Sheri Moon Zombie made her feature film debut in her rock star husband Rob Zombie's first directorial project, surreal horror flick House of 1000 Corpses. But the Pennsylvanian blonde is best known to music fans as Zombie's muse and model, having appeared in most of the metal monolith's videos and also on his CD and promotional artwork. In 2004 she met a grisly end in Tobe Hooper's remake of Toolbox Murders, and now she's back on the big screen in Zombie's The Devil's Rejects, a gory road movie sequel to Corpses.

The Devil's Rejects is a very different film to House of 1000 Corpses. It's darker and much more convincing. How did this shift in style and content change your role as southern psycho Baby Firefly?

Rejects is way grittier than Corpses. Everything is done in a more realistic way, not campy at all. Baby is toned down in appearance, not so flashy, and you get to see more sides of her. It was the first time Baby had become a victim. It was about exploring how such a tough character could become vulnerable while she and her family were being hunted down.

In real life you're extremely mild-mannered but on screen you're so vicious. How do you become that?

I think everyone has some sort of dark side, but it is all just acting. I guess I would just think of awful things. Doing those [violent scenes] is not a rush or exhilarating. It's kinda disturbing and I always make sure the other actors are comfortable and ok. In Corpses the stabbing and scalping scenes were really difficult to perform - I guess if you enjoy doing something like that something's wrong with you!

Other horror movie actresses complain about how unpleasant it is working with fake blood. How did you find it?

It's just wet, cold and uncomfortable. Your hair and everything sticks to it. But it did taste good! There was like a chocolate cherry flavour to it.

Your character gets knocked about pretty badly, but did you suffer any real injuries?

I got quite bruised up and my right ear lost all hearing from a shotgun blast, but it was only temporary.

This is your third movie role, although you'd never acted before Rob cast you in Corpses. Was show business something you aspired to?

Everyone when they're a little kid says, "Oh I want to be a movie star. Oh I want to be a singer," but I never actively pursued it because I can't handle rejection. Anything I do, like even listening to my voice on an answering machine or a tape recorder, I'm like, "Oh my God, is that how I sound!" I always wanted to be a teacher when I was young, but I [ended up] waitressing, bar tending and I even worked in an insurance brokerage for a while.

You didn't even act at high school?

No, but I was a cheerleader. Though I quit because I wanted to smoke cigarettes and pot (which I don't do anymore).

So how did you hook up with Rob?

We met through a mutual friend in 1993. I then appeared in the video for [his then band] White Zombie's Feed the Gods. He wanted girls to wear his little leopard outfits and dance around. I hadn't done anything like that before and I was terrified. Although it was only nine o'clock in the morning I had to drink a few shots of vodka to go through with it.

Your next project is an animated film called El Superbeasto, about a Mexican wrestler who battles monsters, based on a comicbook by Rob. Are you going to keep on collaborating with your husband?

I think so. He likes to include me, and I like to be included in everything that he does. We don't get sick of each other, contrary to most other relationships in LA, so we have a lot of fun!

The Devil's Rejects is released in UK cinemas on Friday 5th August 2005.