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 Banner by Wes Vance |
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If one were to look up versatility in the dictionary, you would find a picture of acclaimed actor Jeffrey Combs. Starting his career on the cult classic RE-ANIMATOR, Combs has amassed a body of work the past two decades that have earned into a favorite amongst genre fans. From his extensive work on STAR TREK to his longtime collaboration with Stuart Gordon, Combs recently had his best reviews to date in playing Edgar Allan Poe for Gordon in his MASTERS OF HORROR episode of THE BLACK CAT. Combs entered the Crypt for an extensive look back at his career as an actor, how he handles each role professionally, and the controversies surrounding a return to the role that put him on the map.
COLONEL’S CRYPT: Where did your interest in acting begin? JEFFREY COMBS: Hard to say really, quite innocently I guess. I remember when I was a kid I had sort of a vivid imagination, always re-enacting things that I saw in movies and TV, but I really never had any clear notion that this was what I’d do with my life. Then there is the age old story of taking drama class in high school for an easy A and girls, and getting the bug. I didn’t even audition for a play while in high school, I was just taking the class. The drama teacher came to me and said “I cast the play but somebody dropped out and I want you to take this role.” I said “No way, not doing it, I’m not doing it!” It wore me down and I finally did it and I never turned back once I got a taste of that. I could feel the synapses in my brain banging off that first night, and it’s vivid to this day, that magic moment of “I’m home.” CC: Were you always a fan of horror? JC: Not horror, I always say horror found me, I didn’t find it. Of course I would go to horror movies and matinees on Saturdays and Sundays, watching it on TV, but that wasn’t the only thing I wanted to watch. I didn’t focus on just horror. I did a lot of theater before I came to LA and I was doing a play and somebody said “Why don’t you come in for this little movie called RE-ANIMATOR?” That sort of turned the world I think. CC: Working from project to project with Stuart Gordon, has it become an easier process with him, and what was the initial process working with him on RE-ANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND? JC: We started out having quite a bit in common being that we both started in theater. RE-ANIMATOR was his first film and in essence was my first prominent role in a film. I had done a few things but nothing quite on a rich level of Herbert West. Because he came from the theater we had sort of a common point of view and vocabulary in terms of how we approached film. Since then I’ve worked with people that have never done theater and it is a different sort of language. Stuart always knows the story is very important to him, and he loves actors. He loves the acting process, and he’s always been very adamant about having rehearsals. Most of the times in film, the rehearsal is not really a rehearsal, it’s kind of a technical thing where you figure out where you move. Maybe you talk about the intent of the scene but it’s not nearly a true rehearsal. We had that in common and then over the years we built up an understanding of he knows how I work and I have a sense of how he approaches things, but we both have an appreciation of a group coming together and getting things right, he’s very unselfish about that. He has a great sense of humor and he makes me laugh and I can make him laugh. CC: Did you have any idea working on both RE-ANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND the impact that it would have all these years? JC: None and zero. I had no idea, I really didn’t. RE-ANIMATOR was small, really no budget, there was no money. It was a scale job, you weren’t going to get rich on this, it wasn’t a studio picture, it was an independent, underground thing, and I thought the role was cool. When we were shooting it there was a certain nice energy and a lot of happy accidents. I think the cast was terrific, the editing, the music. So many things kept coming into play in order for a movie to be something that has a unity about it and that has its own world. It was so early in my career I thought that this was how it works. Having done a number of movies since then, there are so many opportunities for something to derail, and it was just marvelous how many things come together. It was a luck of the draw sort of thing. When it came out, the word of mouth, the reviews which actually were not unanimous if I recall, people either loved it or were completely shocked by it. Either way it intrigued people, and really it became a word of mouth kind of success, and it had a resurgence when it came out on video tape, and then of course the re-releases that have occurred over the past 23 years my God, it’s a movie that won’t die. CC: How soon was FROM BEYOND made after RE-ANIMATOR because it looks like they were done back to back? JC: Not quite but close. RE-ANIMATOR was finished shooting in late 1984, almost between Thanksgiving and Christmas, a quick eighteen day shoot. If my recollection is right, we were shooting FROM BEYOND, it came out in 1986. We were shooting in early 1986 or maybe it was late 1985. You’ve got me there. I know it was in Rome, that I know. (Laughs) CC: With your association with acting, you’ve established such a unique career in that you never seem to play the same role twice, even in the RE-ANIMATOR sequels. How do you prepare for each role, is there a certain preparation that you go through? JC: Well thank you Scott. All of that philosophy of mine comes out of theater. I remember writing a paper trying to get a scholarship when I was in college and it was all about I want to be a versatile actor, somebody that can do all kinds of different things as opposed to an actor is just a personality, a persona that can only do that one emotion. That goal is kind of at odds of how the movie business works because they want to put you in a category, they just assume you can. Even though I am categorized, a lot of people think of me as a horror actor, a science fiction/horror guy, that’s really not the case. It just happens to be where I found my niche of exposure, but within that confine, I try to manipulate roles so that they are different from what I did before, so that hopefully there will be a cumulative effect that somebody will eventually say “Wow, this guy can do anything,” but it is a longer and a lonelier road, that’s for sure. CC: One of your most recent projects was playing Edgar Allan Poe in THE BLACK CAT episode of MASTERS OF HORROR. You’re the only actor to play both Lovecraft and Poe on the screen and what was it like filming THE BLACK CAT and how was it preparing to play a real life person who has inspired you so much in your life? JC: First, let’s start with Lovecraft because I wouldn’t really say that I portrayed in any kind of accurate way Lovecraft. That was sort of a strange situation where it was kind of a hybrid Lovecraft. Brian Yuzna wanted him to be the hero of the piece and a bit of an adventurer and of course none of that is Lovecraft as a person and it wasn’t meant to be biographically accurate. Even though I played Lovecraft, I don’t feel as if I could do it justice given the parameters of the piece. Poe is a very different story, I had read a couple of biographies of the past four years or so and I had mentioned to Stuart my desire to portray him in a movie of Poe’s life, because he’s such a tragic and phenomenally gifted man. Stuart came back me a year and a half later and said he had a script he wanted me to read and play this. It was this marvelous story of Poe’s THE BLACK CAT but making Poe the main character in his own tale and weaving in there the details of his life, and I felt very strongly that I wanted to convey certain things on who Poe was. He was a very complex character, very sad, kind of a man who was alien from everyone around him, a fish out of water. I am very proud of what we did with that story. I thought it was beautifully shot and I was shaking in my boots because I wanted to do Poe justice. No one had ever portrayed him I don’t think and there was certainly some pressure from within myself to try to be as accurate as I could. I just hoped that people related to him and maybe saw him in a different way than they had before, particularly that he was a Southern man. I don’t think people really thought of that but he was raised in Virginia with some education as a boy in England. His foster parents moved there and took him, but he was primarily a Southern man and in order to continue his writing, he had to go north, and of course the north looked down at the south as not being literate, not being on that level, so he kind of had a chip on his shoulder about that. I wanted to convey that and I hope I did. CC: I liked the scene where Poe made the wager that he could stand on one finger, it really set the tone for the type of man he was. JC: That’s all Stuart and Dennis Paoli’s wonderful writing, and what we wanted to do also which was important to me was, yes Poe was a drunk and a terrible alcoholic but I wanted to convey that it was the one time when he could be happy. That’s the dichotomy that you’re doing something that’s so totally destructive and to those around you but it’s the only time that you are truly yourself in a way. Sort of a complex issue but you have to be realistic about that, there’s a reason that people drink. He even said in his writing that because of his wife’s sickness that the only way he could get through it, because it was such a horrendous and painful slow death, was to drink. CC: I thought it was done in a way where you could see this being the real process of Poe in how he wrote THE BLACK CAT. JC: Thank you and that’s what I was up against. He is revered and loved by so many people and we can’t misstep here. We have to make a faithful portrayal here, an accurate one so that it rings true to so many people that love and follow Poe, so I am glad that we were able to do that to some extent. CC: Your most recent release was RETURN TO HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL where you returned to the character of Dr. Vannacutt. It had a very unique shooting schedule in that it was going to be an interactive movie for the Blu-Ray release. Did that present a bigger challenge on set or more confusion because there were so many versions of the story being filmed? JC: It was very strange because you think you’re done with the scene and they go “Well we’ve got to do the other version.” What other version? It is quite alien, it lengthened the amount of time that you’re shooting something. They called it while we were shooting “branching,” and that’s a pretty good term for it because you’re taking a different avenue, a different branch, and going off there because you did that it leads another way. It’s very complicated, especially for the director, the script supervisor, and the actors, mostly I would say for the director to keep it all straight and for it to make sense. It’s organizing in your head more than one movie. CC: Would that be a process you’d be willing to do again or was once enough? JC: It didn’t really hit me too hard, but for some of the other actors that had more routes throughout the movie, it’s very strange that you’re going through and in one version you live all the way through the movie and then in another you’re killed off in thirty minutes. How do you plan that path? CC: Do you see this being the start of how films are going to be going in the future as an interactive medium? JC: Perhaps, I don’t know. I don’t see all movies doing this, because when you read a book or see a movie there is a pleasure in following a story. We like to hear a story not necessarily versions of it. However, with the advent of all the video games like last night my older daughter was playing the GODFATHER game, she’s going down this street, jumping in a car, going into a building, and it’s all at her fingertips. I think this technology is a wonderful dove tailing of the mindset that loves those games with movies. I also know that both of my kids unlike me will watch a movie more than once. If you have a movie that has multiple options like this, then it’s going to fit nicely into that sort of preference. I think it’s a wonderful blending of video game, multi options with filmmaking, but whether it will be something that takes over all movies, I don’t think so. I think it is emerging and it will be a growing segment of moviemaking, especially when more people start getting Blu-Ray, Hi Def, X-Box, the platforms that allow you to watch these movies. CC: You’ve voiced a few roles in videogames, would you like to do more of that? JC: They kind of come to me with that, that’s not anything I try to pursue. I’d be happy to do that, but it’s not something I’m out there on the street trying to find. CC: I have to ask about HOUSE OF RE-ANIMATOR, and Stuart Gordon had told me two months ago that the status was up in the air. Has there been any new developments? JC: As far as updates on HOUSE I don’t really know except that Brian Yuzna is still trying to find somebody that will give it a North American theatrical release, that’s what he wants. Apparently that is proving more difficult than he would of thought. Of any question that comes up everywhere I go and anyone that I talk to, that’s the question. There’s some kind of odd disconnect between the fan base’s awareness of this really cool sequel in the franchise versus the powers that be that determines what gets made and what doesn’t. There’s an underlined enthusiasm to see this thing but that’s not necessarily translating to those who make the decisions. It may have to do with the subject matter in that Stuart is taking on this administration. CC: Do you think it’ll be easier to make once this current administration leaves office? JC: I don’t know, my philosophy is that I think that if it were more of a DR. STRANGELOVE scenario, by that I mean in that it’s an imaginary administration with dealing with the same issues but not quite so on the same nose in terms of people that we know and necessarily might not love. Therein lies a bit of a problem, even for me. Not because I don’t want to question these people in authority, but because I don’t know if it has a longevity to the movie. It makes it immediate and topical but not necessarily something that will hold up over the test of time. I like the idea of Herbert West challenging the corrupt powers that be, but I’m a little weary of it being people that are historically accurate, because I don’t know if that will hold up over time. There Stuart and I kind of diverge. I think if it went that way, it might be more of an ability to get it made, I don’t know. I have yet to hear anybody say that we are not making that movie because we don’t dare to go against that administration, I’ve never heard that but that’s sort of the implication. Also I don’t know if RE-ANIMATOR should be a political tool. I’ve said to Stuart before if you want to be Michael Moore than go make a documentary, but you don’t have to involve this franchise. I like the idea of the White House. I like the idea of a corrupt White House getting its comeuppance. I’m just not so sure we have to be right on the nose like that. CC: What is next for Jeffrey Combs? JC: We all know there’s a strike out there, and that’s ugly and brutal. I’m sorry it’s happening, but I suppose these issues have to be resolved and if it has to come to this I suppose that’s where it has to go, I really don’t know. We’re all just pieces of driftwood being pushed along this current and it’s not a pretty picture. Having said that, the day the strike began, I got a job on an episode of COLD CASE. I just finished that yesterday. Sometime next year, I don’t know when, a movie that I did with William Malone, who directed me in a number of things, FEARDOTCOM and the first HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, the remake I mean, he wrote, directed, and co-financed a lovely independent movie that I just saw the other night that I am very excited about called PARASOMNIA. It deals with the opposite of insomnia, about a young man’s obsession with a beautiful young girl who sleeps 23 hours out of every day. William has done a marvelous job. This man takes her out of the hospital where he meets her because he knows she’s going to be transferred to some experimental lab, and his obsession draws him to do bad, and it’s quite a riveting movie. Because she sleeps 23 hours a day, William takes us into her world. It’s an amazing, surreal dreamscape that he’s created that I’ve never seen before. Watch out for PARASOMNIA. He hasn’t even shown it to the studios yet and they are waiting to see it. It’s just marvelous. CC: You’ve been very popular on the convention circuit, do you like the convention atmosphere? JC: I’m getting a little burned on them. It’s nice to have a touchtone with the fans and see where they are, where their enthusiasms are, it’s unfiltered. It can wear you down because of the travel, security issues and stuff. I plan on backing away from that a bit, staying home more. CC: For an actor with a background such as yours, what advice would you give for any young actor or actress starting out in the industry, especially for the horror and science fiction genres that you are so popular for? JC: I would not limit myself first of all. I would get training, learn, find people that have some gravitas about them and learn by doing but also learn by observing. Get around really good people and watch what they do, then by osmosis and examples you will see what’s right and what’s wrong. There are no rules in acting but there are tendencies. You’ve got to have the innate to do it but also hard work and a hell of a lot of luck and tenacity. If you love it then you’re going to be happy doing it and not making money. If you love it, you’ll be happy to do it for dinner. That’s where it begins because you have to have the enthusiasm to do it there before the rewards come to you later. Be confident but remain humble, that’s what I would say. Good work begets good work. A good example of that is my relationship with Stuart. He has a philosophy of using people over and over again and I’m thankful that he does because he’s used me time and time again. The people that you work with if you do a good job, the next time that they are in a position to use you, they will and vice versa. That’s the advice I would give, work your butt off. CC: With that, I leave the last word to you. JC: Thank you Scott, I appreciate all your kind words, and to all you horror fans out there, if you want to get a taste of the real deal, then I’d suggest you enter the Colonel’s Crypt.
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