Hellboy (RON PERLMAN) is the worlds toughest, kitten-loving hero from Hell in the next chapter of the franchise known for its signature blend of action, humor and character-based spectacle Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008).
© Egon Endrenyi
Burning with Hellboy's Ron Perlman
By: Josh GordonDate: Thursday, July 10, 2008
At a press junket for Hellboy II: The Golden Army in Los Angeles, Mania and others had the chance to sit down with the actors and filmmakers who brought the movie to life. In part 2 of a series on Hellboy II, we interview Hellboy himself, Ron Perlman, the affable kind of guy you’d want to share a beer and a smoke with. Well, on this occasion there was no smoking or drinking, but all was not lost! We talk turkey with one of the most interesting actors around.
Q: How much improv was there in this one? There seems to be more…of that in this one.
Ron Perlman: That’s simply the way Guillermo writes. It sounded like I was making the whole thing up in Hellboy I and yet I think there was maybe one line of improv in the whole movie. He’s got this idiom down; this kind of longshoreman guy, who’s raised in New Jersey; that kind of eastern, barroom American slang. For a guy where English is his second language, it’s kind of remarkable.
Q: How much fun was it to embrace Hellboy’s humor? It seems like there was a lot more of that in this movie; especially physical slapstick.
RP: Yeah, my favorite aspect of Hellboy is the trash talk and the cynicism and the humor. It’s real east coast. I’m a New Yorker by birth and have spent almost my whole life there. I know that kind of humor; I know that kind of gamesmanship jocks have and Guillermo somehow captured that…was too good to be true.
Q: What was it like taking a four year break in between the films? Was it hard for you to get back in character?
RP: It’s probably the least adjustment I make, from the conversation I’m having with you, to acting. I didn’t make any alterations behaviorally or voice-wise. Guillermo kept reminding me, kept saying “When you start acting you’re going to screw up because I’ve done everything in my power to make Hellboy you and you Hellboy. Don’t make any adjustments – just do it.” That was very freeing actually, the most freeing direction I’ve ever been given. Yeah, there’s no real adjustment either for Hellboy I or for Hellboy II.
Q: What kind of input did you have, if any, on the way Hellboy develops, between the first film and this one?
RP: Zero. I didn’t want any input. Why would you think that you’re going to come up with a better idea than this guy that truly has a handle on this thing in a way that’s complete and holistic and profound? You just bask in his glow and thank him and are grateful for the amazing dramatic opportunity he’s given you.
Q: Does that make all the makeup work tolerable having someone that you trust that much?
RP: The makeup has never been a burden. When it comes on the heels of absolutely no sleep, then everything becomes a burden. But I regard the transition into the makeup every day as a kind of ritual of preparing to become Hellboy; almost like a Samurai goes through a highly ritualistic transformation from mortal to warrior and I come out the other side looking a whole lot cooler than I do in real life so why would anybody complain about that?
RP: Not a whole lot. It moved from being a Rick Baker makeup in Hellboy I to a Mike Elizowee (spectral motion) makeup in Hellboy II. Everything remains the same except for some slight alterations. I think he looks a little younger, a little more energetic.
Q: Based on your comments a little bit earlier what makes you think he’s the right person to do The Hobbit?
RP: I think Guillermo is the right person to any movie that you can think of. I think he was born to be a filmmaker. I think he occupies a class unto himself as a filmmaker. He’s already made one movie, in his short career, that’s made the top 100 best movies of all time, which is Pan’s Labyrinth. I think that The Hobbit, which is an exercise in fantasy, is very, very, very, very lucky to have Guillermo del Toro at the helm.
Q: Who are you going to be in The Hobbit? Are you going to be voicing smog? Are you going to be voicing another character? I mean, it’s a given that you’re going to be in it!
RP: I hope you’re right! We haven’t discussed it. I did say, when I heard he was going to be out of the country for four years, “I’m gonna miss you pal” and he said “no you won’t!” that’s all he’s said.
Q: But you can read The Hobbit and say “There’s someone I’d like to play.”
RP:I haven’t read The Hobbit since I was in the sixth grade and so that’s about four and a half decades ago so if you wanted to give me a test comparing and contrasting The Hobbit to the works of Carl Jung, I’d probably fail.
Q: Can you talk about how Hellboy comes from being brought up from Hell by Nazis and given to John Hurt who raises him, how he becomes this sort of cynical, trash, talking, New York-ish…
RP: The cynical, New York-ish guy is strictly a product of his environment; he grew up in New Jersey and he didn’t get to go out very much but I’m sure that there were an awful lot of local people that intersected with him in his youth, that gave him the accent, that gave him the swagger, that gave him that sort of worldly, world weary, New York, New Jersey kind of vibe. At least that’s what I decided. With regard to the heart of the guy, that was completely a gift from Professor Broom to Hellboy and I think it’s so strongly embedded in him that even though he has these primal impulses; these things that come with his DNA, he somehow, the heart triumphs over the nature; you know, the nurtured aspect triumphs over the nature aspect in Hellboy, at LEAST so far. He’s been tested but not nearly as much as he will be in the third one, if there is a third one.
RP: I think it’s a possibility. I think it’s completely a function of how Hellboy II does in the marketplace. If it does quite well then I’m pretty sure there’ll be a third one.
Q: And how would you like the see the character develop in the third one? How much further would you like it to go?
RP: I don’t have an agenda. I’m completely in the hands of Guillermo. Wherever he takes it is going to be fine with me. He has given me a rough idea of the direction that the third one will take and in true trilogy fashion it’s the closing of all of the things that have been foreboded in the first two films. It’s the comin’-to-Jesus moment and it gets very, very heavy and very dark…
Q: Hellboy has a love for kittens and television. Would you count yourself a TV junkie or a cat person?
RP: I love cats and I love television and I love to watch cats on television.
Q: Do you have any favorite TV shows?
RP: Well, when I was a kid Superman was my favorite show, and Soupy Sales, so anything that has the word soup in the first syllable… (everyone laughs) I loved the Dick Van Dyke Show, The Danny Kaye Show, The Dean Martin Show.
Q: Were you a fan at all of horror or sci-fi movies before you became an actor? Or is it as you’ve come to do Beauty and the Beast and Alien 5 and Hellboy…
RP: Yeah, the work that I’ve gotten and the work that makes up my resume is purely coincidental and has nothing to do with my own personal aesthetic and when you do one you’re on the short list to do a second and then a third…The proclivity of the guys who’ve found me to be acceptable to work with, and that’s a very short list, happens to be sci-fi oriented. There’s Guillermo, there’s Jean Pierre Junet, there’s Joe Dante…
Q: Can you talk, just for a moment, about Ice Pirates? (Editor’s note: I have to interject here and let you know that a deathly pall falls over everyone in the interview. It seems that everyone except me had gotten the “DON’T ASK HIM ABOUT ICE PIRATES” memo.)
RP: Um. Probably not, probably not. (everybody laughs. Whew!) I guess I could but life is real short.
Q: Are you doing any voice work with the new Batman cartoon?
RP: I do voice work all the time. I can’t do the Batman cartoon because they were looking for people that are here all the time and I’m traveling too much but I do a lot of stuff with Andrea, as much as we can logistically swing. I love doing voice work.
Q: What do you like about it?
RP: Well, I love acting and I love acting quick and the process of voice work is very results oriented. You really go for the big performance like the first time out. That’s my favorite way to work, on a purely kind of instinctive level. Voice work is fun to do. You don’t have to shave, you don’t even have to put on pants and there’s a nice little check in the mail.
Q: What are you working on right now?
RP: I just started a new TV series called Sons of Anarchy which will premier on the FX channel on Sept. 4th. It’s about a motorcycle club not unlike the Hells Angels, in a town called Charming California; I’m the president of the club. It was written by the guy that was the head writer on The Shield. We have an order for 13 episodes so we’re going to have a chance to spread our wings a little bit and truly begin to explore this twisted sick world. It’s The Shield on steroids. These guys are completely ruthless. Let me put it this way, the character I’m playing in Sons of Anarchy has the least feminine side of any character I’ve ever played. In fact, he has no feminine side.
Q: Can you tell us about Mutant Chronicles?
RP: Mutant Chronicles is a picture that’s finished yet not finished. I guess there are enough problems with it; we’re actually going to take to Comic-Com to have a fan screening to find out what is right and wrong with it. It’s a picture, to me, that has a huge amount of great work in it, on the part of Simon Hunter, the director and Thomas Jane and John Malkovich and I are incredibly proud of the picture and we’re going to do everything we can to help get it out to the market
Q: Are you going to be at Comic-Com?
RP: We’re going to be at comic-com with either a 10:00pm screening or a midnight screening on the 26th of July, Saturday night.
Q: I’d like a comparison between two directors you’ve worked with: Uwe Boll and Guillermo del Toro.
RP: Well, their both foreigners. Uwe Boll is a kind of P.T. Barnum. He’s a guy that makes the show possible in a very good way and he loves movies…I like the guy a lot; He’s a really good hearted guy…
Q: How was it knowing that Doug (Jones, actor and voice of Abe Sapien ) was going to be the voice you heard on screen (While he was the actor behind Abe in Hellboy I he wasn’t the voice behind the performance):
RP: I think it’s phenomenal that we get to bask in the greatness of Doug Jones, times three by the way because he’s also the Chamberlain and the Angel of Death. He might not be the voice of the Chamberlain but certainly for the voice of Abe and certainly for the voice of the Angel of Death for sure. He’s a major talent who’s finally getting the attention that he so richly deserves.
More From Mania
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Del Toro gets right the balance in fantastic writing (balance between characters, storyline, and background world), where Shyamalan usually falls short (I do like M. Night). If Del Toro directed The Last Airbender it would be PERFECTION.
It is funny that Guillermo Del Toro is directing The Hobbit since he does look a lot like Elijah Wood.