Interview with Kimberly Cole Zemke

Kimberly Cole Zemke, thank you for this interview. My reader or readers depending on the day will not know you.  Can you start about your life in South Africa to where you are now, and your profession, actress, producer etc.

Thank you for this interview Clinton Siegle.  I just want to say that I will always love South Africa and all South Africans but I am an American Citizen and I live in the Southern Part of the United States in beautiful Alabama.  The land of the tall pine trees.haha  I was almost six feet tall in sixth grade so my Mummy started me out in Ballet lessons, Gymnastics and finally Modeling and Modeling stuck.haha 

In the 1990's my brother was doing stunts and small parts on tv shows and in films and he was going to try out for Warner Brother's Body Snatchers remake and I tagged along and I did uncredited stunts on the film and also got a small speaking part, I got to work with R.Lee Ermie and Forrest Whitaker..although most all of my parts were left on the cutting room floor I made good money and caught the acting bug and was hooked. I also ended up dating Abel Ferrara the director after production ended and that was another adventure in itself.haha   I got an agent, started doing small parts and I also did Cosplay at conventions before anyone knew what Cosplay was.haha  I had a blast doing conventions and at one time I had a small fan club and Timbo Davis my agent put out a monthly newsletter on what I was doing and what I was working on.  I used to love going to the conventions and interacting with the fans and dressing as various characters, my Mum who is amazing and very creative and she was the driving force behind all of my costumes. 

Vicious Volumptious

 

She CREATED my Mirricalla the Vicious Volumptious, Velvet Vampyress costumes.  The purple velvet capes, the chastity bat on the front of the front of the costumes, the red velvet and black velvet and even green velvet costumes she made were so delicious!    My Mum has always been a genius. She made other fun costumes for me such as Mummiella an Egyptian Mummy and also a belly dancer vampire that was a lot of fun.  My Mummy used to teach dance and she taught me to do authentic Egyptian Belly Dance She is my biggest fan and my precious angel.  She is in a wheelchair now and suffers from Alzheimers but she has good days and we laugh together and we enjoy reminiscing about the fun times of the past.  I am her caregiver and I enjoy each and every second that God gives me with her.  She is my World. 

Mirricalla

I am blessed to have an awesome family,  my brother Craig helped teach me to do fight scenes and flip giant guys over my shoulder and knock them to the ground.  He taught me self defence and how not to get hurt doing stunts.  He is amazing.  I am blessed to have the family that I have.  Some of the films I have been lucky enough to be a part of are Warner Brother's Body Snatchers with the lovely Christine Elise McCarthy and R.Lee Ermie and Forest Whitaker and also DEAD CLOWNS, Odd Noggins, Dorm of the Dead, Cremains, Psycho Santa, Horrortales .666, Redneck Revenge with the legendary David F. Friedman and Search for the Beast which also featured David F. Friedman and Wrestler Rick Montana.  I loved doing Search for the Beast but it was one of the worst films ever made and it has been rereleased about three times, most recently on the BIGFOOT TERROR dvd set.haha  It is the bad film that will not go away.haha  

Scream Farm

Other films were Scream Farm which was filmed right here at my very own charity Haunted House and Hayride Attraction that we ran for ten years, Monster in the Garage,To Dream or Not to Dream, two horror shorts: DEAD FALL and HAVE YOU SEEN ME which was written by Steve Sessions for my son Dylan Cole who starred in it with me.  Dylan was also playing piano and acting in Psycho Santa with me., She Creatures From Outer Space I did a small part for Lucien Eisenach and Still There with Luc Bernier, I have done voiceover's in English for S.V. Bell's RISE OF THE GHOSTS. I  am in the process of trying to get equipment to start marketing myself to do more voiceover work because I can do a lot of it from my home which keeps my Mummy and family safe until Covid is a thing of the past.  My house was recently featured on two paranormal shows for Travel Channel DEAD FILES and GHOST LOOP.  They were trying to help to rid my house of REAL GHOSTS and a curse.  I have started working pretty steady in films again after a multi year haitus to co own and run businesses with my brother.  We run a transmission shop called KENNY ROBBINS TRANSMISSION and my brother is The Transmission Gladiator.  He is my Step Brother and he is a mechanical genius.  I also buy and sell pretty much everything imaginable from K & K SALVAGE our other business although Covid has pretty much devistated my auction and estate sales.  I am hoping once everything calms down with Covid I will be able to open back up and buy and sell everything again from Heavy Equipment to Amusement Park Rides (which are my passion) and art;, paintings, statues, furniture industrial lighting etc... etc...  I bought two huge Chance Chaos Amusement Park Rides from Elitch Garden's in Denver, Colorado and had them shipped down here, it was quite an adventure, renting giant cranes and 3 large 48 foot 18 wheelers and drivers etc..  it was fun.  I sold one of the rides, parted it out,  and still have the other one.  I had a deal with Hokkaido Greenland Amusement Park in Japan to buy their Zamperla ROTOSHAKE ride, a HUGE almost 100 foot tall ride like a pendulum but once again Covid has brought everything to a standstill this year with my salvage business and estate auction business.  I am hoping to finally get the three screenplays that I am working on done within the next six months.  I hope to one day bring them to the screen or for someone else to make them into films.  The one I am most passionate about is BIG IRON which is an homage to the original WESTWORLD with Yul Brynner.  The film will start out in the 1870's with bankrobber and train robber Pete Pistolero Sanchez and his trusty horse COCKROACH and it will then flash forward to modern day and a group of western gunslinger reenactor's in an amusement park who are about to be replaced by robots.  The other two screenplays are Savage Whisper a Bigfoot and First Nation action adventure that is set almost 300 years ago, and KILLDOZER RISES AGAIN which is a ripped from the headlines type of thing which takes a true life tragedy and enhances it into a horror film, it is a rape revenge, zombie type horror film.  Lots of excitement in that one.  God willing they will one day be more than just screenplays and concepts.
 

Kim, everyone has a story to tell. What one story do you wish everyone knew about you?

 Hmm that is a tough one, for one thing I wish that people would see me as the loving, caring person that I am.  I would do anything to help anyone and I have done lots of charity work for years including my haunted house and hayride which all of the money has went to various charities including St Jude.  I LOVE ST. JUDE!!!!  I am this six foot tall, very loud, type A personality that is constantly working and moving forward and sometimes folks do not get me.haha  They think I am too loud or flashy or pushy which I am not.  I just love to work constantly and move forward.  Another thing is I love to travel and love adventure and love to try new things, especially food.haha  I had to check myself on that one I had gotten up to 226 pounds which was not good.  I am a firm believer in Nutrisystem and I sound like a commercial for them because THEY WORKED FOR ME!
I lost 50 pounds with Nutrisystem.  The food is good and I still eat it even though I try to always stay at my perfect movie weight or pretty close to it now.  I love low carbing and I love Asian food, I eat small meals and exercise A LOT!!!!  I just want people to know that I am a work in progress, always learning and trying to be a better person.  One funny story about me which kind of sums up who I am comes from my childhood, I was abused pretty badly by my Father (who I loved irregardless) however a lot of the kids picked on me horribly in our neighborhood so when I was about 9 I decided to get them back, I had a clubhouse made of bricks and blocks and it was a pretty cool place that my brother Craig and I built, pretty good for two kiddos under ten.  So I rigged up a ghost on a rope made out of a sheet and I told the older kids that there was a ghost in my clubhouse and I was afraid, so naturally they thought I was nuts and they wanted to prove there was nothing there, I waited in the bushes and they went into my clubhouse and I pulled the rope and the ghost came flying out and they had to run home and not stop to change their pants.haha  Needless to say they had a new respect for this scrawny kid after that.haha

Death Count

Kim, you have been filming a lot of movies lately. Can you provide a list with teasers please and where people can see them. Meaning what platform or link to purchase them on Amazon or?

 Well Clinton I am very glad you asked that question.  I talked about my older films in the beginning but I will list some of them again:  I started out with my brother doing stunts for Warner Brother's Body Snatchers.. I made good money on that film acting and doing stunts, I like to joke to people that I started out in A films and worked my way down.haha  To B Films and Z Films.haha  I was in Cremains, Dead Clowns, you can always find those two out there on ebay or streaming somewhere,

Dead Clowns

of the Dead, Odd Noggins, Ted V, Mikels Mark of the Astro-Zombies, the cool thing is I directed my own parts for that one, I got to star in a film that starred David Carradine's head.haha  Seriously, it was a prosthetic but I think that film has the distinction of being the only film he starred in AFTER HIS DEATH.haha  I have had an interesting career to say the least. 
I was in Psycho Santa and my son was also in that one, Savage Holocaust, Horrortales .666, Diary of Nightmares, and SCREAM FARM with Jim O'Rear and Maria Kil, Ted Alderman and Deb Funes who sadly we lost to breast cancer a few years ago.  I have done two ghost shows for Travel Channel documenting my haunting here at my house and four films in the last two years.  My home was featured on DEAD FILES and GHOST LOOP and they both had a different take on what is haunting us but both of them did help us.  We also had a remote blessing from Tom Tongue and his group that helped a lot.  I have worked on three wonderful films with THE MAHAL EMPIRE, The Mahal Brother's Michael and Sonny are so much fun to work with, they have made some fantastic films.

Bridge of the DOOMED

I have been in three of their films so far and I am in the process of making an audtion tape for a fourth one, I hope I get picked.  I was actually an Executive Producer and an actress on BRIDGE OF THE DOOMED which should be coming out soon, they just did some more pick up scenes over the last few days out in the desert in Nevada.  

 

Bloodthirst

I was also in BLOODTHIRST for the Mahals, I got to work directly with Costas Mandylor from five of the Saw Films as Lt.  Hoffman and also the magnificent and beautiful TARA REID, I absolutely love her, she was fabulous. 

 

Death Count

 

Also Robert LaSardo and tons of other talented folks, I worked on DEATH COUNT for the Mahal Empire in July and that was an absolute blast.  I get to die horribly.haha 

Very bloody, this film stars Costas Mandylor and also Michael Madsen who I have just adored since Reservoir Dogs.  This past weekend I was in Pascagoula, Mississippi to film a Zombie Cameo for a movie called ENTERFEAR for a new channel called FEARFLIX and this film will be live streaming on Halloween.nd his brothers were Moonshiners back in the day, in the 1920s and 1930s and apparently from the legends they were some of the best illegal moonshiners around here, so I have been looking into getting LEGAL PERMITS to open a small batch distillery in honor of them.  It will be called LOCKHART BROTHER'S DISTILLERY LLC  In honor of the brothers, I thought about calling it Dan Lockhart's Whiskey Factory but in honor of the brothers who were very close, loved each other fiercely and loyally I decided to call it LOCKHART BROTHERS DISTILLERY.  The brother's were in World War I, and two of them were in the Alabama Rainbow Division who fought in France.  My Grandfather was a bit of a war hero.  He came back and was a farmer, a ship builder, a mule logger and finally an illegal moonshiner and shine runner and that seemed to stick and he was successful at it working with his brothers and nephews and cousins until he got into a fight with his favorite cousin that turned deadly and my Grandfather spent four years in prison.  Oh well it is an interesting history that my family had.  The hilarious part of me wanting to open a distillery is that I have never drank in my life.  I am a teetotaller and yet I am longing to make Whiskey just like my beloved Grandfather Dan Lockhart did.  I already have two moonshine stills although we have never made any liquor with them.  The bigger whiskey still of the two was part of the moonshine camp set that the Travel Channel built on our property for our show.  So I got to buy the set from them at a discount and keep all the props and antiques and the still.  It was so amazing!

Kim, what book or movies have you been reading or watching. Meaning I am using this interview to find new books or films to watch. What have you been doing?

  Well Clinton every year I always reread Mary Shelly's FRANKENSTEIN because it is the quintessential Halloween book.  I am also reading Zak Began's book  “I Am Haunted, Living Life Through the Dead”  I got the book at Zak's Museum in Las Vegas and I am also reading H.P. Lovecraft's Tales of Horror.  We have been watching lots of classic horror films like Friday the 13th the original and Phantasm and anything by Romero.  Day of the Dead the original is my all time favorite film!!!!  I simply love Halloween with all myheart and soul!  I always try to squeeze every drop of fun out of this time of the year.  My son Dylan loves Halloween also.  He had a part as a zombie in ENTERFEAR also and got zombie makeup done by Dawn DeVurger.  It was so much fun working with my son on a movie set again. The film ENTERFEAR is suppose to livestream on Halloween night on the new channel FEARFLIX.  I requested the information so that you could publish it but as of this date I have not received it.  


Kim, your Halloween decorations and rides. Are you going to open up a funland or Halloween park?

 I have a 1949 Ferris Wheel that we have completely refurbished and we use it each 

Halloween, we fill it with adult and child skeletons and the kids in the community LOVE IT!  We also have a Chance Chaos that is not running and parts of several other rides in various stages of repair.  I am working deals on several other rides as we speak through my Salvage company.  I have a haunted house full of huge animatronics from Unit 70 and Scarefactory, and FrightProps.  We have the huge Hellivator ride from Frightprops.  So much fun and so scary!  I have so many horror props and animatronics that we just did not have enough time to get them all out of the huge cargo containers and get them all up this year.  I usually do a charity event for Special Needs adults at this time of the year, last year we had about 50 precious people here and we set up a screen and watched ERNEST SCARED STUPID and we had a hayride for them and a walk through of my REAL haunted house and the fake haunted house and there were so many phone cameras flashing as they took photos of CHAOS my 12 foot tall clown who passes gas electronically.haha  Also all of my other animatronics and props, it was fun for all. 

We had food and cupcakes and small toys in loot bags for all.  Then we also do our Customer Appreciation Day for our businesses and we invite the entire community, we usually have over 150 to 200 folks show up.  So Halloween is a big deal for us.  I would love to open up a small theme park one day, perhaps as an extension of my small batch Distillery when we get it off the ground. 

Bridge of the DOOMED

Kim, you are in three or more films being produced in 2020. Can you please talk about them.  What were they about? Any book related films and any teasers we can watch? https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0170648/ Along same lines outside the films on imdb link is there a current project or film you can talk about? Any teaser of a future works not on imdb?

 Well Clinton I have had two Travel Channel Ghost Shows film here at our truly haunted and cursed house in the last two years.  Dead Files and Ghost Loop and the episodes were DEAD RISING for Dead Files and CHOKING UP for Ghost Loop if anyone wants to find them online and live stream them.  Plus I have done four movies in one year.  I have done three films for MAHAL EMPIRE!  The Mahal Brothers are just FANTASTIC to work for.  I enjoyed every second of it.  We all refer to ourselves as a film family!  Very close knit, upbeat and positive to work with the cast and crew of all the Mahal Films.  I was working on BRIDGE OF THE DOOMED last year at this  time for about two weeks. 

Bridge of the DOOMED

We filmed in Caliente, Nevada on a beautiful, huge ranch.  I was also an EXECUTIVE PRODUCER on the film and it was so much fun.  I got to do my own stunts, working with  true professionals like the Stunt Coordinator Jason McNeil and Professional actors like Wesley Cannon and Johnny Huang who are just passionate about films.  I even got the mask from the Monster in the film.  That is what attracted me to this film, the script was so exciting.  Not only was this a zombie film but it also had another peril going on at the same time in a huge man eating monster menacing the survivor camp and the military attache that was protecting the BRIDGE OF DOOMED.  I am so excited about this film! 

Bloodthirst

The second film was BLOODTHIRST which we filmed in July.  I got to work directly with Tara Reid from American Pie and Taradise and Costas Mandylor who was on Picket Fences for years and was Lt Hoffman from five of the SAW FILMS.  He is just a dream to work with and so is Tara.  This film also stars Robert LaSardo.  The last film that I did so far with the Mahal Brothers was DEATH COUNT which is such an exciting action film.  It stars Michael Madsen from so many different films from Reservoir Dogs which I loved and it is a dream come true to work on a film he stars in. 

Kimberly with Tara Reid on Bloodthirst

 

He was in War Games and all of the Tarrantino films including Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.  Also Costas Mandylor plays the Warden in this one and Jeremy Spencer from Five Finger Death Punch makes a cameo in this film too.  I just returned this past weekend from working on ENTERFEAR and it will be streamed live on HALLOWEEN, how cool is that!!!!!  I am doing an audtion tape for another Mahal Film, this one is a horror western so wish me luck!  I am trying to finish my screenplays and hoping to bring one of them to life within the next year.  I have several other film roles hopefully soon to be working on but they are top secret. 

Kim, what are you doing to relieve stress during this time of home lockdown?
 

Wow good question.  I like to read scripts in the jacuzzi.haha  True story.  I love to spend time wth my family who are also still locked down at our family compound in Jones, Alabama.  I also have gotten into doing Tai Chai which was advice which was given to me by Amy Allen from Dead Files.  She is an amazing lady and a true blue pure hearted and very talented Psychic.  She has a true gift from God. My husband Leo and I love to cook, so we are always trying out different recipes, we got on an Asian kick and  we cooked many delicious dishes from Madame Wong's delightful cookbooks.  Right now we are also making a lot of cool things that EMMYMADE does tutorials for like the Island Cake and Rhoald Dahl's Chocolate Cake recipe from MATHILDA.   I love to spend time with my Mummy who I am sole caregiver for.  She has first stage Alzheimers and is in a wheel chair from spinal injuries.  She is just a wonderful, delightful lady and I am sooooo lucky to have her as my Mummy.  I love to spend time with my son who was accepted at LMU in Germany but because of Covid 19 is having to start classes remotely, it is not what we had planned but he has been working for SEALAB on Dauphin Island in Alabama.  We used to be big travelers, we have been all over the World and we also were constantly traveling in the U.S.

Bloodthrist

But since Covid 19 we have learned that home really is where the heart
is.  It has been positive in many ways, bringing our family closer together.  Every cloud has a silver lining so to speak.

Dreams: what project or script or actor or actress would be a dream for you to get to work with?

Clinton I would love to work with you on a project, you are an amazing human being and so kind and helpful and full of life.  I really appreciate having met you.  Knowing you is a gift.  If you mean who would I like to work with like you stated DREAMS:  Actors or Actresses....hmmmm. Well I would love to work with Krystal Stevens Haven's again we worked together on Dead Clowns and Psycho Santa but it has been years and also Dawn DeVurger who is an amazing actress and also an amazing Special Effects Artist.  She just did my makeup on ENTERFEAR, actually she single handedly did over 60 special effects prosthetics and make up appliances and effects for one day of filming.  She is just truly an amazing and kind person.  I would love to work with Eric Spudic again, Jeff Dylan Graham also.  I love my film famly from all of the Steve Session's films.  He is just a really cool guy!  I miss working for him. 

I have always wanted to work with Linnea Quigley because she is beautiful inside and out and she is the reason I wanted to become an actress and a Scream Queen.  I love Brinke Steven's we worked together briefly in a film called House of Shadows that was never released.  Joe Bob Briggs because I adore him and always have!   I would just absolutely love to work with KANE HODDER!!!  Also Clint Howard!!!
  He is amazing.  I have to give a shout out to Darryl Goldberg who I was lucky enough to work with on Bridge of the Doomed and BLOODTHIRST!!!  If you ever need an actor for a knife fight scene Darryl is your man!!!  Also want to work with Rudy Ledbetter again, he is a master of promotion and a very nice guy.  I would absolutely love to work with Joe Castro and have him do special effects make up on me.  The man is a GOD when it comes to making monsters!!!

Count Gore de Vol

Kim, the classic question: what charity do you work with and can you provide a link to it so others can see too please. 

St Jude ALWAYS!  They are fantastic!  Also The Children's Hospital Burn Center of Birmingham, Alabama.  Both great charities.  Our Transmission Shop does a certain amount of free work each year for people who need their vehicles for work and cannot afford to have them fixed. 


 

 

A final question. What question do you wish I had asked?  And what would the answer be?

 
 I wish you had  asked: “ Kimberly What are your bank account digits?  I am going to bankroll your films.”hahah  Seriously:  I REALLY wish you had said to me:  “Kimberly I have been working on my time machine and I think I have it fixed to perfection, want to pick a time for us to visit?  YES CLINTON HOW ABOUT EGYPT 18th DYNASTY!  1,353 BC LETS GO!!!!

 

Bridge of the DOOMED

 

Imdb

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0170648/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t50

https://www.facebook.com/kimberly.zemke

Enterfear will be broadcast on WGUD 51 in Pascagoula Ms.  It is also supposed to be streamed on METV and the WGUD facebook streaming page.