Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
Last June, I took my first set visit for Ain't It Cool News, traveling all the way to the southwest side of Chicago with several other media types to check out a solid day of filming on the Platinum Dunes relaunch of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, starring Jackie Earl Haley as the iconic killer of your dreams, Freddy Krueger. The first two parts of my coverage are:
Here, with the blow by blow on the set visit, including many interviews with cast and production team members.
And here, with my interview with Platinum Dunes' Andrew Form and Brad Fuller.
My final trip down ELM STREET is with Freddy himself, Jackie Earl Haley. When we were brought into Haley's trailer, he had just completed having his Freddy makeup applied, and when I first laid eyes on him, it startled me, especially in brighter lights. The burn-victim accuracy of the makeup effects is uncanny, and I hope you get at least one well-lit shot in the final film that really shows it off. The grotesque nature of Haley's look was in complete contrast to his personality, which was unbelievably sweet and generous and forthcoming. He's a soft-spoken man but not shy. He also was very diligent about making sure everyone in the tight confines of his trailer had a seat--such a great host. And while he was fully made up as Freddy, he was not yet in costume. Haley was wearing a robe. Surreal.
I think he loves to talk, and is extremely humbled by his recent re-found success in such films as LITTLE CHILDREN (for which he received a Best Supporting Actor nomination), ALL THE KING'S MEN, WATCHMEN, and SHUTTER ISLAND. It's actually possible these days to read interviews with Haley in which the writer doesn't bring up the fact that he was one of the most famous young actors of the 1970s and early '80s in such films as three BAD NEWS BEARS films, THE DAY OF THE LOCUST, DAMNATION ALLEY, LOSIN' IT and BREAKING AWAY (as well as its short-lived TV spin-off version). But I’m not that writer, because I grew up watching Haley’s movies.
Haley is the kind of success story that doesn't happen often in Hollywood, and it couldn't have happened to a nicer, more talented actor. I also enjoy the hell out of him on Fox's "Human Target," which he had just received word had been picked up as a mid-season premiere at the time of this interview. Enjoy Jackie Earl Haley, and try not to get too scared. And please remember, I'm not the only one lobbing questions at him during this interview.
Jackie Earle Haley: It gets a little fuzzy in all of this makeup. It gets kind of hot so hopefully I’ll make some sort of sense.
Question: Robert Englund once said that the glove for Freddy Krueger was the instant circumcision kit. Have you ever had any mishaps?
JEH: That’s a good line. Yeah, I constantly worry about that, but so far there’s only been one time where I had to call Andrew [Clement], the designer of this make-up, so that I could ask, ‘Did I just cut into this appliance?’ But aside from that, it is always on and, you know, I worry about, oops.
Q: How does it feel under there right now?
JEH: It’s pretty encumbering. All of this stuff is just glued, from here [points to the top of his chest] all the way to the back, every square inch of my back has got appliances glued to it. It feels like crap when you’re sitting around, but it’s kind of oddly motivating for the character between "Action" and "Cut" because it’s just such a weird feeling. You know, I’ve got fake fingertips over here and the glove over here. I’ve got a cloudy contact and I can’t see out of this eye at all, and this one’s bloody and I can kind of see out of it, and of course I don’t have my glasses so the whole experience is just this weird thing, but it oddly helps for Freddy once we’re moving. Whenever I perform Freddy, all of this is going on so I’m able to, I don’t know, it’s part of the experience; I don’t even know how to describe it.
Q: Are you a fan of the originals?
JEH: I wasn’t like a huge horror fan growing up. Certain ones I really loved, and I do remember being very intrigued by this one. I actually saw the first one in the theater and I dug it. The whole concept was just really neat. Of this group of monsters from the mid-'80s, he was always the most interesting to me because there was some depth to him, and that drew me in. It made me curious what made this guy tick, as opposed to the other one’s where it was just kind of masks and people running at you.
Q: Did you go back to it before this?
JEH: Yeah, I re-watched the first one and I’ve seen bits and pieces of the other ones. I was kind of, the process is like, ‘Wow, should I pour through every bit of this?’ For a while I was even like, ‘Should I even watch any of it?’ Then I decided it was probably a good idea to watch the first one, and I’m glad I did. It really got me back into everything that was going on, and I think that’s the one that we’re mostly paying homage to and redoing.
Capone: Freddy is one of the few of that group of monsters that actually talks. How long did you work on the voice?
JEH: There’s kind of a voice. It’s me. A lot. Trying different things, just providing information to my conscious level so that the subconscious could kind of brew on it. You know, while I’m driving around different sounds would come out. I really found it motivating to go with this face into the mirror and just kind of play around a little bit.
Q: What was the deciding factor to take this, because in WATCHMEN your face is also obliterated.
JEH: I’m trying to become Lon Chaney. [laughs] I’ve got 998 more roles to go. You know, I first heard about it on the internet. People were suggesting me for the part, and it immediately grabbed my attention because the character was so incredibly iconic. The more I thought about it, I was like, ‘Well how could you not play Freddy Krueger?’ It's just such an incredible opportunity--fun and different, to get to do this kind of genre film is neat. I haven’t done one of these.
Q: Do you worry about being locked into playing Freddy Krueger for years?
JEH: Well, I’m signed on for a few of them, so I think it could be great. Aside from the few I’m signed on to do, we’ll have to see where we’re at as time goes on.
Q: Obviously, the plan would be to keep it dark it would seem as opposed to say, hosting MTV specials in makeup like Robert Englund did.
JEH: No but it’s certainly fun playing the part and working on the film. It’s a kick.
Q: How long does the makeup take?
JEH: I think we’ve got it down to like three hours and 20 minutes. Today was about four and a half hours because we added the top. A lot of times this [he circles a small area at the top of his head] doesn’t need to be here because I’m wearing the hat. It’s great when this isn’t here because I can get a little air into my brain.
Q: Can you talk about the process of it? What do they do first?
JEH: It’s a bunch of different appliance pieces that were designed by Andrew Clement, you know the whole look. And then they break it down into several pieces and they kind of put it on one at a time, these various pieces, and then they blend all of the edges together and slowly blend it into this one piece. At the end of the night it takes about 50 minutes, so still an hour to go when everybody’s done. At the end of the night, it literally looks like it’s all one piece just because it’s all melded together. It’s really fascinating what they’ve done.
Q: Does sitting in the chair all those hours make you reconsider the part, or are you getting used to it?
JEH: You know, I’m getting used to it now. At first, the first few times I was kind of thinking, ‘Oh man, what have I done?’ But then when I saw the pictures, because you know I can see in the mirror, but I wear glasses and everything’s a little fuzzy. The next day I had my glasses on and Andrew brought out his computer and showed me some pictures and it’s like, 'That’s worth it.' It’s such an incredible new look. You just kind of picture this with all of the Freddy elements that we know - the hat and the sweater and the glove and the whole thing. This is just grounded in a little more reality, I think. It’s badass. It really made it worth it. Slowly over time, I’ve been getting a little more acclimated to it. At first I had no filter. They’d throw all this makeup on and I’d go out, and I’d lost my political filter. So I slowly got used to this, and I’m more of a normal human being.
Q: Did you shoot in the makeup first before the scenes of Freddy out of makeup pre-accident?
JEH: I think one of the first things we shot was pre-burn Fred, just coincidentally. I mean, they are kind of oddly separate. They are kind of related. In a sense, it’s kind of a…it’s the same guy, but it’s before the transition, before the metamorphosis. So I think, a lot of what Fred was drove who Freddy is, but they are still different beings in there.
Q: You mentioned becoming the new Lon Chaney, but you are actually carving out a niche as these psychologically damaged characters. Are these fun for you to play?
JEH: I think what I was playing before were tortured souls, so I figured in this one I’d play the torturing soul.
Q: What is Freddy’s demeanor like?
JEH: I think he’s a bit more serious than what we’ve seen before.
Q: So he’s not as gleefully evil? What’s his intent as he’s stalking these people?
JEH: Well, I’ll leave it at, it’s probably a little darker, a little more seriousness. There’s some of that gleefulness, but it’s probably a little more serious. A little more pissed.
Q: Vengeful?
JEH: Perhaps, yeah.
Q: How much more do we get to know Freddy as opposed to the original series?
JEH: I think everything we’re doing is definitely is definitely related. But I do think we delve in a little bit more and we learn a little bit more. But it’s very based on stuff that we’ve learned prior.
Q: Can you talk a little about SHUTTER ISLAND?
JEH: Oh man, I had a blast working on SHUTTER ISLAND. Imagine getting to acting this far away from Leo [DiCaprio] and Marty [Scorsese] is the guy coming up between takes directing. That was a little bit of a dream there. And it’s just a wonderful book, and the screenplay adaptation kicked butt. Leo’s incredible. Being on the set working with Marty, everything he’s doing has some kind of story. ‘The first guy that did this was in 1922, and then the guy that picked up in 1937.’ (Laughs) He’d go through this whole litany of the very first shadow that was cast in a movie and how he did it effectively. It was just cool. I recently saw the trailer, and I was like, ‘Wow, that looks badass. I can’t wait to see the movie.
Q: Are you signed up for anything else after this?
JEH: I’m going to start a television series called "Human Target." That looks pretty exciting, so I’ll be working. That’s what I’ve got in the works right now. It’s gonna keep me pretty busy if the people love it, and it gets good ratings and stuff. I’m going to be a busy camper for a while.
Q: Have they told you how quickly they’re going to move on an ELM STREET 2?
JEH: I have no idea. [laughs]
At this point, we were called away so Haley could finish his transformation, but soon we saw him for the first time on set in an interesting effects shot involving co-star Kyle Gallner unzipping his head with Freddy popping out (sans hat, thus the full head makeup). Toward the end of our visit, we got to see what appeared to be a pick-up shot that ended up being one of the coolest things we witnessed all day. Without spoiling anything, we saw one of the parental characters get his/her throat slashed by Freddy, and the blood simply gushed in a beautiful crimson spray.
While Haley was waiting for the effects team to prep the throat slashing, he sat in a director's chair off to the side, and a couple of us decided to bug him by talking about the glove, which he did not have on when we first met him. This moment might have been even more bizarre, because now we were really talking to Freddy and not just some burned-up-looking guy. He had on the sweater, the hat, and of course the glove. Here's a little of what we talked about:
JEH: [About the gloves] They look great. The ones with the real blades on, they rock. Very cool.
Q: Is that glove more comfortable? The one they were passing around felt pretty heavy.
JEH: This is a little lighter, but I’ve kind of gotten used to the ones with blades. They’ve kind of gotten second nature. Like I said, on that one take, I was like, ‘Andrew, did I just cut something...?’
Q: Have you gotten any idea what going to fill you in there? [painted into the left cheek is green paint, which will be replaced by a more in-depth view of the inside of Freddy's face]
JEH: I guess this is for the computer guy to track. Cool stuff. We get these scenes where we dig into them as actors, and then there are the scenes that are all about film. Snippety stuff, just like we did earlier. This little moment--two or three seconds of it. Of course, in the sense of the whole scene, it ends up cutting in really great. In the filmmaking process, it’s kind of weird because you do this, just these little shots.
Q: Have you gotten some looks at what will fill in the neon green [on the cheek]?
JEH: Ah, yeah, I think it’s gonna be kind of like what you guys saw earlier, just with a little more depth and stuff moving around a little, I hope. I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw a little vein jumping here or there. [laughs]
I got a little time alone with Haley right after this, where I mentioned his fantastic appearance a few months earlier at the Butt Numb-a-Thon screening of the first 20 minutes of WATCHMEN, and he talked about what a fun time that was for him. Overall, this hours-long set visit was an exceptional experience. Thanks to the good folks at Warner Bros. and Platinum Dunes for their hospitality. A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET opens April 30.
-- Capone
capone@aintitcool.com
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