Exclusive Interview with E.G. Daily from "The Devil's Rejects"

Horror.com / Staci Wilson: I was talking with your costar in The Devil’s Rejects, Bill Moseley, and he was telling me about all these cool, fun scenes you did as Candy with him that didn’t make it into the movie.

E.G. Daily: It was really fun. It was the coolest stuff and I was kind of bummed it didn’t land in the film. But it’s pacing. Sometimes those things wind up in the DVD. It was pretty incredible stuff we shot.

Bill was saying that Candy had a menu…

Yeah, a little sexual menu! [laughs] I rode him, and we romped around. It was pretty insane. I hadn’t seen the first movie prior to doing ‘Rejects’ so I didn’t actually know how cool Bill was and what a great actor he is. All I know when I got on the set was that they sort of threw us together — I was just fascinated with how he looked, even. I hadn’t seen him without the makeup on, and the movie hair. As Otis, he’s like this amazing-looking Jesus-character. That made it easy to work with him, because I felt like I was lost in an odd little world with him. Most of the cool stuff I shot with Bill was really magical. I remember laughing a lot with him.

You also work with Ken Foree in the movie. Did you know him beforehand?

No. No, I didn’t. I didn’t know any of them. I literally just showed up on the set and he was immediately my ‘Big Daddy.’ We hit it off right away. Physically, he’s just a big, tall man and that’s fun in itself [because I’m so tiny]. I was Candy, his main little hooker girl! [laughs] We had a good time, he and I. There was nothing not fun on that movie. Rob was amazing.

You also work with Deborah Van Valkenburh.

Oh, I did know her before. We did a movie called Streets of Fire together. It was fun to catch up.

I love your outfit in the movie. Was it fun to pick stuff out to wear for the brothel scenes?

The wardrobe woman, Yasmine Abraham, the minute I walked onto the set she was just totally into it. She basically had a ton of ideas and she laid a bunch of clothes out for me. We tried on a lot of outfits, but it was pretty obvious which ones would work because Candy is sort of a little baby-dollish character. The little shorts and risqué things [worked].

Between wearing the wardrobe and looking at Bill Moseley’s face, I was just lost on this other planet! [laughs] It made it real easy to act in that film.

How were you cast?

I didn’t end up reading for ‘Rejects’ at all. Supposedly they called my agent months before and asked if I’d be interested in coming in for that; then time passed and I didn’t hear anything more. One morning I suddenly got a last-minute call, asking if I was still interested and would I show up on the set that day?

Wow. That sounds exciting — just to go for it like that.

That’s kind of how it always works for me. It’s always these sudden, last-minute, magical things. My agent got me the sides, and I really liked what I saw. She asked me, ‘Are you sure you want to do it?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah!’ As I was leaving her office, she said, ‘Oh, by the way it’s being directed by Rob Zombie’ — and that totally kicked it over for me. So it was literally a two-hour deal. From reading the sides, to driving out to Canyon Country to play Candy.

You really run the gamut in your roles, playing everything from cuddly cartoon characters to murderous hookers to moms. How do you ground each performance in reality?

They are have their own reality. I really think of each character as a different person. Even in the cartoons — Tommy Pickles is different from Buttercup. Who’s different than Candy; who’s different than Joanne Kramer. Everybody becomes their own person, so I don’t really… I just think of everybody as a different person and it gets easier and easier over time. They all become very defined in my head — everybody has a specific place where they live in me, and I don’t confuse them.

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Interview by Staci Layne Wilson