Actress Diane Franklin’s approach to conventions, fandom ahead of this weekend’s Slash and Bash

Diane Franklin. // image courtesy the actress

Depending on your genre preferences, actress Diane Franklin might be known to you as some very different characters. Those who love comedies know her as one of the princesses in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure or Better Off Dead‘s foreign exchange student Monique Junet. Horror fans recognize her from Amityville II: The Possession or TerrorVision, with the real heads having caught her in the syndicated series Freddy’s Nightmares: Nightmare on Elm Street: The Series.

She’s been in the iconic drama The Last American Virgin and TV series ranging from Matlock to Encyclopedia Brown.

This isn’t merely to list her IMDB credits, but to show that, for the better part of the late ’80s into the early ’90s, Diane Franklin was omnipresent. Once she married her husband, animation writer Ray DeLaurentis, in 1989, Franklin took a bit of an acting break to be a mom, returning to the screen in the late ’00s and has been making regular appearances in genre film ever since.

Franklin is a regular name on the lists of celebrities one can find at conventions, and thanks to her varied resume, she appears at pop culture cons, horror conventions, ’80s shows, and more, meaning she has a unique perspective from her seat at the table, signing autographs, taking pictures, and meeting fans, so we hopped on the phone with her ahead of her appearance at this weekend’s Slash & Bash Horror and Sci-Fi Movie Festival at the Woodshed in Topeka.

“I’m really fortunate that I’m able to go to a lot of different types of conventions just based on my past work,” says Franklin. “And I have to tell you, it’s so fun. I think it’s just because I’ve been acting for so long and I appreciate doing conventions and being remembered for the films, because not everybody is remembered.”

Even if you are extremely famous, Franklin continues, you may not be remembered because a new generation is always emerging. She recalls that, at one of her first conventions, the actress Karen Black– Oscar-nominated and winner of a Golden Globe for her role in Five Easy Pieces, to say nothing of her iconic appearance in the TV movie Trilogy of Terror–was sitting at a table, on her phone, and no one came up.

“She’s done so much other work and she was so beautiful and that is, to me, the sad part of the business,” Franklin laments. “The part of the business that, as you get older, you have to just stomach. When you’re performing, it’s not your job to decide if you’re going to be popular or not. You just have to do a good job.”

At a certain point in the acting game, Franklin says, it’s interesting–history changes, and what an actor thought might be their most iconic role becomes something totally different. She points to the fact that, while ’80s conventions have seen a bit of a boom in the last five to ten years, that won’t last long.

“Because that has to do with the audience, you know?” posits Franklin. “As the audience gets older, it’ll shift over to the ’90s, and although there will always be people who love the ’80s, it’ll become more niche.”

Over her time on the convention circuit, Franklin has noticed that there’s a growing mix of who appears at what. Why she’s been to horror conventions and ’80s cons and general pop culture events, the actress says that, when those booking think outside the box, it’s when things get really interesting and you get to discover the careers of folks you might never have thought of when you go.

A perfect case in point was Franklin appearing at a Dr. Who convention.

“I have nothing to do with Dr. Who,” Franklin notes. “It was so bizarre, but the reason why I got in was because of Bill and Ted and the time travel, which was so refreshing to the audience because they were so excited to see me. They only see Dr. Who people. So when they saw me, they were like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so much fun. We get to see somebody who is not somebody we would normally spend our money to go see as a group!’”

In addition to meeting fans both expected and unexpected, what Franklin has come to love about appearing at conventions is getting to meet some folks who get her excited, which are those folks who are older than her, and who she watched growing up.

Franklin has discovered, however, that the older generation might not know who she is.

“You’re gonna look at the people you grew up with, but you’re not blown away by the younger ones,” she notes, although it was a younger person and their fandom who got her started doing conventions in the first place.

When she was 13, Franklin’s daughter, Olivia DeLaurentis, was a huge fan of Flight of the Conchords. Franklin and her daughter went to see them, went backstage, met Conchord Jemaine Clement, and Olivia got a picture with him.

“I had a regular camera at the time and the battery died on the flash,” Franklin laughs, recalling. “And she, very calmly at 13, looked at me in the eyes and goes, ‘Turn the battery around.’ It was just something I’ll never forget–the intensity in her eyes about wanting to have this picture. It was so important to her, and I needed to get that one picture.”

The picture was acquired, Olivia printed it out, framed it, and placed it on her wall. It meant so much to her daughter, Franklin thought that maybe the work she’d done would mean something like that to someone else, and that’s what kickstarted it.

The first one was just Franklin sitting nervously at a table with photos to sign and wondering if anyone would have any idea who she was, but since then, she’s discovered ways to make sure that happens. At her first convention, the actress immediately recognized actor Tom Lester, who portrayed handyman Eb Dawson on Green Acres, and that was because he was dressed as his character, complete with hat and jacket.

“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I totally recognize you,’” recalls Franklin. “And that’s a very exciting thing, to be recognized in the moment at your table, where people see you and they know you.”

Diane Franklin in Better Off Dead.

To that end, when Franklin goes to a convention, she’ll make her hair darker or wear her jacket from Better Off Dead so that people go, “Yes, that’s her!”

“I want them to know so that they get that feeling that was bringing back that memory,” the actress continues. “Everyone has a different deal, but for me, my goal is to make somebody feel better when they leave my table. I want people to have a better day because they met me.”

Franklin has signed everything from movie soundtracks to a replica edition of the car from Better Off Dead, and never ceases to be amazed at what a treasure trove exists in terms of movie memorabilia.

“I think the most interesting thing was I had a gentleman come to me and he had signatures all over his body and he asked me to sign his hip,” says Franklin with no small amount of amazement. “I signed with a marker, and then he has it tattooed later. He said to me, ‘I don’t have money, but my signatures on my body are valuable to me.’”

The fact that this gentleman carries his memories with him forever, Franklin found rather amazing and special, and loves the fact that she got to have that extraordinary experience and direct connection. there. There are, however, some things the actress won’t sign, and while sometimes it has to do with the subject matter of what she’s being asked to sign, occasionally it’s just that she can sense when someone is being legit and when they’re not.

“When they’re doing something that is inappropriate or when they’re doing something that is maybe even dangerous, I can sense it,” Franklin firmly states. “All actors have to do that and, luckily, as an actor, you do sense things because that’s your job, so you’ve gotta pick up the vibe.”

While Franklin has had to have security come over and help her, she says that most fans are great, hilarious, and funny and bring such joy.

“Fans will help other fans out,” she says. “If you need a picture taken, you’ll go to a total stranger, ‘Can you take this photo?’ and people will do it at these conventions without blinking an eye.”

Some fans want signatures, some fans want conversation, and some just want to say hi, but Franklin says that, to her, “It’s about the human experience of being me, being appreciated, but also acknowledging them. Conventions are where you meet your people.”

If you go to a horror convention, you’re going to meet other horror people. You’re going to a comedy convention, you’re going to meet those people. What’s wonderful about that, says Franklin, it that aside from meeting the actors, you’re going to be in a world which you’re going to feel very at home and you’re going to meet great people. That goes in all kinds of ways, continues the actress, in that she’s not only meeting the people who are her fans, but also meeting her peers.

“I started doing conventions and I started telling my friends like, ‘Conventions are really fun now,’” she continues. “A lot of the actors that I worked with had not done them yet. In fact, conventions when I was younger, were considered the graveyard of your career and that has changed immensely.”

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

From there, Franklin started getting fellow Better Off Dead cast members Curtis Armstrong and Amanda Wyss in the mix, as well as Bill and Ted‘s other princess, Kimberley LaBelle, into the mix, and once there, discovered an amazing thing when she started going up to her ’80s movie peers whom she admired and telling them she loved their work.

“It was something that I couldn’t do as a young person,” Franklin admits. “When you’re young, you’re competing and you’re going on auditions, so you’re not able to go up to other actors who’ve worked because the tension’s high because you’re up to competing against them but now, as an older actor, you’re able to be a comrade and say, ‘Wow, we worked so much in our lives and I admire your work.’”

Suddenly, there’s a mutual admiration and sincere love for each other’s work, and Franklin has made so many friends with whom she was once competitive.

“I have a bunch of actresses and friends from these conventions,” Franklin says. “We learn from each other and we can help each other. We’ve done such a wide variety of work and I just think it’s a beautiful thing. It’s like high school. Maybe some people, at high school, you’re not gonna hang out, but wouldn’t it be cool if you have your reunion? This is kind of like our reunions, you know?”

Returning to where we started our conversation, I revisit asking Franklin about her versatility and what she considers her brand.

“Branding–we never had the word ‘branding’ growing up in the ’80s,” the actress replies. “To me, branding is such a niche world. But to me, as a person, I have never been–my center is creativity. My center is versatility.”

That is why, when you look at Diane Franklin’s work, it is so different at nearly every step of the way because she was not just one person, the actress says.

“I was not just a horror, I was not just the sexy, I was not just the wholesome, I was not,” she states emphatically. “I’m all of it, but I don’t expect people who like Last American Virgin to like Encyclopedia Brown. That’s just who they are.”

People can say what they feel, because Diane Franklin understands.

“Even with Virgin, people are like, ‘I hated you,’” Franklin acknowledges as we end our chat. “And I get that. I’m not somebody who’s offended. That’s a character and I didn’t even like myself in that movie, you know? I’m like, ‘Man, I can’t believe I did that.’ It should be fun. That’s where I come from. It’s enough difficulty in the world and hardness that I really wanna bring my audience to a place where they can relax and bring back their own memories.”

Diane Franklin appears at the Slash & Bash Horror and Sci-Fi Movie Festival at the Woodshed in Topeka this Friday, October 3, and Saturday, October 4. Details on that show here.