‘Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story’ Interview

Who seems in ‘Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story’?

Directed by Gary Smart (‘Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser’) and Christopher Griffiths (‘Pennywise: The Story of It’), ‘Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story’ options interviews with Robert Englund (‘Stranger Things’), his spouse Nancy Englund, Eli Roth (‘Hostel’), Adam Green (‘Hatchet’), William Katt (‘Carrie’), Tony Todd (‘Candyman’), Lance Henriksen (‘Aliens’), Heather Langenkamp (‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’), Lin Shaye (‘The Grudge’), Bill Moseley (‘The Devil’s Rejects’), Doug Bradley (‘Hellraiser’) and Kane Hodder (‘Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood’).

ECinema News not too long ago had the pleasure of talking with Robert Englund about ‘Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story,’ having a documentary made about his life and profession, how he helped Mark Hamill get an audition for ‘Star Wars,’ why Wes Craven’s ‘New Nightmare’ was forward of its time, and what taking part in Freddy Krueger has meant to him.

Robert Englund within the documentary movie, ‘Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story,’ a Cinedigm launch. Photo courtesy of Cinedigm.

ECinema News: To start with, are you able to discuss collaborating on this documentary and what it was like for you personally to look again in your life and your profession?

Robert Englund: Well, I bumped into these guys from Cult Screenings, and I’d been approached a number of times by totally different folks, particularly on this new world we stay in with the blogosphere and all the things, to do one thing. Almost immediately, Gary Smart and Chris Griffiths and I hit it off as a result of they’re type of like strolling IMBD guys. They’re movie followers. They’re fanboys like me. I do not wish to say I used to be testing them, however once I was attending to know them in a pub within the UK, I might be combating for the title of an actor that I cherished and they’d go, “Strother Martin,” or, “Warren Oates.” Or I might be speaking a few Hammer movie and they’d be saying issues like, “Oh, you imply Herbert Lom.” It was nice having them there to complete my sentences for me as a result of, though they’re youthful than I’m, they like quite a lot of the identical movies as I do. They’re not simply into up to date science fiction, superheroes, and horror. They favored the entire world of it and movies on the whole. So, I knew we had a simpatico going and I stated okay to this. So, they started to comply with me round and we’d arrange times. They had been off doing analysis and searching for clips, or I might inform them one thing that they had been intrigued by and they’d search for that clip and colleagues that I’d labored with, independently of me. But COVID hit throughout all of this. I feel that they had extra time to do their R&D whereas we had been all sitting round with our masks on, however we saved getting collectively. I keep in mind we had been collectively in London a few times and in LA and, I feel, in New York as soon as, and we stayed in touch. But I simply felt actually comfy with Gary and Chris. They actually listened to me. I stated, “I do not wish to be celebrated. If you wish to have a good time any individual, do a documentary on Daniel Day-Lewis or any individual.” But I stated, “I’m a survivor.” This is, actually, as I sit right here speaking to you, that is 50 years in the past that I used to be in Statesboro, Georgia, starring with one of many largest stars of the ’70s, Jan-Michael Vincent, and Pamela Sue Martin from ‘The Poseidon Adventure,’ and doing this terrific movie (‘Buster and Billie’) for Daniel Petrie, who directed ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ amongst different issues, my first movie starring position. It’s 50 years since then, and I’m off to do one other movie in October and I’ve a movie popping out this yr. It’s this story of a working actor, and the ups and downs and the misses. In reality, since we have executed the documentary, I’ve gotten the query about what had been those that obtained away and stuff like that. I’ve remembered a pair extra. I notice, as actors, we beat ourselves up on these components we did not get, even when they turned out to be flops, which in my case a few them did, and a few them weren’t made though they had been large initiatives. You beat your self up for months after that, and you do not sleep nicely after which it is gone. It’s within the ephemera. I notice that is a part of surviving too, is having to let go of that stuff. My spouse berates me as a result of I nonetheless complain a few movie I directed and movies that I used to be up for earlier than she even knew me and we have been collectively 35 years. I notice that is an actor’s nightmare.

Robert Englund within the documentary movie, ‘Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story,’ a Cinedigm launch. Photo courtesy of Cinedigm.

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MF: For years there was a rumor that you just auditioned for Luke Skywalker in ‘Star Wars,’ however the movie confirms that you just had been truly thought-about for Han Solo and helped get Mark Hamill an audition for the movie, are you able to discuss that?

RE: I used to be by no means up for Luke Skywalker. I briefly went within the workplace, and I imagine that is proper across the time Tom Selleck or any individual had turned down the position, they usually had been taking a look at Han to be older, just like the uncle that’s older than Luke. For a break up second, I feel they thought, “Well, possibly he does not must be the older uncle, possibly he could be extra of a recent of Luke’s like a galactic jet jockey or one thing.” I used to be making an attempt desperately to get into ‘Apocalypse Now.’ My agent had lastly obtained me within the door and I had been informed I used to be too younger for the Frederic Forrest position, the saucier, which was the position I needed to learn for. But they did take a look at me for the surfer, went to one of many Bottoms boys (Sam Bottoms). I used to be an actual surfer, and I used to be tan and had lengthy blonde hair. I regarded like William Katt’s ugly, older brother again then. But I used to be dressed very navy as a result of it was ‘Apocalypse Now,’ nevertheless it was my thrift store assemblage. They stated, “Well, possibly,” and I feel it was (producer) Fred Roos or any individual that introduced me throughout the corridor. He says, “They’re doing this house movie. You could be proper for it.” I did not assume a lot of it. I simply went throughout the corridor actual fast. They took my Polaroid, and that is it. But I heard the title George Lucas and I idolized George as a result of ‘American Graffiti’ actually speaks to my technology. I additionally noticed the edges for Luke Skywalker and that title, Luke Skywalker, it is such an amazing title. I keep in mind going again, I feel I had a drink on the Formosa afterwards as a result of I did not get in ‘Apocalypse Now.’ Then, I drove over the hill to my pad within the Hollywood Hills, and in entrance of my door had been these outdated cowboy boots. Mark used to take his sneakers off, Mark Hamill, and go away them on the market as a result of we had carpeting, treasured wall to wall carpeting, my girlfriend and I. I feel my girlfriend was down the corridor engaged on a primary draft of ‘The Lost Boys,’ Jan Fischer. I walked in and Mark was there. I stated, “Mark, I do not know, however this sounds such as you.” I feel he obtained on the horn and referred to as his agent. I feel his agent will get actual upset once I inform this story as a result of she might have already submitted him. I definitely do not find out about that. But I feel I used to be the one which made Mark conscious of the mission. I imply, Mark was an enormous tv star then. I inform that not as if I helped Mark get the position, however I inform it as a “as soon as upon a time in Hollywood story.” Once upon a time in Hollywood, the man that performed Freddy Krueger lived with a woman that wrote ‘Lost Boys’ and frolicked with the man that performed Luke Skywalker. It’s simply a kind of moments of time that I feel the followers love, that all of us crossed paths. The folks again east that assume that each one the horror actors hang around collectively at Schwab’s or one thing. Like Freddy, Jason and Pinhead are all sitting round having a milkshake at Schwab’s collectively.

Robert Englund within the documentary movie, ‘Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story,’ a Cinedigm launch. Photo courtesy of Cinedigm.

MF: Finally, I’ve all the time thought that ‘Wes Craven’s New Nightmare’ was forward of its time and probably the greatest movie’s within the sequence. Can you discuss your expertise engaged on that movie, having the chance to reinvent the character at that time in your profession, and what taking part in Freddy Krueger has meant to you?

RE: Well, I’d love to speak about it intellectually. It took the discharge of ‘Scream’ for everyone to get Wes Craven’s ‘New Nightmare,’ after which it turned large on DVD. People understood that it was deconstructed, that we had been making it and speaking to the followers about them. We had been type of teasing ourselves, taking part in exaggerated variations of ourselves. Quite a lot of that stuff was true, however exaggerated. I feel Heather Langenkamp did have a stalker and, after all, we made it Freddy. It was Wes Craven wrestling a bit along with his large success at that time, and the truth that he’d exploited evil and what if the evil he exploited got here again to hang-out us all. It was this nice type of deconstructed meta movie. But on the time, what I took principally from that shoot was I obtained to hang around daily at lunch as a result of I might be executed by 1:00pm, so I’d tear my make-up off and, though we had been all earning money by that time, I’m by no means one to show down a free lunch. I’d run over to the catering space and I’d sit down and John Saxon would simply be coming in. John was coming in for his free lunch too. I used to be allowed a glass of wine as a result of I wasn’t working anymore. John was going to have a pleasant lengthy lunch and they’d inform him when he wanted to get in make-up. By that time, I’d labored with John three or 4 times and we might been on worldwide publicity junkets collectively. I obtained John to open up about his whole profession. I obtained tales from John about working with Marlon Brando on ‘The Appaloosa.’ I obtained tales about his first movie ever with a younger child named Robert Redford, ‘War Hunt’ I feel it was referred to as, the place he performed a Native American and went out into the no man’s land and took scalps. I obtained to speak to John about Sandra Dee, and he dated Natalie Wood, and he knew Elvis Presley, James Dean, Sal Mineo and all of these tales, and what the golden age was like as a result of he was proper on the cusp of that. Then, he additionally segued into that type of teen second of time. But he labored with Jimmy Stewart on ‘Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation.’ He labored with Clint Eastwood and Robert Duvall, simply everyone. He labored for Quentin Tarantino on a two-hour particular episode of ‘CSI,’ and Bruce Lee on ‘Enter the Dragon.’ I obtained the Bruce Lee tales, and all of the Hong Kong tales. It was getting all of this golden age of Hollywood gossip from the horse’s mouth. Now I can have a beer with any individual on location and share a kind of anecdotes with them as nicely. It was only a nice expertise for me as a result of I used to be getting this oral historical past from the late nice John Saxon.

Robert Englund within the documentary movie, ‘Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story,’ a Cinedigm launch. Photo courtesy of Cinedigm.

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