How was getting back into the character of Sheriff Hoyt the second time around?
“I loved it. I love the character. Number one, I think he’s one of the best characters I’ve ever played. The beautiful thing about Sheriff Hoyt is the simple fact that he’s a sexually perverted homicidal maniac. How do you go over the top with this guy? You can just go crazy with him. Basically, I was allowed to do exactly that. I always take every character I’ve ever played, I always try to take him right to the edge and not allow him to fall over. But directors have a tendency to pull me back a little bit and I hate to hear, ‘Less is more.’ It’s a crock of crap. I think more is more and with this character I was allowed to go just completely berserk. That’s what I love to do.”
Do you really put this character in the same class as your character in Full Metal Jacket?
“I do indeed. It’s a different character, but I work hard on every character that I do. I think in this genre, it’s as good as I could do and that’s all anybody can ask for. I was never dissatisfied with any scene that I walked away from. I guess the proof is when you sit down and you watch that movie or that show for the very first time after it’s been edited and you see the final product. I’ve done 75 feature films [and] I look at them and say, ‘Gosh, I should have done this. I wish that director would have allowed me to do this instead of that.’ But at the end of the day, I watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and I really don’t see any areas where I could have improved on that. I’m totally pleased and totally happy with everything we did.
One thing that I hate to hear, and let’s face it, horror films don’t usually have real extravagant budgets or schedules for that matter. What I didn’t hear on this show was, ‘That’s good enough. Let’s move on from one scene to the other.’ Every time that we moved on it was because it was perfect or it was as good as we could possibly do. That’s all an actor can ask for is that opportunity. If there was something that I felt could have been better after shooting the scene, I would ask for another take. We would try to make it better. There was always the take where the director would say, ‘Okay, let’s play with it.’ We did everything we could to make it a good movie. I believe it takes horror films to another level. I believe it’s as good if not better than the remake that we did, and I think it’s something that people need to see. If they like horror films, they’ll love this show.”
Who’s scarier: Leatherface or Sheriff Hoyt?
“I think everybody will have to make up their own mind there. Leatherface and I have a relationship. Let’s put it this way: we did the remake and there were some things in there that needed to be cleared up. There were some questions raised. What happened to Uncle Monty’s legs for instance? Why was he in that old wooden wheelchair? Sheriff Hoyt, how did he lose his front teeth? For that matter, how in the hell did Sheriff Hoyt, such a perverted individual, ever become a sheriff in the first place? Leatherface, how did he come about? Did a crow crap him out on a hot rock and the sun hatch him out? How did he evolve into what he is? We answer those questions. It was fun answering those questions.”
Marcus Nispel directed the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake and Jonathan Liebesman directed The Beginning. Did the approach to the character change because you were working with a different director this time around?
“Not really. Marcus and John both are very conscientious. They just want to do the best film that they possibly can, and I think both did well. When I look at Texas Chainsaw Massacre the remake and now I’ve seen a couple weeks ago Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, I think basically it’s the best they could possibly do. I don’t think either one of them brought anything different, as far as style or anything like that. I think both were excellent. I enjoyed working with Jonathan. He was a breath of fresh air.
They all accept the input of their actors. In order to be a good actor, I’m a firm believer that you need to bring something to the table. The beautiful thing about the way we did the show was every morning when I would come into the set, we would sit down and the director and producers and I and the other actors that were going to be in the scene [were welcome] to come in, sit down at the table and make the scene better. We would toss it back and forth. Everybody gets their input; everybody has their ideas. By the time we would finish tweaking and adjusting, we would have what we would consider the best damn scene that we could possibly come up with. That’s the way we did it every scene. It’s a beautiful thing when that happens because you know that the show is going to be better and that’s important.”
