[IMG:L]Michael Myers started scaring the bejeezus out of us back in 1978 and was unrelenting in his reign of terror until 2002…or so we thought. The 6-year-old murderer, who killed his older sister with a butcher knife, was locked in psychiatric care and then escaped years later to come after the rest of his family, is back. The eight-movie Halloween franchise will add another this month as rocker-turned-filmmaker Rob Zombie introduces his remake of the original Halloween.
Don’t expect another unknown masked man to portray Myers this time around. Zombie chose Tyler Mane to take on the iconic character, with his 6 foot 8 inch frame and background in pro wrestling, X-Men’s former Sabretooth’s performance should be to die for. When Hollywood.com caught up with Mane at this year’s Comic-Con convention he told us about landing the role, making a Halloween sequel and more.
Hollywood.com: How did you get involved in this project?
Tyler Mane: Well, I was in Canada. I was in Vancouver, getting ready to meet with producers about another project. I got the phone call and Rob said, “Hey, I want you to do Michael Myers.” I said, “Why would you want me to play Michael Myers? He’s just a short little guy from Canada.” He goes, “No, no, no. In Halloween.” And I’m like, “Why me? Behind a mask?” He goes, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I’ve got a whole different take on it. I want you to be my Michael Myers.” Then he said, “Look it I wrote it for you. You’ve got to do this role. Okay? I want you as Michael Myers.” I said, “Wow, Rob Zombie – horror movie: Okay.”
HW: What’s different about the new Michael Myers? How did you and Rob develop the character?
TM: To give Michael Myers more depth and dimension. Right away, as soon as I decided that I was interested in doing this, of course, I went out and rented all the DVDs. You’ve got to do that to pursue it. That’s when I found out just how big this is. There are eight of them. Luckily I didn’t have to rent three, because Michael Myers doesn’t show up in three. So I watched them and I saw that Michael Myers was very much a pretty one-dimensional character: walking around stabbing you and all of that. I wanted to bring a little bit more to it, a little more, I guess you’d say realism and intensity and up the ante, and show a little bit more emotions. It was tough to figure out how to do that. So much is said with body movement and the way you react to certain things. I think it comes across real well.
[IMG:R]HW: How did you feel about wearing the mask? It’s a very iconic part of the character and your facial expressions are concealed.
TM: The editor said he’s been asked several times if there was several different masks to show the different emotions and expressions, and there wasn’t. There was one made. So that tells me a lot right there. So the people are getting it. And we’ll see.
HW: It doesn’t make much sense to cast a popular actor in a role where he doesn’t show his face. Does that mean the mask will come off during this film?
TM: There are a couple of different masks and there are transition periods when it comes off. But it’s still mysterious. People will like it.
HW: Rob says he won’t direct another Halloween movie, but what about you? Have you signed on for a sequel?
TM: I have signed on for one more. Yeah. I thought Rob was going to be doing it. But hey, what can you say?…I have no idea [when it starts shooting].
HW: Now that you’ve played Michael Myers, do you feel like you are set for life when it comes to Halloween costumes?
TM: Well, you know, there are several things I could be for Halloween. I could be a Sabrertooth. I could be King Ajax from Troy. I have that costume at home. It would be a little cold.
HW: You touched upon Sabretooth and I’m a big X-Men fan. When Sabretooth gets tossed out in the end, we don’t really see what happened to him. Did they ever tell you? Is he like in a government prison? And are you going to be brought back for the Wolverine spin-off movie?
TM: I have no idea what they’re planning. The actors are the last to know and the last to hear about that. Who knows where the writers have had them? We will see.
[IMG:L]HW: Do you know if Sabretooth is going to have a history with Wolverine as part of his whole back story?
TM: Yeah, the back story, about possibly being his father and Sabretooth coming in…Yeah. I know. I researched it.
HW: You’d be up for reprising Sabretooth if asked?
TM: Oh, I would love to. I would love to be able to bring Sabretooth back to the screen. That’s just so much fun.
HW: You seem like you’ve slimmed down a lot from the bulkier look you had for Sabretooth. Or is it just my eyes playing tricks on me?
TM: I’ve slimmed down a very little bit. I’ve changed a bit. Yeah…People are like, “Oh, he’s going to be the big wrestler that he was before” and all that. That was years ago. I was a lot heavier when I was wrestling. People probably remember me from that. I’ve dropped close to 100 pounds, and that was from my wrestling days.
Halloween opens August 31, 2007
