Bullz-Eye: How are you?

Tony Todd: Good, good. Just going through the day.

BE: I can imagine. I’m sure they keep you busy. A tight schedule.

TT: It’s really weird when they give you someone for 15 minutes, then the next person, “You’ve got 15 minutes…” It’s like speed interviewing. (Laughs) But I guess it’s a necessary part of it. Where are you calling from?

BE: Norfolk, Virginia.

TT: Norfolk, okay. I just did a movie down in Petersburg, Virginia.

BE: Not too far away from here.

TT: It was great. Some of my best work I think I’ve done in a horror film.

BE: Which movie was that?

TT: It was called “Unbroken.” There’s a company down there called Stormcatcher Films.

BE: Right, exactly. Very cool! So…”Hatchet II.” You got to play Reverend Zombie again.

TT: Yeah, and doing the first one, I knew going in that this was going to happen. So I’m glad that Adam Green is not only a man of his word but has a vision that keeps me employed. (Laughs)

BE: Plus, we got to see a little bit more of him this go around.

TT: Yeah. Well, he had told me the back story when we did the first one, so I was able to play that scene in the first one knowing the full knowledge. And then we got to go down to New Orleans, which is one of my favorite cities.

BE: Even better. So what was it like to get the chance to step back into the Reverend’s shoes? I mean, he’s certainly an interesting character.

TT: Yeah, I tried to find his reality, which is that he’s a small time con man from New Jersey. His real name is Clive Washington. And just like when we go from high school to college, you get the opportunity to reinvent yourself, and he’s a reinvented person that, unfortunately, is believing his own hype. He can’t shed it.

BE: How did you and Adam first meet up?

TT: I met Adam on a convention circuit, actually. He comes from the fan world. He’s very enthusiastic; loves film, particularly horror. I think we chatted a few times, and then he made me an offer to play Reverend Zombie. I turned it down. And then he and (John Carl) Buechler kind of lobbied and convinced me that it was a project worth taking.

BE: Obviously, you’ve done plenty of horror films in your time, but do you really consider yourself to be a horror fan?

TT: I hate horror. You can quote me. I hate horror movies.

BE: (Laughs) Really?

TT: No, I’m kidding. (Laughs) But I don’t, like, wake up in the morning and say, “I’ve got to kill somebody.” No, I love movies, man. Having become such an integral part of the horror circuit…that wasn’t something I dreamed about. It was the luck of the draw. As an African American actor, unfortunately, a lot of the time we have very limited choices of how to make a mark. I remember seeing the original “Night of the Living Dead” at the drive-in and that sort of took me over the edge, because I was convinced there was a market for who I am as an American, somehow on film. So I offer a tribute to the late Duane Jones for giving me that. But at the end of the day, I like good scripts, I like good stories, and I like working. It beats selling crack, right?

BE: Sure, I’ve always said that myself. (Laughs) But prior to really taking off in the horror genre with “Candyman,” you certainly had already worked with a wide variety of high-profile directors. I mean, there was Dennis Hopper (“Colors”), Clint Eastwood (“Bird”), Oliver Stone (“Platoon”)…

TT: They must have all seen something interesting, I guess.

BE: What did you learn from those various directors, from being around them?

TT: I learned if you get a good story and the director believes in you, you can make a ton of cash doing something that beats working in a factory…which I’ve also done. (Laughs) I’ve got to say, Oliver Stone kind of plucked me from obscurity, in terms of mass media, giving me the role in “Platoon.” But I always knew somehow…I never doubted that I wouldn’t somehow make a living in this business.

BE: When you did the first “Candyman” film, did you have any sense at the time that it was going to prove to be a cult classic?

TT: No, I didn’t. You can’t go into it thinking that. As a matter of fact, my personal favorite films are films that nobody has seen. I did a western with Christopher Reeve called “Black Fox.”‘ I loved doing that. I loved doing this film called “Last Elephant,” which we shot in Africa. But Bernard Rose…we were in Chicago doing exploration stuff there; he kept telling me that this movie (“Candyman”) was going to change my life. I’m going, “Okay, change my life? I’m not sure, but if you say so…” Lo and behold it did.

BE: Talking about some of your favorite films, I actually was going to ask you if you had any favorite films that didn’t get the love that you thought they deserved. Are there any other such favorites?

TT: Well, the ones I mentioned: “Last Elephant” and “Black Fox.” And another movie I did about L.A. cab drivers, called “Driven.” It’s some of my absolutely best work. But, you know, you can’t alter public perception.

BE: Unfortunate but true.

TT: But hopefully the best is yet to come.

BE: You’ve certainly done plenty of TV work, too. I’m a big “Chuck” fan.

TT: Oh, are you? It just won’t go away! (Laughs) You guys are lucky it’s still on the air! Which is a rarity for television these days. No, I love “Chuck,” too. The only reason that I’m not still on “Chuck” is because “24” came along, and I really didn’t feel that I had enough to do on “Chuck.” So I had to go and jump ship.

BE: I actually was going to say that you never really got to stretch your acting legs much with your character.

TT: No, not at all. And I really felt…for the first time in my career, I felt guilty taking a check. It was, like, “What am I doing? All I’m doing is, like, looking at a monitor!” But they’re a good group of people, and I wish them all of the success in the world.

BE: So how was the “24” experience for you?

TT: Adrenaline rushed. The reason I think “24” had such an impact on people is that it’s all action, all the time. There’s a countdown and a slice of cinema verite. I got to go to South Africa again on that, so that was cool. And I got to invade the White House, which is…depending on which part of the Tea Party you belong to, is a good thing. (Laughs)

BE: Either you have an affinity for playing authority figures or they see you as one, because you popped up in “The Event” playing one, also.

TT: Yeah, either I’m playing a government figure that is highly in charge, or I’m some sort of gothic killer. So you tell me the link. (Laughs) It’s really strange, but I appreciate that. Because of that, I don’t get pigeon holed, so that’s cool.

BE: By the way, I’m a huge “Star Trek” fan, too.

TT: That started everything, man.

BE: Obviously, I knew you were under the make-up for Kurn, but you getting to play adult Jake was great.

TT: Thank you, man. That was probably my favorite TV experience.

BE: Now there you did get a chance to stretch your acting legs.

TT: Definitely. That was a ton of work. I remember the last day we were on set for that, I had a 1:00 call on a Sunday, one AM. And it took five hours of make-up, and my set time was six AM, so we ended up having a 22 hour day. You know, I have a lot of family members that don’t really appreciate what I have to go through in order to keep the wheels running and turning and burning. And it really doesn’t matter to the people watching it, because it goes by in an hour, but there’s a lot of dedication and work that goes into stuff.

BE: Do you ever get tired of having to deal with the make-up? I mean, certainly you’ve had plenty to deal with.

TT: That would be like saying to an accountant, “Are you tired of crunching numbers?” I mean, you might as well as me if I’m tired of doing interviews. (Laughs) It’s all part of the bigger picture, which is rehearsing, preparing for a role, doing the role, and then dealing with the aftermath. So it’s all part of it. I do fun things, too. I’m probably going to play in my tomato garden after this.

BE: Nice. Well, thanks to the beauty of Netflix, I was able to check out the Jekyll and Hyde film that you did…

TT: Yeah, I have mixed feelings about that. You’re only as good as your weakest link, you know? But I went into it with the noblest of intentions. I thought the character was great, but it wasn’t cast well and…that’s all I’ve got to say.

BE: I won’t focus on the negative there, but I’ll flip it around: is there a project that you worked on that surprised you considerably? Like, you walked in, kind of more or less because you thought it was going to be a check, but then at the end of the day it was, like, “This really is great. This really turned out well.”

TT: First of all, I don’t do things just for a check. I take a project because I really, truly believe in it. I did believe in “Jekyll and Hyde,” I just didn’t have control over it. Do you know what I mean?

BE: I do.

TT: I did a movie called “Man from Earth,” that was written by Jerome Bixby, who wrote “Fantastic Voyage,” and he also has a “Star Trek” connection. I knew on paper that it was a good story. And we did it, we shot it consecutively in seven days. It’s a little seen movie, but it’s a really intelligent piece of sci-fi.

BE: Yeah, actually that’s on Netflix as well.

TT: Okay. Great. Netflix is taking over the world! (Laughs)

BE: It is, but it opens up a whole world as far as being able to check out stuff that doesn’t really get big distribution.

TT: That’s great. But that’s also why cable is dying.

BE: I guess so, but there’s still a lot of good stuff to be had there. They’ve just to figure out the right business model where they can…where people can watch it on TV if they want to and online if they want to.

TT: Is that the eight dollars a month thing?

BE: Exactly.

TT: That’s unbelievable, man. There go the residuals. (Laughs) No wonder they’re getting smaller. Jesus Christ. That’s great. It’s great for the consumer, but they’ve got to figure it out for the actors!

BE: Well, I know I’m coming up on like the two-minute warning, but what do you have coming up? Because to believe IMDb, you’ve got, like, 20 projects you’re working on simultaneously.

TT: (Laughs) You can only believe 60% of IMDb. I just did voiceover work this week for a new show on Cartoon Network called “Young Justice.” I get to play my first superhero, one called Icon, who is a really good guy. I like him a lot. I just have one episode in season one, but I’m going to be heavily featured in season two. I’ve got that, then I did that movie “Unbroken,” which is going to be great. “Night of the Living Dead: Origins” is coming out this year. We returned to “Final Destination,” and then we’ve got…the unknown. There’s a bunch of offers on the table, and we’re just sorting through them right now, so I don’t want to talk about something that may or may not happen.

BE: Understandable. Well it’s been a pleasure talking to you, Tony. Like I said, I enjoy your work, so I’m looking forward to seeing more of it.

TT: Thank you, man. Enjoy. By the way, are you snowed in where you are in Norfolk?

BE: I’ve really lucked out. We don’t get too much snow down here because we’re so close to the water.

TT: Oh, okay. Well, stay warm during this winter, and thanks for talking to me!

Re: James Lipton’s dad, who he claims “invented” Venice, California — actually an unincorporated section of Los Angeles. Lawrence Liption was an Interesting guy, but this Venice High alum thinks Abbott Kinney probably deserves more credit for the actual neighborhood. However, I guess the elder Lipton deserves some credit for transforming it, to some degree, from the “Coney Island of the West” to the Berkeley of Southern California, which it still kinda sorta is.

UPDATE: Getting back to Hopper, as usual, there’s tons — and I mean tons more — about the late actor and his directing career, which I fear I’ve given short shrift to, via David Hudson at MUBI.

Dennis Hopper died today at age 74 after a lengthy and public illness. He was an icon of mid-century rebellion and an always fresh and fascinating character actor throughout a career that spanned the classic era, the American  New Wave of the late sixties and early seventies, and his often astonishing later career work in numerous films and television shows after he was finally able to conquer his longstanding issues with substance abuse during the mid-eighties. He didn’t have a lot of starring roles, but that’s show business. (The still above is from one of the very few, Curtis Harrington’s 1961 “Night Tide.” He’s very good in it.)

He was also a photographer, the director of one of the most influential (i.e., copied and later spoofed) single films ever made, “Easy Rider,”  as well as a major figure on the Los Angeles art landscape. It’s not often mentioned, but he was also probably the most proudly counter-cultural celebrity to ever openly associate himself with the Republican party, though, as recounted by Edward Copeland in his extremely detailed look at Hopper’s career, he was a true maverick to the end and voted for Obama in 2008.

Mr. Hopper was most certainly the real deal and there’s no way one post can do justice to his legacy. For now, we’ll keep things simple and just offer a few of the most iconic moments from Dennis Hopper’s amazing care, after the flip.

“Easy Rider” was  pretty much the American movie of 1969, contained some beautiful moments, and, like I said, was extremely influential. It’s also, in my opinion, not quite good. On the other hand, boy, but it strike a chord with the younger movie going public of its day. I think it grabbed people with its classic opening. It might have all been downhill from there, but it was a pretty high hill.

Hopper never really stopped working, but his drug issues definitely made him a tough choice for directors. On the other hand, those who did often got something special. Francis Coppola’s choice of Hopper for the small but crucial role of the hero-worshiping photographer in 1979’s “Apocalypse Now” was certainly a case where things came together.

1986 was the year when substance abuse stopped being an issue and his acting ability really took center stage with two outstanding performances. First, he as an alcoholic getting dry to help manage a college basketball team in the sports favorite “Hoosiers.” Then he became one of screendom’s most id-driven ultra-villains as the absurdly loathsome, yet pitiable and undeniably human, Frank Booth in David Lynch’s brilliant, controversial “Blue Velvet.” (Like many Hopper scenes, this clip and the one following are most very definitely high in the most NSFW language imaginable.)

Hopper was equally believable as rough-hewn good guys. Here, as the ex-cop father of the wayward Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) of “True Romance,” he heroically uses the Mafia’s own racism against them as he struggles to save his son in an N-word laden monologue. (The entire scene is a terrific acting duet between Hopper and Christopher Walken and, yes, it appears that Tony Soprano was working for the Detroit mob in 1993, but Hopper’s monologue actually starts at about 5:30.)

I’m not sure why, but it feels right to end with a more innocent, art-loving Hopper in this nice jazz-club scene from “Night Tide.”

You might also want to take a look at a post from last month featuring a soulful, lengthy homage by Matt Zoeller Seitz.

In that spirit, cinephile superstar writer and blogger turned filmmaker Matt Zoeller Seitz, formerly of The New York Times and the great group blog he founded, The House Next Door (now Slant Magazine’s official blog), has crafted the un-narrated cinema essay below for his present gig with the Museum of the Moving Image. It’s fairly long as these things go, but it is definitely worth your time.

Oh, and one thing that has been, and always will be, true about Dennis Hopper — he is most definitely not safe for work, unless, of course, you work somewhere extremely cool or extremely dangerous.

* Bryan Singer will be producing, not directing, the next “X-Men” prequel. He’ll be directing “Jack, the Giant Killer” instead. And another Mike Fleming story, an exclusive this time: “Paranormal Activity 2” has a director. He’s Tod Williams, best known for “The Door in the Floor.” Sounds to me like Paramount is keeping things modest, wisely.

* The very ill Dennis Hopper got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today.  Amy Kaufman has video of the ceremony which included Hopper rather gently chiding the paparazzi for an incident which caused him to fall. The video itself ends with photographers yelling “Viggo!” and “Jack!”

* Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood” with Russell Crowe as Robin will be opening Cannes this year. The plot description put me somewhat in mind of the angle the great director Richard Lester and writer James Goldman took on the legend in a film I’m quite partial to, “Robin and Marian,” which starred Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn.

* Like most serious film lovers, I was very sorry to hear of the cancellation of the newly revitalized “At the Movies” with Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott. Andrew Wallenstein, however, sees a ray of hope for newspapers. Roger Ebert sees more than a ray of hope for the format and the Internet.

* My friend, cartoonist Randy Reynaldo, writes about his encounter with the late Robert Culp, who was attempting to launch a film version of the classic comic strip, “Terry and the Pirates.”

* Angelina Jolie might, or might not, be Maleficent at some future point, or not in a movie that might, or might not, be made by Tim Burton at some point. Sometimes, the Internet can just wear a guy down.

* Here’s a story I like. It looks like David Cronenberg, Viggo  Mortenson and writer Steve Knight will be reteaming for a sequel to a movie I really liked a lot, “Eastern Promises.” Nice to see a sequel happening not just because the prior film was profitable but probably mostly because there’s a legitimate further story to be told and because the makers work well together.

* The rumour mill is touting both Carey Mulligan and Colin Firth for the upcoming redo of “My Fair Lady” which I understand is supposed to be a bit less of a romanticized take on George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion.” Emma Thompson is writing the adaptation (and I hope playing at least a small role in there someplace) and John Madden directing. Anyhow, it sounds good to me.

* I’m trying to keep an open mind, but this story about a “lost” audio recording by Orson Welles of a self-published book by a friend of his becoming the basis of a new family movie gives me the creeps. If Welles is such an all-fired hot property still, why not make “Chimes at Midnight” available in the U.S. again, for God’s sake? The film, which starred Welles as my favorite Shakespeare character, Sir John Falstaff, and used material by Shakespeare from several of the plays featuring the character who figures prominently in the Bard’s greatest history plays, is thought by Wellesians to be as good or better than “Citizen Kane.” I don’t know, but the fact that it hasn’t been available or shown theatrically in the U.S. for, I think, about thirty years or so is a true cinema crime. The idea that all been held up by some legal issues is kind of loathsome. Who profits by keeping the film hidden all these years?

* Your daily dose of meta, as Variety reportedly struggles and strong-arms as it attempts to survive by putting itself behind a marginalizing pay wall, Ms. Nikki Finke has managed to make herself the story in an affair involving the other big trade, The Hollywood Reporter.  It’s actually too long and dull a story to go into involving her rivalry with Sharon Waxman of the Wrap, but the short version is that she’s claimed she was offered a house to become Editor-in-Chief  of THR. though the paper has denied making any offer at all. I’ve said it before under similar circumstances, but the most disturbing part of this story is the idea of Nikki Finke being somebody’s boss. Terrifying.