Satan's Slave: a part not taken
Nov. 30th, 1975 09:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
michael_gothard_archiveIn 1975, Michael Gothard was cast as one of the main protagonists, Stephen Yorke, in "Satan's Slave." This horror/sexploitation film involved occult ceremonies, rape and murder, and was filmed between 1 and 20 December 1975, on an extremely low budget.
Of the role of Stephen Yorke, Director, Norman J Warren said, "Michael Gothard (The Devils) was going to do our film, but right at the last minute, he backed out. We were in a desperate position so rang round some agents and they suggested Martin Potter ... He just became the character. It’s a part that if you got it wrong, it would be very silly, and it’s like a controlled madness. You just never know when he’s going to change.”
It seems like a role which - while Michael could have performed it to perfection - would have further cemented the type-casting which he wanted to avoid, as a villain with a touch of religion and a dose of insanity. Whether this, or one of his intermittent periods of depression, was the reason he pulled out of the role, is unknown.
It may be that this was the project to which his musician friend Xavier was referring, when he said that Michael "could go for weeks on end just not wanting to join the rest of the world, and that at one time he’d had to drop out of a project in the early stages, because he just couldn’t force himself to go to the studio."
The film seems to have been fairly grim to watch, and received mixed reviews.
Full article in Starburst magazine.
Of the role of Stephen Yorke, Director, Norman J Warren said, "Michael Gothard (The Devils) was going to do our film, but right at the last minute, he backed out. We were in a desperate position so rang round some agents and they suggested Martin Potter ... He just became the character. It’s a part that if you got it wrong, it would be very silly, and it’s like a controlled madness. You just never know when he’s going to change.”
It seems like a role which - while Michael could have performed it to perfection - would have further cemented the type-casting which he wanted to avoid, as a villain with a touch of religion and a dose of insanity. Whether this, or one of his intermittent periods of depression, was the reason he pulled out of the role, is unknown.
It may be that this was the project to which his musician friend Xavier was referring, when he said that Michael "could go for weeks on end just not wanting to join the rest of the world, and that at one time he’d had to drop out of a project in the early stages, because he just couldn’t force himself to go to the studio."
The film seems to have been fairly grim to watch, and received mixed reviews.
Full article in Starburst magazine.
