This past Friday Jack Reher had the chance to
sit down for some roundtable action in Beverly Hills with the
cast and special effects genius behind After Dark Films’ latest
offering Skinwalkers which opens Friday
August 10th.
First up was the uber beautiful Natassia
Malthe as she confessed to her wanton desire of playing a
werewolf and talked heavily about the grueling process of
becoming a wolf while sitting in a make-up chair. She continued
chatting about her nighttime dreams of being in a werewolf film
and how it was kismet.
Land of the Dead’s Shawn Roberts was next
as he chatted about the internal conflicts within the script and
how the cast embraced the material. The conversation quickly
veered off course and he began discussing his collaboration with
Romero on Land and the upcoming Diary of the Dead.
Unfortunately, he was very tight lipped about revealing any plot
points but said it was one of Romero’s most personal films.
The film’s star, Jason Behr was next (see
one-on-one interview below)
And last but not least was the brilliant force
behind films like The Terminator, Aliens, Jurassic Park,
and the upcoming Iron Man. Stan Winston, visual effects
legend with a kid-at-heart approach to filmmaking. He discussed
the long road Skinwalkers traveled to get made and how he’d
always wanted to make a real werewolf film, prosthetics, fur,
claws and teeth without the use of lavish CGI. Outside of
Monster Squad, he said this film represents everything he’s
ever wanted to see in a werewolf film and that he’s extremely
proud of the final cut.
After the roundtables were finished, I
had a chance to sit down with Jason Behr. It was a reunion of
sorts since Behr and I grew up blocks away from each other and
attended the same grade school, junior high and high school back
in Richfield, Minnesota. When he approached the table, a look
of glee sprung from his face and we chatted about my mother
giving him some Linus cartoon back in the day and how cool my
parents were. For a brief moment, Hollywood disappeared and we
were kids again catching up at the local 7-Eleven.
Jack R. You
read a lot of scripts, what drew you to the material?
Jason B. I
figured if you’re going to do a werewolf movie, I can’t figure a
better person to do it than Stan Winston. He’s a legend, an
absolute genius, and he has wanted to do a werewolf movie since
he was a teenager. It was the whole reason why he got into this
business. He’s never done it before [beyond his work on Monster
Squad…not his vision and scope of a film]. As a fan of his work,
I knew he’d have that same passion and attention to detail &
absolute talent to make an incredibly badass werewolf. It’s
something I just couldn’t pass up.
JR: What
was it like shifting from your stints on Buffy to The Grudge to
Skinwalkers?
JB: This
is a real departure, something I’ve never done before. I finally
get a chance to play the bad guy and I play the big, badass
wolf. I got to do things as a character that I’ve never had the
chance before; shoot guns, ride motorcycles, do all this
wirework and these stunts. It was an absolute joy to go to work
everyday. I felt like a fuckin’ big kid, you know!
JR: Are
you a fan of the horror genre?
JB: I’m
a fan of a good story. I thought this was an original & unique
take on the werewolf mythology. It was something I had never
heard of before and an interesting story.
JR: How
about your favorite horror film?
JB: It’s
a tough one. The one that scared the shit out of me as a kid,
one of my favorite horror films of all time is The Shining or
ummm…drawing a blank and I can’t fucking believe it-
JR: Who’s
in it?
JB: Stairs
and a priest-
JR: The
Exorci-.
JB: Exorcist! Thank
you.
JR: How
about the creative process? What was it like on Skinwalkers?
JB: Let’s
see—the creative process on Skinwalkers I think—I wanted to go
out and see the way wolves behaved and I wanted to really
understand them and truthfully represent that wolf dynamic and
how each wolf has a specific job to ensure the survival of that
pack. That’s what we were sort of doing with this movie. I also
just wanted to really understand the behavior of a wolf; how a
wolf would take in information such as smell or sight and how
that general movement was. I did that for research and I let the
suit just sort of take over once you put on the gloves,
the teeth and the eyes you can’t help but just take that up and
allow yourself to play full out and do something else.
JR: The
PR chick is making me hurry up…I did a Google search on you and
you’ve got quite the fan base.
JB: I’ve
been very lucky-
JR: You’ve
got like two dozen Myspace pages alone.
JB: Laughing…
Really?
JR: Do
you miss your days on Roswell?
JB:
I had a tremendous experience, just a really wonderful
experience. Yeah, I mean we had a great time.
JR: Is
there something the public and your fans don’t know about you?
JB:
What is something the public doesn’t know about
me…(thinking)…One of my deepest, darkest secrets would be –
CLICK.
Behr leaned in and shut the
recorder off.
