When asked how he approached the role in creating the lead character in 'Hellboy II: The Golden Army', actor Ron Perlman first gave the credit to writer/director Guillermo del Toro.
"Well the screenplay for 'Hellboy', I, first of all I couldn't believe how well articulated Guillermo's feel for growing up in New Jersey, being a by-product of a completely cynical environment, which is what the East Coast, the tri-state area is. And the idiomatic sound of a guy who grows up in that, it sounds like it's me the whole movie, making this shit up. Every single line that I said was scripted by him.
"It was almost miraculous, especially for a guy [like Guillermo] who clearly English is a second language. It's so there, it's so fully arrived, developed, complete with idiosyncratic behavior, and so evocative of what this guy's persona is that there's no reason that you wanna do anything extra with it. You just say and get out of its way and let it resonate into the universe."
Perlman revealed that what attracted him to the role was the humor.
"It's everything. To me it's far and away the most attractive thing about Hellboy – the fact that he doesn't take anything seriously. He's kind of like the Dean Martin of superheroes, and if you're a fan of Dean Martin, he actually says in his nightclub act, 'I don't take nothing serious' – which is why everybody loved Dino so much is because he managed to find the absurdity, and the lack of reverence for absolutely every subject in the book, including just living his life. He was never drunk, but he acted like he was constantly swimming against the tide. And we love that guy. We love that guy because he manages to take the most serious thing and find the lightness, the unbearable lightness of it.
Which doesn't mean that returning the to red makeup didn't present its share of challenges.
"The challenges were the scope of what Guillermo was trying to do in this, and I think there was a huge amount of empowerment that took place by the whole 'Pan's Labyrinth' experience," Perlman said. "I just think that he truly finally came to terms with the possibilities of cinema and now refuses to settle for anything less than exactly what he wants to do.
"He can think of things that he thinks is cool and worthy of shooting. So it was challenging because it was just bigger and more complicated and more...our hours were really long and the time we spent shooting a scene was far longer, but I don't think it had anything to do with the sequel. It was trying to realize this unbelievable epic world that Guillermo was depicting."
Yet within this epic, there are small moments as well because a sequel allows characters to grow and change if a writer chooses to go in that direction. 'Hellboy II' find Hellboy as, "very much the same guy, except this time we're seeing him circumstantially in a highly emotionally compromised state because the relationship [with Liz] is on the rocks, perhaps in danger of burning up, pardon the pun," Perlman said, referring to Selma Blair's character's ability to generate fire, pyrokinetically, "and he's faced with the idea of life without Liz and he's emotionally compromised.
"And of course he does what Hellboy will do when he's not sure whether he has a reason to live or not. He starts drinking heavily. And meanwhile, parenthetically, he's gotta go save the Earth from complete extinction while he's buzzed."
Of course, the most obvious obstacle for Perlman would seem to be that he's completely covered in red makup, not to mention facial prothetics, contact lenses and a giant stone fist for his right hand.
"I don't think the prosthetics or the make-up, I mean every job comes with its sub-structure of problems and obstacles. And in this case, the three and a half to five to six hour prep time in order to get on the stage and work," Perlman said. "Once it was on, once I was on the set, aside from sometime being hotter than everyone else in August and warmer than everybody else was in November, it didn't alter anything. It was basically just the uniform, the look that made up the guy. There always is one. Even if you're wearing nothing at all, that's still the costume.
"So I don't think it really changed anything. I will tell you that when they finally zip-up the last zipper and I tie up the last shoelace and I start walking to the set, it's like there's a strut that I don't have in real life and that's all given to how evocative the whole costume and make-up is. I mean, I feel almost indomitable."
Yet the actor wasn't so indomitable that he tried to dismiss his stunt crew. "Whenever it's safe and [del Toro] wants to get a good character reaction shot, it's me. Having said that, they kept me able to fight another day. It was really important to make sure that I didn't do anything too stupid and too compromising and too unsafe. After all I'm not equipped to handle myself in situations like that."
Most specifically, the fight sequences where he "spent most of them in an armchair. I was basically there eating popcorn."
When Perlman first saw the completed film, it was "pretty revelatory for me in so many ways. First of all when you finally see a movie in real time, all cut together and finished, you either live up to the potential of what was already there, if it was really good, or sometimes surpass what you thought was kind of, I hope we can find a way to make this work," Perlman explained. "The playing of a film is kind of like a living, breathing organism and you never know by the sum of its parts whether it's going to be a good living, breathing organism, something that works, something that's affecting. Because you shoot these things in such a piece meal fashion, but does it add up? Will it play? And how is it in juxtaposition to one another?
"I was thrilled when I finally saw it. There were so many great choices that were made in terms of after it was said and done, and the post-production. There were so many great, great beautiful additions. Danny Elfman's music is sumptuous and so happy and so full of mood and so reflective of what Guillermo had in his heart when he wrote the piece. I was just pleased with so many things. I'm a real happy camper right now."
When asked about returning to the role, Perlman said, "I'll be...it'll be four years before pre-production. By the time we shoot it'll be five, maybe six. Are you a praying man? If you are and you want to see a third movie, you better pray. I pray every day that I have the strength to just get through today, much less like what's gonna happen when I'm 63."
Watch Ron Perlman as Mike Mignola's monster-bashing demon in 'Hellboy II: The Golden Army' this Friday.
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