KEN KIRZINGER: I was one of those kids that, after my parents went to bed, I snuck out and watched all the late night horror and science fiction movies, so I eat that stuff up. I enjoy it. I don't think they make me squeamish as much as I find them entertaining.
You've become an icon of horror movies. How does that make you feel?
ROBERT ENGLUND: You know, I’m not a kid any longer. I've been doing this since 1973. No one knew my name. Everyone knew my face, until I put on a pound of latex. It's that weird thing where it finally made my parents happy because someone finally knew the family name, you know. There's a great irony there somewhere that I haven't quite figured out.
I was at the right age at the right time. I'd done 15 movies and one television series by the time I did Freddy the first time. There were two great gifts for me: one was that I was already established in Hollywood. Everybody knew me and I was able to hang back and relax and have fun and enjoy it – like Ken and I are doing on this publicity tour. Really [getting] to enjoy the younger fans. It's nice to have young fans as opposed to just people watching “West Wing” or just adult fans who watch highly literate television or art films, or just independent cinema fans. It's kind of nice as an old dog to have that. The other great gift - and I’ve been telling Ken to expect this - is horror movies are like action films, they are international in their language. You could drop me off tomorrow in Paris and Jay Leno, and I’ll get the best table because comedy doesn't go across the pond, horror and action does. So I have a whole second career. I just finished my eighth film in Europe. I have a movie at the Venice Film Festival this year, an Italian film. This has been this great happy-accident bonus.
Wes Craven taught me back in ‘84 to respect the genre. And like Ken, when I was a kid - I’m a lot younger than Ken (laughing) - but I remember going to school the next day after a “Twilight Zone” and talking about your favorite “Twilight Zone” episode or dissecting the latest horror movie out that you'd just seen. So I had that, that was part of me for a long time. Wes Craven has kept that 14-year-old boy alive in him and I sort of learned to do that from Wes, and it's been great fun.
Will you ever grow tired of the horror genre?
ROBERT ENGLUND: I’ve just finished my 62nd movie. I've done 8 Freddy movies and 4 other horror movies. I've done 12 horror movies in my life and I’ve done 50 other films. People don't know me from a lot of those but I get to get my juices going as an actor. I'll tell you what the weird thing is, I had the makeup on for 10 years and I told Ken that I took it off and was ready to start doing other stuff after ‘94 and I realized that I’m like whole different face now than when I began. When I began I could play [someone in their] 20’s. Now I’m lucky if I can play 40’s on film. So I’m a different actor now. Now I am Vincent Price, I am the mad scientist; I am the guy on “Buffy” - the mentor on “Buffy.” I am the mad doctor or the professor. I've been doing a lot of professors lately. It's just a shift. You can't control audiences or fans. I told Ken, "Just get ready now because it's a roller coaster ride. You've just got to have fun with it and kick back and enjoy it.”
