Bill Moseley: Chop Top, Rock Star, and Devil”s Reject!
Uncle Creepy: Hi, Bill. First of all, thanks for taking the time to talk with us.
Bill Moseley: I’m happy to do it.
UC: So, The Devil’s Rejects. How did the shoot go?
BM: The shoot was great; it was for the most part painless. Looking back on it, it’s almost like it didn’t even happen.
UC: Really?
BM: It’s weird.
UC: It was a pretty quick shoot too, wasn’t it? Thirty days?
BM: You know, with pre-production and all things considered, it was around seven weeks – six weeks of shooting, a week or two of rehearsals and costume fittings and stuff like that. I had my arm molded by Wayne Toth for a blood effect and driving a nail through my hand.
UC: It sounds like Otis is getting kind of dirty in this one, huh?
BM: Otis is definitely getting kicked around a bit.
UC: Now, speaking of Otis, what’s with the beard?
BM: You know, it’s funny. I never knew I had a beard in my chin. I never had grown a beard before, and Rob . . .
UC: Who has a beard.
BM: Yeah, he’s Mr. Beard! I went over to watch the Super Bowl at his place back in January, and during the course of the game he turned to me and said, “You know . . . why don’t you start growing your beard?” I said, “What do you mean?” And he said he’d like to see Otis with a beard this time. I said, “Well, can you describe the look you’re looking for?” And he did better than that. He took a paper plate off the table and got out a pen and sketched what looked like a Duane Allman look. Kind of a big, heavy, droopy mustache type beard and long hair.
UC: Like a hair away from ZZ Top.
BM: Yeah! And I was just looking at it, going, “I think you better sign this.”
UC: You still have the plate?
BM: Oh, yes, I’ve got the paper plate. The prototypical Otis. So I just started growing my beard.
UC: Was that the first step toward character design for the new film?
BM: It was. That was the first visualization of the changes, the wholesale changes for Otis. So I had him sign it and date it, and I have that paper plate somewhere for my children’s college education or something.
UC: I actually own a piece of the set of the original House of 1000 Corpses. You even signed it for me – Run Rabbit Run.
BM: What piece? Did you get something from Gregg Gibbs?
UC: Yeah. It’s from Captain Spaulding’s office. It’s the sign that says “No Smoking . . . Anything.” It’s the funniest thing too. When I put on the DVD, it’s one of the first things you see on the Menu screen.
BM: That’s fantastic.
UC: It was a good measure of revenge for me, too. My girl friend was yelling at me for buying it, and now she’s all happy.
BM: That’s great.
UC: So, what are some of the main differences between the first film and this one?
BM: Again, just to talk about the changes in Otis, it really is kind of emblematic of the changes between the two movies. Not only do I have a beard, my hair color changed. They didn’t white me up so much. I’m not really an Albino anymore and fortunately, for the most part, didn’t have to wear a lot of the contact lenses that I wore for Otis in the first movie. So there are these basic changes. And I think that Rob’s idea was to make Otis, and for that matter Baby and Captain Spaulding, more real characters and less “cartoony” like we were in the first movie.
I think the whole idea is that what Rob wanted to do in the second movie was to kind of go against the norm for a sequel. I think his biggest complaint about sequels is that often they are just a rehash of the first story and an attempt to squeeze a few more bucks out of the fans who bought tickets for the first one and liked the first one. He also noted that in a lot of sequels the characters that might have been pretty mean or scary in the first of the series end up becoming more cartoony, wisecracking, and comical in the sequel and subsequent entries. And he wanted to get away from that. He wanted, in fact, to go in the opposite direction and turn what were kind of not exactly lovable characters more real, more mean, and more dark and edgy and violent. So, that’s the direction we went in, and I was very excited about that. I was nervous about it at first because we have to do a lot of stuff in this movie that really stretched me as an actor and also as a person going, “Oh, my God!”
UC: Coming from somebody who played Chop Top, that’s a pretty bold statement.
BM: I know! I don’t mind jellying a few heads, but some of the things I’ve done in Devil’s Rejects really twisted my guts up. At one point we were doing a scene where I am just doing terrible things to a man’s wife in a motel room, and the scene is very heavy. Boy, we didn’t mess around. So it had a lot of impact not only I’m sure on the viewer but also on the performers. You do these really frightening or horrible scenes, and then because it’s a movie, you have to do it six times over and over.
UC: Until you get the heinousness just right.
BM: Exactly! Then it becomes formulaic in a way because you have to hit your marks and you’ve got cameras and you’ve got angles, you know. You’ve got all these different things. So, after about the third take of this particularly grisly scene, I was on a break while the cameras were moving, and I said to Rob, “This is totally bumming me out. I’m doing it, I’m there, but my guts are really twisting.” And Rob looked at me and said, “Well, art is not safe.” And I just went, “Wow!” First of all, that’s a pretty heavy thing to say. And it’s true. And it also was about the most clear explanation or communication of what he was going for.
UC: That put it in perspective for you.
BM: It did! It allowed me to experience this on a different level instead of going, “Wait a minute. This shouldn’t be feeling this way because we’re just making this movie.” And then he pointed out, this is what we’re going for. And I just thought, well, if we’re going for that, then I’m free to feel all of these things and to really go for it because we’re not just making a little sequel here; we’re really going for the throat!
UC: That’s great to hear.
BM: In fact, toward the end of it, Lions Gate was even talking about not really calling it or promoting it as the sequel to House of 1000 Corpses. It really is its own movie; it’s a world away from House of 1000 Corpses. Yes, there are some crossover characters and storylines, but in fact it doesn’t have that much to do with the first movie, which I thought was very interesting. Obviously, we want to hang on to the fans that flocked to see House of 1000 Corpses and made it popular and successful enough so that there was a sequel in the first place. But at the same time it really is a whole different deal.
UC: Without giving away too much, can you clue us in a little bit on what the storyline is?
BM: The storyline is that we get rousted from the “House of 1000 Corpses” by the cops, led by Sheriff Wydell played by William Forsythe, and Sheriff Wydell happens to be the brother of the policeman played by Tommy Towles in the first film. So it’s a revenge movie. Not only is it cops chasing bad guys, but Forsythe’s Wydell has a special mission to avenge his brother’s death. In a way, it’s kind of like The Fugitive. The Devil’s Rejects are Captain Spaulding, Baby, and me; and we’re on the road being pursued by this crazy sheriff who actually, as it turns out, is just as bad as we are. Except he’s got the law on his side.
UC: You say the film is darker, it takes on a darker tone than the original. “Dark” doesn’t necessarily have to translate into “gorier,” but does it get gorier? And if so, what about the MPAA? How do you think Rob it going to handle them this go-around?
BM: I think it’s going to be a different deal. Of course, I’m a good guy to ask about that because Otis is usually involved in all the gore . . .
UC: What’s interesting about that is you never really know what the MPAA is going to censor. I see plenty of films that are “action” oriented with plenty of splatter in them. It seems to be a double standard – you can put that kind of splatter and violence in a certain type of movie but not really a horror film, which is kind of senseless.
BM: I think that if the MPAA allowed as much violence and gore for The Devil’s Rejects as they did for The Passion of the Christ, we’d get just about everything in. That’s the weird part about it.
UC: I’ve always looked at The Passion as sort of a Christian splatter film.
BM: TOTAL splatter film. That made me go, “Holy smokes!” It made me wince, and I’m thinking that if they’re letting this go, Otis looks a little bit like Jesus in this, so . . .
UC: You know, you might have to bring that up to them should they give you guys trouble.
BM: Some of the people on the set, some of the crew members, were calling this The Passion of the Otis. I don’t quite take a flaying like Christ in the movie, but I’ve got the beard and the long hair and I definitely get my butt kicked along the way.
UC: So, I know you and Sid Haig are pretty good friends by now. Does he have more of a role in The Devil’s Rejects than he did in House of 1000 Corpses? Because I gotta tell you, as a fan, I just loved the Captain Spaulding character and really wanted to see more out of him.
BM: Oh, you are going to see a lot more out of him. Again, the three of us – Sheri, Sid, and I – are the Devil’s Rejects. You see a lot of us. Sid really turned it up. I think we all were challenged to turn it up by Rob, which was the great thing about the script and his vision of the movie. He threw the gauntlet down to all of us. As an on-set observer of what Sid turned in and what Sheri Moon turned in, I was just so excited! Sid does some awesome stuff. And so does Sheri. She really, I think, came into her own in this movie. So if the fans were excited about what they saw in the first one, they are going to be thrilled with the performances in this one, certainly of Sid and Sheri.
UC: Very cool. Now you mentioned yourself, Sid, and Sheri. What about the character of Mother Firefly? Or Rufus?
BM: You mean the two new actors?
UC: Right.
BM: You know, I thought Leslie Easterbrook, who played Mother Firefly, did a fantastic job. And she’s sexy.
UC: She looks very much like Karen Black in the role.
BM: Yeah, absolutely. I think she did a good job. I didn’t work with her that much, just in the opening scene when the cops are at the door, and we had to run down the stairs and get shot at, so it wasn’t exactly Shakespeare.
UC: That’s what happens. What about the character of Grandpa Hugo?
BM: For me personally, Dennis Fimple was my favorite character in House of 1000 Corpses. I just thought he was awesome. I obviously had a chance to work with him quite a bit, and I just love him. He was a funny guy.
UC: You two in the original film have the scene stealer when you’re watching The Munsters. That is just such a funny moment in the film, and there’s all this chaos going on too, so it’s even stranger.
BM: I know. That’s when I’m throwing knives at poor Chris Hardwick. Then Karen breaks in and says the cops are there. So there was a lot of stuff going on, but he was so funny. We just had a fun, funny time together. I didn’t know what was up with him at first. I remember when Frank Gorshin read for that part, so Dennis won out over some really great actors. I wasn’t really sure about him at first, and I was thinking, “What’s he got under the hood?”
UC: There’s nobody that can scream, “Eat your mother’s p***y” like him.
BM: Oh, man.
UC: Is his character revisited at all in the sequel?
BM: No. And I think that’s right and proper not to.
UC: It’s a tribute to the man.
BM: Yeah. You can’t replace that guy. It’d be like trying to replace Jim Siedow in another Chainsaw.
UC: So I’m sure there was a lot of lunacy on the set. And I’m sure there are a lot of funny stories from the set too. Can you share some of them?
BM: You know, there wasn’t really a lot of lunacy. If you mean like behind the camera lunacy.
UC: I mean just kind of craziness in general . . . some good times, some laughs.
BM: We definitely had some good times. Let me just say that everybody approached this movie with a real work ethic. You would think there would have been a lot of egos and crazy personality stuff and hijinks and mental illness, but for the most part it was a bunch of professionals coming to work. It was almost like a “lunch pail” approach to making this movie. We had six weeks – these days and these setups – and everybody pretty much showed up ready to go. We just marched out and cranked it out. Which is funny because it’s the kind of movie where you would think there would be all these crazy stories of cast and crew going cuckoo, but we were all very focused. And I think that’s a tribute, again, to Rob. All of that comes from the director. He was low-key, he was focused, he knew what he wanted. There was no fiddling around. We all had a good time; there was high humor and great food I might add. We had pretty decent conditions and nice locations, but, you know, it all comes from Rob. We had some funny times; we did a lot of improvising.
UC: Any more “Tiny f**ked a stump” references?
BM: No . . . actually, I do say that finally. We kind of got that in there obliquely. I’m getting grilled by Sheriff Wydell, and I make some “Tiny f**ked a stump” reference although it’s actually “broke some bitch.” More of a human reference this time. So we kind of get that in there. But for the most part, there wasn’t a lot of referring back to House of 1000 Corpses. It wasn’t like we said that we’re better than that, that we’ve moved on. Or that we don’t give two hoots about House of 1000 Corpses. I loved House of 1000 Corpses, you know. But, again, this is a different movie, so there weren’t that many references.
In terms of fun, we had some party scenes. One of the places we hid is Charlie Altamont’s Whore Ranch. Charlie Altamont is played by Ken Foree, and it turns out he’s Captain Spaulding’s brother. Right, make some sense of that!
UC: That’s a pretty odd scene, man!
BM: It was an odd f**king scene indeed! And then, we were having so much fun just kind of goofing around while the cameras were rolling that finally Rob couldn’t take it anymore, and he jumped into the party. And then the Director of Photography. And then the camera guys threw down the cameras and jumped in. It was a great party.
UC: Maybe that will make it to the outtakes.
BM: I hope so! That’s one of the differences between this and the first. I’m not sure if Rob was at odds with the camera department on the first one, but there apparently wasn’t a lot of coverage or as much as he would have liked for a lot of the scenes. This time around Phil Parmet is the Director of Photography, and there were always at least two cameras on every shot. Lots of angles. I know Rob shot hundreds of thousands of feet of film on this, so everything is covered in a lot of different ways. This time around, too, Rob is going to have a lot more choices when he gets into the editing phase. He’s got plenty of film, so what you’re going to see when this thing rolls out, after duking it out with the MPAA, is exactly the best movie that Rob’s vision has created.
UC: And that’s really refreshing too because for a long time horror became pretty diluted with a lot of PG-13 offerings. Not that they were bad films, like The Others and The Sixth Sense, but it seemed like the really hardcore horror of yesteryear kind of took a little bit of a back seat. I always felt that House of 1000 Corpses put it back in the front seat. It’s good to hear that that trend is continuing because even so, there have been harsher films coming out like the new Chainsaw film. It was pretty edgy in terms of how horror was and how it is now. So it’s good to see that kind of thing come back, and it’s great to hear that it’s remaining the same and if anything getting even darker. That’s great news, and I’m sure everyone’s going to love hearing that.
BM: That’s why I’m so proud of Rob and proud to be a part of his troupe these days. You know he’s a rock star, so a lot of the time people were thinking it was a dilettante thing for him. But he made a lot of his music videos, so he had his chops down behind the camera before he took on House of 1000 Corpses. He always has known what he wanted. Just hearing him talk about lenses and angles and stuff – he really knows his stuff. The other thing is that when you’re a rock star, something happens in terms of power that enables you to go up against things like corporations like Universal and institutions like the MPAA. Not only do you have the personal power to fight with them, but you also almost get into it. I think Rob likes taking on the suits.
UC: And his passion shows too. You can really tell that he put his heart into House of 1000 Corpses.
BM: Absolutely.
UC: There are a lot of things in that film that are really just pure Rob. I’ve been a fan of his forever, so when I saw the movie, it seemed like a logical extension. Speaking of rock stars, you seem a little modest to me. I know you’re a bit of an aficionado of rock yourself, and your band, The Cornbugs, is pretty trippy. Can you tell us what’s going on with them?
BM: Well, actually, history was made Saturday night here in Los Angeles at a club called The Knitting Factory when Buckethead rolled into town with his Giant Robot band, which is Bud House on bass, Brain on drums, and Buckethead on guitar. They’ve already been touring a bit, and I got on stage at Buckethead’s invitation and sang a song called “Jowls,” which is on his “Monsters & Robots” CD. I actually did the vocals on the CD. So, Chop Top got on stage with Buckethead for the first time ever.
UC: Wow!
BM: Cornbugs is something we do in the dark of night under the old oak tree after eating a little wolfbane, and no one has ever seen us perform because we’ve never performed in public. So, Chop Top and Buckethead finally got on stage together, and it was really a lot of fun.
UC: Is that the first time you’ve performed in front of a live audience at a concert?
BM: I think it was. I think that was Numero Uno.
UC: So what’s more nerve-wracking – being in front of the camera or something like that?
BM: You know it’s funny. In front of the camera, you’re prepared. You can always improv a bit, but usually it’s because you’ve already given yourself to the spirit of the scene. With this, I was nervous because I wasn’t exactly sure . . . In fact, I thought the name of the song was “Night of the Slunk.” It turned out to be “Jowls,” and on the playlist it said “Jowls” and then it said “Night of the Slunk.” So I was kind of waiting to hear “Jowls” played and then I was going to go up for “Night of the Slunk.” But it turned out that “Jowls” and “Night of the Slunk” were actually two names for the same song. So I was kind of standing on the side of the stage, and then Buckethead’s girl friend Donna grabbed my shoulder and said I was on. So I went, “Oh, jeez!” But I put on my black Elvis wig and my Star Trek glasses. I already had my Chop Top teeth in with the Polygrip. I had my Chainsaw lighter and my coat hanger and was wearing like a 70’s black and white hypnotic disco shirt.
UC: So you actually did it in character?
BM: Oh, yeah!
UC: That’s great. What was the crowd reaction?
BM: I walked out slowly, and the place was packed – it was sold out with a lot of people pressed up against the stage – and I just fired up the coat hanger. I call it “Sparky and Scratcher.” I took old Sparky and heated up the tip of the coat hanger and just scratched it through my wig. Then I introduced myself, and everybody seemed to be excited. They seemed to know who Chop Top was. I said, “The one thing I would like you all to do is SAVE ME THE SLUNK!” That was the cue, so Buck fired up the band and went into the song. It was a lot of fun. I ended up doing like a farm dance, which started to get into a little sheep f**king, and then I thought I should back off from that. So I let go of the imaginary sheep and just hopped around and had a ball. Everybody seemed to enjoy it, and then I got the hell out of there. I pulled off the wig, took out the teeth, and whipped off the shirt and put it in my little suitcase backstage. Then I came out in a t-shirt with my shaved head, and hardly anybody recognized me, so it was great.
UC: It’s great you can have that kind of anonymity.
BM: Yeah. And that’s the secret of Buck too. He always performs with a bucket on his head, a mask, and no one has any idea what he looks like.
UC: It takes a lot of the strain off I’d imagine.
BM: Yeah, it does. It’s also its own character. The only thing is, after the show he looked pretty hot because he wears a long-sleeved windbreaker with the hood up and the mask and the bucket and Nike running pants and everything. So, he gets pretty steamed in there.
UC: He must go through a lot of buckets.
BM: I have a feeling he does.
UC: I was just thinking that maybe I should try that.
BM: Yeah, run around in a windbreaker with the hood up, etc., etc., and you’ll probably sweat a lot of toxins out of you.
UC: It’s nothing without the bucket though.
BM: That’s right. You know we have Cornbugs.com. I’m working with a girl who is one of the actresses in Flesh for the Beast.
UC: Terry M. West’s film?
BM: Yeah. She’s a great web designer and is working on putting the finishing touches on a nice centerpiece for the Cornbugs website. I’m actually going out tomorrow to Chatsworth, California, to work with Travis Dickerson, who produced our latest CD, “Brain Circus,” at his studio.
UC: That’s available for sale through the website, right?
BM: Yes. And it’s been getting good reviews. It’s really our first “studio” album. We did an album in Buckethead’s kitchen one time with a weird little tape recorder. That was our CD called “Cemetery Pinch.”
UC: That’s rock and roll, baby!
BM: That was fun. We did that in like six hours in his kitchen. Then there was a rehearsal studio out in San Dimas, California, where we did “Spot the Psycho” and “How Now Brown Cow.” That was basically just hacking around with one tape recorder picking up all the instruments. It was a lot of fun, but then it was nice to go into Travis’ studio – TDR Studio I believe it is – in Chatsworth and actually be in different booths. So, if the vocals sucked, you could delete those and not have to delete the whole track. If the drum missed or went off on the wrong path, whatever. And we have another one I’m going to put the finishing touches on tomorrow – our next CD is called “Donkey Town.” We’re just about done with that. We’ve already recorded the music; it’s just going back and editing it and making sure it’s sweet and equalized and all these terms I’ve never even heard of before.
UC: Are you writing the lyrics only, or are you writing the music, or both? Or are you collaborating?
BM: I mostly just write the lyrics. When you have somebody like Buckethead on the music end of things, you’ve got a lot of confidence there. I don’t think he needed a lot of input from me.
UC: You’re in a nice, safe bucket.
BM:
UC: How did you originally hook up with Buckethead?
BM: Buckethead was a Chop Top fan. You know, Chop Top has brought me many blessings I have to say. I just had so much love for Chop Top and still do. I loved being Chop Top; I still am Chop Top actually. He has brought me a lot of wonderful things. Chop Top got me the part in House of 1000 Corpses. Chop Top was what attracted Buckethead to me. We met at a play I was doing back in ’90 or ’91. He wanted me to come to his studio and just kind of go off as Chop Top over some music he had done. I did, and then we ended up making up some songs, some of which are actually on our first CD “Spot the Psycho.” Out of that, because we got along so well, he flew me to New York to do the vocals on one of his albums for Sony, “Giant Robot.” The track was “Onions Unleashed.” I played this crazy scarecrow called Onions. And then he liked that so much that he wanted me to write the lyrics and perform them on a song called “I Come in Peace.” So I do that as a radio announcer announcing a 50-foot Buckethead invading Tokyo kind of like Godzilla. From there, we stayed friends. Then I started to go to these horror conventions, and I’d have a measly picture or two, but I thought it’d be kind of fun to actually give the fans not only a picture but also have a cassette or something fun with Chop Top – cause “music is my life.” So I talked to Buckethead about it, and he said to come over to the studio. The first night we got together, he had guitars and a little drum machine. I had nothing but my head; I didn’t bring any lyrics or anything, so we just made stuff up and found that we work best completely spontaneously. Sometimes I bring lyrics; sometimes I don’t. I think every song we’ve ever done has been first take, first time.
UC: That’s amazing.
BM: Yeah. With “Donkey Town” we’ll have done five CD’s, so that’s close to 100 songs. We just make ‘em up! Some of them are actually pretty good. Some of them aren’t. Some of them are in the middle. But they are all a lot of fun to do, and they all are right from the heart.
UC: I was in the music business for three years, so I know what you’re talking about. To get something on the first take is unusual, but to repeatedly get something on the first or second take is HIGHLY unusual.
BM: It’s funny because that just seems to be how it works. Also, Buckethead and I rarely spend a lot of time together. Getting together is an uphill climb at times just because he’s touring or I’m doing one thing or another. So when we finally do get together, we know that our time is precious. It doesn’t pressure us into doing things, but that’s the reality, so it’s just a real blessing that we’re able to work that way because we’ll get one afternoon or whatever and that’s it. So, basically, what you get is what you get. The chances of getting back together in the next day or even the next week, month, or year for that matter are pretty slim. We’ve got to just go for it.
UC: That’s cool because you’re capturing a lot of raw energy, and that’s what really comes through on the Cornbugs CDs. It definitely sets a mood and sets a tempo. Who’d have thought you’d have Chop Top to thank for all of that?
BM: Don’t forget – www.choptopsbbq.com! There’s also a link to some Rotten Cotton t-shirts.
UC: Chop Top is definitely without question a pinnacle in your career.
BM: Absolutely!
UC: But it’s sad to say that a lot of people don’t realize how many movies you’ve been in. How long have you been acting?
BM: You know, I have 18 years in the Screen Actors Guild Health & Pension Fund, so that’s my yardstick. 18 years.
UC: I still to this day see threads on the Fangoria.com and Horrorchannel.com bulletin boards that say, “Wow! That was Bill Moseley in the beginning of Night of Living Dead 1990?” or “Wow! That was Bill Moseley with Coolio in The Convent?”
BM: The Convent! My God!
UC: I loved The Convent.
BM: The Convent was not only a good movie but also, as a job, was probably almost singly responsible for this phase of my acting career.
UC: Really?
BM: Before The Convent, I wasn’t going anywhere. I wasn’t getting any kind of jobs. My career had pretty much ended, or so I thought. I was getting into that mindset that a lot of actors do of, “Okay, well, it’s over so now I need to start thinking about what I’m going to do next.” I thought about trade school or flipping burgers at McDonald’s or picking up the phone and learning how to sell toner to people who don’t want it. My cousin Brad Moseley was working with Alpine Pictures in some kind of financing way, and he knew that The Convent was casting. So he ended up talking to the casting person at Alpine and somehow got me in as a favor to the financial guy. I went in and auditioned and ended up getting the part of one of the security guards. Actually, I don’t even think I got that part, but then the guy they gave it to ended up getting another job or something, so I think by default I ended up getting this little part with Coolio. I showed up to the set, and I’ve never been more frightened in my life. I was so scared because I really was pretty much out of acting and had no actor’s self-esteem. I had already decided the universe was done with me.
So I showed up and walked around. They showed me where my trailer was, and a bunch of the actors from The Convent – the kids – came up and said that they were big fans and were looking forward to working with me. I thanked them of course and then walked over to my trailer. I got into it and closed the door behind me and literally fell to my knees. I almost puked I was so nervous, and I was starting to try to figure out ways to get the hell out of there – just to say, “Look, I’m sorry. I’ve got a fever; I have to leave.” I was praying to get the hell out of there because I was so scared. My brain was like Teflon; I kept reading the script over and over, and the lines were just dripping off my brain. I was just terrified. What I ended up doing was just soldiering through it. I remembered some basic things: Keep breathing. Walk forward. Put on the costume. Just go ahead and try to do your best. I fully expected them to go, “Wow. YOU were Bill Moseley? What are you now? You’re just a hoax.” I was just so freaked out. But I got through that night – it was just a one-night shoot – I made it through. I wasn’t Laurence Olivier out there, but I made it. I liked Coolio; everybody was very kind and supportive. I don’t think they knew what kind of inner problems or struggle I was going through. But that was like walking through the fire. Everybody in his or her career at any given time has to walk through the fire. It’s like taking off your shoes and walking on the coals and having faith that you’re going to make it to the other end without just turning into a burned marshmallow.
UC: That’s such an amazing story because for a lot of actors I’ve spoken with, it’s the bigger roles that change them and force them to continue on. But here you were with a relatively small role, but it was a defining moment in your life.
BM: It really was. It told me that I can still do this and there are still jobs out there. I wasn’t done after all. It was a fundamental change. I figured my life was over and it was time to go walk out into the snow, sit down under a tree, and just slowly, comfortably freeze to death. And then somebody comes out and starts shaking you going, “No! No! You’ve got a little more time left.” That was it for me, and that kind of started things. I ended up doing a backyard video with Tony Hooper, Tobe’s son. He wanted to do something called the All-American Massacre.
UC: I remember hearing about that. It never got off the ground, huh?
BM: It never did. It started out as a ten-minute video, and he wrote some scenario with Chop Top – he called him Bloody Bobby because of copyrights. I was going to be in a mental penitentiary. This was years later, and I was brought into the warden’s office to sit down and have an interview with a Geraldo Rivera like investigative reporter. The wrap-around is after the Chainsaw saga, and then the flashback turns out to be a prequel when Chop Top and the hitchhiker were still brothers before Chop Top went to Vietnam. I ended up doing it just because I thought it would put me in better stead with Tobe. It turned out to be a lot of fun. It was a good day for me, and I was able to really give a lot to the character. It was a 16-hour day – no pay, all smiles – and it was funny because thanks to that, which was right after The Convent, I met a guy named Todd Bates. Todd played young Chop Top and the hitchhiker in All American Massacre and was also a makeup artist. He did Chop Top’s makeup in All American Massacre. We became buddies, and then a couple of months later I got a call from a friend of mine who was the head of publicity at Universal CityWalk at the time. There used to be something at Universal called “Haunted CityWalk” so every Halloween they’d trick out the CityWalk and turn some of the indoor rides into mazes. They’d have monsters and fog and everything; it was really a lot of fun. They would also have this thing every year called the Ygor Awards, which was a little outdoor horror award show that was kind of in-house for Universal horror movie people. So, this guy called me up and asked me if I wanted to emcee the Ygor Awards. I said, “Sure.” And because I knew Todd from All American Massacre, I asked if he’d like me to come as Chop Top. He said they’d love it. So I brought Todd with me because they had some money in the budget for a makeup guy, and he tricked me out as Chop Top. I put on a tuxedo and then went out with my coat hanger routine – “Sparky and Scratcher” – and emceed this little horror awards show, which was a lot of fun. One of the awards went to Rob Zombie. He was with Geffen Records, which is part of the Universal/MCA umbrella of companies, and had done some of the mazes at Haunted CityWalk. When Rob came out and I handed him the statuette of a little monster, he was freaked out because he was a Chop Top fan. He was like, “Holy shit! That’s the real Chop Top!” And then after the award show I showed up in the green room backstage with my daughter and her buddy, still in Chop Top makeup, and Rob was there. We got to talking because my daughter is a big fan of “Hillbilly Deluxe” and everything, so it was a happy little group there. Then, a month later his manager, Andy Gould, called up and said that Rob had just had a horror script greenlighted by Universal, would I like to be in it? I said, “F**k, yeah!” So, that’s how I got back up-to-speed as Otis.
UC: And that’s where you are right now, huh? That’s amazing, man.
BM: Well, it’s funny with Otis because I thought that what Rob wanted was basically Chop Top with a different name. And thanks to some patience on his part and the discovery process that actors go through, we finally figured it out. Sometimes I cling to Chop Top almost desperately thinking he’s my only character.
UC: It’s a safety blanket.
BM: Yeah . . . total safety blanket. But with the script and talking and meeting, things evolved. I got rid of Chop Top and found Otis. Otis is a completely different character.
UC: A lot meaner than Chop Top.
BM: Yes! A lot less humor. Otis is like a different center of the body. I always thought of Chop Top as kind of up in the shoulders.
UC: Otis looks like he’d be at home in Nam Land too though.
BM: Totally. But Otis is all about the groin. He’s the guy with the big belt buckle with his thumbs stuck in. Big boots and “f**********ck you.” Chop Top’s real skitchy and a lot more nervous. But both of them are deadly in their own way.
UC: Do you see any more misadventures for Otis in the future?
BM: You know, I don’t know. Lions Gate is really, really high on The Devil’s Rejects, but I don’t know what their plan is. I have a feeling that if they end up making a lot of money, which they probably should relative to the budget, that will whet their appetite for more. They’re in business to make money, and if they’ve got something they consider a sure thing, of course, they’re not going to want to let it go.
UC: Well, as long as you guys are in the saddle – Rob, Sid, yourself – I think the fans and also the genre are in pretty good hands.
BM: I’ve got a feeling that Rob is probably done with this. That’s kind of what he has intimated, but I don’t know. If they came to him with an attractive deal that he couldn’t turn down, who knows? But I think that Rob’s attitude is if this does really well, that’s going to give us the money and the power to do something else, not necessarily just to stay with the House of 1000 Corpses franchise. I’m really interested to see how well the fans are going to like the movie. Because it’s asking a lot of the fans. You’re going to be fascinated by it; I’m sure it’s going to pack ‘em in. But it’s not a safe roller-coaster ride like a lot of the corporate horror films of late. It’s not going to take you and be gentle with you and then kind of scare you and then, oh wow, you’re screaming, but it’s safe – you have your thrills and spills and then you come back and get out of the little roller-coaster and laugh and giggle and go off and have an ice cream cone. This is not that kind of movie. It’s not safe. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I guess you’re just going to bum out and then puke in your popcorn.
UC: Well, look at it this way: If anything, you can always scare the fans into liking it.
BM: It’s not like you’re going to dislike the movie. It’s going to really grab you and shake you. It’ll be like a rat in the jaws of a Rottweiler.
UC: Amen, baby! Thanks, Bill.
That was it. I made it through. I showed Bill Mr. Shark and then the exit sign. A good time indeed. Now if only I could get this burning flesh odor out of my f**king house!
Many thanks to Lions Gate Films for the still photos from “The Devil”s Rejects”.
Categorized:Interviews News
