Exclusive COLOR OUT OF SPACE Interview: And Along Came Chong…
Scott Feinblatt
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It’s a fascinating convergence, indeed, when Tommy Chong is cast to perform adaptations of his iconic stoner character in a horror film. It has happened before with The Evil Bong (2006), and it will happen again with the upcoming Scare Bear (2020). Now, it has happened with last week’s theatrical release of legendary director Richard Stanley’s cinematic adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space.” Mr. Chong was good enough to talk with Dread Central about working in the horror genre and about his work on the film Color Out of Space.
Related Article: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: RICHARD STANLEY DISCUSSES “CAGE RAGE” IN COLOR OUT OF SPACE
Check out the trailer for Color Out of Space embedded at the top of the article; read our conversation with Tommy Chong below the film’s synopsis.
Synopsis:
After a meteorite lands in the front yard of their farm, Nathan Gardner and his family find themselves battling a mutant extraterrestrial organism that infects their minds and bodies, transforming their quiet rural life into a technicolor nightmare.
Dread Central: Have they got you doing the full press tour today?
Tommy Chong: Oh, they’re slave drivers. They’ve got me tied to a chair, and they feed me with a tube now and then.
DC: Perfect! So, you hold a very special mantle in history as the creator of the archetypal stoner character, and you’ve done many variations of that character in a diverse collection of films. To what extent is doing it in a horror film different from doing it in a comedic film?
TC: Well, the emphasis on horror is horror, you know. It would have been so easy to be funny, but the part never called for that. So therefore, the character that I had to play, he was ironic, but he wasn’t, uh, you know, out and out funny. And, that’s the approach I think you end up taking in life eventually. When you’re young, everything’s a smile, but when you get older, sometimes the frowns come in there and you had to deal with it.
DC: How did you get involved with Color Out of Space?
TC: I guess Richard was a fan of my work with Cheech and Chong, and then over the years, he kept watching what I’d done, you know, different characters and I guess he wrote the part based on one of his associates in France, where he lives. He lives in the Pyrenees, in a mountain community. And there was an old hermit that he knows and talks to all the time. So Richard, when he wrote that part in there, he had that guy in mind, and then when he met me, he said, this is who I am, you know? It was very simple, and I never really had a script per se. I mean, they had a script, but I don’t work well with scripts anymore. I never did, by the way. That’s one of the reasons I just stayed in my own world; I find it much easier than trying to be other people when I don’t have that urge to do it. And so, when Richard came up with this part and the chance to go to Portugal, I just couldn’t turn it down. Of course I’m going to do it and to be an old hermit; that’s who I am, really. It wasn’t a stretch at all.
DC: How was it working with Richard?
TC: Perfect. Perfect. He understood me, totally. And he let me do my thing. They learn how to work with me, you know, different directors, like the Silent Bob character, [it was] the same thing. They didn’t really have much for me, but when I got there and we were together, he did a little Q & A, and that’s how we shot that movie. With Richard, basically, it was the same thing. He knew the lines before we’d shoot, and there was no pausing to get the lines right ‘cause Richard was right there, and because he wrote the part, he knew when I was on my own, you know, when I’d go on a little tangent, he would let me go. There was no typical way of doing anything. Richard has his own way. I have my own way, and it just worked out really well together.
DC: Cool. So you had a lot of freedom with that character?
TC: Totally! Totally!
DC: Ezra is another type of iconic character. The wise old hermit. How was it playing that archetype?
TC: So natural because that’s really what I am. Yeah, there was no stretch there at all. I mean, I couldn’t take the wardrobe home, but I was very comfortable, and actually I enjoyed the makeup. We had to do a lot of prosthetic makeup for me, to make my skin look like it was rotting, and I enjoyed it, man! I felt like those guys in movies, like Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire. You spend tons of time in makeup, and it’s an experience. I think that kind of separates the men from the boys. If you can go through all the hardships it takes to shoot a movie, shooting a visual, that’s all you’re doing, and you’re spending like up to 10 hours in the makeup chair. You really have to love their craft to go through all this.
DC: Apart from yourself, have you ever known an Ezra-type character in real life?
TC: Oh yeah! Oh absolutely. You see them every day on the street if you go in the right homeless area; they’re there. And, you know, they’re philosophers, they used to hang outside the liquor store, you know?
DC: That’s a very bittersweet sentiment.
TC: Yeah, yeah, yeah. There’s a whole culture, and they’re the freest people on earth, by the way. They roam the Earth, and they don’t have to worry about where they’re going to sleep, where they’re going to eat. You know, that biblical thing; it was the [Brother] Sun, Sister Moon movie: don’t worry about where you’re going to sleep, where you’re going to eat; be like the lilies of the field and that’s what these guys are like. And that’s what Ezra is like. As long as he has his little cabin, [and] he’s out of the weather, that’s all he needs. He’s got his nasty-tasting coffee and a joint, man, that’s all you need in life. You’re done.
DC: I like that. Are you an HP Lovecraft fan?
TC: Well, I am now. I really wasn’t into the horror genre at all because I’m so sensitive, you know, I get scared. I don’t like to see anything violent, unless I can laugh at it. If I can laugh at it, then I don’t mind it. But, when I see people get hurt, I feel the pain. It’s just my nature; although, I went to the fight with McGregor, the UFC fight, and I’ll tell you, when you see it in person, that’s not as near as bad as when you watch it on TV because they had the TV screens there, and I was watching some of it on TV, and then I’d look at the ring. If you look in the ring, you don’t even see that violence, but you watch it on TV, they get closeups, and you see the cuts and you see the screaming and all that pain; you don’t see it when you’re sitting ringside. It was interesting, but I’m too sensitive, really, to enjoy the Friday the 13ths or any of those kinds of movies.
DC: Was it a good experience working on Color Out of Space?
TC: Oh, totally. A good experience. I love it. I love it. I’m looking forward to the sequel. I think we’ve got something going here.
DC: So the cast and crew were all wonderful, and it was good working with them?
TC: Everybody I worked with there, they’re the best. The crew was exceptional and the make-up people, the prosthetics people, they were incredible because, [when] I got nothing to do for three hours, I entertain the best way I can, and they were the best audiences.
Have you seen Color Out of Space? What do you think of our exclusive interview with Tommy Chong? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram
