She recalls once loaning a dress to a friend. The friend returned it apologetically, with a stain that couldn’t be removed. Always looking for the simple solution, Lisa simply "demoted" the dress, from ‘light evening wear’ to ‘daytime sundress.’
"If you can’t afford to lose it, don’t loan it," says the actress-webmaster, exhibiting no disappointment, comfortable with her own generosity.
It’s the same spirit she brings to the schoolchildren in her building, who, drawn to her because she’s played in movies that are perennial high school classics, find themselves staying, entranced with Lisa’s innovative Web creations, which, though carefully organized, have their own edgy sensibility.
You can see it in her home as well. Several of the walls in her apartment, for example, are in the middle of being fully stripped, the remaining paint creating surreal shapes and colors. There is also an antique chest of drawers that is completely empty, a peekaboo tribute to her stylish minimalism.
Brandishing her new state-of-the-art digital camera, she shoots pictures to record our interview for her Web site, where they will join images of various gatherings she’s hosted, from international film festivals to avant garde salons.
She may be a cult movie queen, but her films do not always end happily. "I died in Part Three. Toxic Avenger throws a school bus on me and then the Wicked Witch of Tromaville (that’s our heroine) dies."
But in Hollywood even death can be overcome by commercial success, and Lisa’s role will be given new life for the sequel.
"They’re going to resurrect me. I think it would be nice if I started dying in all the films and coming back. I didn’t die in ‘Terror Firmer’ though, which is coming out in a couple of months."
That’s a story about making a film, and as so often happens in this campy celluloid world, there’s a serial killer on the set.
But this is Tromaville, where the serial killer (think cereal as in corn flakes) is unlike any other. "There is this scene where one of the victims gets cereal all over him. All these New York people were in ‘Terror Firmer’ Richard Johnson, myself, Anthony Haden-Guest and others all did little cameos. That made it a lot of fun."
The aggressively competitive world of films has helped shape our heroine’s perspective. "For a lot of people," she observes, "anger is a big problem. Society supports and accepts that attitude. They didn’t have to get to their success by spiritually attacking other people, sending angry, debilitating words or actions towards them.
"You can be successful without that. Yet most people choose that road. It’s an unnecessary choice the world perpetuates over and over, in literature, through the school system, the parental system, the media.
"But I have a lot of hope. I talk to reporters and others all the time about my career, and sometimes people can’t understand when I go off on a tangent like I’m doing now. Tromaville movies actually have a lot of this philosophy in them, if you’re equipped to see it. If not, you can just be entertained by the insanity.
"It’s really that simple. That’s what I like about Troma."
Going online has brought her a lot more fan mail, both local and international. "I’m also getting a lot of requests for autographed pictures and T-shirts. A few people write me cute e-mails, and I send them something.
"Another way it has changed my life is that people I met at, say, a film festival years ago, find me again through the Web. So it’s bringing a lot of people into my life that I didn’t have before.
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