Marie Grosholtz was born in 1761, a Swiss orphan raised in France.
Almost nobody would recognize her name, let alone know her life story.
Carey spoke with EW about Grosholtz, his own childhood, and working in her museum.
Credit: Colin McPherson/Corbis via Getty Images; Riverhead Books
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You said you took 15 years to finish this book.
That took me a long time.
Just standing beside the waxworks that she made herself, it was amazing.
He turned Marat into a Christ-like figure, and he was a terrifying monster.
Her life is amazing.
She brought them back from death.
And its kind of crazy.
I think its one of the strangest attractions in the world.
Like the one in Washington has all of the presidents.
But the one in New York seemed to be a temple to beautiful people.
She had all sorts of strange-looking people, and people are strange!
Like, Look at humanity!
Now you could see us from a distance, because were wax.
So what became popular was severed heads.
In London, theres an entire wax Chamber of Horrors with murderers, right?Yes!
It is so terrifying!
You know, working there, having to stand beside Charles Manson for an afternoon is not pleasant.
I wouldnt recommend it.
But also you have Marat murdered down there, and Burke and Hare, the Scottish body-snatchers.
And most of us tip somewhere in between.
Whats incredible about seeing her waxworks is theyre like stations of her life.
She did know these people, she cast them from life.
And she was there when the revolution broke out, just before the storming of the Bastille.
She was absolutely sat in history.
They definitely cast Voltaire; Franklin, Franklin was around and quite liked to have his face taken.
Since she did, she almost gave me permission.
Shes sort of the French Revolutions Baba Yaga.
They seem like theyre too far back in history somehow.
Whereas the Victorians we can feel.
That she died just, just before photography captured her.
Its a different medium; shes wax.
But she gives you history, in technicolor.
Though I love the mispronunciation of it as two swords.
Im small, but shes much smaller.
And the stench afterwards of burnt wax was amazing.
I felt like I would never get it out of my soul for the rest of my life.
