#SDCC14 Exclusive: WWE Superstar Glenn “Kane” Jacobs Talks See No Evil 2

When last we saw Goodnight, a dog was unceremoniously peeing into his shattered eye cavity after a night of violent killing. I immediately wondered if his first order of business would be to track down that piss-happy pooch.

“I’m an animal lover; I wouldn’t let that happen! But okay, the plot point of how are you going to bring him back? He was killed pretty definitively at the end of the first movie. But you’re dealing with fantasy horror so I guess he wasn’t killed as badly as we thought he was. I think he’s more angry this time around and I think what you saw in the first movie… well, there’s a lot more of that. There is a lot of action in this movie, there’s more fight sequences. The victims actually fight back, which is a little different, especially [Kaj-Erik’s] character who I had a couple of pretty long and complex fight sequences with. So, yeah, there’s even more of that in this one. Also the [Soska] twins know how to take advantage of people’s strengths, and of course, my strength is my size. I am a very big guy and I think that they, when they were putting things together, I think they made a concerted effort to accentuate that as much as possible.”

Jacobs’ co-star in the film, Danielle Harris, is just about two feet shorter than he is. Given this fact I inquired as to their on-screen dynamic. “It’s funny because Danielle was saying how people are surprised. She’s a very diminutive girl despite the fact that she generally plays a really tough girl. Danielle’s role is a little different in this movie. She’s not the one out there trying to kick butt; she’s more the voice of reason trying to hold everything together. Frankly, everyone in the movie was great to work with; the entire cast was really great.”

Kane also has a soft spot for his directors, Jen and Sylvia Soska. “They were awesome. They bring so much excitement and so much enthusiasm to the set. We had fifteen shooting days, which is pressure packed. No matter how hard you try, there’s going to be points you feel you’ve fallen behind schedule. Everybody was freaking out except the twins. I was just so impressed by them. Their knowledge and their skill is amazing; they helped me a lot as far as my role. I can’t speak highly enough of their talent.”

In terms of being able to act on screen, Kane points to his WWE roots as his training. “To a certain extent I think acting is an extension of what we do at WWE. At the company, we do a lot of theatrics, especially my character is a lot of acting. In the WWE, you have two different kinds of performers: You have the guy whose character is just an extension of who he is in real life, and then you have the ones that are completely different who are acting. I’m nothing like Kane. I’m one of the guys who has a character. So, acting really is an extension of what I do on WWE but it’s a lot different when you’re on a soundstage. Everything is very antiseptic and very sterile. I’ve worked so many years with the WWE. The approach is you have one take on live TV, so you get it right. It’s funny because when I do do movies, they go to rehearsals and after a couple of rehearsals they go, ‘You don’t actually do this until the light comes on, do you?’ I have to go all out on that one take so rehearsals are actually sort of hard for me because I’m like, ‘This is boring; let’s just cut to the chase!’ That’s a little different than what directors and other members of the crew are used to.”

Would Jacobs be willing to step back into Jacob’s blood-drenched shoes? “I think so. If I had another opportunity to work with the twins again. Talking about acting, I would like to do some other things as well. I would branch out. WWE has been awesome for me. Sometimes you hear bad things about Vince McMahon, and for me, you never hear the other side of the story. Certainly, I wouldn’t be where I am, my family wouldn’t be in the position they’re in, if it hadn’t been for him. But I’ve been doing this incarnation of Kane for a long time and, as a performer, you do want to stretch and you do want to do different things. The most fun I’ve had at WWE was doing Team Hell No with Daniel Bryan because I went from being the most stark guy on the show to being the comic relief. As a performer, that’s really rewarding that you can do both. So, I would like to do some different things. I do like the horror genre, I’m a fan myself. My favorite movie of all time is Silence of the Lambs. I love the ‘Hannibal’ series because here you have a guy who’s very smart. The monstrous part of him is his intelligence and not his physical size. That’s what scares me. Moving forward, I would like to do some other things.”

Jacobs continues. “I think people are going to be very surprised in this movie as far as what Jacob does with some of the scenes. You actually have your psychopathic killer acting, which is something you don’t see that often. I wore a mask for years and the disadvantage of that is, as human beings, we portray most emotions with our face and I had to do it with body language. Really, the essence of the WWE is we’re trying to elicit an emotional reaction from the crowd just like you are in a movie. It’s the same deal. I understood how you get those emotions out of people. If you can’t have your number one asset, and you can do it with your number two asset, once you get your number one asset, you’re going to be pretty good at it.”

In closing I asked Kane what his take on Goodnight is being that he’s played a villain, and at times a hero, for so long. “Jacob was just a normal little boy like all of us. If there is any sort of social commentary, which I hesitate to say that there is, but if there is, it’s the fact that… well… Danielle Harris put it best. She just got married and they’re working on a family and she’s like, ‘I have to be really careful how I raise my kids and raise them correctly, or THIS comes out!’ and she points straight at me! *laughs* Jacob wasn’t born the way that he is; he was made to be that way.”

Greyston Holt (“Bitten,” Lost Boys: The Tribe), Chelan Simmons (Tucker & Dale vs. Evil), Kaj-Erik Eriksen (Ice Twisters), and Lee Majdoub (Soldiers of the Apocalypse) star alongside Danielle Harris (the Halloween franchise), Katharine Isabelle (American Mary, Ginger Snaps, Freddy vs. Jason), and Michael Eklund (The Call, The Marine 7: Homefront, The Day) in the Soska Sisters-helmed See No Evil 2 starring WWE Superstar KANE®.

Lionsgate will handle worldwide distribution of See No Evil 2, while WWE Studios will utilize its extensive global reach through television, digital, and social media and print assets to market the film.

Want more? Be sure to follow @SeeNoEvil2movie on Twitter and like the See No Evil 2 Facebook page.

Synopsis
Jacob Goodnight (WWE superstar “Kane”) fell to his apparent demise from high atop the Blackwell Hotel in See No Evil, and this terrifying sequel picks up where the last one left off. With Jacob’s body lying on a cold sub-basement slab in the city morgue, Amy (Danielle Harris), a mortician, is surprised when a group of friends pay her a late-night visit for her birthday. But the surprise soon turns deadly when the psychopath everyone believed to be dead sets-out on a horrific killing spree, and Amy and her friends must do whatever it takes to survive.

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