Mel Heflin stars in BigBoobenstein

Crowdfunding campaigns are far from a rare sight on our timelines, feeds, and “for you” pages in the post-COVID age of social media (though, it’s unlikely that many genre filmmakers will remain with popular platform Indiegogo going forward, after the recent update to their content policy added content requiring an “18+” rating to their list of prohibited categories in October 2025). With a seemingly endless scrolling list of projects in all stages of production, one can be forgiven for letting the details of individual campaigns slip through the cracks. However, when a mutual friend shared the campaign for BigBoobenstein*, the feature film adaptation of the Jeff O’Brien novel of the same name, I stopped mid-doom scroll and shared the link with Chris Charles, who promptly contacted Mel about doing an interview, who promptly accepted and then even more promptly (in fact, we believe it’s a new record for response time) responded to his questions.

After more than a decade since the first BigBoobenstein novel was published, Adelaide DeCarlo is finally stepping out of the pages of Jeff O’Brien’s books and onto the screen. Bringing Adelaide to life is veteran indie film actress Mel Heflin.

With a long and impressive list of film credits to her name, not to mention voiceover work, Mel tells us that she felt a real connection to the character Adelaide and her and Jeff have had a film version in mind for almost two years and were just searching for the right director, whom they have found in Tyler Cheman (ALIVE: The Undead, Not Another Monster Movie, Little Green People).

CHRIS CHARLES: It’s great to finally have you here Mel. You’ve been on my radar for several years now, but this is you’re first appearance on the pages of Idol Features.
MEL HEFLIN: Hi there, thank you so much for having me. It’s a pleasure to come on and talk about something so very near and dear to my heart.
CHRIS: It was actually my colleague, Ashton Helton, who first saw and sent me the Indiegogo link to Big Boobenstein. She said she sees a lot of crowdsourcing links on her feed, but yours made her double back. So, will this character, Adelaide, be very firmly based on the character in Jeff O’Brien’s books or, or will the screen version stray from the books a bit?
MEL: As much as I love my hair color, I’ll be donning a wig for this and going as true to the story as I can. I absolutely adore Jeff O’Brien’s novel and want to completely do it justice! I feel I can pull off the black bob when my full makeup is done, but I’m hoping we don’t have to do a dye job. 
CHRIS: Have you read all the Big Boobenstein books?
MEL: I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t yet. I read for a living most days, voicing audiobooks, so it’s rare that I get to read solely for pleasure unless an audiobook already exists and I listen to it on my flights from set to set. I do have them on my lengthy to read list though.
CHRIS: Were you recently offered the part or has this been in the works for quite some time?
MEL: From the moment I read the book to narrate it, I felt like Adelaide was me, my younger self. I felt so deeply akin to her and told Jeff about some interesting coincidences I was amazed at in the story. There has never been any sort of character I had this kind of connection with. Jeff and I both had been searching for a director for nearly two years when we found Tyler, who had ALREADY read the books! We felt very lucky to have him want to work on this. He has some really wonderful ideas and cool ways to execute some things written.
CHRIS: You’re fairly well-endowed, but I assume from seeing the promo photos, you’ll be wearing a prosthetic device to “fill” the role of an augmented Adelaide?
MEL: Of course. The thing about this character people keep missing is Adelaide gets breast implants IN the film. I’ve heard some off-handed remarks in the theme of “Mel’s breasts aren’t big enough for that role,” when for the first third of the film the breast size of the character needs to be much more modest than they will be in the latter portion of the film. It’s much easier to go up with prosthetics, than down sizes. It’ll make sense and be worth the watch.

CHRIS: How long in makeup did it take for you to get transformed into Adelaide?
MEL: For just me doing it myself, or with my partner helping, it takes about five hours! I expect it to be half that and it will look much better under the skill of an FX artist when we film.
CHRIS: Did you have a hand in the selection your wardrobe?
MEL: For sure! I’m still carefully curating the wardrobe together. This film is set to be very stylized, think Rockabilly/Gothabilly. Adelaide’s colors are purple with a touch of black until she turns green, then we add on that apple green color into her palette. You should have seen my struggle when it came to figuring out lipstick. Red lips are such a staple for me, but it threw off the entire palette. I don’t have the final set pieces planned quite yet, but I have a lot of pieces to style into the final looks already.
CHRIS: You also do a lot of narration and voiceover work. Are you going to give Adelaide a unique sounding voice?
MEL: Very much so! If you listen to the audiobook, that will give you a taste. While the film will differ from the book slightly for readers to have something new to enjoy, the voice will be very similar.
CHRIS: You have a long list of acting credits, dating back to when you were 19(?), but would you say Adelaide may become your favorite character to play?
MEL: I love every movie I’ve worked on, I put a piece of my soul into each one. I always say “My favorite movie is the one I’m working on right now, but Adelaide is very, very special to me. This is one I really hope to be remembered for. This movie is for my younger self and for every young person out there who has ever felt like they aren’t good enough.
CHRIS: I know there’s a casting call posted and filming is slated for next spring. So far, several others, besides yourself, have already been cast. Have you worked with any of the other actresses who have been cast?
MEL: I have only acted alongside one of the other cast members in the lineup. Penny Aphrodite is amazing to work with. I love meeting new people, but there’s a charm in seeing your friends when you work on a movie. I am very much hoping that I will get to see more familiar faces join the cast though! Fingers crossed!
CHRIS: Is there anyone in particular you’d like to see join the cast?
MEL: For sure! Especially since this is how I want to be remembered, I’d love to be surrounded by my friends on this. I know our director is very busy focusing on his current feature making sure it gets proper attention before switching gears to Bigboobenstein, so I just have to wait along with the rest of the world to find out. I’ll be holding my breath until I’m green, so I hope the time passes quickly.
CHRIS: Are specific filming locations already decided upon?
MEL: I think mostly this is going to be in a studio. This is a large film and the weather in NY in April is not to be predicted. I believe we are playing it very safe this way. I have faith everything is good and set, I’ve seen the art department’s portfolio and am very impressed.

CHRIS: I assume this film is going to be campy, but also racy. If you were shooting for an MPAA rating, which would it be?
MEL: This is going to be an over-the-top style comedy-drama with horror elements. I know most indies don’t deal with MPAA ratings, but I would say at least an R rating. We are going to have dark psychological elements, as well as the violence and gore, we have some very real emotional elements with themes of abuse and mental health issues, but we are committed to handling this carefully while providing light-hearted moments to get you through to the other side.
CHRIS: One of your specialties is underwater modeling. Might we see Adelaide underwater in the film?
MEL: Oh gosh, wouldn’t that be fun! I’d do an entire film underwater if I could. Hear that Jeff? “Big Boobenstein 2: Adelaide and the Lost City of Atlantis”? I’m open to it, but I know it can blow up a budget which is why you don’t see me underwater often in films.
CHRIS: I did an interview several years ago with Patty Mullen of Frankenhooker fame, who often travels to appear at horror cons and events as her famous character. Are you prepared to do the same thing if BigBoobenstein becomes a cult favorite and fans want to see Adelaide in the flesh?
MEL: 100%! I would LOVE to come do in-costume meet and greets if the fans want it. As many as it takes. I really hope people will come to love this story as much as I do.
CHRIS: With that, I’ll thank you again for doing this Mel. In closing, any shout-outs to anyone?
MEL: Shout out to every single person who has helped me get to this point and every single person who joins me along the way! I also wanted to let everyone know to keep an eye out for the crowd-funder, we have some very special things coming that we personally haven’t seen before that I think you all will enjoy. 💚⚡