RON
      PERLMAN

Ron Perlman has balanced his extraordinary career from big budget blockbusters to independent darlings for one reason: he is an actor's actor.

The prolific actor, best known to audiences for his lead role in both HELLBOY films, has graced the screen with memorable performances. Whether in full makeup like in HELLBOY or his Emmy nominated role in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, to gripping films such as THE LAST WINTER and THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN, Perlman has been the most dependable actor in the genre.

To promote his latest film, MUTANT CHRONICLES, Perlman spoke with the Crypt exclusively about his latest role, working on films with powerful ecologic messages, working with Guillermo del Toro and Larry Fessenden, and what the future holds.

COLONEL'S CRYPT: How were you approached with MUTANT CHRONICLES?

RON PERLMAN: I was sent the script. I read it and liked it a lot. I loved the character. I saw this six minute teaser film that Simon Hunter had made which was a pictorial explanation about his vision of the world of MUTANT CHRONICLES which was amazingly compelling and very stylized. I just chatted with him over the phone and the deal got done.

CC: MUTANT CHRONICLES adds to the many films you've done laden with special effects and in the case of this film, green screen. Being you've become familiar with it, was there anything that surprised you while filming MUTANT CHRONICLES?

RP: Believe it or not, there hasn't been as much green screen as you might've thought in the body of work that I've done. Guillermo del Toro is obsessed with putting the real in the frame as much as possible and he only depends upon computer graphic imaging as more of a punctuation. MUTANT CHRONICLES is set many hundred years in the future and so the world of this film was one that was completely manufactured and required everything to be painted in during post. This film was almost exclusively an exercise in green screen, which is a rather unique problem in the filmmaking process. It's something that utilized different muscles than I was used to working with. The world that was being depicted in the script  I admired. I admired what the conclusions of the writers were in terms of where we were geopolitically and economically at that point in the future. I thought that the material was dealt with in a very smart way and a very engaging way.

CC: Mentioning geopolitics, you starred in a film I called one of the best horror films this decade, THE LAST WINTER. You've worked with Larry Fessenden a number of times. What is it like working with Fessenden?

RP: In the words of my children, Larry is a "G" man. I think by that they mean "gangsta" in the best possible way. I absolutely adore Larry Fessenden from the moment I met him. I met him because of THE LAST WINTER but I've done a second film with him and we're talking about a third and a fourth and a fifth. He's a guy like Guillermo del Toro that I really cherish the idea of living out my days and being part of his world. He has a beautiful heart, a great take on storytelling, and he's cool. He's fun. He's smart. He's unique unlike anyone else I've known and met which makes him a delight to be around. He's a good guy. He carries the torch quite well.

CC: What is it about the horror and science fiction genres that appeal to you so much?

RP: It's purely coincidental. I think it's the filmmakers that find things for me to do happen to be obsessed with those genres, the Del Toros, the Fessendens, the Jean-Pierre Jeunets, the Joe Dantes. I'm lucky enough to get any kind of work at all and I take almost everything that comes my way. It's just purely coincidental that so much of it happens to be in that medium. It's not something that I set out to do.

CC: Do you think part of the reason why some of these films work so well is because some have been able to accurately predict where we seem to be going as a society?

RP: I think that there's sci-fi and horror and then there's sci-fi and horror. Sci-fi and horror can be very gratuitous if it's not backed up by the visionary mind like that of a Guillermo del Toro who is utilizing the genre to explore something much bigger. It always reflects back on humanity at the end of the day as with Larry as well. Larry is very, very concerned with the human condition and he uses stylistic techniques to shed a light on something that is very human and with minds that are as brilliant and intellectually advanced and visionary as those guys, it's no coincidence that twenty or thirty years later what they predicted has come to pass. There's no coincidence that we're now grappling with stem cell research, vivasection, and cloning. You think that 120 years ago, H.G. Welles wrote THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU. He was just a visionary. The gift that God gave him was that he was able to see into the future as to where we were going. All those cheesy movies from the fifties about walking on the moon?

CC: A lot of those movies had the radioactive, don't mess with nature theme as well?

RP: Yeah. There are great minds at work in film and in any art form, there are always great minds at work who are going to surmise from looking around them of what the future might look like.

CC: Where do you think MUTANT CHRONICLES fits in with these films?

RP: Getting back to the geopolitical aspect of it, we're several hundred years into the future, and there are no more countries. There are no more naturals. It's all corporations. The world has been divided into four corporations and basically the entire agenda is based around bottom line and profits. Interestingly enough, we made that film two and a half years ago and we're bailing out AIG and Bank Of America. The corporations were setting the agenda. Simple humanity and decency and core values were being engulfed. That is what attracted me to the setup of the film. Regardless of the genre aspect of it, the horrific aspect took on a relief that articulated through a very smart vision as to why the world was vulnerable to attack as it was in this moment.

CC: You have a nice balance of studio films and independent films on your resume. What is it about the independent spirit of film that you love so much?

RP: The level playing field. I love the fact that you're looking around and nobody's making money (laughs).

CC: I can hear you on that one.

RP: You know that they're not there because of the circumstances. They are there because of the filmmaker and the story he is trying to tell. I love when the agenda is enthusiasm and not the bottom line. Don't get me wrong, I like money as much as the next guy and when I get it, I know what to do with it. I have a lot of fun spending it. I love movies and I love them for the purist of reasons.

CC: Where do you see the horror genre going within the next five years in terms of technology and storytelling?

RP: Well being a pal of Guillermo for instance, let's just use him because I don't think anybody defines direction in terms of where we should be going as beautifully and elegantly as that man's mind. He insists on the human heart being the driving force and that all of the other trappings no matter how fanciful or fantastical are put in place to shed some sort of light on the human heart. As long as people keep telling stories like that, then all of the newfangled shit that keeps coming down the pike and keeps getting used like CG or 3D are going to just be tools. They will only be as good as the storytelling and as the ability to engage an audience into things that they can recognize about the morass that we are in in this life.

CC: What's coming up for you?

RP: I'm going back to work on SONS OF ANARCHY in a few weeks, season two of the biker show. I just finished a movie with Nicolas Cage called SEASON OF THE WITCH, 14th century Catholism, the church, Crusades, witchcraft, etc.

CC: Personally, I have to say I hope there will be another HELLBOY because I loved the second film.

RP: Thank you.

CC: Let's say you are a film professor teaching the history of film and you had five films to show your class about the history of film, which five would they be and why?

RP: You've have to show BIRTH OF A NATION. You'd have to show a John Ford movie. You'd grapple with which one that is. I would show a Frank Capra movie and I would grapple which one it is. You'd have to show a Steven Spielberg movie and again you'd have to grapple with which one, and I would show PAN'S LABRYNTH.

CC: With Capra, would it be something that defined Americana?

RP: Yes, it would have to be probably MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON or MEET JOHN DOE. For John Ford, I think THE GRAPES OF WRATH is one of the top five favorite movies ever made but you could play something that isn't as profound, something like THE SEARCHERS. I think John Ford secularized the movies to where they became audience friendly. He understood how to shed the most beautiful light on the human heart.

CC: Thank you so much for your time.

RP: This was a great time. I really enjoyed myself.

CC: Take care and God bless.

RP: God bless.

(Special thanks to MPRM and to Falco Ink)