Citations

[advice to actors wanting to be in the horror industry] First and foremost, enjoy yourself! And get paid! Get paid is my advice to actors in general. Re: the horror industry, if you're attracted to it because you really want to saw someone in half, seek psychiatric help. The horror fans, and my horror peers, have, for the most part, a very clear sense of what's real and what's fantasy. A good scare is a wonderful thing. Horror movies can make for a great date. Just make sure the blood that flows is Karo syrup and not hemoglobin!

One of the things I've learned from writing is to exercise that imagination muscle on a daily basis. As an actor, when I get a script and things are worked out to where I'm going to do the project, what I like to do is read the script three or four times and just let my imagination go. I just try to figure out how my character can make real choices in his natural environment. It seems to have worked out.

One day on the set of Massacre à la tronçonneuse 2 (1986), as I was hanging out in full Chop-Top between scenes, I noticed a well-heeled woman with a little boy. The boy saw me and clung tightly to his mother's leg. She patted him on the head and said, "Don't worry, Johnny, he's not real; he's just an actor wearing make-up". I approached mother and son, smiling, leaned down and whispered in the boy's little ear: "Don't believe it".

I love horror movies, always have. First one I ever saw in the theater was the original Blob, terreur sans nom (1958) with Steve McQueen. Second was a double bill - La mouche noire (1958) and Return of the Fly (1959). Scared the crap out of me. Been a fan ever since.

As a college student, I never thought in my wildest dreams that acting could be my career! I come from Midwest stock, railroad people, and the idea of pursuing an acting career was akin to running off to join the circus. It wasn't until I landed the part of Chop-Top in Massacre à la tronçonneuse 2 (1986) in 1986, twelve years after I'd graduated from Yale, that it occurred to me that you could actually make a living - and a pretty good one! - at this acting thing. 2014 marks my 30th anniversary as a card-carrying Screen Actors Guild (SAG) member. I've got health benefits for me and my family, a decent pension, and I'm still working. Go figure!

[on Maison des 1000 morts (2003)] It's a bloody, violent movie, a throwback to the golden age of '70s horror when the teens weren't the stars - they were the rib roasts!

I look at acting like a treasure hunt, and the treasure is the truth of the character - finding out who they really are.

If there is a common thread in my demented characters, it's that they're all happy in their work. As an actor, my personal joy in playing these crazy kooks shows through - it's fun! Also, I learned early on that no matter how insane a character might be, you have to play him as if you think you're the only sane one in the room! I love my monsters, love playing them, what they've taught me. I gotta say, I sleep soundly, and I'm mostly not afraid of the dark.