Getting a chance to interview Kane Hodder, a horror legend, in person is one of the reasons why I started this website. Sitting in an office in AMC Pleasure Island 24 in Orlando, FL, we got a chance to chat in person with one of the horror legends. Kane is one of the coolest guys I have ever met, this time though he promised not to choke me (see picture below). Kane is known for his role as Jason Voorhees in Part VII-X. He is currently traded the knife for a hatchet in his newest character, Victor Crowley. Kane is currently starring in Adam Green’s follow up “Hatchet II”, which is currently in theaters. Victory Crowley has already turned into a horror icon. We got a chance to talk with Kane about his role as well as a few of his other roles.
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Mike Gencarelli: Tell us about working on the “Hatchet” series”?
Kane Hodder: It has been fucking fantastic because it is Adam Green. Not just because he is such a good director and so talented as a writer. He always challenges me every time we do a movie. He gets me to do something in my character that I have never done before each time. “Hatchet”, I have never really cried on screen. I did that and it opened up a bunch of other doors. Now I am doing a lot more of dramatic roles. “Hatchet II”, he called me I was in Montreal and he said “I got the script done, you are going to love it” and hells tells me I have a sex scene. I said “Yeah, ok sure, what is the script really?” and he said “you have a sex scene and a love scene”. I was shocked. It was exactly the case. We just did a new project, one part of an anthology, and he has me [hesitating]…dancing. Which I have never done before either [laughs]. He always comes up with something.
MG: How the character Victory Crowley changed or evolved in “Hatchet II”?
KH: I have tried to make him consistent because the second movie picks up exactly where the first one ended. So I didn’t want to change what he was doing too much, since it is the very next night. Even though they changed the makeup and the actress. I wanted to keep Victor consistent.
I think they changed the actress for the good though because Danielle Harris is fantastic and really good in this role. Tony Todd is in it a lot more also but that was always the plan even during the first film. Victor has become even more murderous in this one, with more than twice as many kills.
MG: Tell us about the makeup process for creating Victor Crowley?
KH: Well, they streamlined the makeup for “Hatchet II” to make it less bulky. The face and the body looked good but a little too puffy in the first film. It meant I had less facial movement. Now with the makeup streamlined, there is a lot more movement to the face. But at the same time that makes the applicable process take way longer. It took three and a half hours to put on for this movie and a good hour and a half for removal. That is the longest removal time I have ever had on a movie. The whole top in the first movie, the foam latex goes down into the overalls, so there was no blending. In “Hatchet II, it ended here (pointing to just under neck level) and every part of it had to be blended to my skin and that is what takes so long.
MG: How was it moving from playing Jason Voorhees to Victory Crowley? Is one harder than another?
KH: Boy, I would say that they were pretty equal as far as difficulty. The makeup was roughly the same. To work in the makeup it is never easy when it is all glued to you. It is very similar physical stuff I had to do in each character. I do not know if either one was harder than the other. “Jason X” was probably the easiest. The makeup didn’t take to long and wasn’t that uncomfortable.
MG: How do you feel about Victory Crowley already becoming a classic horror icon?
KH: People have really latched on to the character. I believe they have done that because these movies are so well written. All the scenes in between all the violence are just as enjoyable to watch. Adam is very good in casting people that can really pull off their characters well. Instead of just going through the motions and waiting for next kill. It is fun to watch the whole movie.
MG: What has been the hardest project that you have worked on to date?
KH: It has to be some of the makeup roles. It is one thing to go into work and do some difficult stunts but when you have to do the stunts in makeup like that with limited vision, its hard. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood probably has to be the most difficult one I have done. So many stunts happened to Jason because the character Tina had those powers. It made it really difficult. One eye was completely covered and the other had a yellow contact lens. We have to do fire stunts, roof fall down on your head, going through windows, doors, and all kinds of shit. Then also the last two days of shooting the movie was the underwater scenes. Fucking absolutely exhausting. I was underwater for four hours at a time, without ever coming up. They cabled my leg to the bottom of the dive pool. I was underwater about four feet. With the makeup I floated but if I wasn’t held down I would have floated to the top. I had to hold my breath so many times, over and over. When they would cut, I would get the regulator to breath. Catch my breath and do it again, over and over for two days. It was a really hard way to end a show. So that might have been my most difficult physically. Most difficult working conditions was probably “Frozen” because it was so fucking cold. No matter how somebody describes it you cannot believe how cold it really was. We were at 7,500 feet in February/March in Utah at a ski resort. You are out in the open with the wind hollowing. When you are outside for so long and can never go inside, you get so cold through your bone, as they always say.
MG: Tell us about some of the other projects you have coming up?
KH: I have several movies coming out. One called “Sickle”, where I play the sheriff of a town and I kill who comes to my town. Another one called “Old Habits Die Hard”, I play a guy that runs a mortuary and kills people to stay in business. Another one called “Exit 33,” where I run a gas station in an out of the way place and kill people [laughing] that come to the gas station.
MG: I am seeing a pattern here, Kane.
KH: That is why I have killed more people on film that any other actor. We (referring to himself and friend and co-author Michael Aloisi) are currently writing my book and telling my story. Mike and I are working together, he is a writer and I am not. We are writing a biography. The website is http://kanehodderkills.com. This is kind of a really cool thing. I have always wanted to do it and finally decided it was the time to do it. I have my stunt career, my horror career, my other acting side, my burn injury…which is a book in itself and I grew up on a tiny island in the South Pacific. Right now we are calling it “Kill!” because of the tattoo in my lip.
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