Royal Reunion
Kimberley Kates and Diane Franklin played princesses Elizabeth and Joanna (‘the babes’) in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Opening up their most excellent photo album for Total Film, the still-close duo reminisce about chocolate, prom and English accents...
What do you remember about first meeting up to film Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure?
Kimberley Kates (Princess Joanna): We met for the first time in Arizona…
Diane Franklin (Princess Elizabeth): We met where we shot the prom. Bill and Ted did take us to the prom. Not many people know this, but they actually did. And they looked so adorable, because they cut their tuxedo pants at the knee and wore high-top sneakers. And I guarantee you, if that part of the film had been in the movie there would have been a siege of people going to their proms with cut-off pants.
KK: I just remember bingeing on a tonne of chocolate. Speaking of chocolate, I remember I discovered what I thought was the most amazing thing on the planet when we were filming in Italy. I ran around to Diane and Keanu and Alex: “I found the best chocolate in the world! It’s called Nutella!” Keanu’s like, “Oh, gosh, I know what that is. That’s not new, Kimberley.”
Was it tricky to do the English accents?
KK: I had a vocal coach, but I apologise, really, to the British people. I did have a British boyfriend, and I know how poor my accent was after being around him for a while. But I want to apologise to everyone in England, because my accent was so awful that I could only say, “Oh, that was a character choice that I had such a bad accent!”
DF: I’d done a lot of voice work. And when we did Bill
& Ted, I’d actually played an English character in a film before, so I was a little bit more confident. But obviously, I always work with dialect coaches when I get a part.
It looks like the film was a lot of fun to make – what are your memories of filming with Keanu and Alex?
KK: I do remember that we were playing around. We played hide-and-seek in the castle and that was crazy fun.
DF: Yes, we did! I remember that!
KK: Keanu was actually hiding. Finally, we found him. He was hiding in our bathroom. He popped out and I was in this granny underwear, and I was very embarrassed. I wasn’t so worried that he saw me in my bra and underwear. I was just horrified that I actually had this horrible underwear on!
DF: We shot the interiors in Rome and the castle was Castello Orsini. It was not England, which is sad, because we would have loved to have been in England. But Dino de Laurentiis did the production, and he had a deal so that’s how we were able to shoot there.
Have you kept in touch with the cast?
KK: I’ve known Alex and Keanu this whole time. Alex and Keanu stayed in contact, they maintained this great friendship this whole time. And I do think it helps the relationship of the movie. And it brings out this boyish fun that they still both have when they go into those characters. I’m really excited to see what they’re going to do with this third film, and if they maintain that same fun, magical, silly quality. Because the thing with Bill & Ted – you have to maintain a sense of innocence, a sense of wonder. That’s why it’s ‘be excellent to each other’. There’s no negativity. There’s no cynicism. As soon as you put the cynicism into that kind of quality of movie, it doesn’t work.
DF: Kim and I are still friends to this day. We actually have that relationship as princesses. We obviously wish that we were in Bill & Ted 3. That would have been most triumphant! But I think that for us, we’re just glad that we have our friendship from that first film.
BILL & TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE HAS BEEN FULLY RESTORED AND WILL BE AVAILABLE TO OWN ON 4K UHD, STEELBOOK, BLU-RAY, DVD AND DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FROM 10 AUGUST.