Interview with Robert Englund

So, I had the opportunity of interviewing Robert Englund thanks to a contest by Dread Central. The contest was to propose one interview question to Robert and who ever had the best question would win. Well, thanks to Uncle Creepy and the DC crew I won and I have to say THANK YOU!!

Well, I could not record the phone call and I could not write down every word that Englund said so… DISCLAIMER: The answers are not his own words, but rather notes that I took down based off of his answers. So, enjoy.

Paradise of Horror: What were some of the influences that helped you create some of your most memorable horror characters?

Robert Englund: For Mayor buckman (2,000 Maniacs) he was heavily influenced by Strother Martin based off of his character from The Sundance Kid and Cool Hand Luke. The other major influence that he had was the notion of; what if Coronal Sanders, from KFC, was evil? What would he be like if he was a mean, grisly person? That’s what the character Buckman was based off of.
For Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street) He based the character off of his physical abilities and his physical behavior. Other influences include Nosferatu and the characters of James Cagney. When it came to Cagney, he loved his attitude and how the man was really small, but he had a huge presence on screen and because Englund is only 5’ 9” he wanted Freddy to have a large presence. Also, he wanted to make it look like the Claw was much heavier then it looked so it made one arm lower than the other… like a cowboy.

PS: What made you want to go into film? Did you want to be an actor or did you want to be something else in film?

RE: He originally wanted to be a stage actor in general plays, classics, Broadway plays and regional theater. He really wanted to be in Old English theater for a while and one play, he worked on for 9 months and he ended up getting a small role because it was handed to the director’s ‘friend.’ When he saw Boxcar Bertha, that kind of made him rediscover the American cinema and caused him to move to L.A. and rekindle with his love for cinema.

PH: So, what does Robert Englund do on a normal day without work? Like, what are your relaxation methods?

RE: He normally sleeps late. He says he’s old and he’s “worried about shit,” so sleeping in is really a strong point. He also reads the papers, works out in the gym and takes regular walks down the beach. He loves going to his favorite California sushi bar with his wife for a drink. He then walks back down the beach to watch one of his favorite TV shows, ‘Dexter.’

PH: So, I have a lot of friends who heard about FearNet’s Fear Clinic… can you tell us about that?

RE: Well, it aired on October 26th and it was originally a movie script but was later turned into an Internet series. What they did was pick various phobias from patients and they dedicated each episode to each phobia and the plot would lead into each episode. He said that it raised the bar for Internet programming and it was really polished stuff. He also said that it elevated the way Internet movies were casted, the lighting, the camera and the FX.

So there is the interview and another note that I should add is that Robert is a huge fan of Internet movies, because of how many new ideas there are out there. I hope you enjoyed this and I hope to one day meet him again and interview other celebrities like him.