Back with “Scream Queen” P. J. Soles After Nearly 40 Years!
- andreasachs1
- Oct 30
- 5 min read
By Laurence Lerman / New York City
She may spend more time at fan conventions than on film sets these days, but P.J. Soles’s legacy remains vibrant. Bursting onto the scene in the late 1970s, she made an indelible mark on pop culture with unforgettable roles in Carrie (1976) and Halloween (1978), earning her status as one of cinema’s original “scream queens.” She showcased her punk-rock charm opposite The Ramones as Riff Randell in the cult favorite Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979),and her comic chops in box-office hits like Private Benjamin (1980) and Stripes (1981).
More than four decades and countless film and TV appearances later, Ms. Soles is mostly retired but still having a lot of fun. Fans still flock to see her at cons across the country, especially horror fans eager to meet Michael Myers’s final victim from the original Halloween, which is currently enjoying a limited theatrical re-release across the country.
I first met P.J. at a video convention in Las Vegas nearly 40 years ago, and she was exactly as you’d imagine–warm, animated, and utterly approachable. She laughed easily, fielded my barrage of fanboy questions with good humor, and seemed genuinely delighted to be there. That unforced enthusiasm has never left her; it’s the same spark that continues to draw fans to her table all these years later.
I jumped on the phone with P.J. a couple of weeks ago following her appearance at the Sinister Creature Con in Sacramento, Calif.
Laurence: Hello P.J.! Does anyone ever call you Pamela Jane, or not for a long time?
PJ: Every once in a while, I get a Pamela Jane from people.
Laurence: Whether it’s P.J. or Pamela Jane, I thank you for taking the time to speak with me.
PJ: Well, it’s October—my time of the year!
Laurence: I actually met you at the Video Software Dealers Association convention way back in 1987. I’ve got a great snapshot of the two of us.
PJ: Wow, a while ago. And I was at it back then, too!
Laurence: It’s one of my favorite pictures and not just because I had so much hair then. It’s been up on a bunch of my refrigerators over the years and so many people have seen it. The majority of them have said to me, ‘It’s you and Riff Randell!’ And a couple of years ago, I had one person say to me, ‘Hey, wasn’t she in [1978’s] Zuma Beach with Suzanne Somers?’
PJ: With Michael Biehn! That was my guy—we made out in the lifeguard shack and everything. Do you know who wrote that? John Carpenter!
Laurence: Right, before he directed Halloween.
PJ: And it was a made-for-TV movie. My mother made scrapbooks for everything I did on TV back then and I still have the TV Guide listing for it. She loved calling me Pamela Jane.
Laurence: I wanted to talk to you about appearing at fan conventions. They’ve come a long way since the one where I met you nearly forty years ago.
PJ: I used to go to maybe one or two a year—back then, it was actually weird to have celebrity appearances at some of them. But the kind of movies that people know me from have just grown in popularity—especially a movie like Halloween—so I regularly go to a handful of them. Grandparents and aunts and uncles showed the kids the movies when they were young, and now they’re grown up and they show them to their kids! It’s become a kind of tradition. Which is why it’s great that Halloween is back in theaters and people can see it on the big screen.
Laurence: What do your own kids think about it?
PJ: My kids have grown up and I now have five grandchildren. I know my kids were never all that excited about seeing my films, and my grandchildren haven’t seen any of them except for Rock ‘n’Roll High School. But they are thrilled that their nana has a Halloween action figure [from Fright-Rags.com]. And nana has some serious school cred when they say, ‘My nana knows Michael Myers.’ They’re both perfect little movies and I’m so glad they hold up.
Laurence: I imagine that fans bring some nutty items to conventions for you to sign.
PJ: Oh, yes. I only bring my 8 x 10s, but fans can bring posters and merch if they want. They show up with red baseball caps for my role in Carrie or telephones for Halloween [a cord of which Michael Myers uses to strangle her]. I guess the nuttiest is probably spatulas for Stripes...
Laurence: ...which Bill Murray uses on you for “the Aunt Jemima treatment!” Oh, I remember that!
PJ: Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects (2005) is another biggie.
Laurence: Do you ever get anyone asking about [the 1985 Patsy Cline bio-pic] Sweet Dreams?
PJ: Sometimes. I love that one.
Laurence: I remember asking you what it was like to work with Jessica Lange, who had just started dating [playwright and actor] Sam Shephard a year or so earlier. And you mentioned that she made sure that her relatively new boyfriend stayed far, far away from the set.
PJ: That’s true! She didn’t even really want to meet me. They put us in the same makeup trailer to get our hair done. I was there for three days and she wouldn’t even turn to look at me. And the girl who was doing my hair whispered to me, ‘She doesn’t want to get to know you because she doesn’t want to introduce you to Sam!’ I had just had a baby and I was happily married, so she shouldn’t have worried. But I was excited to be there.
Laurence: A bona fide backstage Hollywood story. And a long time ago…
PJ: It was! That baby I had is going to turn 42 this year!
Laurence Lerman is a film journalist, a former editor of Video Business--Variety's digital media trade publication—and husband to The Insider's own Gwen Cooper. Over the course of his four-decade career, he has conducted one-on-one interviews with just about every major filmmaker working today, from Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and Clint Eastwood to Kathryn Bigelow, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Werner Herzog. Most recently, he is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the online review site DiscDish.com, the founder and curator of FilmShul.com, a multi-part presentation on the history of Hollywood and Jewish America, and a commentator on various 4K UHD and Blu-ray home entertainment releases.