Roger Corman, director My Edgar Allan Poe adaptations began in 1960 with The Fall of the House of Usher. I held off doing The Masque of the Red Death, because I felt it had some similarities to Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, with its hooded figures, and I might be accused of copying. But it got to the point where it was the best unadapted one left, so I thought I’d go ahead and worry about it later. What interested me was Vincent Price’s character, Prince Prospero, who believes God is dead and therefore he is free to do whatever he wants – to be his own God. I could also see a little bit of the 1960s counterculture in the idea of the Red Death plague sweeping the country, with Prospero and his followers holing up in a castle. Part of the counterculture at the time was about rebelling against authority and pointing out how the elite was able to protect itself at the expense of the people. I never had anyone else but Vincent in mind for Prospero. He was highly educated and cultured, and had been a leading man when he was younger. But he was also just a bit offbeat, making him ideal to play intelligent, cultured but tormented men. My previous Poe adaptations had done especially well in England. So Anglo-Amalgamated, the company that distributed them, suggested I go there to make Masque. English subsidies meant I had a larger budget – about $400,000 – and a longer schedule. Shooting there also meant we got Nicolas Roeg on board, who did a beautiful job of the photography. Hazel Court, who played Prospero’s mistress, didn’t have any reluctance enacting the satanic rites. It was a great moment for her when she marries Satan and falls into a delirium. She took over the picture at that moment. On the other hand, Jane Asher had that youthful, innocent quality as the peasant girl Francesca. One Friday, she brought her boyfriend, a musician, to the set. I had no idea who he was. That Sunday, I saw a headline in the paper: “The Beatles conquer London!” I realised her boyfriend was Paul McCartney. I saw him a few years ago at Vanity Fair’s Oscars party and said to my wife: “He’s never going to remember me.” But he came over, smiled and said: “Masque of the Red Death!” The hostility the film received from the US Catholic Legion of Decency came as a total surprise. I’m a lapsed Catholic myself. We had to make cuts for blasphemy and nudity, and the film was censored even more heavily in the UK. But I’m being asked to talk about it a great deal at the moment, with the pandemic. I’m told ratings on streaming platforms are sky-high. The Red Death plays almost as if it were about the coronavirus. And Prospero’s behaviour – shutting himself away in the castle – is not dissimilar to our former president’s. Jane Asher, actor I loved horror films and was a fan of Poe and Vincent Price, so I jumped at it. I think Roger had seen me in other things: I had been in a TV version of Romeo and Juliet with David Weston, who ended up playing my boyfriend in Masque. Being an incarnation of Christian goodness wasn’t something that came naturally to me. As a confirmed atheist, I was definitely playing against type. Roger helped shape my performance with kindness, humour and encouragement – not always the way directors use their power, especially with a 17-year-old. Vincent was a funny, kind, fatherly figure to me. What I most picked up from him was the ease, enjoyment and sense of fun with which he approached every day. I remember walking through the beautiful coloured rooms, in my wonderful medieval dress and elaborate hairstyle, and loving every minute of it. But I hated doing the bath scene, where I’m prepared for Prospero’s court. They stuck some awful little modesty circles on to my nipples and they kept floating off in the water. I’d reach for them wildly and try to stick them back on. It drove the camera operator crazy, as he had to keep cutting the shot. I could sense his impatience with this silly girl, which made me all the more anxious. John F Kennedy’s assassination happened during our schedule. I have sad memories of standing for a minute’s silence. It was shocking for Roger and the other Americans on set. Today the film has obvious parallels, of course, though I guess the Red Death, with blood oozing out of every pore, is nearer to Ebola than to Covid. A restored and extended version of The Masque of the Red Death is available on Blu-ray, DVD and digital.