favorite quotes from the movie, which is Ravensa. And so uh all I had to see was that Robert was quite pleased with that, and and so we knew at that point that we had the voice. We had gone, is it gonna be a British accent? What is it gonna be? And and I thought whatever it would be, whatever accent wasn't the important thing, it was the fact that the voice had to sound like it was it was coming up out of the earth, you know, like from the bowels of the earth. I think we got that.

Another 48 Hrs Desert Memories

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Oh, 100%. The the voice is one of the most iconic villainous voices, especially for again one of the most iconic movie movie monster villains. One of my all-time favorites. Another film they've been playing it like crazy on, I believe, Showtime another 48 hours. Oh, wonderful, man.

Air Force One Stunts With Ford

SPEAKER_02 3:14

What a what a what a fun thing that was. And the fun thing about that was that I got to write a Harley on somebody else's dime, essentially. So they put the gas in it, and all I had to do was uh you know crank the throttle. I had a lot of fun, you know, just working with that whole crew, being part of a of a movie with Eddie Murphy and Nolte. Uh, but uh but the funnest part of it was hanging out with the bad guys, my good friend David Anthony Marshall and uh Ted Markland. We uh you know, we we literally hung out together and we sort of became a gang so that by the time we got to that set in Baker on uh uh in Dumont Dunes out in the desert, you know, we we had sort of figured each other out. We we we were essentially we were we were a gang. And that uh I'll never forget that first day of shooting. I uh I remember my mom had passed away before we began uh uh filming three days before we began. Oh wow. And uh and so I was uh fortunate enough to to go see her. Uh she uh was an expat, having been uh uh part of a consulate in the embassy in Barcelona, Spain, long story short, and and uh Guatemala City, Guatemala. I was fortunate enough to uh visit her and be with her when she passed. And so uh that morning I remember when we started, it was December 4th, and uh I took a little bit of a walk into the uh into the desert, and I uh I just remembered uh I just remembered my mom. Another great uh villainous role, I loved you in Air Force One. Oh, well thank you, thank you. What a wonderful thing that was, uh being able to work with uh Mr. Poor. What a brilliant guy and a and a generous guy on film, and uh and I think really after all, what what made him, if I can even say, uh a small Andy fan was the fact that uh that we hit it off so well for the stunts. Uh that fight in the uh in the galley, I'll never forget that. And I'll I'll never forget, I mean, as far as I'm concerned, Harrison is the king of actors who do stunts. Uh and and he really, I mean, because for him it's not it's not an ego trip, it's not about being able to say that, it's it's about the continuity of the character. And and he was that that was his thing, that was what he emphasized, and I could tell just by watching him. And so to be able to have a fight as a as a newbie with Mr. Ford made my day. And by the way, if he heard me call him Mr. Ford, he'd say, my my father's Mr. Ford. Call me Harrison or Harry.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

So love you, Harry. And I I just found this out not too long ago about Harrison Ford. Before he was known as Harrison Ford, he was a carpenter and a roadie for the doors. Oh, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02 6:11

Yeah. Holy goodness, man. Yeah, yeah. Holy goodness, how cool is that? You talk about a cool background, man. Right, right. I would have would have liked to be a fly on that wall.

Graveyard Shift And Stephen King

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Exactly, exactly. Another horror film that I love of yours, The Graveyard Shift. Oh, wonderful, wonderful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:30

I have uh I have good memories from that. I remember we were filming in Bangor, Maine, in in this warehouse, in the basement of a warehouse, of a working mill, as a matter of fact. And so we were always told, uh, especially because the uh the mills were going to be working, and these things were like monsters in their own right. They had these claws that would that would shred the wool and separate uh you know the the gris, I guess, from what would become the wool thread. That was uh that was a trip, and they always told us when you walk by these things, be very aware and be careful because they'll eat you. And uh, and I remember one of the one of the quickest sides about that was uh was I remember Mr. King coming down to the set, and and I was at the craft service table and just kind of picking out, figuring out, and I looked up and I said, Oh, hey Mr. King. And he looked over at me through the glasses and he nodded, which I I thought, oh wow, he nodded at me. So I was I was quite it was quite a beautiful, uh, beautiful film and a and a beautiful time. I uh I remember in in my days off I would head down to Bar Harbor and just walk along that beautiful town and and breathe in some of that beautiful sea air. Never forget that. Good good memories for that. And uh, and at night when we were filming at night, I remember we had buzz bombers, which uh they call black flies. Apparently those things never sweep, but uh but it was it was a it was a beautiful time and a beautiful memory.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

One of my top favorite, I guess, monster movie Stephen King films. The kind of the whole concept of like a giant like bat kind of rodent thing hiding in a uh you know graveyardist thing.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

It's it's B movie brilliantness. It is, it is. And I and I must give a shout out to Ralph Singleton. Uh this was, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, his first time directing, and he was wonderful. Uh it was wonderful working with uh with uh David Andrews and with uh with Stephen Macht. What a beautiful human uh Stephen Mocht is, and and and and the fact that he got that accent down, not an easy accent to get that that Mana accent. Right, right. He uh he did it beautifully, and uh, and uh and was if I if I may say he was quite hated by the cast, as I suppose makes sense because of that character, tough character, a guy, a guy, if you were in the army, you wouldn't want him to be your stash.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Right, right, right. Awesome, awesome. Andrew, thank you so much for taking the time to swim in the pole.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

If I may call you fish, absolutely, absolutely.

Caroline Williams Takes The Mic

SPEAKER_01 9:09

I appreciate it. It was a pleasure. Sam Fish, the fishbowl here for around 2026 with the great and wonderful Caroline Williams.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Thank you, Fish.

Texas Chainsaw 2 Reboot Details

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Absolutely. We're swimming, we're swimming in the bowl. Awesome. Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2, my absolute favorite in the entire franchise. Thank you. I think we're talking about a possible remake, reboot.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

The reboot is definitely happening. Glenn Powell's Barnstorm Productions won the contest with Tim Hankles Vortex, which is the holding company for the IP. Uh JT Molner of Austin, Texas, is gonna be directing. He's terrific. He did Strange Darling, which is a terrific.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Yes, that's a great one.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

I think the movie is gonna really fulfill Toby's original vision for the Texas Chainsaw Original, which is, you know, was inducted into the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and then Chainsaw 2, where Texas is a character in the film. Absolutely. And I I I look forward to seeing that return because I think the franchise overall has lost most of its authenticity because of just simply the wrong locations.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Yes, yes. I I mean part three, I think was the last maybe like watchable, watchable one. As much as I like seeing Matt McConaughey as a crazy psychopath, which I think he's really underrated at like not getting enough of those types of roles, like seeing him and the next generation, he was actually my favorite character in next generation. Yeah. Um, but as far as part two goes, the characters are so unique. There's something like really wacky, but like special and and artistic as well about uh part two and coming from Pittsburgh, the great Tom Savini. Oh, the effects.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

It was wonderful. Yeah, he's wonderful.

Tobe Hooper’s Fast Direction Style

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Yes. Any stories about Toby Hooper or Dennis Hopper from the shoot?

Dennis Hopper Stories And Sobriety

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Well, I mean, Toby was really under the gun with Canon because he was editing Invaders from Mars at the same time that he was directing Chainsaw 2, our film. So I don't know that he was getting much sleep at all. I I know it was very, very challenging for him. Toby was always real simple about his direction. Bigger, stronger, louder, smaller, make your crazy face, more screaming. I mean, it was always very basic, which works well for me. I don't want to hear a long psychological dissertation about things. I want to, we want to make our shots, we want to make our day. And the movie is very hard and fast. I'm in nearly every frame of the film. So my responsibility was huge, but I enjoyed it so much. I enjoyed the athleticism, I enjoyed the underground lair. It was just, it was play. I was playing and I was having a good time. As far as Dennis Hopper, you know, his filmography is so extraordinary.

SPEAKER_03 12:30

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

And to hear his stories about his friends, Natalie Wood, James Dean, Nick Adams, it was just, you know, working for Nick Ray, working for George Stevens, hearing about Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson, and uh he he he was living Hollywood movie history. And he made history with his film Easy Rider.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Yes.

Learning Film Acting On Set

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Now he was very much, and he had a long history of drug and alcohol use. And you know, both of us were 18 months sober when we started making the film. So we really did have a lot of sobriety that we could that we could share with each other. One of my best stories that I have about Dennis, you know, he knew Miles Davis. He knew he knew Felonious Monk. I mean, some of the greatest saxophone players who ever lived. And I invited him to join me on 6th Street in Austin to hear of a saxophone player I love named Kirk Whelum. We go to the show, and you know, he reminds me, he knows all these world-famous musicians. We get there, Dennis is right in front of the stage. He is watching Kirk play. He is transported by this, he is digging the scene, he's into it. We go to work the next morning and he shows up and he goes, you know, I took Caroline to see this really great saxophone player I love named Kirk Wallam. So, yeah, exactly. You know, he was very charismatic. Everything I know about acting for film, I learned from him. And it was so illuminating and insightful to learn about lens sizes, composition, lighting, things I'd never really paid attention to, because as an actor, you're sort of trained for stage, you're not trained for film. So it was an absolute revelation to have learned these things. And I I do think it informed my performance really strongly.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Was there any type of like improvisation in Texas Part 2 or well, not for me so much.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

My role, you know, I'm Dorothy in Oz.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

And so, you know, being that principal character, you know, everything in my world is scripted, and all these crazy characters just revolve around me. LG, lefty, top top, the cook, leatherface. Right, you know, I uh and my improvisational stuff was very limited, and plus my role is so physical. Yes, I'm always running, jumping, playing, falling down, fighting. It's always something. So, but it was fantastic to be surrounded by these great actors, especially Bill Mosley playing Chop Top. Yes, because they just let him go. And he was feeling the character so much, he was enjoying the moment so much, and he kept coming, he kept embroidering. There was always more and more and more, and it gave me so much to work with and react to. It was, you know, it was the it was the role of a lifetime.

Chainsaw Scenes And Stunt Work

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Well, I have to say, and I'm I'm sorry if I'm giving away any spoilers here, but the chainsaw battle between Dennis Hopper and Leatherface.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Oh my god, like Dennis Hopper had the most amazing stunt double. His name was Jim Stevenson. He was literally an acrobat. He could go from standing still to jumping up on top of that table, doing all the chainsaw stuff. He he was very powerful, he was very strong, and that certainly informed a lot of Dennis's performance. My favorite scene in the movie personally uh is not even one of my scenes, it's the scene on the bridge.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

At the beginning.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

At the beginning.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

It's absolutely masterful because you've got the actor in the leatherface costume, but he's obscured by nubbins.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Built up on a platform on a truck. They're traveling at an extreme about 35 miles per hour on a bridge that is, in fact, very short.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

But Toby made it look like it was a mile long, and the way everything is edited together, I think it's one of the most exciting scenes in almost any horror film.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

I would agree, and it also has like the clap what has become a classic trope where it's like you introduce a bunch of characters right off the bat of the beginning that you think are somehow could be, you know, the protagonists, and then you kill them off as like the first victims.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

You know, exactly. And I thought that was brilliant, you know, confusing the audience and into your character archetype, the the heroic, you know, female lead. And what just it's it's an amazing performance. And I also have to say, like, you mentioned something before about how it's very like bam, bam, bam the whole way through. Yes. And then the track that they play at the end when the credits roll. The only film that I can think of that pretty much copied like the same format was Reservoir Darks.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

Oh! I didn't realize that.

Leprechaun 3 And Warwick Davis

SPEAKER_01 18:14

It's well, in the sense of like the I had never thought of it before. The the I I kind of followed it because I remember like the time I was really watching Texas part two, and I was really getting re-familiarized with like Quentin Tarantino and his his filmography, and the way Texas Chainsaw like starts out, and then like it's very like bam bam bam, and then like it almost like an abrupt ending. Sure. Resbor Dogs kind of does the same thing, and then literally the climax, and then playing, you know, the famous song at the end, which is going against the the tone of of the film, yeah. This like heavy kind of you know, in your face kind of thing, and then a like a mellow almost kind of song to kind of top it off, both ending kind of abruptly. So sure. That's just my own personal film analogy for uh Texas and Reservoir Dogs, but another uh one of my all-time favorites, Leprechaun 3.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Oh, thank you. I love that film. Yes, had so much fun on it.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

I and I also have to say, no spoilers alert, but you have the best death scene in the entire franchise.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

To this day, it's one of the top five horror deaths, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

And I had a chance to meet Warwick at one of the uh other conventions we had here in Pittsburgh a few years back. I've been a fan of Warwick probably as long as I've been a fan of yours.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

And I was wondering, what was it like working with Warwick and how how much of the leprechaun is is like in the script, and how much is is is like Warwick's own contribution to the well as Warwick himself has said, you know, he's buried under pounds of latex and costume and his hat, and he's all the Warwick we know is is obscured by all these appliances. So, you know, he he basically just animates, you know, the makeup. And his job is very hard. You know, it's very hot under all that stuff, and he's always in motion, he's always doing something. So his challenge was really very challenge, playing that character very, very unique. You know, the rest of us got to be a little bit more kind of normal characters. I have to say, Brian Trentard Smith is masterful about telling the story, once again, with a lot of unique and interesting characters. And you know, I got to do a transformation scene. You don't get to do that very much in the business. Go from this frumpy, frowzy, sad little person to being somebody really fabulous and then blowing up. So, and I have to say, it's enjoying a lot of new life. We do a lot of screenings around St. Patrick's Day, uh, we do a lot of signings. The the character has really caught on again with the public. And when I come to the signing shows, people are really interested in Leprechaun, they really enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

That's one franchise I would love. Uh only if Warwick would return. Like it wouldn't, I don't think it would be the same without Warwick. But like I I remember hearing that there were possible talks that the original creator was trying to get the rights back, and then unfortunately I he just passed away. But I I give it to the in the right hands and get Warwick to come back. Let's let's get a whole new generation of Leprechaun fans and leprechaun reboots going.

New Films And Chainsaw Documentary

Merch Partner And Listener Support

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Like that's well, they did Leprechaun 10 and brought in somebody else that. newer and much younger physically speaking I don't know that it's something he would want to take on again because he's gotten older and right right you know we all get a little we all get a little creaky but he's an utterly remarkable guy creepy or creepy we get creepy yourself that was Bill that was my buddy Bill Mosley but yeah I uh you know I've I've had a nice long career and you know taking a little uh sabbatical during marriage and motherhood but uh the last eight years I've been hitting it pretty hard and I've got six films that'll be out this year uh one is going to festival will be at Fantastic Fest it's called What Did You Do it stars an incredible young actor named Johnny Stoddard he's currently doing series television and it's a film noir we shot in Austin Steven Romano wrote and directed I'm very excited about that and we have a documentary about the making of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre too that's gonna be coming out from Heather Buckley she's she did the short life and ghastly death of Al Adamson which is one of the all-time great horror kind of grindhouse documentaries and it's it's a really cool thing so it's it's gonna be a fun year for me I'm really excited about it and I thank you so much absolutely for letting me take a swim thank you for diving in head first of course and we came out on top and uh we're riding the waves absolutely Caroline Williams everyone thank you so much tune into the fishbowl hey there all my fishes in the sea thanks for tuning in to today's episode and for being a subscriber your continued listenership and support means the most and helps keep the show growing to deeper and deeper depths.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

I want to let all my guppies in the sea know the fishbowl has now officially partnered with Fastcustomshirts.com where they're now selling custom fishbowl t-shirts under their podcast and website section. Every t-shirt that's purchased helps and goes a long way to keep the show growing to deeper and deeper in higher higher depths. I also now have custom hats, beanies, handbags, pens, mouse pads, everything to make you look like the coolest looking fish in the sea, which you can DM me directly on Instagram at the Fishbull88 or on Facebook at just the fishbowl or you can friend request me Sam Fish directly and get yours today. Your continued listenership and support again means the most it's the most important fishes that flock together. We are a school of fish and we keep the unit going. Let's all keep swimming upstream.