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With THE KILLING FLOOR, Marc Blucas wants to prove that he's more than just an All American good guy next door. After an injury halted his basketball career, Blucas turned to acting and his first role was a series regular on BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, playing love interest Riley Flynn. From there, Blucas has built a solid career for himself with roles in Hollywood hits WE WERE SOLDIERS, THE ALAMO, and FIRST DAUGHTER. But it's the genre where he gets most of his work, with leading roles in THEY and THREE, and with his latest film, THE KILLING FLOOR, Blucas plays against type as an arrogant agent whose world starts to crumble when he is stalked in his new penthouse. To promote the upcoming release of the low budget thriller on DVD January 8th, Blucas took the time to talk to the Crypt about THE KILLING FLOOR and why he remains true to the horror genre.
COLONEL’S CRYPT: What was it that attracted you to THE KILLING FLOOR? MARC BLUCAS: Actually a handful of things. Initially on the page you could see what would attract the actor in the role. I’m literally in every setup in the movie. I’m in every shot. I really thought the character had an interesting journey to go through from a guy from he owns the world and having such extreme confidence and self assurance to having his world taken out from under him and someone else suddenly has the puppet strings. Then I met with Gideon Raff, the writer and director, and auditioned for him, and it was just such a collaboration in just the audition process. he actually directed me and gave me a note that I completely disagreed with and we had an argument for twenty minutes but it was very healthy in a creative way. We were both listening to one another and I was like “Yes but that doesn’t make sense based on this” so we went at it and we both responded in saying “Hey, that’s the experience we want from this, someone that’s not going to be afraid to play devil’s advocate and ask questions on the stuff that doesn’t add up,” because these kind of thrillers, you can’t jump from A to Z. They all have to be there or you’re going to get lost. CC: You’ve played mainly likable leads throughout your career, and in THE KILLING FLOOR, the character of David really isn’t a sympathetic character to start off with and his arrogance is what partly begins this journey for him in this film. Was the fact that you played against type also what appealed to playing the role? MB: It definitely was. Everybody likes to go against type a little bit which is no surprise because I’m usually cast as the All American, nice guy role so obviously yes, but at the same time I think Gideon needed to cast somebody that had a similar energy than me because the things that come out of David’s mouth are so unlikable if you cast somebody that has that an unlikable air of energy about them, why would you want to spend two hours to them? I think it was important to cast somebody that had an inherent likeability to them to counterbalance the shit that’s basically coming out of this guy’s mouth, you’re like “OK, this guy is going to learn a lesson and we’re going to like him for it.” CC: Being that David is an agent, did you base that arrogance on agents you’ve dealt with over your career as an actor thus far? MB: Not particularly, I’ll leave that to Jeremy Piven (Laughs). I try to avoid any clichés as I possibly could. At the end of the day, David represents the Stephen Kings of the world and then those kinds of stories, that’s what gets turned on him. It wasn’t really acting like an agent although the clichés of an agent thinking that they could do no wrong and that they owned the world was already on the page. CC: How was shooting in New York because I thought it made excellent use of New York City? MB: I thought so too. It was great. The city is another character in the movie and it was really important for them to shoot there. On an ultra low budget like this, it wasn’t like I AM LEGEND where we could shut down half of New York City for two days. This was “Hey Marc, we need you to cross the street on this shot so be careful.” Crossing the street was something that we didn’t have traffic cops dictating, it was just me on my own, so that type of guerilla shooting was fantastic. CC: Was there any particular scene in the film or any particular moment that you found most challenging? MB: What’s a shame is one character had to be cut out. She was named Ms. Alimet, an actress by the name of Roberta Maxwell, she was in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. The scenes with her were so tricky because she was my housekeeper. So there was that whole, “What do you think, How do I play this, Am I suspicious, Is it her doing this to me, she’s really creepy” and at the end of the day we had too many storylines. That was the one that made the most sense to get rid of unfortunately. Right before the scene I had with Shiri Appleby after the dead bodies are there, the scene where we go to the barn, that was very tricky because at that point we have to make sure the audience and David are at the same point together. Getting out the right information in that scene we just had to make sure we had all the right stuff. I can’t tell you it was the hardest to act but I remember it was all of us thinking that we had to be sure that everybody’s at the right place before we go into this final twist here. You have to spew out all the facts in saying that it doesn’t look good for David for the film to move on to that point. CC: I felt the film’s final act was well put together. Was that one of the highlights of shooting, the payoff? MB: I thought so too. The second and third act of the film I think were really strong. My favorite sequence in the movie was when I wake up and go outside in the pool and all of a sudden the screening room drops down and I’m watching a videotape of myself sleeping. That five minute sequence I think is spectacular. I thought Gideon shot it perfectly, the music’s right. It’s a moment where as an audience member you would go “Oh my god, if that happened to me I would freak the fuck out.” CC: You have a lot of roles in horror, with THE KILLING FLOOR coming soon and roles in THEY and THREE, and of course on television with BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. Do you like horror and what is it about the genre that appeals to you? MB: There’s probably a bunch of things going at the same time with that. First and foremost, that’s where some opportunities have presented itself whether I tried to get there or not. I wouldn’t say I was particularly targeting that genre but BUFFY was just me coming right off the boat when I got to Los Angeles. I got a job there and I didn’t know what the hell I was doing and it ended up being a great job with great people that really got my feet wet. It gave me the best education I could in terms of being thrown to the fire. Then the other ones, I think part of that is having an opportunity to go against type and having the ability to show some intensity and not just be like “smiling charming guy.” The movies I grew up on were JAWS and ALIEN. Those are classic horror movies in that there’s the ultimate conflict. Your leading characters are all put in peril, and I respond to those movies better than I respond to leading characters who are just responding to having a few bad months in their love life. CC: How was it being that THE KILLING FLOOR was shot for I believe one million? MB: It was less than that. CC: Oh, I stand corrected. MB: I think it was around $700 thousand unless they had some extra money floating around. It was such a tight shoot, I didn’t see it. (Laughs) CC: With that said, with THE KILLING FLOOR you shot on a low budget but you’ve also worked on films with budgets of $75-100 million dollars. Is there a difference in the passion and energy of a low budget film as opposed to a big budget film? MB: The biggest difference is probably the food. (Laughs) Passion’s a tough word because on those big budget movies I worked with passionate filmmakers that were committed to telling the story. I don’t think it’s passion as much as it is pace. When you have a smaller budget, we did THE KILLING FLOOR in 23 days. THE ALAMO was 80 days or whatever it was, something ridiculous. I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of a bunch of projects where people really cared about telling the story, and most of the bigger budgeted movies I’ve been a part of have been based on true stories; THE ALAMO and WE WERE SOLDIERS. They have really been historical moments, they’ve been true stories short of the big Eddie Murphy movie I did this summer. CC: What movie would this be? MB: It’s called STARSHIP DAVE, it’s a big Fox comedy where Eddie plays four roles, a huge family Fox fare. CC: In addition to STARSHIP DAVE, what else is coming up for you? MB: You know, it’s really been a great year. I had JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB that I shot last year. It came out a couple of months ago. Terrific group of people, worked with a great cast, a great writer/director. Then there’s STARSHIP DAVE, the Eddie Murphy comedy. Then I shot another thriller called ANIMALS based on a book. I’ve kind of weirdly been pitching that as it’s THE DEER HUNTER version of UNDERWORLD. Small, blue collar town but with a supernatural element to it, and then I just finished before the holidays an ultra low budget, Christopher Guest style comedy with a great group of comedians and a really talented writer/director named Eric Amadio. It’s about the two best stunt men in Los Angeles that get pitted against one another during the week of the Stuntman Of The Year Awards. I’m having the time of my life on that and it makes for a nice year when you can mix up a handful of different genres and completely different characters and be this busy. It’s a weird environment in the film business right now as I’m sure you’re aware of so it’s nice to be so busy. CC: What’s been more thrilling for you; being on set to shoot a movie or dropping a pass to Tim Duncan as you did during your college days? MB: Well it was never thrilling to pass to Duncan, the guy’s a black hole. Once you gave it to him, you never fucking got it back (Laughs). I say that affectionately. It does feel like two completely different lives. I have to say that while I was in the middle of them; right now my passion is for this business and I wouldn’t trade it in for absolutely anything. At the same time, while I was playing basketball and hit the three against Duke and beating them at Duke for a couple of years, I wouldn’t have traded that for anything, so I’ve led a pretty charmed life as far as I’m concerned. I’ve found two things in my life that I have a real passion for that I would do for free and would love to work at. I just want to be good at and keep improving myself, and it’s a nice place to be. CC: Do you still get most recognized for BUFFY? MB: It’s a toss up. There is such a huge BUFFY following, but at the same time that was seven years ago now. It’s a combination of that and a handful of movie roles. With guys, for a lot of them it’s WE WERE SOLDIERS. For a lot of girls, it’s FIRST DAUGHTER or BUFFY, so it’s kind of a mix. CC: With the many projects you’re doing and listening to you talk about how much you love to process of acting on film, would you consider a move behind the camera down the line as a producer or director? MB: You know I just got the rights to a manuscript and I am trying to get the rights of a couple of other books. It’s certainly something I am considering. I never thought I would direct but it’s only in the last couple of years that I really do feel that I want to do that at some point. I’m not ready now but maybe five years from now I will be. I was a business major in college and I really enjoy the producing side. I can’t write to save my life. I have a lot of respect for those people that can sit there with a blank page. I feel like I’m pretty good with material. I can tell you what’s wrong with a script or how to fix it so I think that lends itself to naturally getting into the producing side so I have a couple of TV shows that I’ve been going to the networks with. I’m sticking my foot into that pool now and it’s something that’s always intrigued me but it’s actually becoming a reality this year. It’s a tough town but you can’t sit and wait for the phone to ring. You have to take strides and steps to generate your own opportunities. CC: I hear you on that. MB: It’s all about setting yourself up for that big break. It’s on you for that. CC: Where do you see the industry and in particular the horror and thriller industry heading within the next few years? MB: It’s tough to say with 3D happening right now I have to believe it’s going in that direction. It’s only natural that it’s going to go there, we have to offer something different. It’s just what happened with comedy. I personally think that those romantic comedies have become obsolete because of Judd Apatow. This guy’s reinvented comedy right now with SUPERBAD and KNOCKED UP. That new comedy mafia, that group of people, they’ve changed the genre where you can’t do a movie like HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS. It’s just not high concept anymore I don’t think. With the horror genre, it’s the same thing. We have to offer something new and different. I think it’s going to come in 3D because that’s what being shot right now and see how it works with AVATAR. With the technology and the cameras, if anyone can do a great job with it, Cameron’s the guy. CC: I’ve always felt some of the better horror movies are the ones based on reality. MB: I’m right there with you. Reality is once you get the audience hooked on a character, they will take that leap of faith with you. An audience will take a leap of faith into anything either supernatural or any kind of potential extreme story points as long as it’s grounded in reality and they believe that the character can be in that situation, but if you don’t hook them early on in the first act with that, then you never have them. Any kind of leap you ask the audience to take, they are not going to take it with you if you don't grab them. CC: With that, I leave the last word to you. MB: I hope that people can get an opportunity to see THE KILLING FLOOR because like you confirmed, it’s a great little movie that has a shot to find an audience CC: Thanks again for your time Marc and Happy Holidays. MB: Thanks for having me Scott and Happy Holidays to you too. THE KILLING FLOOR COMES OUT ON DVD JANUARY 8TH FROM THINKFilm
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