THE PROPHECY 3: Vincent Spano Interviewed

By: John Thonen
Date: Tuesday, March 14, 2000

However much one might love them, most horror and fantasy films are more derivative of each other than genuinely original. Take the rather small sub-genre of 'angel' films. Whether it's the helpful good guys of ANGLES IN THE OUTFIELD ('51 & '94), the troubled good guys of WINGS OF DESIRE ('88) and CITY OF ANGELS ('98), or the bumbling good guys of HERE COMES MR. JORDAN ('41) and HEAVEN CAN WAIT ('88), movie angels are, well, pretty angelic. Then in 1995 screenwriter Gregory Widen (HIGHLANDER) bent the rules a bit in his directorial debut, a genuinely original tale of angels called THE PROPHECY.

In order to change the perpetual 'nice guy' image of the cinematic angel, Widen went back to the source: The Old Testament. He returned with a tale of a centuries-old war in heaven and on earth, featuring rebel, warring, murderous, human-hating angels. The result, was a unique if not wholly successfully film, which while only a mild box office success, rode the inspired casting of the one and only Christopher Walken, as rebel angel Gabriel, to a strong video afterlife. And lo, it came to pass, that in the kingdom of the video store, Walken would return for a 1998 sequel, THE PROPHECY II and, again in THE PROPHECY 3: THE ASCENT, arriving in video stores March 14.

One of the strengths of the PPROPHECYseries to date has been its casting. Last time out, the charismatic Russell Wong and the offbeat Eric Roberts stretched their wings; this time around, Walken is joined on screen by another intense screen presence, Vincent Spano (BABY, IT'S YOU), as Zophael, a deadly arch-angel sent to finish the job Gabriel, who is now just another Earth-bound human, botched.

'I really enjoyed playing him,' says the actor. 'He was on an intense, single-minded mission, to eliminate the nephalim, and I had a lot of fun being on a mission like that.' Much of the film plays out as a chase, and Spano's character meets considerable earthly resistance. None of which does more than briefly slow his purposeful strides in pursuit of his half human, half angel prey. 'It was fun to have the film allow me all this power,' he explains. 'To be able to jump over things. To be beaten, shot, even impaled--stuck to a wall like a butterfly in a bug collection--and yet live.'

While Spano's career has generally found him in dramatic roles, he confessed a love of more active character like Zophael. 'I like physically demanding roles. I like action. To be as much a part of the stunts as I possibly can be. It's really cool.'


Spano was a last-minute addition to the cast, having been offered the role on the Friday before the film's late 1998 production was scheduled to start. 'They dropped the script off for me,' the actor explains, 'and on the way home from picking it up, I rented the first two films. I dove into the whole PROPHECY world in just one day. I watched both films, back to back, and then read the script and told them yes.'
Spano says that he was fascinated by the series concept. 'The one fact that leaves you hanging, is that there is nothing in the Bible that documents the end of the second war in heaven. So, if you believe in that second war, it's still going on. Right now.'

Spano was also drawn to the challenge of creating the unusual nature of the angels. 'I started with the first film, got the idea of the rules. The way they turn their headsalmost like little birdsthe way they move and talk, and even perch. They are quite unique.'

Spano's past film characters have often had more than a little edge to them, but PROPHECY 3: THE ASCENT is one of the actor's few forays into the playing a villain. While he enjoyed the part ('villains are a lot of fun'), he explains that the role of the 'bad guy' is little different from that of the hero. 'You have to remember that every villain has their own line of logic. They don't see themselves as evil, so you can't play a villain as evil. Zophael believes in what he is doing. He is righteous in his goal to destroy the nephalim, to purge the Earth of the monkeys [humans] and to resurrect Pyriel, the fallen angel of the first heavenly war. The villain's goals may be morally and ethically opposed to what most of us aspire to, but his motivations are exactly the same as the hero's. He believes he is right. And that is the stuff of the great conflicts.'

Each of the preceding PROPHECY films have been the debut effort for the director invovled, and PROPHECY 3 is no exception. This time out, it's veteran film editor (SCREAM 1-3, MIMIC, HALLOWEEN H20) Patrick Lussier, offering up his first film, and Spano found him more than up to the task. 'He's excellentvery aware of every detail, totally dedicated to his vision. There are a lot more good films to come from Patrick.' First time directors with strong technical backgrounds are often weak when working with character and actors, but Spano insists Lussier was a rare exception. 'You hope that when a director says something to you, that it is something of value. Something that will challenge you to do something different, better. Patrick was that kind of director, and I really appreciate that in him.'


Anyone who has caught Christopher Walken on screen, whether in THE DEAD ZONE, SLEEPY HOLLOW, PULP FICTION, or others of his 50 odd (and odd they are) roles, knows that few actors so command the screen the way he does. Working with such an actor could be a challenge to lesser performers, but Spano, a 20-year veteran performer, had no such problems. 'The only good improvisation is if it doesn't look or feel like improvisation. It should run so parallel to the logic of the story that it doesn't feel like you've gone in a different direction. When it's not that way, it takes you out of the movie, and it bores the hell out of me.' Spano never found himself bored while working with Walken. 'He's brilliantly creative. He has a gift for being spontaneous and alive when he's creating, yet also natural. He's always right there--in the scene, in the story.' Spano also warns viewers not to confuse Walken's screen persona with the man himself, insisting, 'He's a smart, shrewd and very dedicated actor. And a very funny guy. He's really nothing like his characters.'

Vincent Spano's career began with early highlights like working with John Sayles (BABY, IT'S YOU) and Francis Ford Coopola (RUMBLEFISH) but he has yet to become the star that many predicted he would be. The result of the ups and downs of his profession has led him to both direct-to-video fare like PROPHECY 3 and to major theatrical releases, like the upcoming TEXAS RANGERs, but he finds merit in every film he does, no matter what the budget or critical and audience response. 'Francis Ford Coopola enlightened me at a very young age that there is something of value in everything. He told me 'I like everything. Even if you watch a really awful movie, there'll be one shot, one line, one idea or performance, that's worth it. And even if there isn't, you can still learn from the choices they made and the reasons they didn't work.' So my philosophy is that you can find something good in everything. No one enters into the kind of challenge that filmmaking is, hoping they'll make something bad. Maybe that's a little too philosophical, but the point is, every movie--'A,' 'B 'or worse--has something of value in it. That's why I don't mind doing these interviews to promote PROPHECY 3. If you really like a product, there's a real comfort in knowing that you can help it get out and be seen and enjoyed--so that people can find those things of value in it for themselves.'