LYT's Weblog

First question: when do you sign the likeness deal to get one of these [an action figure], or have you already?

No, I haven’t signed any likeness deals, I haven’t signed anything, really, there’s nothing on paper, this thing never happened, so, uh, it doesn’t exist...If anybody licenses that wardrobe, I had something to say about that, so I better get a piece of that action

Was this project all together when you were attached, or did you help collaborate on it a lot?

It was surprisingly in collaboration - I thought that since it seemed to be such a full-steam ahead type deal, that I was just gonna get plugged in, but I was given a surprisingly great deal of influence over who the character was, both behind the mask and mask-off. I was thrilled to have a say in what the look of him was, what the general demeanor of the character was.

What was some of the research you did -- and didn’t -- do as far as slasher characters go?

I still have not seen the Halloween movies, any of ‘em, all the way through - I’ve seen bits and pieces, obviously, here and there. I’ve seen Friday the 13th part one; none of the others. I’ve seen Nightmare on Elm street 1-3, because when I was 13 years old, I went up to Washington state where my uncle had a video rental place, and that’s basically all I did for 3 days was watch movies...but yeah, I don’t gravitate towards horror films -- they scare the shit out of me! I don’t go and see horror films, generally speaking, but my sister in law who’s 18, she goes to see all of the new ones, and she’s grabbed me to a couple, and I love them because it’s such a visceral experience, that you don’t get with too many films, it’s a type of experience where two hours later, you’re not in the same place that you were when you came into it...it changes you and it effects you, even if it’s just on a kind of ...uh...what’s the word for ‘getting excited’...I mean, I remember Pet Sematary, which I read from some sources is kinda dated now if you watch it, but I remember watching that movie twice, because there were a couple moments - one where a kid got hit by a car, and another when a cat jumped out of a tree - it was just a cat jumping out of a tree, but it just hit me so hard, oh and the sister in the attic was fucking freaky. Stuff like that just really gets your heart pumping, and so I have a great reverence for horror films, but I think it’s almost too much of a reverence, it’s like people who live inland, who have never gone to the ocean. Because the waves, you know, they’re afraid of the power of the waves? Yeah, that’s kinda me with horror films.

So having seen the first three Nightmare movies, how does it feel to try to track down and kill Robert Englund onscreen?

Awesome! It feels awesome. I was so grateful to Robert Englund for his involvement with the film. He was such a sport from beginning to end. I did a show down in South Coast Repertory, a play, and he came to see it, I didn’t expect that he would be in attendance at all, but just the fact that this guy who I’d done a film with for a few days would go out of his way to come and see a project I was involved with and support me like that, I’m so blown away.

For someone who’s afraid of visceral experiences, it’s funny that you’re perhaps best known for chainsawing your own arm off on TV’s Invasion.

I love being asked to do things that are completely...people always tell me that I’m intense, when they meet me, that there’s something intense about me, which I’ve never understood, I’ve always felt like a pretty mellow guy, but I always gravitate and make choices as an actor that verge on intense, so I guess that’s what they’re talking about. I just really get turned on by stuff that’s really, um, the more dramatic side of nature. That’s just what I feel alive doing. I dunno, I guess it’s the same kinda thing that happens when I’m watching movies, when I have a visceral experience with it...I dunno (laughs)

Was it evident in the material that the film would get as many laughs as it does?

It was a total surprise. I really put into it what I thought my sense of humor was, and I could tell from the gestational stages of it, even when Scott [Glosserman] was casting the thing, I got this bizarre call from him even before I got the role, he’s like “it’s down to you and another guy. I saw the guy, I’ve got some history with him, and I think he’s really good and he made some great choices and he’s a great actor but you did something that was totally different than anything else I’d seen, and it’s actually making me have to rethink this whole movie, because I was taking it down this road of Waiting for Guffman-esque type thing, and now you’re making me think that it could actually be scarier, but still be funny. And I remember telling him, yeah, I think that this movie can be really really scary, and I think it should be really really scary, but I think that it should also be funny, and I think it can be both, and I think that with the right sensibility, it could straddle both of those worlds and make them equally effective and legitimate, legitimize both of them, ground them in a kind of truth that would make both of them totally right and totally believable, and I was gratified to see that once it got in front of an audience of people, and people started responding to it laughing, I was like ‘oh my god that was awesome’

I got a call from South by Southwest, from Brit on my cellphone, he called me at 4 different points throughout the film, and he just held the cellphone up so that I could hear the audience response to my favorite parts of the movie and I left the phone on and I just sat there -- I think it was actually during an episode of Invasion, that he called, so my wife’s watching this episode of Invasion, and I’m sitting here listening to this movie playing during south by southwest and I was just like, oh my gosh people are totally getting my sense of humor, this is crazy, I’m so grateful that I’m not a weirdo. [laughs] I’m a total weirdo, but everybody else is a weirdo too! That enjoys these movies.

Well look at the audience you’re playing to - I don’t discount myself from this. What I liked about this movie as opposed to Scream is that it doesn’t just point out the clichés, but it actually subverts them in a meaningful way.

I’ve seen a lot of comments about that online, from blogs and reviews and stuff like that. I’ve never seen scream - I’ve seen scenes but I’ve never seen the movie, and that seems to be the one movie that it’s really being compared to, that and Blair Witch, but yeah, I thought that there was such an intellect that was applied to the script, that I actually felt total freedom not to have to, y’know, there was a certain amount of investment that I felt was required in pulling off the character because he was referencing so many of the standard conventions of horror, like I had to have a grounding in that in order to pull it off. But I didn’t feel like it was important to me to know really the specifics, because I felt like Scott and David had taken care of it all with the script, it felt like the script was so grounded already, and I didn’t really feel like I felt like a lot of the work was already done in the script. All I had to do was really embody it in a convincing way, and not forget the words, and then I’d be able to do my part.

It’s a very physical role - did they test you physically in order to get this role?

Oh no - I’m totally glad that you appreciate that, because that’s just something that I gravitate towards, as an actor, I love physical stuff, I’m just a very physical person, and with this movie, it was my first film, and I just got an opportunity to do everything. I got to do dialogue, I got to do physicality, I got to do acting on front of 35mm camera, I got to do acting in front of DV, I got to do everything, I covered the entire fucking gamut in, I dunno, 70% of the film, I just got to do what I wanted to do, and it was phenomenal, because there was so much leeway given to me to, if I had an idea, just to try it, and this movie, what I’m grateful for, is that it’s the epitome of an independent film, it’s everything that independent films have strived towards.

This film from the beginning was completely independent, and the whole spirit behind the independence of this film was Scott Glosserman, who’s such a smart fucking guy, and he put a team together that was methodical and it’s funny that it’s been such a slow process, it’s been over two years since we shot the first frame of this , but in all that time, every decision that was made along the way was really carefully considered, and intelligently reasoned, and it’s gotten the film to where it is now.

The entire third act of the movie was not part of the original planning -- at what stage was it added?

That was all done before I was attached. That was actually one of the last steps that they had taken before they had gotten into the process of casting, and I thought that felt for me the finishing stroke, for knowing that I was getting involved in the project and it would actually be something, when I read....I was really intrigued by the fact that this film was gonna bounce between filmic convention and DV realism, and that was something that was like, I’ve never seen anything like this, this totally turns me on, and sets this project apart from anything I’ve ever seen, it’s got potential to really touch a nerve, and I think what it came out of is that David had a really great script, and Scott had a really well-versed conception of the horror genre.

I got a call a couple of days ago from Scott, he gets great ideas. ...’OH, I got an idea! We’re gonna do the DVD commentary. EXCEPT, you’re gonna do it in character, you’re gonna do it as Leslie, and Taylor’s gonna be there, and Todd’s gonna be there, and blablablabla” and I’m like, ‘Scott, Todd’s dead, at the end of the movie’ He’s like “Yeeeahhhh....shit...I hadn’t thought it through...but it’s still a good idea right?” “I’m like, yeah, it’s a great idea” he’s like, “ okay, well...the ball’s rolling. Reserve this date, and I’ll give you a call once I talk to Angela”

There have been a lot of really strong horror movie performances recently -- yours, Tobin Bell in the SAW movies, Angela Bettis in MAY, Marc Senter in THE LOST, but they don’t get a lot of respect -- Anthony Hopkins won the Oscar for Silence of the Lambs, but nothing since then -- but by the same token, you’ve guaranteed that whatever else happens, you can always go to conventions and sell headshots for $20 any time you want.

Part of the reason why I don’t go see horror films is because, no disrespect, but what I feel comes to me from promotion and what I gather over internet-speak that I’m now privy to because of the film...it just feels to me like there’s a desire to capitalize on a market, a group that is really, that respects the genre and has such a reverence for it, and I feel like so many of the projects are just witless. It seems to be from what I watch that it’s just a machine, it seems like we know that there’s a target group that’s gonna respond to this, we put out a film that covers X Y and Z, and we’ll be able to make such and such a figure, and that’s gonna cover us until, y’know, 2007, 2008 maybe, and then we’re gonna crank out the next deal, and it just breaks my heart, that there’s not the same kind of passion, heart, and intelligence and cleverness put behind each horror venture or slasher venture. It feels to me like it’s a group that’s taken advantage of, more than just about any other kind of genre.

Scott Wilson plays a mentor figure to your character in the movie. Did that translate to real life, with the relationship between you as actors?

Totally. Scott’s...uh...I wanna fuck Scott. No, I just said that because I drank beer. But he’s really an incredible guy. You know, he’s really the first time that I saw a real manifestation of something that years ago had been like a breakthrough concept for me of what it is to be a true professional actor, which he embodied. He flew up to Portland, which, I think, three days he was up there. He played a character who is pivotal in the film and for all intents and purposes, he could have phoned in something really solid, a good well rounded performance kind of thing, but this is a guy who, I won’t even venture an age on him [ he’ll be 65 in March, according to imdb] , he went up to , he flew thousands of miles to do a film, plug himself into a group that had been working for a couple of weeks, on a project that was already hitting its groove, and he threw himself into that current, which was moving at 100 miles an hour, and threw in with such gusto that I realized, this is what I want to be when I’m 50 years old, 60 years old, 70 years old, 80 years old as an actor, this is the kind of actor that I want to be when I really mature and come into my prime; a guy who’s got a resume that any actor would kill for, and a guy that really could with just very little effort at all could create a performance that anybody could step back and say this is all we can really ask of this actor, but he threw himself in so wholeheartedly that it really blew me away, and his wife was him too, that was the thing that really killed me, Heavenly, she was with him and she was with him and she was there the whole time and she was such a support for him, not just as a wife but as a partner, and I was like my wife can be there with me? She can be there for me? She can be part of the process? That’s awesome. He really threw himself in 100% and did for the film what I don’t think anybody else could have done. His participation in the movie legitimized it in the same way that Robert Englund’s participation legitimized it and gave it such a , what we were trying to hit was a note of humanity for these characters that I haven’t seen before, and he did it, and he was awesome.

Did you meet Kane Hodder?

I got a call from Scott, probably 3-4 months after we’d wrapped, that he’d got Kane Hodder to stand in front of the Elm Street house and prune the hedges and shoot that scene, and I was like, ‘oh my god Scott...’ That’s when I realized he was like a miracle worker, or sweet-talker-slash-miracle worker.

Having Kane Hodder’s participation really honestly legitimizes the movie in the same way that Robert Englund’s participation, because he’s credited, but nobody is going to know his face except for horror fans, and I felt like we’re reaching out to those fans in such a way because those fans are going to know who what this house is, those fans are gonna know the significance of what this moment is, of Kane Hodder standing in front of the fucking nightmare on elm street house, I mean, nobody but horror fans are gonna get that, and that to me is the epitome of what we were trying to do, which was totally give so much love and respect to the horror fans.

That said, how has it been playing to people who aren’t horror fans?

Gen Art was the first opportunity that I had to see the film play in front of an audience, and SXSW, from what I understand, was a real genre-based, fan audience and Gen Art was not that, I mean when I was listening on the phone to the SXSW audience response, they were getting all the subtleties and nuance. New York, they weren’t grabbing all the nuance, they were responding with the same kind of enthusiasm to completely different parts of the movie, and I felt like, oh my gosh, these are not horror fans, these are the epitome of the audience that don’t go to horror movies -- these people are me. They don’t go to horror movies because it scares the shit out of them, but they’re enjoying the movie to the same extent for completely different reasons, and that’s when I felt like, oh, we got something amazing here, because we can really give so much attention and satisfaction to our horror fan base, and at the same time we can grab an audience that steers away from those movies for whatever reason, we can tend to them; the movie’s not offensive, and we can pull them in, and maybe , fingers crossed, give them an inroad to these films that they wouldn’t have had otherwise, maybe steer new fans towards the horror genre, even if it’s just from an analytical viewpoint, they’ll be able to get just as much out of the movies as horror fans.

The movie leaves it open at the end for a sequel -- would it be possible to a sequel that works in the same way, and would you do one if it were offered?

I don’t know, on both counts. I think so, because the passion and intellect behind the first film leads me to believe that there’s really no limit to the kind of conceptual, analytical, genre-based, entertainment-based choices that could be made to support a second film. It seems to me that that’s the only way a sequel would work for the film, is if it’s just as provocative, if not more provocative in the second one -- that seems to be to me the only way that a sequel would work. I don’t doubt that Scott and David would be capable of pulling off something that would be just as provocative, if not more provocative, in fact, to me, because Behind the Mask was so provocative, in so many ways, I’ve never been able to see a horror movie the same way since. I’m actually excited about seeing horror movies now, because of it. I wasn’t before. Because of their passion and insight and intellect I think they’re completely capable of pulling off something that would be even more provocative... whether or not I would do another movie, I don’t know. It would have to be really fuckin’ good. I think that the only way to do justice to the first movie, if there was a sequel, would be if the sequel were more provocative, and I’m not the kind of person, I’m not smart enough, I couldn’t come up with a sequel on my own. That’s the only way - if it was so much better than the first movie that I was like “why the fuck didn’t we make THIS movie”?

Tell us about your movie Like Moles Like Rats

It’s the epitome of a passion project. I don’t know where it’s at right now
It’s probably the most intense I ever got about a project, like shaved my head into a Mohawk, and really went to some dark places in my mind for an extended period of time, and that seemed like it was called for for my character, but there was also a real humanity to that character too, I think that’s something that I gravitate towards - characters that have a real extremity to them, but they have a humanity that grounds them

I hope they whipped it into shape and turned it into something that will have some longevity to it. It’s crazy, because I’m watching previews for Children of Men, which seems to me to have so many similarities to the work that we were doing. It’s completely different stylistically, and completely different in tone, but it has a lot of the same symbolism that we were working with, it has a lot of the same plot...I hope the best for the film, but I really have no idea where it’s at right now, and I understand that ...I really don’t know personally how my work turned out, it could have been over the top, just bullshit, but I put myself into it.

So other than that, what’s upcoming for you?

Not a goddamn thing. Pilot season will be coming up in February, this film will be coming out in February. I’m still at a point where it’s a really interesting predicament, because I feel like I’m a fuckin’ good actor and I got a lot to offer, but it’s just the extent to which people are receptive to it is the extent of my ability to continue to work and provide for my family, and that’s number one at this point, taking care of my family, so if auditions continue to come along, I’ll get out there, I’ll audition for Bozo the Clown, I don’t give a shit, y’know, I love stuff that’s challenging, I love stuff that’s pushing myself to the extent that I am capable, I hope I always stay that way, I hope I always keep the desire to be uncomfortable and to push myself. I have no idea, but life is good. I’ve got a baby. Two boys, it’s crazy, my wife’s awesome, she’s doing the best she can, I’m doing the best I can to take care of my family, even if it’s not supporting them with acting.