Ep 278: Interview w/James Jude Courtney from “Halloween” (2018), “Halloween Kills,” & “Halloween Ends”

James Jude Courtney has played Michael Myers (aka, The Shape) in more “Halloween” films than any other actor, having starred in all 3 of the recent Blumhouse films. Tune in to hear all about how he was cast and his approach to portraying this iconic horror villain, the endings that were filmed but never made it to screen, and how emotional it got working with Jamie Lee Curtis on that final battle in “Halloween Ends.”

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hello, and welcome to Happy Horrid Time. My name is
Tim Murdoch.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
And my name is Matt Emmert. Now, as someone whose
life has been changed by the Halloween franchise, I'm so
ecstatic about today's special guest. He played Michael Myers in
all three of the latest Halloween films, twenty eighteen, Kills
and Ends, alongside og Final Girl Jamie Lee Curtis, and
that means he has portrayed this character more times than

(00:34):
anyone else in the series. He's an incredible actor and stuntman,
and I can honestly say he brought so many additional
layers to this beloved horror villain. Please welcome to the podcast.
James Jude Courtney, Hey guys, how are you Hey? It's
great to have you here. And you know, so I

(00:54):
read that you were raised in South Carolina and grew
up as the oldest of seven boys. What was that like?
And like, how did you first become interested in acting
as a kid?

Speaker 3 (01:04):
I dude, it was a test fest. I mean, you know,
it was at a certain point my mom stopped putting,
you know, patching walls and just started hanging out pictures.
I mean, we and I'm one of the smaller guys,
you know. So my brothers are big kids. I'm the oldest,
but there's the biggest was like six eight, two eighty five.
You know, we're all athletes, and so you know, rainy

(01:24):
days were really rough on the furniture, you know. But yeah,
it's I know, in fourth grade, I had epiphanies in
fourth grade, and I actually lived in Cleveland, Ohio, then Bedford, Ohio,
and we moved moved down here in the middle of
tenth grade. And so it kind of sucked because the
football team that I played on at Holy Name in

(01:45):
Cleveland ended up owning the state championship in nineteen seventy five,
which was my senior year. So I missed out on
I missed out on some some fun. But moving down
here was was you know, it was. It was an
essential and really powerful move for my entire family. And
but in fourth grade I had epiphanies and one of
them was I was going to make movies for a living,
and so you know, it wasn't a dream, it was

(02:06):
a fact, you know, and so everything I did from
that point forward was geared towards making movies. I my dad,
you know, had an old nineteen fifties. I should have
brought it down nineteen fifties Kodak eight millimeters tri Lenz
camera and he shot every football game, every basketball game, Easter, Christmas,
you know, And so I would pick up that. I

(02:28):
picked up the camera in fifth grade and I started
making every project the possibly could with film. And dude,
it's not like, you know, it's not like this. It's
like it's like film stock. It's like you know, paying
for you know, for processing. And then when you made
an edit out this little movie, Ola, if you didn't
like the edit, too bad, man, you're already in it.
So yeah, So when we moved down here, I had

(02:51):
a little Uh. I didn't much care for the coaching staff.
I was supposed to go to a high school specifically
because there was a coach there named MOONI player. He
left the coaches the other coaches, and I just didn't
see it eye to eye. So but it was really
it was it was a good thing because I picked
up a bass guitar and you know, started playing in
a band and and and and I needed that artistic

(03:13):
sort of influence. I joined the drama club and uh,
in fact, I just went my fiftieth year high school
reunion last night, and uh, it's crazy, man, it's a
lot of old people there.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Wait wait wait, did do people come up do you
at your high school and you and be like, oh
my god, Michael Meyer's hollowed like anything like that? Or
is it not, like do you not discuss that kind
of stuff with like old high school people?

Speaker 3 (03:33):
Oh? I mean mostly what it was is, oh my god,
my grandson's going to be so sto stoked. Can I
take a picture with you?

Speaker 2 (03:39):
You know?

Speaker 3 (03:40):
And it's super sweet, you know, it's it's super sweet
and just really yeah, you know. I mean I was
lucky to have a really wonderful high school experience at
Lower Richland in South Carolina, and then I went on
into the University of South Carolina and I actually stayed
an extra year and a half just sucking up everything
I could, you know, anything that had anything to do

(04:01):
with making films, psychology, anthropology, you know, and of course
everything you know everything film and media arts and sound
design and all those kinds of things. So, I mean,
back in the day, the only really real film schools
were NYU if you want to do the documentaries, and
UCLA and Southern cal if you wanted to make feature films.
Other than that, there were no film schools. And now

(04:21):
you have really wonderful film schools all over the country.
But you know, for me, it was South Carolina. I mean,
and yeah, so I mean, and my brothers they're all
you know, I mean, we're still awesome friends. Two of
them have passed, but we didn't like them anyhow, you know,
But we're you know, we're really really close, my brothers

(04:43):
and I and you know, and and so there's a
certain in fact, a really really dear friend of mine
who passed away not too long ago, Maury Rapkin. He
was one of the first licensed psychologists in the state
of California. He did LSD in the nineteen fifties with
all this Huxley and Carrie Grant and you know what
I mean. And Mariy was just one of my dearest,

(05:05):
dearest friends. And he he asked me one day what
my brothers did for a living, and only one of
us have like a traditional job. Everybody else's entrepreneurial. And
he said, well, that tells me you grew up in
a lot of love, and we did. So I feel
very blessed.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
That's cool.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
I'm from Ohio as well. Do you miss Ohio? Were
you a big buck eye?

Speaker 3 (05:26):
You know when when I was a kid. But moving
down to South Carolina, that changed really quickly, you know,
and and honestly, man, so when we left Ohio a
couple of years before that, the Cyahaga River caught on
fire and burned for three days, you know, So we left,
we left a town that was a mess, a mess,

(05:47):
and we came down here, and honestly, we were like
any other immigrant family. We were in immigrants to you know,
we emigrated from Ohio to South Carolina, and like immigrants,
we found success here. We you know, my brother's a
very powerful politician, My other brothers have very strong businesses,
and there's a great, you know, great community of friends,
and so, you know, it's a it was I'm a

(06:10):
firm believer in sort of divine guidance, universal guidance, you know,
and I think it was a really it was a
really great thing that my family came down here.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
And growing up were horror fans on your radar, Like,
did any make a big impact on you?

Speaker 3 (06:23):
Well, so my dad was a big six foot five,
two hundred and fifty pound, you know, combat veteran race
car driver. He would on Friday nights. There was a
guy named Gulardi on the Cleveland radio television station. Every
night at eleven o'clock on Fridays, he would play horror
films and so we got to stay up late, which
was huge, and we would sit with my dad in

(06:44):
front of the couch and he put his big old
arms around us and hold it's really tight. And so
we'd watch all those universal classics from the thirties and
twenties and thirties, and so, I mean, I grew up
with horror. It was, you know. And this is what
I find so beautiful about the horror community is it's
still that way. It's still a family experience. It's a
community experience, unlike any other genre of film. So yeah, man,

(07:06):
I mean, it's always been in my blood.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
That's so funny that you mentioned that, because obviously you're
speaking our language because we both grew up on horror,
and my ten year old nephew, my sister and I
now show him horror movies and watch them together and
talk about it. So it is so like, you know,
I think people who aren't fans of horror movies get
the wrong idea, like of it things, but it really
is such a shared family experience and it feels like

(07:31):
I have this bond with my nephew because we love horror.
We talk about it together, and yeah, it's just like
a comforting thing. So you know. Something also I read
is that you first worked as a tour guide at
Universal Studios, Hollywood before being cast as Conan in a
live action show where you did all the stunt work.
So did you have any stunt training before being cast

(07:51):
in the show and what kind of stunts did they
have you doing.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
Well, I went out before my last year of college,
was a tour guide for the summer. Then I went
back and had a job waiting for me and when
I graduated, and it was it was great because you know,
I could tell you stories about every single facade in
the back lot, you know, I mean it was I
knew every sound stage and and they kept me on

(08:14):
over you know, over the slow season. They laid off
most of the people and I got to stay and
so there was a lot of downtime then, and so
that's when we would you know, explore the back lot.
And then I got cast in Conan. It was my
acting coach who was a former UH instructor at the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and he said, Hey, I've

(08:36):
got this audition for you UH to do this Conan show.
And I went and watched it, and I was like,
I don't know, man, I you know, I'm not really
I'm not here to do stunts. I'm here, you know,
I'm an athlete, but that's not what I'm here to do.
I'm here to be a star. I want to be
a movie star war with in three years and then
I'm going to tell the studios what I'm gonna make,
and that's not the way it works. And so I

(08:57):
you know, but I started martial arts in seventh grade.
I had I had a little bit of you know,
I had an affinity for it for sure. So the
first character I played in that was cobad Shaw. I
was a double swordsman fighting Codean and then and then.
But I had a fear of heights. I'd fallen off
a huge slide when I was a kid. Most things
don't scare me, you know. I do crazy stuff in motorcycles,

(09:20):
jumps and we always had go carts and motorcycles. But
they wanted me to take the character of Taris Mordor,
the evil villain, and in that that character does a
twenty foot high fall into a flaming pit. So I
was afraid of heights. But my buddy Alex Daniels, who
also went to the University of South Carolina, who is
currently now president of the Stuttmans Association, he was on

(09:43):
the show and he said, dude, you're not passing this up.
First of all, it's more money, and secondly, it's another,
you know, another tool in your toolbox. You can't you know.
So he took me to Bob Yurkis the circus trainer,
and he taught me to fall off the trapees and
it was like ten feet, fifteen feet, twenty feet I
think the highest stuff there. I think it was fifty
five feet fifty five fifty five feet. Yeah, And so

(10:05):
within two hours he had me doing you know, full
on high falls and and I loved it. So in
the Conan Show alone, I did over three thousand high falls.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Oh my god, talk about conquering a fee or oh yeah,
do you have do you have other tapes or like
anything on YouTube? Can we catch this show like from
the past.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
Yeah, it's I'm sure there's somewhere. I mean there were
multiple casts. I was on the A cast. But let's see,
well it's it's it's funny. I was. I was dating
a woman who when she was getting her master's at
UCLA and dance and she saw the tape of me
playing combat Shaw and she she goes, oh, my god,

(10:44):
you could have made a great dancer. And then she
looks at me and goes, and you would have been
so laid.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
I mean just guys in general, and drama was very scarce.
I mean, at least all my experiences. Well you mean
straight guys, I mean gig guys, but straight guys. That's tough.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
That's incredible that you I love that you just had
the attitude of like you're gonna go, You're gonna conquer this,
and then you're doing like millions of falls and everything
like that. But it is, like you said, it's another
thing in your toolbox, you know that you can put
is like like how many people can say, hey, I've
done twenty foot falls into fire pits, you know.

Speaker 3 (11:21):
I Mean, here's the thing, is I And through the
years I've noticed this. I'm really amazed that more actors
don't work on their physical skills, you know, I mean,
and you don't have to be an athlete, you know,
like a competitive athlete, but you know this, this is
a part of this is this is our tool. I mean,
it's our physicality, it's our voice, it's our expression, our emotion.
And so I'm really surprised that so many actors don't

(11:43):
pay attention to that. For a time, another couple of
stumpmen and myself had a very private class and we
taught actors how to stunt fight. And it's a very
very it's a very you know, very particular way. In fact,
when we did when I worked on Far and Away
with Tom Cruise, we brought Tom in, uh Ron Howard

(12:05):
would come in with Ron and we would uh with
uh with Tom, and and we would teach him, you know,
step by step by step out of fight. And at
the beginning of it, the guy couldn't throw a punch
to save his life. And man, at the end of
a couple of months of training with him, I'd put
that guy in the ring and bet on him. The
dude was so studious and he's such a good athlete

(12:27):
and had such an amazing attitude, you know.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
You know, I was just telling that I saw Far
and Away when it came out five times. Really from
Horror to Far and Away, Horror is always number one,
but so Far and Away was like the summer. It
was a big summer movie.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was I worked so we
shot all the all the American stuff was shot in Montana.
So we were in Montana for two months and and
it was just oh my god. And Tom is just
the consummate professional Ron Howard. Of course he's still open,
you know, he's still this little guy that this is
running around being a silly kid. But it was such

(13:06):
a it was such a beautiful experience and and so
I feel I feel really grateful. Well again, doing the
stunt work got me, you know, to the ability to
work with Tom Cruise and and man we threw down dude,
I mean we were both battered and beaten. It was
it was it was a blast.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
That movie was about boxing. I mean like he was
a boxer.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
Yeah, he was a bare knuckle fighter and so and
actually in that show, uh, the tech advisor was a
guy named Joe Brown. Joe Brown's was Rocky Martiano's sparring
partner for seven of his eight title fights. Rocky Marciano
had written or was interviewed and said, Joe Brown was
the hardest hitting man ever stepped in the ring with.
So when I showed up on set, I was on

(13:47):
another show. So I showed up a couple of days later,
and the other guys had already worked with Joe, and
so they were like, man, throw down with Joe. Get
in there with Joe. And so I got in with
Joe and we started throwing a little bit, and he goes, oh,
come on, Jimmy, you can throw harder than that. And
in my head, I'm going, oh you, o motherfucker, I'm
gonna let you. I didn't know that he was Rocky
marchh on and sparring partner, look and throwing that guy.

(14:09):
And he slipped a punch and hit me with a
heart punch. I have never been hit so hard in
my life. My whole body took a shit. And I
bought that man of stake dinner.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
That night, I know, for knocking you out. Oh my god.
So you know, listeners may not notice, but Halloween twenty
eighteen was not your first time playing a homicidal maniac.
You made your film debut in the ninety eighty nine
Slasher the Freeway Maniac playing a killer named Arthur and
boy do you kill a ton of people in this movie.

(14:38):
How did you first become involved in that project? Since
that was your first film there was so.

Speaker 3 (14:44):
There was an apartment building in Brentwood that they were
going to pick up and move to somewhere in Los
down in the city Los Angeles to create hut housing.
The law was back then that I may still be
that if you're going to tear down an apartment to
build a condo, that you have to move the building,
which actually is less expensive for the for the owners.
So they sent a woman over from England the people

(15:06):
owned it, to watch the building to make sure vegans
didn't go there whatever. And it took her a few
months to realize, well, wait a minute, they're over there,
I'm here. I can rent these things out and they'll
never know so. But she had a special affection for
for uh, for artists, so it was dancers, actors, comedians.
Rynnie Kinney was a comedian there and his friends were

(15:28):
Dysandra Clay and Sam Kennison and I met Robert Williams
through him, and so it was a whole bunch of
us there, and it was like this really intense, and
so I got it. I got a job at the
Regis Club. It was a private club for millionaires, and
got another guy. Two guys that were staying there and
who are still extremely good friends of mine. Paul Winters,

(15:49):
the director of Freeway Maniac, who's still making films. And
Rico Ross, who's you know who's he's He's just just
you know, done amazing work. He's on, oh gosh, what's
U one of the Tyler Perry shows right now. Anyways,
he's you know, Rico's and and so Rico and Paul.
Paul loves marsh Arts. Rico love marsh Arts. So we

(16:09):
got in the back and we box and we do
stick work, and and uh, Paul put that together and
and we we had no idea what we were doing.
None of us had ever made a film before, none
of us have worked on a film before. But we,
you know, we did it, and and and and I
talked to Paul often and we still kind of laugh
about how it made all these you know, top ten

(16:31):
worst film lists and and and now it's become something
of a cult classic. I mean, I can't tell you
how many vhs boxes, I've signed from Free Freeway Maniac.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
You know. I first off, it's so funny because it's
it's weird me being like huge Halloween fans, so many
weird parallels between the Freeway Mediac and Halloween. First off,
it starts with a little kid committing murders, just like Halloween.
And then like you're playing obviously the killer and and
kill mass killing people. Do you think this role in
some weird way helped you eventually prepare for playing Michael Myers?

Speaker 3 (17:04):
Oh, of course, because Paul had arranged for he and
I to go to a lockdown ward at the psychiatric hospital,
well prison actually in Camrill. So we stayed there for
a weekend and and the and the psychiatrist and the
orderlies would would show us like I had, I interviewed
paranoid schizophrenics who committed murder. You know, I sat in

(17:26):
the same room with these guys. I mean they're doing
the thorsine shuffle. Man, They're not going to hurt you,
I mean shuffle, you know. But yeah, so I took
a lot a lot of information from there. It was
it was really it was. It was pretty impressive, you know.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
And and moving through your resume, in Horror. You also
appeared in a season two episode of Buffy the Vampire
Slayer as this very scary demon der Kindestodd who ends
up sucking like the life out of sick children. And
then at the end of the episode you even got
to have like a big fight scene with Sarah Michelle Geller.
What was that whole experience like?

Speaker 3 (17:59):
Uh, first of all, Sharon, Sharah, Sarah and and Jamie
are like they're two peas in a pod you could.
I mean, they are so similar to those two women.
I mean they're both generous and funny and uh, incredibly
talented and and so the experience was wonderful. I didn't
know the stunt coordinator, and he brought in a stunt

(18:21):
double for me, and uh, you know, and physically he
was a good double. Came from the circus. He he
he was a very talented physically. When I tried to
explain to him how this character would fight in a
very catlike way, he didn't get it. And so he
was fighting like a big man, you know, big man,
like man big man of fights like a big man

(18:41):
is you know, kind of slow and lumbering. And that's
not the way I move And and so especially for
Dick Kinderstode. So they ended up, you know, bringing me
in to do a bunch of the fight stuff. And
and actually the fight is shorter than it should have
been because they'd wasted so much time shooting with a
stunt double. I'm sure he's a great stuntman otherwise. But

(19:02):
you know that leads to something too. It's like, you know,
when when a stuntman is doubling somebody, you find very
few stunt men will actually interview the actor, find the
motivation for his character, like walk with him, run with him,
move with him, find you know, kind of absorb his movements.
And and you know when you get stunt doubles. Corey
God the way his last name. Anyways, Tom Cruise a

(19:25):
stunt double, moved just like him, you know, and he
had made a study of it, even though Tom does
his own stunts. You know, sometimes you know, sometimes you're
I'm in makeup and I have to have somebody double me,
you know, on an action scene.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
And so yeah, I was just about to ask you,
was this the first time you had like that amount
of makeup in prosthetics?

Speaker 2 (19:46):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (19:46):
Yeah, yeah it was. It was when I was on
Babylon five, I did a ton of prosthetics. In fact,
I've done way more Babylon five's that are even on IMDb.
I can't get them to correct it. But because I
was stunt doubling, I'm Bablon five. I was stunt doubling
a human Jerry Doyle, who was the head of security,

(20:07):
and so I could play an alien and get in
a fight or do whatever in the same episode. And
so yeah, so and that I think that those I
find it very meditative, you know, being in makeup for
five hours, you know, it's yeah, I just breathe. If
you have a good artist, which I'm fortunate enough to

(20:28):
have always had, especially Chris Nelson, Oh my god. Yeah,
you know, it's it's a because you're really co creating
a character with these people, you know, I mean you
really and the beauty, and I love collaboration, man. I
you know, I come from, you know, a big family,
and I played team sports, and I really believe in
the power of, you know, of a group effort.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
You know, I guess I'm a little confused because if
you are an actor who's also a stuntman like yourself,
you they still need to have a stunt double for
you in terms of certain stunts. Is that because like
what you said, when you're in the makeup doing the scene,
you can't suddenly shift into being like thrown through a
window or something. But I guess, like in the Buffy episode,
like how come they needed to have a stunt double for.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
You, that was because the stunt coordinator didn't know me
and didn't take it. I went and spoke to him.
He just didn't he just didn't want to listen. And
so you know, I mean, I just walked away going, dude,
your loss. I mean, you know I can, I can
throw it on for you. But whatever, you know, I'm
getting paid either way. I don't care, you know. And well,
and in in in the Halloween films, for instance, uh,

(21:30):
Cody uh doubled me on the stairfall. So the only
double I had on the twenty eighteen was the stairfall.
Stairfalls I've done him. They hurt and and and it's
really really easy in the stairfall to break an arm
or break a leg because you're not you can't control
that very well. And I looked at it and they said, well,
you know, we think one of us Cody to do.
I was good dude, let him have it. He's thirty

(21:51):
years old. He'll have fuck, you know. And then for
Halloween Kills, I was doubled on one thing that was
jumping off the top of the suv. During rehearsals, I
jumped off the suv, you know, and and I nailed it.
But then I went, you know, man, in my head,
I'm like, this is not worth it. Now if I
sprained an ankle, spraining knee, you know, rupture a disc

(22:12):
in my back. And sure enough, man Doug jumped off
the top of the see and sprained his ankle one take.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
He was shit.

Speaker 3 (22:19):
Yeah. So and then and kills Aaron Armstrong, so and
and and kills. They were looking for the flashback, you know,
the character, and David Gordon Green's a purist. He wanted
a younger person to play the flashback and and at
first I didn't get it. Now I do. So they

(22:40):
looked at over two hundred people to find somebody that
moves the way I'm move and they couldn't find anybody.
I mean, Doug, Doug Tait is a is a good,
good enough double if you look at our size, you know,
shaved head and you know, physical structure, but he doesn't
move anything like me. And but it turns out that
Aaron Armstrong, who was the stunt coordinator on Halloween Kills

(23:03):
It did years and years and years of kung fu,
but he also did years and years and years of aiketo,
and iiketo has Strong has really really strongly informed the
way I move as Michael Myers as the shape. So
there's and it's a very specific move and if you
don't know how to do it, it takes years to
learn to move with that fluidity. And so they cast

(23:24):
him at that and then because of that, he stayed
on for Halloween Ends. He didn't coordinate it, but he
ended up doubling me on some of the fight stuff,
like the long shots in the tunnel, Like some of
those are him, most of them are me. Nothing close up,
when the refrigerator falls, that's Aaron, but it's me on

(23:44):
the table for everything else. Because a lot of it,
you know a lot of it, especially, you know, because
I'm going without the mask, I'm going with the mask,
you know, all these different things. And Halloween Ends, so
I was in makeup a lot.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
Yeah, no, I can imagine. I mean, well, then let's
jump into because move into starting with Halloween twenty eighteen.
And now, I know you've told this a million times already,
but can you tell our listener just the whole story
about how you ended up being cast as Michael Myers initially, like,
from how you first heard about the opportunity to the
audition itself, et cetera.

Speaker 3 (24:14):
Well, I had moved from California back to South Carolina.
I wanted to be close to family. I was focusing
really intently in writing and producing my own stuff. And
my attitude was, look a friend calls me and wants
me to work, I'm good. Yeah, I love I love
being in front of the camera, but I'm going to
create my own content. I wanted to create my own
my own vehicles. And so I bought a place and

(24:37):
I gutted it out and you know, built it out,
and I just spent my time writing. And I got
called from some friends, did a few commercials and you
know that kind of stuff, and and and then I
knew they were shooting Halloween in South Carolina. But I
didn't reach out. I'm like, no, I'm not chasing anything, man.
I mean, if they come to me, i'll do it,
you know. But I just it was an afterthought, and

(24:59):
Ron Ron Hutchinson, the casting director, called me. And I'd
known him for like thirty years. I only knew him
from films that I worked as an actor on, not
a stunt person. But he knew that I was gifted
as a stuntman. And we have a very very close
mutual friend Chris Nielsen. Chris and Jennifer Nielsen are some
of my dearest friends, and they're also very close to him.

(25:21):
So Ron calls me and he goes, hey, Jimmy, we're
shooting shooting a Halloween. I was like, yeah, man, I
see that that That's awesome, dude, You're gonna have a blast.
He goes, yeah, Well, so I read the script and
I called Malka cod and I called David Gordon Green
and I said, look, whoever plays his character, this is
different than any other Halloween. Whoever plays this character has
to have really deep acting chops and has to be

(25:42):
a really good stunt man, and there's just not many
of those guys around. And David said, well, he's got
to be six foot three, two hundred pounds, and he's
got to be in the sixties. Who do you know?
And like, Ron didn't remember me. It was Chris Nielsen
and Jennifer who were like, Jim Courtney, man, what are
you nuts? And so he called me and he said, well,
you know we would you go down and get to
Charleston and be put on tape. I said yeah, sure,

(26:04):
So I drove down and they you know, there's a
room of the casting director in videotape, and they interviewed
me and my experience and acting in stunts, and they
mostly either had me move and you know, it's a
basic audition. I walked out to the parking lot, got
in my truck and you know you live in South Carolina, dog,
you got a truck, right, and and so so I

(26:25):
get my truck. I wasn't even out of the parking lot. See,
initially they thought I was still in California. They were
going to fly me out, but or they were going
to take me there and then if they David wanted me,
they would fly me to South Carolina. But I was here.
So I got a call from Blumhouse in the parking
lot and they said are you available these dates? And
I was like yeah, yeah, yeah, that's all good. And

(26:46):
as an actor, that's the kiss of death if they
put you on a veil. Someone else is going to
get it, you know.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
Oh really.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
Oh yeah, It's like thought that was good news, but
I've also heard this bad news.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
Oh so, like meaning, your schedule open, but it's not
going to go to you.

Speaker 3 (26:59):
Yeah exactly, dude, I think my ratio is ten to
one of those you know, and so and so. Then
I said, yeah, whatever. So I'm driving towards the freeway
and I got a call from Blomhouse again. They said,
can you come back? David Goring Green wants to meet you.
So went back. I met, you know, David, and Ryan
Turk and Malick and you know, I met everybody. And

(27:20):
what David told me is after that they just told
casting this cut it off. Man, we have our man.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
Wow, that is so cool. I mean, it's so great.
We always love talking to people about audition stories because
so many different stories. Some that hear right away, some
it's like weeks or months before they hear, and just
we love hearing that, you know. One of the things
that I always found a little confusing. So when all
the press first came out for Halloween twenty eighteen, they
were announcing everything. A lot of the articles were giving

(27:48):
off the impression that Nick Castle, who played Michael Myers
in the original Halloween, had like fully returned to the role,
even though he ended up just having a cameo and
you were playing the part. Do you know why this
was being said? Was it just like for hype? Because
it almost it seems unfair to you that they were
positioning it that way. And I'm not sure what your
take was on that. Oh, oh, okay, you have a take.

(28:12):
Tell us.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
They they they were playing their raredeo games, and it
was it was Blumhouse Publicity and and and they you know,
and and and and when they did, you know, they
they played all that. You know, that's fine, man, it's
the hype. This is just a job. I'm good, you know.
It was it was when Hollywood Kills came out that
they that they they had fed the newspapers and that

(28:35):
Nick Castle was back, as you know, and Nick wasn't
even the movie, and and there was no mention of
me in any of their press, and and Nick was
so angry that he started writing the newspapers, emailing the
newspapers New York Times, LA Times, like saying retract it retracted.
That's that's Jimmy Courtney, you know, you give him the
credit for that. So yeah, that that was that was

(28:57):
a less than honorable shall we say?

Speaker 2 (28:59):
Yeah, it was just and it was it was also
really confusing, but like it felt like they were like
gaslighting the fans in a way, you know, because it
just and we've I know, you and Nick Hoss are
good friends and we've had him on the podcast. Great guy,
great guy, but like you know, obviously seems very humble
and it's not going to take credit for something that
he didn't do. So and he even joked like when
he first heard about Halloween twenty eighteen, he was like, Okay,

(29:20):
I can, you know, stand to do a couple things,
but you're not going to get me doing all those
stunts and all the work they need.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
Like I don't want to stay up that late.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
Yeah, He's like, I don't want to be doing these
light shoots like all this stuff. You know. So well, okay,
so let's talk about the very first time you put
on the Michael Myers mass, like the first scene you filmed.
What was that like and how did it make you feel?
Because I've heard you mentioned in interviews that like whenever
you'd put the mask on, it was like a switch
would go off and you were in an altered state.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
Well, that happened. We were rehearsing the day before we
started to shoot. The last day of rehearsal. We were
rehearsing the you know, the long walk through the neighborhood,
right of course, and that I mean, that was such
I mean it was such a technically just such afficult shot.
And so we spent an entire night rehearsing it. At

(30:04):
about then, maybe eleven o'clock at night, Chris Nelson had
just flown in from California. It was so it was
so cinematic. We're in a house and he walks in
with this leather Helli Burton, you know, it's like this
leather's doctor's boxing bag. And he walks in with two
masks in it. And we all go back to a
back room Malik and Ron, David Good and Green and

(30:28):
Danny McBride and and Chris places me in a doorway
so the light is just perfect, and he pulls he
pulls the mask out and he applies it to me.
I mean, it's it's difficult to apply, it's not just
you know, so I'll throw it on. He applies the
mask to me. Literally, I swear to got everybody in
the room it collectively just went oh guttural tone that

(30:50):
just came out of everybody and it did. It felt
like an eight million amp connection. It felt like whoam Like?
That was it? You know? So it's power ul Man,
it's you know, that's why it's so funny. I haven't
I don't do cameos now. I did them for a while.
Something happened to my cameo. I just never I just
never rebooted it, but I probably should when people will,

(31:13):
you know, like, hit me up for a cameo for
somebody and then go, so can you have the mask on?
And then you take it off? And then and I'm like, bro,
I don't put the mask on.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
You're like, it's not as easy as in the movie
when he just takes it out of the trunk and
puts it on. There's like a lot of wordy.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
And I don't want to go to that place, man,
you know, I don't want to go that place unless
they pay me.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
What was your inspiration for Michael's walk and mannerisms?

Speaker 3 (31:39):
Part of it was my cat Parsival. Parsival was twenty
four and he passed away and in fact, he was
really he traveled with me so and he was a
he was a he was a stray. I met him
when he was twelve years old. And I know he's
twelve because the neighbors said he'd been there for twelve years.
And they also said you'll never touch him. You know,
within a month he's hanging out with me with h

(32:00):
two months he's sleeping in my bed, sitting next to
me on the couch reading, you know what I mean.
He we were just like we're so soul bonded. And
I watched him hunt and the dude, I mean you
know that. So you know when you see a cat
in the grass and then moving really slow and they
just kind of moved and moved, you can see that
every fiber of their being is alive. Right, They're in
such high alert and they can spring in a moment's notice. Right,

(32:21):
That's what I'm feeling when I'm playing the shape, every
when I'm walking, when i'm fighting, what I'm doing, every
fiber of my being is alive. Every muscle is twitching,
my skin is twitching. And you know, so I carried
that with with Parsival, carried that and and and and
actually so when we were you know, Parceval was old,
he was twenty four and uh when when we were

(32:45):
down in Savannah shooting ends, he was he was on
his way out. He was really he was really really sick,
and he was you know, he's he'd lost out of
weight and he was hanging on. And then one day
Sarah called me. My partner, Sarah called me and she goes, James,
what are you shooting today? And I was like, I'm
shooting my death scene. She goes, Oh my god, Parceval

(33:08):
has become this like eight month old kitten. He's just
bouncing off the walls and Parkour kitdtying and he just
blossomed to life. On the day that I was doing
the most dramatic and powerful scene that Jamie and I
agree is the most powerful thing either one of us
has ever done in a movie. So and then shortly
after that he passed away.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
Oh I h First off, I love the name Parsival
or Parsival Parceval pr.

Speaker 3 (33:32):
It's a it's a combination of parcel Fall and Perceval.
So it's the Grail night, you know. And I think
in that because Perceval was the purest and the most
badass night at the roundtable. So that's so cool.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
I love that that's the inspiration. And you told it.
I mean, we have a cat, so I totally it's
an indoor cat, but I mean the cat hunts things
that aren't even there, and you can see it the
way like looks, and it's like they are so dedicated
to it. I mean, you cannot Their concentration is one
hundred percent on whatever they are looking to hunt. And
that totally makes sense. And it's like what you just
said is such proof for all of the like studio

(34:10):
people that think these horror movie villains are just like
people who put on a mask and just you know,
do something. You know, there's it takes so much more
than I think a lot of people give people like
you credit for to play these villains, you know, and
like the amount of thought you put into these characters
is extraordinary.

Speaker 3 (34:27):
Well thank you. I I it definitely is an executive
sort of attitude. Just put a mask on a stunt man,
it'll be fine, you know, It's just not the way
it is man, you know. And I mean when David
told me that he looked at over two hundred people
to try to find someone to do the flashback. And
it's funny because even even people like closely allied you know,

(34:49):
in the on the executive level for these films, had
that attitude and and it's just like, you know, it's
it's but it's like it's like somebody looking at some
who you know, like racist Nascar fe and goes, oh, dude,
I do that. I could jump in a car, try fast.
I do it every day.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
Just wt my helmet on me, Give me a steering wheel, right, I'm.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
A terrible driver. You put that mask on me. Everyone
will no, I'm not a good Michael Myer.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
So okay, So there's this big debate online about that
long sequence you're talking about in twenty eighteen where you're
walking from house to house killing people because Michael walks
by a crying baby, stops to look at it, and
then walks away. So people were wondering like, okay, well,
why did a killing machine like Michael Myers spare this baby?
Even though obviously as human beings we don't want to
see a baby get killed. But in your opinion, why

(35:38):
did Michael spare the baby in that scene?

Speaker 3 (35:42):
You know, I don't go into the psychological opinions of
what Michael Myer, because for me, it's an isness. The
shape is an isness. For me, it's a it's a
presence in me and in real life. Man, I think,
you know, especially where we're in a we're on a mission,
we don't really stop to analyze what it is we do.

(36:04):
We just do it, you know what I mean. Think
about the choices you guys have made in your lives, right,
I mean a lot of them. You make them, you
do them, and then maybe an afterthought you go, wow, wow,
I must have been doing I must have been thinking
this or I must have you know. And and and
part of part of that too is if I don't
weigh in on the psychology of the shape, then that

(36:26):
leads every fan ample room to do their own and
to manifest their own opinions and ideas and sparks debate.
It had this conversation, and I think that's a really
important part of this franchise. You know that the fans
are so involved. I don't want to take that away
from the fans. I want that. I want them to
pursue it ad nauseum, you know what I mean. Yeah,

(36:49):
I like that they talk about it.

Speaker 2 (36:50):
It's that is a good answer. Frustrating, but that is
a great answer because you're totally right. Like if you
answer it today, tomorrow it will be on IMDb and
there goes all the debate.

Speaker 3 (36:59):
You know.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
So yeah, so I I did hear you mentioned on
a podcast that David Gordon Green is hands down the
best director you've ever worked with. So what made him
such an incredible director in your eyes?

Speaker 3 (37:11):
You know, first of all, the dude leaves. He checks
his ego at the door. I mean, you know, he's
he doesn't suffer fools gladly, and if you don't come prepared,
he's not going to be He's not going to be easy.
But he he creates this sandbox and gives you ample
freedom to create within it. You know, he just sets
the parameters and he's a total collaborative. He uh you

(37:34):
know he I We're in the middle of a scene.
I mean, Jimmy, Jamie, come here in the shape shape,
come here shape bummy shape and then uh uttila. The
first a d called me l shape o, so you know,
and so he'd say, come, what do you think of this?
And we would you know, we would try different things,
and I mean he was like that with everybody anybody

(37:55):
on the set could walk out to him with an
idea and he would be right, you know, I mean
he or he would he would take that idea and
more for it into something real. You know, he's he's
a he's a remarkably gifted man and a very loyal
human being. Man. He was he was really pissed with
and he found out that you know, had killed and

(38:15):
kills that they had done that and and you know,
and at the end of the day, you know, it's
a human business. So when you're working sixteen hours a day,
you know, working with people like David make it just
just make it a joy. And they make it go
by so fast. And he inspires everybody that that he

(38:35):
works with. I love that guy to death. Man. Every
time I get a chance, I stop and see him.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
That's so great to hear. And especially you can tell
that it had to be that dynamic because you all
made three films together. Obviously, if the set wasn't fun
and enjoyable, he wouldn't have gotten the same people involved
three times. They'd be like Cyonara after the first one,
you know, So you can tell that there's that camaraderie
between all of you and of course you have to

(39:00):
ask you about working with Jamie Lee Curtis aka Lourie Strode,
who's my all time favorite final Girl. What was your
first impression of Jamie Lee when you started working on
Halloween twenty eighteen, and how much input would she give?
Like David Gordon Green about playing Lorii Strode.

Speaker 3 (39:16):
Well, it's like this, and the movie business really is
like this. Fancys Forward. Coppola told me years and years
ago the eighty percent of his job is casting. So
you know, when when you're working with people as talented
as Jamie and you look at the cast that they
brought in, we all come prepared. We already know what
we're doing. Everybody you know, well, we already have. You've

(39:38):
hired somebody who already knows how to build the engine,
you know what I mean. You don't have to tell
the engineer and the mechanic how to build it. So
when I was on set, I already been on set
for a couple of weeks, and she I saw her
like at a distance. She walked straight over to me,
stuck out her hand and said, Hi, I'm Jamie. I
was like, hey, James, she goes good to meet you,
and then I looked at it and went, you know,

(40:02):
her character is so conflicted, she has so many levels
she has to deal with. I'm just going to leave
her alone. When she wants to talk to me, she
can talk to me. And it was another couple of weeks,
or of another week or whatever, and no, a couple
of weeks. I think she came in the first week,
actually the second week, so it was a couple of
weeks and we're sitting at the in the makeup and
hair trailer. I was at one end, she was at

(40:22):
the other, and we were going to do the fight scene,
which was the end of the twenty eighteen, which ended
up not making it in the cut. We ended up reshooting.
But she came over. She just marches over and she goes, okay,
let's talk about this, this fight scene, and we sat down.
We worked it out, and from that point forward, you know,
we had That's when the relationship started. And then and

(40:43):
then before kills and before ends, she would call me
and we would talk and she, of course had was
collaborative with David in a big way. I mean, but
David does that, you know, you sit there, we look
at things and go, how's this working? How does that feel?
You know, what can we do better? Let's let's audition this,
Let's audition that. And Jamie was definitely a and and

(41:05):
but man, she's such a pro. Oh my god. You know,
she's such a joy to work with. She's self deprecating
and funny and and you know, and I don't know, man,
I I considered one of the great joys of my
life to have worked with her.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
That's amazing. I'm thinking of the phone calls, like, was
she like, hey, l shape O, it's a Laurie Laurie stroke.

Speaker 3 (41:26):
You know.

Speaker 1 (41:26):
What was it like working with Judy Greer and Andy Manachek, Well,
Andy was wonderful.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
I Andy, Uh, Andy just absolutely, you know, a joy
of a human being. I only worked with Judy a
little bit. Most of their stuff was away from me. Uh.
Judy is a super sweetheart, an incredible actor. I mean,
she's just a She's a gifted human being. The stuff
we did do together was a lot of fun. But again,

(41:53):
I I kind of stayed away and I only went
where I was invited because I didn't know what conflicts
were going on in these actors' minds, and a lot
of the time I stayed pretty you know, in between
you know, takes and things, I would just stand off
to the side, especially if I had the mask on,
and just and just be in a meditative place, just breathe.

(42:15):
I do a lot of breath work, so so you know,
I'd love to have known her better. She's an amazing
person as far as I know, as far as my
experience with her, she was incredible to work with. But
Andy and I did so much work together. So you know,
I love Andy to death.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
That's great, awesome. You know you you kind of alluded
to this, and we're going to ask you about this
because one of the other things that big, big things
that fans have been discussing since Halloween twenty eighteen was
that original ending. Because okay, so the first trailer we
got for Halloween, you see this scene where Laurie is
outside with Karen and Allison and trying to stab you.
Yet that part was never in the movie. So can

(42:53):
you tell us, like, what exactly occurred in that original ending?

Speaker 3 (42:57):
Well, there's part of it I can't tell you about because, uh, David,
when we shot the very very end of it, David
came to me, he goes, wow, that's that's like right
at the top of my filmmaking experience, like it was
such a powerful thing we did. And he goes, you know, man, oh,
so when we went in to shoot reshoot the ending

(43:19):
because it didn't test well, he came over and said,
you know, man, I think that ending that we shot,
I think I'm not going to put it on the
blu ray. I think we should just keep it for us.
It was such an intimate, special moment. It was a
really powerful moment and and so well I can actually
I can tell you about it was. It was that
was uh, it was me wandering through the mannequin field

(43:43):
and you know, the shooting range, and there was you know,
the different things we did, and I ended up on
the uh, you know, ended up you know, I defeated
and sell it and just and just beat the you know,
bleeding and and and uh. Very quietly, David orchestrated this.
I don't know how he did it, but he he said, okay,

(44:07):
cut Jimmy, well, Jimmy, raise your head and look around.
And I looked around in the entire cast and crew
were all around me and the quarty. It was just
so emotional, man, it was like we all had this
beautiful moment together where we just all of us had
contributed so much to this and we had this beautiful, tender, sweet,

(44:28):
spiritual moment. The fight leading up to it was a
super physical and that's where I got to I got
to see Jamie for who she was, man, who she is.
She she didn't pad up, you know, she hit the
ground like a champ. At one point, she ran out
out of ammunition with it. So she reverses the rifle

(44:48):
and is going to swing it like a baseball bat.
I've got a knife, you know, holding down like this,
supposed to stick the knife out, She's supposed to knock
it out. And I went in my handing, on, on, God,
this is not a stunted person. This is an actor.
She's this is a broken hand. This is a broken,
friaking hand. Thirty takes. She hit the knife every single time. Wow,
you know, so and we threw down, man, we we

(45:10):
we in fact one. At one point, you know, we're
struggling and wrestling, and David's like crouched down right next
to us, and he's like, you know, this looks a
little too much like a sex scene, and and I
look at him, I went, oh, come on, man, let

(45:31):
me hit it once and Jamie grabs me by my beard.
He just pulls me down and go. It was so
she's so body. I mean it was it was really
freeing too, and and all this, you know, in this
age of people being really you know, overly sensitive. I mean,
I definitely believe in respecting and parameters and you know,

(45:52):
but Jamie was just is just a real person and
and and so I mean, it's too bad it didn't
test well because I think we would have had. I
think it was special. But to be honest with you,
the the fire, you know that, you know, the that
whole thing they set up, I think really launched us
into kills. And and you know, and and they didn't

(46:14):
really have kills fully formed, you know, before the before
they shot that, So that would that went a long
way towards informing us what Kills was going to be about.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
And do you think the footage will ever be released?

Speaker 2 (46:26):
Ever?

Speaker 3 (46:28):
No, David might do it. David has the right to,
but I I well, you know, you never know, man,
I mean it might be something special. And you know,
in future years, when we have the sixtieth anniversary of
Halloween or something like that, someone decides to you know that,
I mean, that would be it would beautiful.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
It's I think that's a great idea because like you know,
Josh just hit fiftieth, so like they might release like
when the Little Boy was killed, so people, you know,
hang on to that for like fifty years.

Speaker 2 (46:55):
And also like I'm just thinking, let's say, just putting
this out there, manifesting this for David Gordon Green to
think about. Twenty twenty eight will be the fiftieth anniversary
of Halloween, in the ten year anniversary of Halloween twenty eighteen,
so you know, maybe as a I just know from
a fans perspective, oh my god, fans were going nuts
about like when are we going to get that original end?
We want to see what happened. Oh da da da.

(47:17):
Totally respect you know, like how important that was to him.
But maybe he'll change his mind. We'll see. Fingers crossed.

Speaker 3 (47:23):
Yeah, A good word for you guys.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
Thanks. Yeah, I wanted to ask before we move past
twenty eighteen, like one of the most iconic scenes that
was and they you know, use this in the trailer
is when you literally break through the windows on both
sides of the door, grab LORI lift her up you
guys are struggling and she ends up shooting off some
of your fingers with a shotgun. How the heck was
all of that filmed?

Speaker 3 (47:48):
It was? It was It was complex, man, and and
you know, like I'm standing on apple crates on the
other side, and you know, we we had, I mean
a lot of technical stuff you know that went through
the that and uh and actually part of the struggle
is actually Chris Nelson's hand. We have we're very we're

(48:09):
very similar hands and so his hands are actually nicely
mine then not so broke up, but but and actually
part of I can't remember which part of that it's
his hand through the window because I was in makeup
and and you know, timing is so tight that you know,

(48:30):
he had to be on the set anyhow to run
the gag. So I so that was a combination mostly
like ninety nine percent in me, but Chris is in
there as well. Chris Nelson's in there as well. There's
a hand in a hand model.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
You know. That totally reminds me of the parallels of
the original Halloween when Tommy Lee Wallace would do some
of the hand things for Nick Castle. Because you know,
it had to be so technically correct or Nick had
to be, you know, standing and doing other things. So
I don't know. I always think about all those weird parallels.
Since I'm a Halloween nerd.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
What was it like seeing Halloween twenty eighteen for the
first time on the big screen?

Speaker 3 (49:03):
Dude, I don't like watching myself. I don't like I
I know, I like when I work on movies, when
I'm in front of a camera. I can't remember a
time when I've been stressed or anxious. It's like I'm
in I'm in such a zen place, I mean, such
a peaceful, like just connected to the universe and everything
around me. When I go to a premiere of a

(49:23):
movie that I've done, I'm sweating bullets. Man. I don't
want to see myself because you know, I'm gonna look
at it with a critical eye. I mean, the audience
is watching a movie I'm watching, you know, like this,
just going like okay, oh fuck, I could have done
Oh I could have I should have you know. So
I don't really enjoy I don't enjoy that process. I
do it because I have to, you know. And I

(49:44):
love the paparazzi. I love the interviews. I love being
with my friends. I love the audience response. The audience
response at the premieres was amazing. I actually I actually
saw so the premiere was the first time I saw eighteen.
Blumhouse gave me a private private screening room for Kills
and Ends, so, you know, because I talked to Ryan

(50:06):
Turk and Ryan, let me tell you, man, Ryan Turk
over at Blumhouse is absolutely wonderful. He's he's just he's
he's a wonderful guy. And he really he really made
a lot of things a lot easier for us that
might not have been so easy. And and so Ryan
arranged for me to have private screening so that I
could just get past that bullshit and enjoy the premiere.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
You know, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
And I mean I've only heard nice things about Ryan. Yes,
he comes from me, like he grew up watching all
these films.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
Yeah, he takes the fans that like he's like the
fans executive, you know what I mean, Like he like yeah, yeah, yeah.
So it's like you feel like the fans are being
represented with him on that. I've heard the same stuff,
like really nice stuff about him, and that that's cool
because it sucks. It's because the premiere, you know, should
be the celebratory time. I can't even imagine you're sitting
there sweating, Like.

Speaker 3 (50:56):
I mean, I told, I told David David Gordon Greens
the film I did, and and uh, and I was like,
you know, man, I walked in and and before I
even sat down my chair, I just went into the
bathroom and took the biggest ship.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
That's funny.

Speaker 2 (51:12):
Well, now that's a tidbit that wow, a happy hard
time exclusive. So uh, moving on to Kills. Now, when
exactly and how did you find out that they wanted
to make not one, but two more Halloween films? And
were you surprised to get this news?

Speaker 3 (51:29):
So I knew going in, I'll three. They didn't contract
me for three, which they probably should have because it
had been a cheaper form, But no, we knew going in.
And and in fact, it was during Kills that Chris
and I started to design to look for ends. So
we would we would sketch out ideas, and you know,

(51:51):
because we knew I was gonna be maskless for Ends.
So a lot of Kills was us preparing for ends.
And it's just uh, and again they knew what they
were going to They knew they were making three, they
just didn't know exactly what they were going to do.
And did I mean on movies. You know, I don't
know how much your experiences of movies, but you know,

(52:12):
David's walking around with a with a laptop and he's
you know, and he's like he's writing new scenes. You know,
in the middle of the scene, we go, Okay, this
is not working. This is not giving me all right,
give me a second. And he'd huddled with Danny or
huddled with one of the other writers or or sometimes
you just look at me right, go this is not working.
Give me something that does you know, and and you know, okay,
what do you think? No, no, just give me something

(52:32):
that works. And and and that's the way it is.
And so you nothing is final, you know, until it's
until it's a rap.

Speaker 2 (52:40):
So it's like real timef greeny pressure. But I love it.

Speaker 3 (52:44):
It's great, yeah, man, I mean, that's what we live for.
That's why we do what we do. It's exciting. You're
always on your toes and you're working with some of
the most talented human beings on the fricking planet. You know,
it just doesn't get any better than that.

Speaker 2 (52:56):
Man, yeah, you know. So, so Kills is a lot
different than twenty eighteen because not only does the film
include like a ton more characters, but you also kill
a ton more people. It's like a full on massacre
kind of from start to finish. How did you feel
about the change in tone for this film? And was
Kills the most physically demanding of the three for you
to shoot?

Speaker 3 (53:15):
Oh? Yeah, one the most demanding, and I, you know,
I ended up well in all three movies. I ended
up with two hematomas, one concussion, the see bruised ribs
and uh, I think no, I didn't have stitches. I
just do butterflies on the cuts. But you know, yeah,

(53:35):
it was but Kills, especially the well all of it
really but you know, the the mob scene was just
insane and that's where I ended up with a hematoma
on my back of my left shoulder. But you know, emotionally,
they're all they're all deep and taxing. But Kills I had.

(53:58):
I had the most physical fun on Kills because it
was so it was just so balls of the wall.
Each film for me, had its its own unique you know,
peaks and and and special moments and and for Kills,
it was almost like you know John Wick, John Wick
meets the shape.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (54:19):
It was totally Yeah, Ghana wasn't wasn't wasn't available that day,
you know.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
I mean no, it totally is. It's like and and
one of our favorite scenes in Kills is the attack
on Mary and Marcus Vanessa and then Lindsay Wallace in
the park. Now, this scene incorporates so many like gunshots
and windows breaking and maneuvering around that car. Was every
little part of that scene choreographed beforehand? And did you
get to rehearse it a lot? How did that all work?

Speaker 3 (54:48):
Oh? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you got you man, because
you know people get hurt. You well people. I will
tell you a little story, man. It's so when you
stunt fight, you go hard to the body. Whether it's
a punch or a kick or a bat or whatever,
you go hard to the body because the camera's got
to pick up the impression, like the movement of the body,
and you just can't fake it. I mean, if you

(55:10):
fake it, it looks fake. But to the head, Like
if someone throws a punch, I can be ten feet
away from you, if the camera's behind you, I feel
the punch. You snap your head. It looks like a
nice crap out of you. But I didn't even touch you. Right, Well, David,
you know the bricks that were in the pillowcase, and
they were rubber bricks. You know, they weren't brick bricks,

(55:32):
but they're rubber. They're heavy. And so David wanted to see,
you know, what if it would work to hit the
head for real and you know, and and Aaron was like, not,
you know, it doesn't work that way. I mean, you know,
there's I'd like to say. I'd just like to see it.
Can I see it? And I want to see if
I can do something with it? And so Aaron and

(55:53):
I went out and he took the bag and he
and Aaron's a you know, incredible athlete. So my sparring
partner in college boxing was a two hundred, two hundred
and eighty five pound super heavyweight named Abby Bray, and
we were sparring partners, right, Joe Fraser picked him up
after college. So this this dude could throw a punch, right,
I was a sparring partner because I was one hundred

(56:14):
pounds lighter, much faster, and you know, so we had
we really complimented each other. Well, when when Aaron hit me,
just cliped me across the top of the head, it
was like it was a fricking abbuy Berry punch man.
It was like it was like boom oh. And he goes,
that's that, dude, I'm not gonna hit you again. I'm
bringing Doug Tate out. And when Doug, when Doug had
showed up, He's like, dude, i don't want to steal

(56:34):
your thunder. I'm not going to take credit for playing
your role. I'm just happy to be here, you know,
standard speech. And so he's walking out and I'm walking
in and walking off, and he goes, oh, man, I'm
just you know, I'm not. I'm just I don't And
I was like, no, bro, go ahead, you're gonna have fun.
And Aaron hit him. His knees buckled. I mean, he
he was, he was, he was, he was on his

(56:56):
way out. Man knocked the piss out of him. Man.
And and they never used it. They couldn't use it
because you can't. It just doesn't sell.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
Wait, so was that not Kyle Richards really hitting with
the brick thing or was she swinging it? And then
they would switch to the stunt horror actually doing the hit.

Speaker 3 (57:12):
No, no, no, no, she was really doing it. And
but I also did a lot of the physical stuff
with her stunt double, so with her double. But the
only thing Doug doubled me on on camera, I mean
in the film that you know ended up on screen
was jumping off the suv. But you know, some people
had thought that he had also done some of the

(57:35):
doubling in the fight with Kylie, but that that wasn't
the case. They brought him out there to get hit
with the bricks and so hearing his pay that day. Man.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
But I'm a huge Kyle richards bands. What was it
like working with her?

Speaker 3 (57:48):
She's she's a sweetheart, I mean, you know, I mean
the one thing that was a little difficult with her
was when we were fighting, she was like, I'm afraid
to hurt you. I'm like, honey, really, you're afraid to
hurt me? Like this itty bitty little tiny woman, you know.
And you know, again, my sparring partner is the guy.
I mean, the things I've done in my life and
you're gonna hurt me? No, I don't think So. It

(58:10):
took a while to get her up to you know.
In fact, I got a little rough with her on purpose,
you know, Aaron and I talked about it was like
get a little rough with her, get a little pissed,
you know, and and you know, not in any disrespectful
kind of way, but just to just to get her
energy up, you know, because she's so sweet. She's such
a nice person. You know, it's like, don't be nice.

(58:31):
You're trying to kill me, man, you know, like she's
a very good actor and and and yeah, she was.
She was sweet as could be.

Speaker 2 (58:39):
You know, something we were always wondering about Lindsey's scene
with you is because we're wondering if you remember if
any of it got cut, because okay, she you know,
you have the confrontation, she takes her mask off, she
goes running, and then she's hiding from you near the creek.
But the next shot we get everyone finding her and
she's like all wet and disheveled as if she had
been in the creek. Did you guys shoot anything where

(59:00):
she was in the creek or you followed her in
the creek?

Speaker 3 (59:03):
Well yeah, and they yeah, we did, and it was
it was her double actually that went into the creek.
But uh, but you know, you know when you sit down.
Tim Alberson is an incredible, incredible editor, and I sat
in the bay with him and David, you know, looking
at various cuts of scenes to decide which ones we
like the best. So you know, at that point you

(59:23):
got to you gotta trust that David and Tim really knew,
you know, for the for the temple and flow of
the film, what was going to work. And so there's
there's a lot of stuff we shot that never made it.

Speaker 1 (59:34):
I am I'm dying to see her scene because her
scene wasn't on the DVD.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
Right, No, not that cut part because or her being
in the creek or anything like that.

Speaker 1 (59:42):
We get that footage some day.

Speaker 3 (59:43):
Yeah, it's the stunt double. So you may never because
you know, I think they would put it up if
it was her. I don't know, maybe you know, who knows,
who knows, But yeah, yeah, it was. It was fun.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
Of all the murders and kills, what did you think
was the most brutal?

Speaker 3 (01:00:00):
Well, so, okay, so my three favorite kills are in eighteen,
you know, the window kill, because that's the way I
would really kill somebody.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
Just a knife through the throat quickly.

Speaker 3 (01:00:10):
You're gonna have it like a soliloqui, you know, and
like before you before you get no man, you get
in quietly, get your job done and leave right and
and I think one of the most brutal and my
favorite kill and kills is the camera and kill. You know,
I think it's just like, you know, I think it's
just so it's so powerful, you know that just to

(01:00:31):
beat him near death and then just walk down and
just snap his freaking neck.

Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
You know, he gets fucked up like that because I
mean it's like you do. It's almost like you do
enough that he probably would have died anyway. And then
you're like, hey, I'm just going to finish this off
with the next snap.

Speaker 3 (01:00:45):
I think a lot of women were really happy about that.
You know that to learn how to how to treat
women is all I got to.

Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
Say, you know, you know, no totally, you know. So
moving on to Halloween Ends. Now, this is also a
very different film than the first two. But I think
the biggest difference is that Michael Myers is kind of
sidelined for a bunch of the films so they can
explore more of Corey Cunningham and his descent into evil.

(01:01:12):
I was just wondering what were your thoughts when you
first read the script for Ends and saw that things
were going in this like different sort of direction.

Speaker 3 (01:01:19):
Well, if those first thoughts were hmm, I work half
as much and I make a hell of a lot
more money. I like this formula.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
I love Halloween.

Speaker 3 (01:01:30):
N I know what I mean. Tell me why you
liked it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
Well, you know, I was telling Matt, like, you know,
Season of the Witch. When that came out, people were like, oh,
where's Michael, Where's Michael? And I was like, okay, well
we have Michael. But and also it's just something different,
and I know people don't like different sometimes, so I think,
you know it may I also think Corey Cunningham and
that whole aspect is interesting. So I think, you know,

(01:01:57):
just exploring something different because you still have all the elements.
You's Dove, Lauris, Dove, Michael, but it's different.

Speaker 3 (01:02:04):
Yeah, Well, to your point, every week, at least once
a week, David w wear a Season of the Witch
t shirt on set. He was doing that. He I mean,
he was very intentional. He also knows that for the haters,
for the people who don't like Halloween, you know, Ends,
Let's talk to him again in ten years let's talk
to him again in twenty years because the season The

(01:02:26):
Witch has has a huge cult following now. Right, there
are a lot of naysayers back then, but even people
who didn't like it then like it now. So David
knew exactly what he's doing, I think, and I think, god,
Rowan Campbell did just an insanely beautiful job. Kid is
you know, he's an incredible actor, he's an incredible human being.

(01:02:47):
And we knew that was going to happen. So I
met him at the after party at the premiere of
Halloween Kills. David had called me a couple weeks ago
and said, Hey, so you know, you're gonna have a
protege and I want you guys to I want you
to mentor him. I want you to become, you know,
become friends. And we did. And so I got to
know Rowan before we went to work, and and then

(01:03:11):
prior to shooting, Rowan and I'd get together with David
and we we would just sit and just just hash
out stuff. And and now Rowan is a very good friend,
you know, And so it's it's and it's really interesting
how David forges these friendships between the people that he
works with, you know, and and these friendships are lasting.

(01:03:34):
I have never walked away from a movie or a
TV show with so many really good friends, like friends
that are still you know. I mean, we check in
on each other and we make it a point to
see each other if we're in some part of the
country or the world, and you know, I mean shooting
the Castle and his wife and Sarah and I have
traveled together, like we just go on vacations together.

Speaker 2 (01:03:53):
I love that the Og, the Og and the recent
Michael Meyers hang out to gather Omega man. Yeah, no, no, no,
I love that, And I think it look that the
thing is my perspective on Ends. I feel like I
can see both sides because I definitely see the people
who love it for being different and get the season

(01:04:13):
of the Witch vibe and like like a different sort
of movie in that I also see I think some
of the fans that were disappointed that we didn't have
more Laurie and Michael since it was the final franchise,
even though we did get that epic battle. So I
kind of can see both sides of the debate on Ends.
But I wanted to talk to you, obviously about that

(01:04:33):
final battle between Michael and Laurie because it's so epic,
and I've heard you mention that it was quite emotional
for both you and Jamie to plot out and film
this scene. So can you tell us a little bit
about that, Like when did the emotions kick in for
the two of you.

Speaker 3 (01:04:47):
It was the first day that we because I think
took up out a week to shoot, so we the
first day we get on that set, and she had
rehearsed with her stunt double and the stunt people hurst,
you know, non rehearsal rehearsing. But the first day we
were actually going to shoot, we shut there and she
was standing I was standing by the table, she was

(01:05:08):
standing over by the sink, and I said, Jamie, let's
let's let's talk, and she goes, okay, let's let's go
beat by beat. And as we started talking through the scene,
we were both getting so visibly emotional. I literally had tears.
It's like, you know, running down my cheeks because what we,
you know, we were experiencing as we're going through the
beats was all the emotions that these two characters have.

(01:05:30):
And it's a love story, man, It's a freaking love story.
A very twisted one. But it's a love story and
and so you know the power of that and and
what we could do to support each other and all
those emotions that we were going to experience, because that's
the first time as that character, I experienced the entire
balance of emotions that a human being feels. So humanity

(01:05:55):
was created in that character in that and you know,
in the shape during that scene, there was love, there
was hate, that was wanting to die, wanting to kill.
There were all these conflicting emotions happening between Jamie and
I and and you know what an amazing scene partner.
I mean, she just gives so much. And that's why
she said, you know, it's the most powerful thing she's

(01:06:15):
ever done. And for her to say that is, you know,
it's certainly the most powerful thing I've ever done as
an actor. And and there were so many, so many
I mean, the the emotion in that house it was
a you know, facade in the studio. The emotion in
that house when we were shooting those scenes is just
you could cut up with a knife, man, it was.

(01:06:36):
It was just uh, and it was exhausting, you know,
and Jamie and I both were literally not figured literally
blew bruised from our shoulders to our ankles. And and
she I mean she threw it down. She had a
great stunt double. But that's Jamie's head going through the glass.
That's Jamie, you know, it's all It's all Jamie, and
and it's all me, you know, and and and it's

(01:06:59):
and and shooting on that for both of us was
incredibly uncomfortable because you you know, you see it on
screen and it looks okay, it looks it looks like,
it looks it looks natural, it looks like but that's
not the way. It is. Like we're in very uncomfortable
positions for very long periods of time, and you know,
it's and it's painful, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:07:18):
So I love though, hearing how emotional was because it's like,
in a way, and I don't want to speak for
all Halloween fans, but it was a very emotional experience
for Halloween fans too, because it's this epic final battle
forty four years in the making. I mean, the amount
of history between these two characters, Laurie Strode and Michael Myers,
through all of these decades, the amount of you know,

(01:07:40):
like the effect that Michael and everything that's happened has
had on Laurie's life, and it's like all coming together
in this one scene she's wearing the same colors as
she did in the original. You know, it's like it's
just it was such an incredible battle like that, that
was such a big moment for the franchise and everything
that I'm so glad to hear how much it meant

(01:08:00):
to both of you, because it meant that to the fans,
you know.

Speaker 3 (01:08:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's the bond I think that
you know, Jamie and I experienced from that. It's just
so special. And you know, in the conversations we've had
since then, you know, even when it's not and and
generally at this point it's not about about Halloween's it's
so there's there's a special thing happens as an actor.

(01:08:24):
When you have that kind of connection with another human being,
you know, you really have to bury your soul. You can't.
There's there's no pretending in there. And when you connect
with another human being, especially a quality of human being
like like Jamie, that lingers man. I still carry that
with me.

Speaker 2 (01:08:38):
I love that. I heard you mention on another podcast
that the ending of Halloween ends where Laurie throws you
into that big industrial shredder was not the initial way
that it ended. Can you tell us what happened in
the original ending? Are you allowed to tell that?

Speaker 3 (01:08:54):
Do remember? I don't know if I can remember.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
I think it was something to do with like a
crematorium or something.

Speaker 3 (01:09:04):
Oh, thank you, thank you so much. I got so much.
I've got a TV show and three movies on my
totally totally what ship floating through my brain. Yeah, so
they put me in a crematorium and and they actually did.
And and in fact, I have an urn with the

(01:09:24):
ashes from the from the from the you know, from the.

Speaker 2 (01:09:28):
Body Michael Myers ashes.

Speaker 3 (01:09:31):
I have, I have you know in my am I uh,
I'm a little learned for them. And uh yeah, so
they and that was and and you know, I agree
with David as well. They you know, they do the
test marketing and the test audiences they have tend to
be really accurate. Like they I don't know the science
of it, but somehow they get people in these test

(01:09:53):
screenings and they really put their fingers on the pulse
of what the public is going to respond to. So
although I think that ending and it was very it
was very kind of mystical and spiritual. The ending, the
original ending with you know, a factory cranking out masks,
and you know, but the masks is imbued with the
shapes energy and so you know, so basically the energy

(01:10:15):
of that is going to affect the population of the planet.

Speaker 2 (01:10:17):
And that's very season of the witch. Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:10:21):
Yeah. Yeah, and that's why they did that. But but
when they tested it just didn't work. So I think
it's so funny. A little story about Sarah. My partner
was up in Nashville when we were shooting that, and
and so I I just had I took my phone
and I just shot the monitor when they were doing

(01:10:41):
the you know, when they're doing that that scene and
they crank everything up, and so I sent it to her,
and she knew not to you know, she's a restaurant
with some friends, and so she knew not to look
at it in the restaurant. She didn't want anybody to
be able to see it. So she walked out to
the street, kind of turned her back to everybody and
or you know, and then she she's watching it and

(01:11:04):
you know, it looks just like me. The body falls
down on the blood flies and she screamed out loud.
She screamed because she thought it was me. She thought
that I was telling her I was injured, and and
and because I didn't say anything, I just sent her
the clip.

Speaker 2 (01:11:15):
Wait, this is the clip in the shredder. Yeah yeah,
oh okay.

Speaker 3 (01:11:20):
Half of the monitor of me going in the shredder.
And she thought it was me, and then and then
she then she realized quickly, of course, that it was
It was.

Speaker 1 (01:11:27):
Just a I love this.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
She thought that, you, like, I gotta push them. Hey
I got smashed, but here you go. No, it is
it's a I mean it to me. It's like having
watched a million horror movies and you always want them
to like really finish off the villain. I actually really
love that they did this because it's like any other

(01:11:50):
way of just killing Michael, you would have been like, oh,
you can come back, but not if you're gonna put
him in a fucking shredder, like he will not come
back because your body just naps into blood and guts
like no other.

Speaker 3 (01:12:03):
There's always cloning though.

Speaker 2 (01:12:05):
Yeah yeah, well well so that's what I wanted to
ask you, Like, as we're moving toward the end of
this interview, I know David Gordon Green's version of Halloween
is over, but ultimately Michael Myers is going to come
back in some shape or form at some point. In
your opinion, what do you think they should do next
with the Halloween series.

Speaker 3 (01:12:22):
Well, I think that they're going to do something television wise,
streaming wise, but I don't think I think that. I
don't know what they're going to do. I don't know
if Michael Myers, you know, A Shape is going to
be involved in that. I don't know if it's going
to be more of a season of the Witch thing.
I would say, I to my mind, the Halloween franchise
is something you need to see in the theaters. I

(01:12:44):
mean for people who can't awesome, you know, stream it,
but really, man again, we go back to community. Like
when you see a Halloween film in the theater with
Halloween fans, the collective energy of that just triples whatever
you're going to experience, whatever you see on screen. So
I think first of all, it needs to you know,
if they when they do something with the Shape, that

(01:13:05):
it should be it should be a feature film. And
I think they should wait seven or eight years, you
know what I mean, like they did after Rob Zombie's films,
I think they need to wait a while, let it
kind of die down, get get a hold of another,
you know, another really gifted director and writer, and you know,
and it will be some other, some other guy playing

(01:13:25):
the shape and and you know, and I'm sure somebody
will come up with something really creative. I mean, you know,
and I hope they do because well, and I know
they will because you know, first of all, I think
we gross close to nine hundred million dollars and I
don't think they're gonna put that away, you.

Speaker 1 (01:13:41):
Know, And if the opportunity arose, would you want to
do it again?

Speaker 2 (01:13:46):
Like would you be up for playing Michael Myers again.

Speaker 3 (01:13:50):
Under the right circumstances, you know, I mean, the the script,
the director, you know, huge first and foremost huge. Secondly,
you know, it's business, you know, it's are they willing
to pay me what I'm worth? And and and that's
so that that depends on who the company that makes.
You know. Some companies are very generous, some not so much,

(01:14:11):
you know, and so so yeah, I mean I would
be open to it, it was it was the role
of a lifetime. I wouldn't want to get into the
I wouldn't want to do it right away if I
were offered again, because then I might just be just
typecast as that character, and and I wouldn't want that.
I and the things I have going now are outside

(01:14:33):
of though I do have something I think I can't
tell you about now, But I do have something brewing
television wise that when it pops, I will let you
guys know. I think I think that horror fans gonna
be really excited about it. I think it's special. So
when that happens, I'll let you guys know, and maybe

(01:14:53):
we can do a little little something something on that.
But you know, the film. The other films I have
going two of them are a horror thriller and one
is a coming rage story about high school soccer player.
You know, So I need to do other things other
than just horror. I love it, and I want to
play other characters and other horror films, you know. I mean,

(01:15:15):
you know, look at not to compare myself to the greats,
you know, the Bell and Lagoties of the you know
the I mean, you know, I mean, I can't see
myself playing the Mummy in Frankenstein. And you know that's
a whole that's a whole nother ball of wax. But
having the opportunity to play these characters, these characters, they're
so deep and rich, you know, and and the audience

(01:15:38):
is connected with them on such a visceral level. And
to have the honor of being able to play characters
like that and work with people that I really respect,
of course I do it, man, you.

Speaker 2 (01:15:47):
Know, yeah, I mean. And it's funny you took the
next question right out of our mouths, because we wanted
to ask you about the projects you're working on today
and anything you can tell us, And it sounds like
you can't tell us much, but you alluded to there
are there's some horror along with the movie you said
about a soccer player. Is there anything that like? Can
you tell us this genre in horror? Is it slasher, supernatural? Anything?

(01:16:09):
I'm gonna poke you for details.

Speaker 3 (01:16:11):
So the two features that are horror related will be
more supernatural. Definitely the physicality, you know, physicality and definitely
beings who have been altered in a monsterish way, so

(01:16:31):
you know, so we have and definitely definitely the the
action and hopefully the suspense that you know that Halloween
created where I'm working with some very very I'm not
I didn't write either one of these. I wrote the
soccer script. I mean writing, don't. I don't know if
you guys write, but you know, writing a screenplay is
not an easy task, man.

Speaker 1 (01:16:50):
So I can't even make a grocery list.

Speaker 2 (01:16:54):
I work for an my full time job. I work
for an ad agency as a writer. So it's a
very different type of right because it's like, you know,
sales copywriting. But yes, screenwriting, I know is very difficult.

Speaker 3 (01:17:06):
It's a blood letting. It's a blood letting. And and
and though I so I don't have the bandwidth. And
so I'm working with some very very gifted writers. We're
really happy with what we have, and we're and and
so I I think those and I also want to
I wanted to give this fans of the people have
been gracious enough to be kind enough to me to
stop and see me and get an autograph or have

(01:17:28):
you know, have DMed me or or whatever. You know,
the fans that that I've connected with, I want to
give them something that that they'll love and appreciate. But
I don't want to give them the same thing, you
know what I mean. So hopefully we can you know,
broaden the you know, broaden the gifts we give to
each other. And and uh and the soccer film, I'm
really stoked about It's it's it's special, man. And I've

(01:17:51):
got a foundation tied to the soccer film. So we
will be putting in soccer pitches in rural, rural and
urban areas that are depressed and underserved. You know. So
if you are thinking, is if you can get twenty
two kids off the street onto a soccer pitch and
run them to death. They're not going to be out,
you know, causing trouble. They're not gonna be out doing drugs.
They're not going to be out, you know, gang banging.

(01:18:11):
And so it's an opportunity to give something back to
you know, to the world. And I canna tell you, man,
because of playing the Shape, I have been able to
do so much charity work, you know, especially around hunger
and children's stuff, you know, children's hospitals. And I mean
I've been able to do so much of it because

(01:18:32):
I can show up to a place and the fans
will show up and we can load truckload make just
tractor trailers filled with food for people who need food.
And you know, man, it's it's I'm so grateful for
that because any other character I've played before would never
have given me that platform to be able to be
of some use on this planet, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:18:52):
That's so nice.

Speaker 1 (01:18:53):
Interesting because it's like a character that's so evil but
then doing something so good.

Speaker 2 (01:18:56):
But that's what I think is so amazing about what
you just told is that like you've like channeled this
experience into something really good to give back to people.
And that's really sweet because not every actor would would
do that, you know, So it really means a lot
to hear that you have turned this experience, which was
so like incredible for the fans to watch, into something

(01:19:19):
where you've used it to help give back to the community.

Speaker 3 (01:19:22):
Well, you know, honestly, I think it's a reflection of
the horror community. I think, having met tens of thousands,
maybe even one hundred thousand horror fans in these six years,
horror fans, hands down, are the nicest people you're ever
going to meet. And amen, Yeah, you know theory about this, Okay,
So these fans are like EMTs, er docs, cops, firefighters,

(01:19:44):
you know, military guys in the thick of battle, We'll
go back and watch these movies to decompress, right EMTs well,
decompress watching these movies cops after like really traumatic events. So,
after knowing so many people, I'm realizing that horror fans,
the fans of horror work out the end. They work
out the sub the pathologies and their subconscious by watching

(01:20:07):
these films. And it put it together when a buddy
of mine who's an astrologer, an incredible astrologer, told me that,
you know, everybody knows this. Nancy Reagan had an astrologer
and Nancy Reagan's astrologer told Ronnie that he was going
to be assassinated. And he goes, well, how do I
avoid it? And she said, watch assassination films. So literally
every single night, Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan when they could,

(01:20:29):
would watch an assassination film. They immerse themselves in. So
this is what horror fans are doing. They're immersing themselves
in the terror, right, and they're working their shit out.
I'm gonna guarantee you, man, a horror fan is not
the asshole who's going to pull you over in traffic
and try to kill you, right, that's not going to
be a horror fan. That might be a rom Khan fan,
that might be a you know what I mean, but

(01:20:51):
it ain't going to be a horror fan. And I
spend enough time with people, you know, and part of
my job as an actor is to be able to
really read into people. It's an energy thing, right, And
you know that. And you know, you walk in the room,
you you feel the room. You meet a new potential lover,
you meet a new potential friend, you meet a new
business you know, acquaintance. You feel into that right away, man,

(01:21:12):
you know, right, And so I got and I meet
so many of these people just and especially when they're
all you know, got tatted and you know, curiously as
all over their faces and they're you know, bulging with
muscles or their four hundred pounds or whatever, and they
look frightening as nah, dude, nicest people on the planet.

Speaker 1 (01:21:29):
Yeah, And you know, like we go to convention sometimes
and like is everyone's so nice?

Speaker 2 (01:21:33):
And I can tell you what the horror fan is
gonna be able to do if they're in a situation
where their life is at stake, They're going to know
how to fight back. They're going to know how to
get away they're going to know how to support and
get and help their friends. They're gonna be the ones
that are going to get out of it. Okay, they're
not going to be starting the situation, but they're going
to know how to like facilitate it at.

Speaker 3 (01:21:54):
Least think get that night flip going right.

Speaker 2 (01:21:57):
So, so we have one final question, were you And
we asked this to all of our guests. It puts
you on the spot a little bit, but we just
asked this to all of our guests at the very
end of the interview. What is one thing, just one
thing you can tell us about your experience working on
any of the three Halloween films that you've never told
any other interviewer, publication, convention, Q and A or podcaster.

(01:22:20):
Just one thing about anything related to your experience on
the three films that you've never told in any other
interview or Q and A.

Speaker 3 (01:22:27):
Damn man, that's hard.

Speaker 2 (01:22:29):
Yep, And it can be.

Speaker 1 (01:22:33):
It can be you kind of did with the Kyle
Richards stuff. I didn't know. I never knew that that
there was stuff filmed.

Speaker 2 (01:22:38):
In the pond and I found And it can be
a little thing or it can be the biggest thing.
It can be. You know, one day when I was
between takes, Jamie Lee brought me over some chicken palm.
I don't know, like I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:22:50):
Or I said I hate chicken.

Speaker 2 (01:22:51):
But I said, Jamie, get that chicken farm out of
my bed now.

Speaker 3 (01:22:54):
No, okay, I mean, I'll tell you this. And I
haven't told anybody this. I'm like in the movie industry,
the saying goes, if you're a half hour early, you're
a half hour late. Like the deal of the movie is,
you've got to be on time. Hundreds of thousands of
dollars are being spent from the moment we start start
our day, right, I've only been late, and only up
until Halloween ends, I've only been late one time in

(01:23:16):
my entire career. And and I take it really seriously.
And I'm generally early for everything when I can be,
and and and and Halloween ends. You know, it was
during COVID and it was just and and I was
just exhausted, and I slept through my alarm and Sarah
had Sarah had gone to the gym, and so I I.
She came back and she goes, James, you're supposed to

(01:23:38):
be worked two hours ago. And dude, I was mortified.
I was so mortified because that's my integrity, man, and
I'm letting everybody on that set down, you know. And
it's just I was just so mortified. And I know
David was pissed before I got there, but I went
right to day. It was like, bro, I'm so sorry.
I I and we had a little talk and he
was he was gracious as fuck, you know what I mean.

(01:23:59):
But really, I don't. I've talked about that because that
really speaks to my integrity, Like for me to drop
the ball like that, and it may not seem like
a big deal of being late for work, man, you know,
you don't let your people down like that. And so
I felt really really bad about that, but.

Speaker 1 (01:24:13):
No, it's it's it's so tough.

Speaker 2 (01:24:18):
You know you should feel but no, you know what
I see. What I was thinking was we've heard about
people who like are chronically late to sets and like,
and we're just like, oh, that's so rude and stuff.
So for you to feel so bad over one mistake,
it does show speak to your integrity, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:24:33):
I don't know. I don't. I'd have to really pour
over my mind to think of somebody I've ever worked
with who was late. Little things you learn like and
I learned that from when I was doing the Conan Show, right,
and we had a show captain and we had an understudy.
And I had a little Fiat convertible and I was
driving to work and it broke down, and so, you know,
didn't have cell phones in I walked over to a

(01:24:55):
gas station. I was gonna have to push the car,
but I walked over a gas station, got on the
cell phone, called the show cap, says hey and call
my understudy. My car just broke down. And he goes,
fuck you. I went what he goes, fuck you? You know
how lucky you? And how do they have this job?
You know how lucky you are. Do you know how
many thousands of men would love to be in your position?
Right now? You fucking walk here. If you have to,
you take a cab. I don't give a shit what

(01:25:16):
you do. You come to work. And I thought about it,
and he was right. There are thousands of guys that
would have taken my role on that show. And so
I pushed the car to the gas station and I
freaking called a cab and I got to work. And
that's what set me up. And they are little things
like I was working on a Babylon five and I
was always I thought, being courteous after my wardrobe. I'd

(01:25:39):
take my wardrobe off, I'd fold it and put it
on the couch. And this great old stuntman walks by,
and then he walks backward. He goes, hey, Jimmy, wardrobes
here before you get here. They leave after you leave,
hang your shit up, man, And I was like, you're right,
you're right. So you'll notice that all of us, if
you're on a set, we all hang our wardrobe up
after we're done. That's a beauty of working on a film,

(01:26:03):
the courtesy that you experience working on a film with
a great cast and great crew. Man. I wish the
world could operate that way, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:26:10):
True.

Speaker 3 (01:26:10):
Yeah, it's just a better place man.

Speaker 2 (01:26:13):
Kids, having the mutual respect for everyone's job in any
sort of production or any sort of work environment or anything.
Just people respecting every single role, you know, and not
feeling like, oh I'm better than you, or you're not
as good or that kind of thing. So totally like in.

Speaker 3 (01:26:31):
Sorry about that in the uh. Like, for instance, on
a set, David Gordon Green would call go to a
then assistant director and say and invite shape up to
the set. I get a knock in my dressing room
and it's like I open the door. David's inviting you
to the set, you know, and then you show up
to the set and someone's gonna say welcome to the

(01:26:52):
set or welcome back. Every morning, whether it's six am
or six pm, it's always everybody says good morning, good morning,
whether it's even six pm, good morning, good morning, good morning,
good morning. It's the terminology everybody uses that. The language
is all about courtesy and respect, and it just makes
life so much easier. You know, it's not fake either,

(01:27:12):
because you know, people like David Shit, every director I've
ever worked with, if there's an asshole on the set,
they're not there the next day.

Speaker 1 (01:27:20):
Man, that's so true. Like the person at the top
sets the tone for everyone else.

Speaker 3 (01:27:25):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, man. And that's why David Gordon Green
hands out. I mean, yeah, Ron Howard was amazing. I mean,
I've definitely worked with some wonderful directors, but dude, David,
he's just head and shoulders above anybody else. He's just
such an incredible guy, you know, and we all are
living like proof of the benefit of his The movie

(01:27:45):
would not be what it was if we had an
asshole for a director.

Speaker 2 (01:27:48):
Oh totally. Well, look, James has been such an honor,
truly being able to talk with you about all of
these films, about the Halloween franchise, just getting to know
you in your career, Like you can tell, you're just
such a genuine person and so we just really want
to thank you so much for taking the time to
chat with us today.

Speaker 3 (01:28:06):
Oh, thank you. No, this is this is fun. And
then I'll look forward to so let me know when
you guys are, when you guys are going to release
it whatever, I'll blast it out so people can so
the fans can look at it.

Speaker 2 (01:28:15):
Awesome. No, you know, we really appreciate that. We will
definitely be in touch and thank you so much and
enjoy the rest of your day.

Speaker 3 (01:28:21):
Okay you guys as well.

Speaker 2 (01:28:22):
Let's love take care. Bye.

Speaker 1 (01:28:24):
Yeah, thanks for listening to another episode of Happy Horror Time.

Speaker 2 (01:28:34):
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(01:28:54):
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Speaker 1 (01:29:00):
Patrons also get all our regular episodes ad free and
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Speaker 2 (01:29:10):
I'm Matt Emmerts and I'm Tim Murdoch, and we hope
you have a happy Horror Time.