“Fire has always been one of my greatest fears on the set,” he said. “I’m hopelessly careful, and I drive special effects people nuts. I’ve come so close a couple times, because it happens so fast, and you can’t say let’s be careful. I had to confront my worst fear. I watched the stunt man do it and I felt pretty comfortable. This guy was really, really careful.”
With the firm handshake of a politician, and the gruff heartiness of a self-confident professional, Sheen hardly seems prone to fear. For one scene, his character Jason Wynn has to burn in flames for his evil deeds. Although 400 of the computer-generated effects in Spawn add to the film, fire remains one variable that can’t be fueled by digital magic. Instead, a chemical compound called liquid cement coated Sheen for the scene.
“You don’t put that on until you’re ready to film because the room gets too hot, and the fumes .. that was the danger several other times with liquid cement, the fumes,” he said. “You can’t leave it on and be walking around doing the lighting. Uh-uh, you’re ready to roll once you put it on. If you wait, the fumes will rise and everything goes.”
In Spawn, Sheen plays government agent Jason Wynn, who covertly deals in chemical weapons. When his top operative Al Simmons (Michael Jai White) wants to quit, Sheen arranges for his untimely death instead. Imagine his surprise when Simmons returns from the dead transfigured as superhero Spawn, bent on revenge against his former boss.
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Although Sheen had never heard of the comic book, he leaped at the chance to join the energetic cast. “I have to confess I’d never heard of Spawn, never read it, had no idea what it was,” he said. “These guys wanted to see me about this part, and when I came into the room, I was astonished by how young they were. I had no idea what they did at ILM, but they showed me some very impressive stuff.”
Directed by computer wizard Mark Dippe, a former employee of the special effects house ILM (Industrial Light and Magic), Spawn bursts with sophisticated effects. For most of the film, Sheen worked with blue screens against the monsters that were added in post-production. Acting against thin air remained an intriguing experience.
“The courage to go into your dailies every day, and see them and know, reminded me of Spielberg, you know, what it must have been like going into his dailies every day with E.T. when the star is a little machine,” he said. “The courage, the confidence to know, to see beyond the little pieces and bits to know what’s lying down the road in his imagination.”
Although Sheen said he admires the skillful manipulation by computers, he prefers to remain in the offline realm himself. The information superhighway does not beckon to him, although he said he did attempt to learn how to use a computer – once.
“I don’t have a computer,” he said. “I had an assistant once who tried to teach me. I turned it on, and I turned it off. I haven’t turned it on since then.”
