Rob Zombie has a knack for giving great roles to iconic actors in the horror space, and The Devil’s Rejects is loaded with them. To name just a few, Ken Foree, Michael Berryman and of course, Bill Moseley, are all prominently featured in Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses sequel, but one horror legend turned down an offer to appear alongside them.
Speaking with Tom Holland’s Terror Time recently, The Fog and Creepshow star Adrienne Barbeau revealed that Zombie originally offered her a role in Rejects.
“I’ve turned down myriad roles. Sometimes after reading 20 pages of the script. And especially if the author hasn’t bothered to learn how to spell, learn correct grammar, and had someone else check for typos,” she told the site. “And then sometimes, in the horror genre, because they’re just too violent or gruesome or offensive for my taste. Listen, I turned down The Devil’s Rejects. Not sure I even read it all the way through, I just knew no matter how good it was and how fine a director Rob Zombie is (I later did one scene for him in his Halloween and loved working with him), it was not something I could do.”
Barbeau added, “I almost turned down Creepshow because I thought it was too bloody and gruesome. Until Tom Atkins clued me in on the comic book style George intended to use, and John Carpenter told me I’d be nuts to turn down the opportunity to work with George. I didn’t know. I don’t watch horror films. I’d never seen Night of the Living Dead.“
