Mr. Beaks said:
Beaks: That actually leads me to my next question. You belong to a proud fraternity of performers who've acted in a gorilla suit. There's George Barrows, Charles Gemora... all the way to Bob Burns. I actually did a top ten list of my favorite gorilla suit gags, and you were on there twice: once for Dino in THE KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE and again for Sidney in THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING WOMAN. When's the last time you had a gorilla suit on?
Baker: I haven't had a gorilla suit on in quite a few years now. I actually think I had part of one on when we did the Ro-Man thing to look at something. It's hard work. (Laughs) It's kind of a thankless job. Any suit performer experiences that same thing. You're very aware that you have this suit on. You can't see very well, you can't breathe very well, and it gets really hot. You're uncomfortable, but nobody else is. When I did [KING KONG '76], I'd put the suit on as soon as I got to work and wear it all day long. I'd take it off for lunch, but then put it on again - sometimes for no reason whatsoever. But that's the way it worked. It was a really hot summer, and it was all bluescreen stuff in the old days of photochemical compositing. The whole crew had shorts on, half of them didn't have shirts on, and I'm in this suit.
I remember Bob telling me early on, "They don't treat you like a person when you have a suit on." He'd tell me stories of one guy trying to set him on fire, and another guy trying to throw lye on him. He also told me about a guy in a Tweety Bird costume at Magic Mountain getting rolled down a hill by some kids, so he ended up getting a great big hatpin. He'd keep it inside the costume, and if anyone would get too close he's [stick] them. You forget that there's a person in there. I'm glad I had those experiences, but I don't know that I'd do it for a film again. I'm too old and not in good enough shape.
Beaks: Will we ever see your version of The Creature?
Baker: I've done a number of designs for the Creature. At one point Landis was going to do it, and at another point Joe Dante and Mike Finnell were going to do it, and then John Carpenter was going to do it. The Carpenter one was the one that went the furthest; we actually did a whole bunch of designs and maquettes, and then that crapped out. The last time somebody talked to me about it was when Ivan Reitman had the film, but their thinking was so different from my thinking was that I didn't want anything to do with it. They were making it part-dinosaur, part-every fish in the world. It wasn't the Gill Man. I think if it's to be done today, it should be a CG thing. I can't believe I'm saying that, but the fact that all the underwater stuff is such an ordeal for a guy who has to breathe underwater, and then what happens to the costume. It seems perfect for a CG character. The thing is, the original Gill Man design is still so great. My designs for the Creature were kind of like my designs for the Wolf Man; it was very much based on a love for the original material, and trying to stay true to that in a lot of ways. I think we had a Creature that was updated, but you could still tell where it came from.
Beaks: I'd still love to see it.
Baker: Well, I'm doing this book on my career, and there are going to be some sketches in there, along with pictures of things no one has ever seen.
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