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 Banner by Wes Vance |
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For a legendary career in movies, TV, voice over work, and narration, it is his feature film debut that Keith David is probably most known for. Landing the pivotal role of Childs in John Carpenter's THE THING, David launched a career that makes him one of the most premier talents in the industry today. David, an Emmy winner for his voice over work, has received his best reviews to date by narrating Ken Burns' epic documentary THE WAR and by video games for providing the voice of Arbiter in HALO 3. David is also known for his memorable roles in THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY, DEAD PRESIDENTS, and BIRD. In a Colonel's Crypt exclusive, David took time out of his hectic schedule to talk to the Crypt about his career in horror, from working on THE THING to working with Carpenter again on the cult classic THEY LIVE, as well as the joys of acting and narrating.
COLONEL'S CRYPT: What is the definition of horror? KEITH DAVID: One of the definitions of horror is when images take you outside of your imaginary comfort zone into a place where it can be believable and scare the hell out of you. CC: It's been 25 years since THE THING, are you surprised by the film's impact? KD: I guess I wasn't initially. It was a great experience for me and when I saw it, I thought "Wow, this is a great movie." I was very surprised by the initial critical reaction, because it wasn't a great, critically acclaimed thing, no pun intended, when it first came out. It was overshadowed by E.T. and POLTERGEIST had come out so it didn't get the play that I think it should've had. Consequently, it has. That's a wonderful thing, but when I saw it for the first time I thought this was a great movie. Over the years it certainly has gotten some wonderful press. CC: THE THING was your first feature film? KD: It was my first feature film. CC: How did you get the part of Childs? KD: Like everybody else, I auditioned. It was kind of an ironic thing because talking to John later he said he hired me because he liked the way I listened. The first big audition that we had was a group. I was listening so intently that I lost my cue, I had dropped my cue. It was my moment to speak and I was so involved in the story and what was going on and guys were getting involved and suddenly there was a dead silence. They were all wondering whose line is it and I looked down and it was my line so I was laughing, it was like "Hell no!" (Laughs) CC: Was it a challenge working in the cold temperatures in British Columbia? KD: The idea of it was more challenging than it actually was. As I remember it, it was a very dry cold. It wasn't damp, it was nothing I had ever experienced, it was twenty below. It was like, I could deal with this. You don't walk around touching the car handles with your bear hands. I remember many times at midnight, or what seemed at midnight because it would get dark at four in the afternoon, late at night I would go up and the hotel was right down the base of this mountain. I would walk, our hotel was right down the street of the base of this mountain. I would look up at the sky and look at the snow capped mountain and it was just beautiful. I would stay out there for a half hour and I had my heavy boots and thermal underwear and my heavy sweater and I was fine, but I wouldn't stay out much longer than a half hour in that cold. CC: What is it about THE THING that's held its status. It's more popular now than it has ever been. KD: It's a wonderful story about relationships and about human nature, how once that idea gets planted. everybody becomes distrustful of everybody. The original THING was a very popular movie in the 1950s but it was a very (Joseph) McCarthy orientated film. The aliens were coming, and they were commencing with the communists, they could be anywhere. In our story, which was based on the original short story called WHO GOES THERE, it was really about amongst these guys the paranoia that set in about not being able to trust each other because The Thing would not reveal itself until its existence is threatened. You could be hanging out with The Thing for years and not know while it's doing its thing and implementing its plan. But if it's lifeless and its existence is threatened, then it would reveal itself and take you over. That was far more scary than some plant man that was going to come in and just beat up the individuals. CC: What is your interpretation of the ending because everybody seems to have their own conclusions on it, what is your interpretation. KD: It wasn't me! (Laughs) CC: It's such a bleak ending and has a solid conclusion, but in the performance and the mood, there's so much unanswered. KD: Well I've heard rumors of remakes. CC: What do you think about that being THE THING itself was a remake, and quite arguably the greatest remake in Hollywood history? KD: I don't think a remake is a terribly good idea. I've often thought a sequel would be a good idea, what happens when another scientists' crew come up to explore what happened to us, and we get de-thawed out and then we really get to see which one of us was "The Thing." CC: It's been 25 years since THE THING, and next year will be 20 years since the release of THEY LIVE. It just seems that the social reference of THEY LIVE is as relevant now as it was in 1988. KD: Probably even more now. CC: Was the character of Frank written for you? KD: Yes it was a wonderful phone call, he called me up and said I wrote this character with you in mind, I'd like you to read it and let me know what you think. I read it and I loved it. I was honored that he had written something with me in mind. It was something I could really embrace. I thought the story had some really wonderful and terrible social ramifications. And like I said, it's probably even more relevant now, as we are experiencing the state of the economy, because the one thing it really did talk about was how easy people can be bought and fooled with money and goaded into a false sense of security. A very interesting phenomenon that happened with THEY LIVE, it was number one in the country for two weeks, and the beginning of that third week it was completely cut off. Suddenly you couldn't find it in any theaters. That was very strange. It was the number one film and all of a sudden you couldn't see it and a couple of us talked about how somebody didn't like that message, somebody up there didn't see it so it was pulled. CC: Do you think because it was at a time where Reagan was just getting out of office but the guard remained with Bush elected? KD: I have no concrete theories about why. All I could tell you is that is what happened. Why it happened, I don't know. CC: I have to mention the famous fight scene you had with Roddy Piper in the alley. Was it intimidating at all to have such a fight with someone with a boxing and wrestling background that Piper had? KD: No, I'm also a certified stage combat fighter, so it was a chance to exercise my training. It was great and I never felt safer in my life fighting with anybody than I had with Roddy Piper. He's a professional extraordinare. We never really hurt each other, it was fantastic. Jeff Imada was the fight choreographer. We worked slowly, we worked carefully, and it was just great. One funny incident that happened while we were training and just before we were filming, ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT came in and wanted to film us and that was the only time I hit Roddy. The first punch hit him in the face. When you're filming a fight scene, you just have to be at the right angle, you don't have be anywhere near making contact, but I got a little too close and made contact with Roddy. I freaked out, like "Oh shit! Oh shit!" Roddy just got back up and he said "Hey man, don't worry about it." It made me so nervous but we got back on track. CC: I'd like to talk a little about a horror film of a different kind, which is PLATOON, which dealt primarily with the horrors of war. Was that one of the most grueling processes you've had to endure? KD: Yeah. I mean it was like the dog who sat on the sandpaper for two weeks straight. It was wonderfully loved, it was one of those things that I'll never forget. It was extremely intense from start to finish and it had a kind of an effect you don't see any day. Certainly not in a play or a movie set do you get to have. Since PLATOON, I've done a couple of things that Dale Dye has been involved in, training the actors. PLATOON we had about two weeks of combat training. It was incredibly intense and extremely grueling but it was also wonderful because by the time we got to filming, all the military jargon, all the stuff that happened when you become a solider, it began to become second nature. In my opinion, good acting is when good actors find the behavior of your character, you don't have to act. That's what happened to us. We began to find the behavior of those men where we didn't have to act, and we can really play with the relationships and we could concentrate on bringing those things forward, which was a great experience. As I was working on a play, you want to work on all the physicality, get that out of the way, it's second nature. You want all that out of the way so that you can then play and deal with the relationships and that's why I think PLATOON is as impactful as it is. CC: Your character King was I would say the protector of Chris, the Charlie Sheen character in that you were a father figure. Is it true that you saved his life from a set mishap? KD: We were in a situation where I prevented a very bad accident from happening, that's the truth of it. We were in a helicopter and we were not strapped in. We were at an angle that it hadn't previously taken and we began to fly out. Charlie was closest to the door and the door was open and I saw he was beginning to fly out. It was kind of a slow thing, the next thing you would know you'd be out. I saw what was happening and I braced my foot and grabbed and kept us both from falling out of the helicopter. I for one didn't want to dream about that the rest of my life, so that was my motivation of saving his life. CC: You are regarded as one of the top narrators and voice over artists in the industry, and one of the characters you're most known for is SPAWN. KD: Yes! CC: You're voicing that character again? KD: I certainly hope so, I'm waiting for that film to come out now. CC: In today's time where video games are very popular, do you get recognition from kids as a voice actor? KD: Yes and I'm always pleasantly surprised when somebody comes up to me and says "Wow, You're the voice of the Arbiter." I cherish that. CC: You recently narrated Ken Burns' THE WAR which was an amazing documentary. What it is about voice over acting and narration that you found so appealing? KD: It's something I've always wanted to do even as a kid. I loved those things, I loved learning. I used to listen to Lorne Greene narrating those WILD KINGDOM and Marlon Perkins, and William Conrad. It fascinated me because they were great actors and the best narrators were also wonderful actors. You get some guys who do voice over stuff and that's all they do. They're not actors, they're just voice guys. There's a huge difference when you hear Burgess Meredith do a narration. There's something compelling in their way that the radio announcer is not. They're also wonderful voices. When you are doing narration, it's acting. With Ken Burns especially, I've learned an enormous amount on how to narrate because a narrator, especially in Ken's work, is the voice of God in delivering this information but not totally devoid of any feeling about what he's talking about, he's not trying to infuence you. At best, at least what I try to do, is deceminate the information and make it compelling enough for you to think about and decide to yourself how to take this information instead of trying to influence the audience, the "This is what I think and you should think too." CC: Where do you see the film industry going and do you see more of a merger between the film industry and the video game industry with the rise of the digital medium? KD: That seems to be happening. These video games are looking more like movies with the digital camera and the digital technology. I hope that it's a wonderful merging and not something that is diminishing of either genre. It will be a merging that will increase work on both spectrums and be fun for everybody. I hope that happens. CC: What is next for you? KD: I'm pounding pavement that is yet to be seen. That's what I do. CC: With that, I leave the last word to you. KD: Thank you Scott, and for all of you horror fans out there, continue to salute horror and enter the Colonel's Crypt.
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