(left)Stephen Blackehart is ready to take his squad into harm's way in 100 MILLION BC(2008).
© The Asylum
Dino Chow!: Our Interview with Stephen Blackehart
By: Jarrod Sarafin, News EditorDate: Saturday, January 12, 2008
The horror-comedy genre has been alive and kicking for a long time, namely because of Troma Pictures, a production company that has been around for 33 years now. Troma has over 800 titles, film and television, in their collection and their influence stretches wide indeed inside our favorite genres.
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Their library contains the early works of Oliver Stone (Battle of Love's Return), Trey Parker and Matt Stone (Cannibal the Musical), Marissa Tomei (The Toxic Avenger), Kevin Costner (Sizzle BeachUSA), Vincent Donofrio (The First Turn On), Robert Deniro (The Wedding Party), and Samuel L. Jackson (Def by Temptation). Let's not also forget top directors citing influence by their famous B-movie films, directors such as Peter Jackson, Guillermo Del Toro, Quentin Tarantino, Eli Roth, James Gunn and the Farrelly Brothers. We had a chance to catch up with the actor/producer, shoot the shit and pick his brain…so here we go.
Hey Stephen thanks for the time here.
It’s entirely my pleasure, Jarrod. Thanks for having me!
Mania: Looking at your resume, you've been around the park a bit, jumping from the much loved B-movie Troma culture straight over to some major tent poles like Lethal Weapon 4 and Rush Hour and then back to the B-scene. Can you describe what that's like from an acting standpoint, switching from low budget affairs to big budget and back? I imagine the atmosphere is much different while on the set.
Stephen Blackehart: That’s a fantastic question. From an acting standpoint, the biggest difference is time. It sounds overly simplistic, but on the big-budget stuff the actors get a lot of takes, and that makes a HUGE difference. You can experiment with different ideas, or work toward conveying the exact nuance of a thought, a feeling or a line. That gives the editor a lot to work with in piecing together the best possible story, and it allows you to build a textured character arc.
In the B-Movie scene, low budgets usually mean that everyone’s time is borrowed, every location is finagled somehow, and that translates into very few takes. On Rockabilly Vampire (see him staked on the right), for instance, the first usable take was also the last one. If I could spit out the words and the camera captured an image, we were moving on to the next scene.
The positive side of that is that it trains you to be a self-sufficient actor. You know you’ve got to be ready all the time, having your choices thought out and your character down pat, yet still remain flexible when things change. You learn story structure and have a firm understanding of how your character’s choices impact the film’s through-line. You learn to love director feedback, but you don’t require it.
In terms of the atmosphere, yeah, it’s a lot different on the sets. The tent pole productions tend to pamper you, and there are just a lot more people involved. They’re actually logistical wonders in their own right, and beautiful to behold in an odd way. But while it’s nice to have a trailer and a latte when you want one, it’s not what making movies is about…I don’t care about any of that.
Mania: Same goes for your stage work. You've been involved with over fifty off-Broadway and London stage productions. I know a lot of actors like to switch it up because staring in front of a camera and acting on stage are so vastly different. How would you describe the differences?
SB: Some of it is logistics…things like voice projection, the properties of the physical space and so forth. Mostly, though, it’s a case of good acting is good acting and good writing is good writing.
That said, theatre definitely uses some styles of performance that film isn’t really comfortable with, and there’s the component that you can never have with a recorded performance, which is the way an audience influences the show. In the theatre, the show can be a little different every time, and that can be a real thrill ride. Also, there’s a lot more rehearsal in theatre. Most of the time in film and TV, there’s almost no meaningful rehearsal at all, so the actor has to show up to the set with his or her performance more or less set to go. Despite that, I would actually say that the reverse of the popular conception is true, that the theatre is more the domain of the director, while film is the realm of the actor. I think TV belongs to the writers and producers.
At the end of the day, though, it’s the same thing. An iffy actor can hide behind the technical limitations of his chosen medium, but a good one can excel anywhere.
Mania: : I know you've been involved with quite a few productions with Gunn, having produced LolliLove (a Mockumentary by Jenna Fischer and James Gunn) as well starring in Tromeo and Juliet (based on a screenplay by Gunn). Did you both meet while working within the Troma films scene and it went from there? It seems you both love the genre...
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SB: We do, absolutely. We met when I auditioned for Tromeo & Juliet in 1995 and really became good friends the next year when we were in
Cannes promoting the film. He’s my best friend, was best man at my wedding, and I was in his wedding party. We both have black senses of humour, and I think at one time or another we were each separately deluded with the idea that we were the smartest guys in the world. It’s kind of like having the Stewie character from “Family Guy” paired up with The Brain from “Pinky & The Brain”. James would be Stewie, as he’s got more of that ‘latent’ thing going on.
Cannes promoting the film. He’s my best friend, was best man at my wedding, and I was in his wedding party. We both have black senses of humour, and I think at one time or another we were each separately deluded with the idea that we were the smartest guys in the world. It’s kind of like having the Stewie character from “Family Guy” paired up with The Brain from “Pinky & The Brain”. James would be Stewie, as he’s got more of that ‘latent’ thing going on. I guess that’s why we both like the horror/comedy genre so much. It’s the closest you can get to being directly absurd in Hollywood. It’s a friendship that works pretty well, in a Rube Goldberg Machine sort of way.
Mania: I'm a huge fan of the B-movie culture, especially the 80's era of that genre. So, I have to ask you about your research consultant credit on Slither, one of my favorite films of 2006. I know I laughed quite a bit with all the references to the many great movies in that baby. What did your job enfold?
SB: Well, I don’t know if I’d call it a job, really. James and I have had this sort of running dialogue going for around 12 years, and he consults me about plot points and logistical problem solving. He sometimes calls me “Encyclopedia Head” when it comes to the normally useless information that I seem to absorb in my daily life. For instance, if a guy has a jar of peanut butter and a Swiss Army knife, how could he use that to improvise a zeppelin? Or, as in “Dawn of the Dead”, how exactly would the power grid begin collapsing after most of the world’s inhabitants have become zombies?
The other part of that is that we’re both huge fans of all kinds of movies, and we’ve both been heavily influenced by the quirky sensibilities of the horror films of the 80s, especially. We consume films the way most people consume air, and spend hour upon hour debating the merits or shittiness of any particular movie or actor. So with that in mind, I guess my job (as it were) was to talk with him about the mechanics of different things in the story, and give my opinion as to what would work or not, and why I thought so.
Mania: *laughs* So, it's best to be around you if a zombie invasion breaks outs...Looking at your upcoming projects, I see you've recently wrapped up production on Sci-Fi's ‘100 Million BC’. Can you describe to us a bit about that one?
SB: Making “BC” was a blast. Michael Gross plays Doctor Frank Reno, a scientist who was a boy genius during WWII. In the backstory, he was part of the famous Philadelphia Experiment. If you know anything about that particular conspiracy theory, or saw the Michael Paré movie in the 80s, you know that the Navy supposedly accidentally discovered time travel in 1943. After that disastrous experiment, Reno tried another, this time sending a team of Navy personnel, including his brother (Christopher Atkins), 70 million years into the past. They got stuck there, and the Navy shelved the program. Flash forward to 2008, and Reno is back at it, feeling like he’s finally perfected the technology.
Greg Evigan plays the Naval officer who approves Reno’s new plan. He assembles a team of highly-trained search and rescue operatives, the SEALs, to go back in time and rescue the first team. Well, you might’ve guessed it…things still don’t go according to plan. After fighting off
all kinds of prehistoric perils and creatures, they find what’s left of the old team and escape back through the portal to modern-day Los Angeles. Unfortunately, before the portal closes, an enormous Giganotosaurus follows them through time, emerging in downtown LA to wreak havoc upon the populace.
all kinds of prehistoric perils and creatures, they find what’s left of the old team and escape back through the portal to modern-day Los Angeles. Unfortunately, before the portal closes, an enormous Giganotosaurus follows them through time, emerging in downtown LA to wreak havoc upon the populace.It was a lot of fun. Think “Tears of the Sun” meets “Jurassic Park”, with a dash of the better parts of the Korean movie “Dragon Wars”. There’s a trailer right here, if you’d like to see a little of it.
Mania: You're playing "Lt. Robert Peet" in the film, presumably as a Navy Seal. So, I have to ask this one...Does Stephen Blackehart end up as "lunch" or would that be spoiling things?
SB: I don’t want to give too much away here, but suffice it to say the SEALs have a pretty rough time in the cretaceous period. Yes, I play Lt. Peet, the commander of the SEAL team sent back in time to rescue the team from the 1940s. He’s kind of a gruff, no-nonsense guy who feels like he’s been roped into this half-baked mission by his superiors and rushed off unprepared for what he might encounter. He’s got all these paternal instincts to protect his men, but really no idea what’s going on. He was a lot of fun to play. Not to mention I got to act with Michael Gross, who most people remember as the dad from “Family Ties”, but who I’ll always think of as Burt Gummer from the Tremors movies. Pretty cool, huh? Between him, Greg Evigan and Christopher Atkins, I sometimes felt like I was in one of those action-horror films from the 80s. It was a dream come true that way for me.
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Mania: Something I'm always curious about when I'm seeing actors run for their lives from CGI-characters. I imagine the CGI Dino isn't going to be added until long after production ends so what do you use as an acting motivation when the director (Griff Furst) tells you to run!
SB: That’s where trust comes in. You’ve got to be able to trust that the CG will be good. Without that, you’re done. Fortunately on BC, we had top guys on the job. Kai Bovaird and Ken Locsmandi run the FX company that does Lost, and worked on stuff like Apocalypto, The 
Matrix, Rescue Dawn…you name it. So, once you feel safe that you’re not going to make an idiot out of yourself, you’ve got to use the most vivid parts of your imagination. If you can really see the creatures in your mind’s eye, and can imagine what it would be like to get mauled or eaten by the one right across from you, you’ll have no problem running.
Matrix, Rescue Dawn…you name it. So, once you feel safe that you’re not going to make an idiot out of yourself, you’ve got to use the most vivid parts of your imagination. If you can really see the creatures in your mind’s eye, and can imagine what it would be like to get mauled or eaten by the one right across from you, you’ll have no problem running. .
I spent most of my life between the ages of 5 and 12 being scared shitless of imaginary creatures, so it’s easy for me. It’s much easier to do that than it is to, say… feign love for your supposed love interest when you know she’s a bitch in real life.
As a side note, this was my first time working with Griff Furst, and I have to say, keep an eye on that guy. He’s going to be somebody in this business, and I think he has a real future in front of him as a director. Nice guy, too! I’m better looking, though.
Mania: Has a date of premiere been given for the film yet? When can we expect to see you in action on the Sci-Fi network?
SB: My understanding is that they’re aiming for March, but I don’t know if the dates have been finalized yet.
Mania: Changeling sounds pretty damn interesting, mixing in English folklore within modern times. Not to mention you can never have enough genre movies with goblins. I see you're headlining it too. Can you share a bit about this one?
SB: It’s a pretty cool idea. There are a lot of old European stories about human babies being swapped at birth with elfin ones. I guess the medieval wood elves needed human infants for sacrifice in their religious ceremonies, and had no problem giving up one of their own in the process. The elf child left behind is called a changeling (because he was exchanged), and they usually made life hell on their new human parents before dying. Part of the fable is that the changelings couldn’t survive under human care for very long. There were all kinds of crazy rituals back then for discerning if you’re baby was in fact an elf, including throwing your baby into an open fire!
Well, in the movie this all gets taken into the modern day. I play this guy who grows up with all kinds of emotional problems and a lurking feeling of not belonging anywhere. As the story unfolds I find out that I’m not actually human, but a changeling, and that most of my problems are a result of trying to fit into this alien(human) society. Boy, it’d be nice if that were true for me personally! Anyhow, along the path of transformation my human girlfriend gets pulled into and trapped inside of this alternate reality called “The Glamour”, where all the elves and fairy folk live. I have to really come to grips with my true identity and powers in order to plunge into this netherworld and rescue her before she’s trapped there forever.
Cool stuff, and I can’t wait to see it when they’re done with the edit.
Mania: I know some actors prefer certain roles over others, protagonist over antagonist and vice versa. You've gone from being "First Servant" in a Puppet Master film to a detective in Echos of Enlightenment. Which do you prefer there? To be the villain? Or the hero? Which is the most fun?
SB: Y’ know, I like the complex ones the best. Usually, the most complex roles are written as the villains, so I guess I get a certain relish out of playing a nice juicy bad guy. So much so that it’s what I’m known for, mostly. It’s a lot of fun, and you usually have a lot more going on than the protagonist, since you represent the most fully realized personification of his greatest obstacles. The protagonist is often just sort of an Everyman character, which is boring.
But, I’ll tell you, I’d really like to play a role or two where I’m the good guy and still have all of these layers and levels of conflict. Anti-Heroes are my favorite, definitely. I read so may terrible scripts that it’d be nice to get one I could really sink my teeth into without having to be a monster or something. I love monsters and creatures, mind you, but I think the worst ones are inside of us.
Mania: So, what's on the horizon for you?
SB: Right now I’m producing another project for James Gunn. It’s kind of Top Secret at the moment, but I’ll be sure to let you know when it’s ready for public consumption. In the meantime, I’m looking at scripts, seeing what’s out there for me as an actor. That’s the great thing about this business: Tomorrow can bring anything.
Thanks for time, Stephen. Feel free to drop by and keep us up to date anytime!
Thanks! I had a lot of fun!!!
I know I look forward to seeing whether Stephen ends up as “Dino Chow” in Asylum Production's upcoming 100,000,00 BC. Hey Maniacs, give him a shout down below and feel free to shoot your own thoughts.
You readers can catch up with him 24/7 at his official site, Blackehart.net.
