Doung Jones
Doug Jones is best known as the man behind many of director Guillermo Del Toro's weird and wonderful creations including Abe Sapien in Hellboy and the Faun in Pan's Labyrinth.
This year sees him return to the character of Abe in Hellboy II: The Golden Army so I caught up with him to take about the bigger Hellboy, his relationship with Del Toro and what lies ahead.
You are returning to the character of Abe in Hellboy II: The Golden Army can you tell me a little bit about the film?
Well sure the luxury that we have with this movie, being a sequel, is that all the character were defined and set up and the relationships put into place in the first film so we got to hit the ground running in the second film as a life in progress already: you get to see Hellboy and Liz in their marital relationship and you get to see Abe take over the intellectual pat of the team after the death of Professor in the first film and we get to see Jeffrey Tambor’s character Agent Manning as the crazy uncle in our family, the one none of us really like but we have to tolerate him, so that’s up and running.
This time the B.P.R.D, who deal with the paranormal, we have an elf Prince Nuada, played by Luke Goss, is our nemesis bad guy who arises to reclaim the elf dominance over the world and it’s our job to stop this from happening and keep the humans safe from this renegade elf. But what complicates this, of course, is the elf prince has a twin sister Princess Nuala, played by the lovely Anna Walton, the beautiful and talented Anna Walton I might add and seeing as she is my love interest I get to talk about her all I want.
I loved working with her and I love that part of my story and with Abe I got to explore so much more of this character in this film because Guillermo wrote so much more for him this time. There are expanded family relationships, that crazy family that I was talking about, much more on screen buddy time with Hellboy and much more brother sister time with Liz Sherman and now there’s a love interest which elevated Abe into the leading man category and it takes a director like Guillermo Del Toro to do that with a fish man mutant doesn’t it?
But all those moments on screen were absolutely charming between the princess and Abe it struck such a chord with me dipping back into my adolescence and all those puppy love crushes when you don’t know what that is and here is Abe experiencing love for the first time, he has been such an intellectual with real prowess in that area and now his emotions are awakened and his heart is beating like it has never done before and he doesn’t know what is going on which might compromise his intellect.
Well that sort of leads me into my next question what did you think when you read the script for the first time did Abe’s love story come as a surprise to you as it does to the audience?
Yeah it did, it’s funny because long before I got the script Guillermo said to me in a casual conversation ‘the fans are going to hate me for what I’m going to do to Abe’, and I thought oh no what does he mean is Abe going to meet a horrible death? What does this mean?
But I think it was the love and what happens to that love and the emotional journey that you go on I think that’s what he meant and Abe also feels that his loyalty to the B.P.R.D is compromised by this puppy love that he has so that had a lot to do with the fans. And what else I thought when I saw the script was seeing Abe Sapien on almost every page of the film I thought ‘oh this is bigger this is way bigger’ there was a lot more responsibility for me as an actor this time and in addition to that Guillermo wanted me to play The Angel of Death and the small part called The Chamberlain I realised that I wasn’t going to have a whole lot of days off, which I didn’t.
And why did you decide to revisit this character?
There was no decision in it at all for me I knew that I had too I love Abe, he is my favourite character I have ever played in any film, because I love his elegance I love his intellect and I love his charm he reflects a lot of things in me that are real and he also reflects a lot that I want to be, like the smart part (laughs).
What was filming like for you were you were you in prosthetics and how did you find that?
Oh well the difficulty was my day was the longest of everyone because my make-up took so much longer, I had a five hour getting ready process as Abe Sapien so that meant that my call time was earlier than everyone else’s. I rarely saw the sun I would come in before the sun came up and leave well after it had gone down, and that made for eighteen hour days and sleeping just four hours a night on average, six days a week and you can go crazy under those conditions, but I have found that working in Guillermo De Toro movies being a little crazy helps.
You take on multiple roles in many movies this time it’s Abe and the Angel of Death how difficult is that for you and do you ever feel that you are taking on too much?
I’m never sure, doing these multiple roles, what kind of strain that is going to be on me but what is nice about it is Guillermo with film the secondary character in it’s entirety in one week, that’s how it’s worked so far, where I get to switch gears from being Abe Sapien to the Angel of Death and I can concentrate on that for a whole week and then back to Abe so I do have the time to mentally and emotionally make that switch.
Also what helps is the five hour make-up jobs when you are in the make-up trailer and you see this character get made on you physically and visually it does help you find that face for the day.
And what are the onset relationship like they are appear very real on screen where Abe and Hellboy sing is one of the movies best scenes it‘s so funny?
Well thank you that was one of my favourite scenes I have ever filmed in any film ever my relationship with Ron Pearlman is very much like that he is my older brother and I’m his innocent kid brother and we are very much like that in real life he is a cigar smoking, wise cracking grump sometimes that we adore and don’t ever want him to change. and I can be prim and proper putting my hand on my collar bone and saying ‘oh dear’ that is very much my style so we get along really well.
And my relationship with Selma Blair is very brother sisterly she like a kid sister to me and I do feel very protective of her and she is a sarcastic, funny woman and dead pan on delivery so the family is really there, and Jeffery Tambor really is crazy the man is not well he has a screw loose some where but I hope no one ever tightens it because that would change him.
And what about Guillermo Del Toro you have worked with him many times know what is he like as a director?
He is a dream director for me as a director he is different for every actor that he works with and he knows how to direct each one of us and motivate each one of us because he knows our personalities. He is very good at summing people up and knowing their personalities and knowing who they are very quickly, so his style of directing is he talks to Selma Blair, Ron Pearlman and myself and he talks to each one of us differently while doing the same thing, so his way to motivate Selma for the next take is very different to the way he motivates me.
And with me he tends to be less is more and he doesn’t say much to me we do most of our talking before filming even starts in pre-production I get the low down of what he wants from the character and so on set we might have key words and very minimal talking we click really easily he understands me and I understand him and that’s why our relationship works so well we just get each other.
You take on lots of roles that use heavy prosthetics how comfortable are you with audiences not knowing the actor behind the mask if you will?
I was really ok with it (laughs) no I really was and they are finding out more and more about me as time goes on with the bonus features on DVDs and on camera interviews and press and things so I do get recognised out in public way more than I used too.
I was comfortable with being anonymous but I’m also comfortable with being seen and known now as well, I’m not Brad Pitt I don’t have people waiting in my bushes, so when the odd does approach me in public it’s still a wonderfully nice think and I’m like ’Oh you like my work really’ I have the luxury of going to an event and being introduced as Doug Jones the star of this and that and then I can go into Starbucks the next day and no one knows who I am so I do enjoy both worlds.
And is this the kind of acting that you wanted to do?
No when I came out to Hollywood in 1985 I thought that I was going to take the television sitcom world by storm I was sure I was going to be the tall, skinny, goofy guy who could do armpit farts and say funny things and that was going to be my world. But low and behold the prosthetic make-up kept finding itself on me and it liked it on me.
I think what it was I did a commercial campaign early on for MacDonalds and those commercials took off and it ended up being a three year twenty seven commercial campaign for me and that really established me as a tall, thin guy who wears things well, moves well and does not complain, and that is a huge one, you know actors right?
We love to complain nothing is ever right for us we are very self absorbed people so to actually put up with any discomfort, a little pain here and there, heavy things and hot things and I guess that’s unusual and people in the special effects and make-up industry liked to refer me to the next thing and that is how my career blossomed along that side of the fork of my career.
Finally what is next for you dear I say Silver Surfer spin off or Hellboy 3?
Oh you can dare to say it sure lots have I am still under a three picture deal with Twentieth Century Fox I still have two more movies that they have the option to use me for The Silver Surfer, whether they choose to do that is up to them. As far as I know they are sitting on a finished script for a solo project for the Surfer and it has been sitting there in the studio for over a year now so I don’t know what is happening with that, and I will be the last one to know about it.
And as far as Hellboy 3 goes there is lots of juggling about that and we are not totally sure Guillermo always wanted to make a three part series of movies, so part three is in his mind he knows what he wants it to be, but I haven’t heard about it because I never hear about it.
I know that it has a darker feel to it and it’s going to be very epic if it gets to be made but he is committed now with The Hobbit and I read in another publication that he will be committed for a further five year after The Hobbit with four movies to make with Universal, one of them being Frankenstein which would be just a good fit.
And away from these movies anything else in the pipeline?
I’ve been being approached a lot more by directors than I used to and they are bringing me yummy things I just did an episode of Criminal Minds on CBS as a guest star, I have been the cameo kid this year I did a cameo in a frightful movie called Quarantine then I did a cameo in an epic end of the world movie called Legion with Dennis Quaid and Paul Bettany and a host of others and in that I play a quirky character called the Ice Cream man.
And I just finished a small sweet independent movie called My Name is Jerry in which I play Jerry a middle aged white guy skinny kind of quirky, it was written for me by the way, and he is going through a bit of a mid-life crisis so that will be released sometime in 2009.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army is released 8th December
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Doug Jones is best known as the man behind many of director Guillermo Del Toro's weird and wonderful creations including Abe Sapien in Hellboy and the Faun in Pan's Labyrinth.
This year sees him return to the character of Abe in Hellboy II: The Golden Army so I caught up with him to take about the bigger Hellboy, his relationship with Del Toro and what lies ahead.
You are returning to the character of Abe in Hellboy II: The Golden Army can you tell me a little bit about the film?
Well sure the luxury that we have with this movie, being a sequel, is that all the character were defined and set up and the relationships put into place in the first film so we got to hit the ground running in the second film as a life in progress already: you get to see Hellboy and Liz in their marital relationship and you get to see Abe take over the intellectual pat of the team after the death of Professor in the first film and we get to see Jeffrey Tambor’s character Agent Manning as the crazy uncle in our family, the one none of us really like but we have to tolerate him, so that’s up and running.
This time the B.P.R.D, who deal with the paranormal, we have an elf Prince Nuada, played by Luke Goss, is our nemesis bad guy who arises to reclaim the elf dominance over the world and it’s our job to stop this from happening and keep the humans safe from this renegade elf. But what complicates this, of course, is the elf prince has a twin sister Princess Nuala, played by the lovely Anna Walton, the beautiful and talented Anna Walton I might add and seeing as she is my love interest I get to talk about her all I want.
I loved working with her and I love that part of my story and with Abe I got to explore so much more of this character in this film because Guillermo wrote so much more for him this time. There are expanded family relationships, that crazy family that I was talking about, much more on screen buddy time with Hellboy and much more brother sister time with Liz Sherman and now there’s a love interest which elevated Abe into the leading man category and it takes a director like Guillermo Del Toro to do that with a fish man mutant doesn’t it?
But all those moments on screen were absolutely charming between the princess and Abe it struck such a chord with me dipping back into my adolescence and all those puppy love crushes when you don’t know what that is and here is Abe experiencing love for the first time, he has been such an intellectual with real prowess in that area and now his emotions are awakened and his heart is beating like it has never done before and he doesn’t know what is going on which might compromise his intellect.
Well that sort of leads me into my next question what did you think when you read the script for the first time did Abe’s love story come as a surprise to you as it does to the audience?
Yeah it did, it’s funny because long before I got the script Guillermo said to me in a casual conversation ‘the fans are going to hate me for what I’m going to do to Abe’, and I thought oh no what does he mean is Abe going to meet a horrible death? What does this mean?
But I think it was the love and what happens to that love and the emotional journey that you go on I think that’s what he meant and Abe also feels that his loyalty to the B.P.R.D is compromised by this puppy love that he has so that had a lot to do with the fans. And what else I thought when I saw the script was seeing Abe Sapien on almost every page of the film I thought ‘oh this is bigger this is way bigger’ there was a lot more responsibility for me as an actor this time and in addition to that Guillermo wanted me to play The Angel of Death and the small part called The Chamberlain I realised that I wasn’t going to have a whole lot of days off, which I didn’t.
And why did you decide to revisit this character?
There was no decision in it at all for me I knew that I had too I love Abe, he is my favourite character I have ever played in any film, because I love his elegance I love his intellect and I love his charm he reflects a lot of things in me that are real and he also reflects a lot that I want to be, like the smart part (laughs).
What was filming like for you were you were you in prosthetics and how did you find that?
Oh well the difficulty was my day was the longest of everyone because my make-up took so much longer, I had a five hour getting ready process as Abe Sapien so that meant that my call time was earlier than everyone else’s. I rarely saw the sun I would come in before the sun came up and leave well after it had gone down, and that made for eighteen hour days and sleeping just four hours a night on average, six days a week and you can go crazy under those conditions, but I have found that working in Guillermo De Toro movies being a little crazy helps.
You take on multiple roles in many movies this time it’s Abe and the Angel of Death how difficult is that for you and do you ever feel that you are taking on too much?
I’m never sure, doing these multiple roles, what kind of strain that is going to be on me but what is nice about it is Guillermo with film the secondary character in it’s entirety in one week, that’s how it’s worked so far, where I get to switch gears from being Abe Sapien to the Angel of Death and I can concentrate on that for a whole week and then back to Abe so I do have the time to mentally and emotionally make that switch.
Tagged in Doug Jones