The Wake

On February 16 I had the chance to speak with one of my favorite actors of all time. This man is easily the greatest horror actor of his generation (sorry Bruce Campbell fans, it’s a fact that even the “Big Chin” doesn’t come close). He has inspired millions of nightmares; he is Robert Englund, most famously known as Freddy Krueger. I hope you enjoy this discussion with a living legend and afterward check out www.robertenglund.com.

The Wake: Can you tell me a bit about 2001 Maniacs (remake of Herschell Gordon Lewis’ classic Two Thousand Maniacs)?

Robert Englund: I’m hoping it’s going to get released. I don’t know if we have a distributor yet. I’ve been to a screening in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago and that seemed to go pretty well for the fans. We originally conceived of the movie more as horror vaudeville, not like a Sam Raimi or a Wes Craven style horror film so much. I don’t want to say it’s serious, but it’s a little darker than we had shot it. It was a fun experience, I got to work with some old friends and make some new friends. I met Eli Roth who I admire. Boaz Yakin and Scott Spiegel were part of it. I worked with my old friend Tim Sullivan who directed it and wrote it. My old friend Lin Shaye was sort of the Mary Lincoln from hell. I had promised Tim a couple years ago that if he ever got the financing that I would play the notorious Mayor Buckman.

The Wake: Are you a big fan of the original Herschell Gordon Lewis version?

Robert: I’m not a “big” fan but I know it. You know I have all these old memories of the Herschell Gordon Lewis sort of horror film from childhood. I remember a movie called “Horrors of the Black Museum.” I kind of liked “The Angry Red Planet” too, back in the day. Later than that, I was into more classy horror like “The Innocents.” Just before “The Exorcist” there was a great little horror movie that I like called “Asylum.” Then it was the big ones, like “The Exorcist.” When I was really young there was so much sci-fi around, I remember seeing “Them!,” that was a seminal film that we watched on the little black-and-white TV set, with the giant ants running around. I remember seeing the Herschell Gordon Lewis movies eventually at film festivals, but I think was sort of in my Shakespearean snob phase then.

The Wake: How does it strike you that you are sort of the Bela Lugosi, the Vincent Price, the Christopher Lee of your generation of horror actors?

Robert: I’ve done over 65 movies, four or five television series and lots of guest appearances, and when I look at it, I think I’ve done only about a dozen horror movies but most of them are starring roles. I realized I couldn’t fight the phenomenon of Freddy Krueger. It’s just so big and international and I think it still is. I think it (“Freddy vs. Jason”) was, but I’m not positive, the number one summer movie in 2003, which was just two years ago. I can’t really control that. I’ve been typecast before, in the 70sit was as a Southerner, then as a best friend, and when the TV show “V” was big I was this nerdy, sort of Dr. Spock guy. The great thing about horror for me is it’s international. That sort of celebrity is international because everybody understands horror movies and action movies. They translate internationally very well, so I have expanded my fan base. When I do horror films, even some that I’m not terribly proud of, I get starring roles or large roles and that’s always fun when you’re an old character actor. I can do an episode of “E.R.” and half of my part might be cut out because there are so many regulars on that show that they get all the screen time. You learn these lessons, as an actor, that in the longevity of a career it’s OK to be typecast. I was kind of surprised when I woke up when day when I’d been doing the Freddy movies and a couple TV series and a lot of publicity over in Europe. I woke up one day in my middle 40sand I realized just how big it had become. So I sort of just allowed myself to enjoy it instead of fighting it. It’s been a lot of fun for me especially working in Europe. I’ve done eight or nine movies (there) now. Two years ago I had a film in Italy and at the premiere I got a 10-minute standing ovation and it was a regular movie, it wasn’t a horror movie. I probably would not have been able to do that movie had the Italians not fallen in love with Freddy Krueger and Robert Englund and done all the varying publicity tours, so it opened another kind of door for me. I happen to make a lot of low-budget horror movies now but its fun because it’s not in the make up. I’ll be playing a mad scientist or professor and it’s kind of fun to do that.

The Wake: Can you tell me a bit about the project you just finished shooting?

Robert: We just finished shooting up in Portland. I got to work with this wonderful young actress, Angela Goethals, who I saw off Broadway a couple of years ago. She was terrific; she’s the schizophrenic girl in “24.” My old play, Zelda Rubinstein from “Poltergeist” showed up to be in it. Another old friend, Scott Wilson from the Truman Capote movie “In Cold Blood” was in it. It’s very interesting, it’s called “Behind the Mask,” but that might change. I sort of see it as a deconstruction, much like the early “Scream” movies were. The killer is this really terrific young actor Nathan Baesel. He just did a great play about Kurt Cobain. He’s just a wonderful actor, very verbal. When I read the script I wanted to play that part but I’m too old for it. I think his character has a charisma and the mystery of whether he did it or not that will make it real interesting. It’s this sort of documentary about a killer that turns into a reality slasher film. Then there’s this thing with the reporter, when will she stop being selfish and trying to get this great scoop and help the people. I’m curious how they’re going to cut it because a lot has to be documentary style like “Blair Witch Project” and then it turns into an actual movie.

The Wake: Is the movie that has been rumored you would be doing with Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface in “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”) and Kane Hodder (Jason from “Friday the 13th Part VII” through “Jason X”) still going to happen?

Robert: That fell apart this week, I actually heard Monday. One of the problems was that the director and one of the writers, Gunnar’s partner, had been pitching this movie for so I long and I think that he had a falling out with the financier so this movie is definitely postponed. It was a great script; it’s called “The Last Horror Picture Show.” I literally, last Friday, thought I was doing it. I was all set to start it in April. But it’s fallen through just as of Monday. There are problems with the money people and the director and the director owns it because he wrote it along with Gunnar. He does deserve pretty big money up front. I loved the script. It’s got this vaudeville aspect to it and original characters, sort of “real” people that something like “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” was based on. I really hope it gets going someday. It should be on the shelf in your local video store next to “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and all the various parts and remakes; it belongs in that whole mythology. It was a really great, fun piece but right now that’s off the table.

The Wake: Will there be another Freddy movie?

Robert: The new Freddy movie was to have involved Bruce Campbell and the Ash character and because now that Sam Raimi and Bruce have decided to finance a remake of the original “The Evil Dead” that would prevent them from using up that character in Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash. The people that own the rights to “Freddy vs. Jason,” they wanted Ash to win; I think that was sort of the deal breaker. I sort of like the idea of Ash winning and ridding the world of all sequels. If you look at the demographics and statistics though it’s kind of obvious that Freddy Krueger is the biggest star of all the characters in terms of popularity. I’ve heard a great pitch for a Freddy vs. Jason vs. Michael (Myers of Halloween) but that requires Jamie Lee Curtis.

The Wake: Well as long as it doesn’t involve Chucky …

Robert: Exactly. It’s got to be fun, but it can’t just be funny. Like the last one, its fun but it delivers the goods. You can’t just make it silly. The Michael Myers pitch is really good, but it involves Jamie Lee Curtis and her relationship with Michael and she has a daughter. I may have to go see some people about it.

The Wake: What has happened with your reality show “Real Nightmares”?

Robert: Well, we actually shot six hours of it and a pilot. I spent all of last spring pitching it to all the networks. The problem was we went with CBS and every show they have is a hit, so they just didn’t have any room for it. They got their big reality hit with “Survivor” and every other show that they touch turns to gold. So, they didn’t really need it. We probably should have gone with another network. Several people liked our idea. I don’t think it’ll ever see the light of day, which is unfortunate. It’s interesting, even when I do a bad movie it eventually shows up on cable or HBO or the Sci-Fi Channel or your local video store. With the TV show, I was really proud of it and a lot of talented people worked on it. People who worked on “Survivor,” “Big Brother,” “The Amazing Race,” people who had worked with Penn and Teller. It’s too bad that it’ll probably never see the light of day.

The Wake: Have you got anything else big coming up?

Robert: I don’t want to jinx it but I’ve got some really interesting television in the works, nothing definite yet. But, I feel pretty good about a couple of them. They’re some of the best scripts that have come across my desk in years so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.