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Now, Johnson is back to tell-all in his five-volume(!)
memoir,Rubberhead: Sex, Drugs, and Special FX.
Credit: Courtesy of Steve Johnson
Most people who write autobiographies manage to relate the story of their lives in a single book.
Are you kidding me?
says Johnson, 57.
Dont you think people want to hear about that?
Youve got the photos, youve got the ups, the downs, the drugs, the sex.
Youve got it all!
I could go on for ten or fifteen volumes.
I think were cutting it short at five!
I really enjoyed working with Michael, he says.
Michael was very unassuming, very child-like.
Not intimidating at all.
Just a really really really sweet man.
Im not glamorizing anything, he says.
The Houston-raised Johnson caught the fantasy bug early via Forrest J. AckermansFamous Monsters of Filmlandmovie magazine.
I could not believe my eyes, says Johnson.
That makeup is flawless.
The intricacies its just so beautiful.
But it wasGhostbusters and the grinning monstrosity, Slimer which put him on the map.
It was a real trial by fire, says Johnson.
I thought, Ill sculpt the fking smile-with-arms, a big blob, and theyll love it.
But it was months of sculpting, and resculpting.
Put ears on him!
Take the ears off!
It was a goddamn nightmare.
Can you do it?
Im like, Yes!
I hadnoidea how to do this.
It was basically impossible.
But I figured it out, with James help.
Ineverthought it would end.
And if ILM had not done thosegoddamndigital dinosaurs inJurassic Park, it probably would have squeezed out another way.
But that was the beginning of the end.
Digital technology started rearing its ugly head and began to systematically stomp our business out with its hobnail boots.
Deeply in debt, Johnson decided to sell off his assets and relocate to Costa Rica.
Basically, I lost twenty million bucks in one day, he says.
I probably went temporarily insane.
I had outstanding loans of two or three million dollars.
Everything I owned was really the banks equity on the loans.
So, what I did is, I robbed myself.
Id never written a book, he says.
I pick up my pen and paper, and go, St, what do I write about?
All the big publishers really liked it, but they all had notes, he says.
You want me to destroy my book?'
I found his dead body, says Johnson.
He will also cover his marriages to horror icon Linnea Quigley andUnREALstar Constance Zimmer.
Theres a funny story about meeting Linnea Quigley on the set ofNight of the Demons, he says.
Looking forward, Johnson says he hopes to divide his time between publishing and Hollywood.
As much as I bitch about the effects industry, and the digital takeover, Ilovethis st. Ilovecreating characters.
I cant get away from itno matter how hard I try.
The book is also available to buy atAmazon.
