A veteran of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series, Robert Englund made his name playing child murderer and dream demon Freddy Krueger. He's starred in all seven instalments of the "Elm Street" series, as well as cult television show V, the "Wishmaster" films, plus straight-to-video fodder like snake shocker "Python".
It's been almost ten years since we last saw Freddy. What tempted you to put the glove back on?
I've actually been signed, sealed and delivered since 1999. There were a lot of incarnations of the script, and some big power shifts at New Line Cinema. We were going to make it in 2000, we hoped to have it as a millennium film - "Freddy Vs. Jason 2000" - but we cancelled it because we couldn't get the budget down. Then director Guillermo del Toro was onboard for a while, but he dropped out to do "Blade II" I think. Then we got Ronny Yu and it was sort of go, go, go!
Is this a movie for the fans?
People have been talking about this since 1984. It's a male-adolescent-fan's hypothetical "what if?" question: "Could Freddy kick Jason's ass? What would happen? What about Michael Myers?" It's got a lot to do with fans having a little too much time on their hands!
But it also goes way back to "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" and to the great classic comic books, which have always cross-pollinated and blended and teamed their superheroes and villains. So this is nothing new in popular culture, especially not the popular culture inhabited by a Freddy Krueger or a Jason Voorhees. It's a sort of logical conclusion.
What's your weirdest fan experience?
I led the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade in New York. I did it in full Freddy drag and marched ahead of the procession. All the way along, though, there were these two Goth girls walking backwards right in front of me. They were promising all these things that they were going to do to me. I think it was some kind of Goth S&M infatuation with the Freddy claw. They liked the glove more than they liked me, but it got a little frightening. It got a little too kinky in terms of what these girls were proposing. That's probably my strangest Freddy story so far.
What did director Ronny Yu bring to the project?
Ronny is sort of unapologetic about horror. He knows that when you're making a horror movie, there are certain things you have to deliver. I can remember one night Ronny was on top of this giant crane, hovering over the Crystal Lake set. The lake's on fire and Ronny's yelling, "More blood! We need more blood!"
Too many times actors and directors will turn their hands to the horror genre and then be very apologetic about it, like, "I didn't make a horror movie, don't call it a horror movie." Nobody says that about westerns. If you're taking the money, call it what it is and respect it: "IT'S A HORROR MOVIE!" That's what I love about Ronny; he knew what kind of film he was making.
"Freddy Vs. Jason" is released in UK cinemas on Friday 15th August 2003.
