Anders Hove talks about working on the “Subspecies” franchise

Anders Hove is known best for playing the evil vampire Radu in the “Subspecies” series.  Anders is also known for his role in the soap opera “General Hospital”.  Media Mikes had a chance to chat with Anders about his work on “Subspecies” and comparing it to “General Hopsital”.

Mike Gencarelli: Tell us how you original got the role of Radu in “Subspecies”?
Anders Hove: Well, it was so many years ago now. Way back then I worked on “General Hospital” and my good college back then, Michael Watson, he went to an audition and told me this little movie called “Subspecies”. He told me they needed a bad guy and he suggest I should do audition for it. I did my audition and I got the part. So that is the true story about that.

MG: Any interesting behind-the-scenes stories from any of the film’s productions?
AH: It is such a weird story, when we went to Romania it was right after Dictator Ceausescu was just killed and ousted. We were suppose to be there for 4 or 5 weeks and we ended up being there for 14 weeks. Everything there was any sort of political questions came up, people went on strike. We were living inthis fantastic hotel that held 600 people but it was only our crew which was 20 people at most. The only past time we had was drinking [laughs]. Ted and I went out to the set one afternoon and all of the sudden and asked me “How does this character actually speak?”. I came up with this horrible voice on the spot and that is how it started. When we were doing part 3 and 4, I asked him if we could change the voice but he said “no way you are stuck my friend” and that is how that came about.

MG: Radu has many memorable lines, do you have a favorite?
AH: I am a fan of a few of the punchlines. One of my favorites part of shooting these films is that they were actually shot on location. That was a beautiful experience and we got to see a lot of Romania. We actually got to go and shoot in those castles. In one of them I am standing with my mother and we are suppose to do a scene where I have some sort of a manta and we would disappear in the smoke. Ted told me to just come with something to say as the manta. So I just came up with a greenlandish saying meaning “My daddy is dead and my mother is out of her mind”. So it funny how that came about.

MG: Tell us about the process for your makeup?
AH: The makeup was mad. It took approximately 3-4 hours to do. After shooting all day it took another 2 hours to take it off. I made them take it off while I had my bottle of red wine, so that is how I got through it. The best part of making these films was we got to know these people since it was all the same crew. We became a family. We didn’t do the biggest art piece in the world. But we had fun and it is a beautiful story in that sense.

MG: Can you compare going from horror films to soap operas?
AH: I think it is very different. I had a great time on “General Hospital” and met a lot of great people. You don’t really make friends in Hollywood. But I have made a few great friends from this. I learned a lot from doing soaps, it gives you a lot of experience. Doing soaps, the plots are developing so slowly and it is very different from doing films.