Jason Behr joined his “The Grudge” co-star Sarah Michelle Gellar for the 2004 San Diego Comic Con. It was Behr’s first appearance at the Con and he hadn’t had a chance to look around before sitting down for this interview. Being a comic book fan himself (he named his dog after Frank Miller’s Ronin) he was quite interested in seeing as much of the Comic Con as he could. But with all the “Roswell” fans in attendance, chances were pretty slim Behr would be able to just wander around and take in the sights.
INTERVIEW WITH JASON BEHR:
Can you talk about doing the reshoots?
We basically went back because we knew we were going back to pick up some shots. Some additional scenes.
Sarah Michelle Gellar said something about filming the back story of the characters…
Yeah. It was about Sarah and my characters, kind of giving them a little more life and getting a chance to see them in their relationship and how are they are as humans. I guess to humanize them a little more.
Was your character in the original “Ju-On?”
No. “The Grudge” has a lot of the same elements from the first “Ju-On,” but there's a lot of other things that were added.
“The Grudge” is the third in the series in Japan, isn’t it?
Yeah. There are familiar things that you'll see that are necessary to tell the story from the first “Ju-Ons,” but there are different elements added. I don't think [Takashi] Shimizu [the director] would have done an exact carbon copy of it. We wanted to do something a little different.
Are you a fan of the genre?
Yeah. I think we all grew up on “An American Werewolf in London” and “Friday the 13th.”
What were the challenges of working with a director who doesn't speak English?
In the beginning, he would come over and he would speak for awhile and then the translator would say, "Let's just do it again." And that was sort of like the standard mode of operation for the first couple of days. We really didn't get a whole lot of direction from him, it was always just through the translator. By the end of the shoot, we developed script shorthand and he learned English really, really quickly. So he was able to communicate with us by himself after awhile.
Did you learn much Japanese?
A skosh. I know just enough to order food and drinks and that's about it.
What’s Shimizu like to work like?
…It's amazing that this story came out of that mind. Because I mean, it's a pretty terrifying story. I guess his head is a pretty scary place to be, but he's a really friendly guy. He's got a wicked sense of humor, one that doesn't often need translation. He's just a really playful, fun guy to be around.
Sarah Michelle Gellar said she has a sense of humor. Did she screw around with you on set a lot?
Not so much. Not so much. I think she stole my shoes once. You have to take off your shoes when you get in the house; when you enter any house in Japan. It's disrespectful to the house if you don't. So I remember coming back one time and my shoes were missing and I knew she did it, right away.
Did you get her back, after she stole your shoes?
No, not really.
Did you ever forget to take off your shoes?
No. Pretty much as soon as you walk towards any house, you know you take your shoes off.
Have you been hanging out with Shimizu in Los Angeles?
Yeah. We did some looping and I brought him to Krispy Kreme Donuts. He'd never been there before. He loved them. His favorite was The Original.
Sarah said he's becoming American. Do you see that?
(Laughing) The first time I saw him in Los Angeles, he had his cell-phone glued to his ear. So he definitely went Hollywood for awhile. Yeah, he has his Birkenstocks and his little Hawaiian shorts and a cell-phone: That Shimizu, Hollywoodized.
All he needs now is a trophy wife and a convertible.
I think he's working on that.
JASON BEHR - "THE GRUDGE" INTERVIEW: CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
