Interview with Zach Galligan.
Tonight I
am joined by an actor who I feel many of us grew up watching and
associated with our childhoods. An actor who starred in one of the
most popular cult classics of the 1980's and went on to star in
several very memorable roles along with very over the top and bizarre
sequels. An actor who just recently made a very memorable comeback in
the last installment in Adam Green's Hatchet trilogy. I am speaking
of none other than Mr. Zach Galligan.
I have
spend years watching Zach act, and had the pleasure of meeting and
talking with him several times this year. Tonight via Skype I had the
complete pleasure of chatting with him and instead of doing the
regular lowdown on the Gremlin movies, I decided to ask Zach about
his more underrated pieces of work, mostly my favorites Waxwork and
Waxwork II Lost In Time. Zach was nice enough to take the time to
talk with me about his thoughts on fans getting these movies released
on blu-ray, and some of his fond memories of working in the business
over the last thirty or so years.
Twenty-five
years later, are you still surprised that Waxwork has a strong
following?
I
am still surprised by the amount of fans I've come across in life,
but in some ways it's more popular now than it was back in the day.
So that I find kinda surprising, some of the things that I thought
would handicap it. Like the cheesiness of the 80's ended up being
sorta a good thing.
What was
the most memorable scene to film in Waxwork?
Every
time I think about Waxwork I think about shooting the ending because
it was just total chaos. It was good fun and it was kinda silly. I
think we shot the ending, closer towards the end of the filming so it
was very fitting. I would say that was super fun. Also the scene
where we meet Michu Meszaros for the first time. I don't think a lot
of people know this but a lot of the laughter that's going on in that
scene is genuine because Michu's English was very broken. I mean it
was a lot better than our Hungarian but it was very broken. So when
he would say (Hungarian accent)
“Please a do come inside!” he was sorta making it up as he was
going along. So he would make new lines all the time and we would be
cracking up because he had a funny kinda high pitch voice, he didn't
speak English very well, he didn't seem to completely know what he
was doing and it was kinda hilarious and improving at the same time.
I mean, the guy is 2'9, he's thirty-three inches tall!
Yeah I was
surprised when I saw that photo of him and Sean Clark pop up. I
thought he passed away years ago.
Yeah
me too!
What was
it like working with director Anthony Hickox? I know you guys worked
together on a few projects.
Well
that was the first time I had worked with him, and we later went on
to be best friends for years before we both moved to different cities
and stuff like that. Then it became very difficult maintaining a
friendship when your thousands of miles away from someone. But he was
great! He was super hungry, I was about twenty-three, he was a few
years older than me. He had just come to LA and was really hungry to
make it. It was one of those things where everyone was young and
excited to do it. Think about it, I'm twenty-three, a year out of
college.
The
following year you reunited with actor David Warner in Mortal
Passions. Any memories about making that movie?
Yeah
that movie was interesting. I was working with these two guys Wayne
Crawford and Andrew Lane. And Andrew had just produced this movie I
did called Rising Storm that Wayne starred in. We shot that down in
South Africa, and it was so strange to be down there in 1988. I mean
Nelson Mandela was still in prison on the island. So afterwards Lane
who was the producer of that movie was trying to get his directing
career off the ground and he wanted to know if I was interested in
Mortal Passions. So I did it and I just happened to be paired with
David again. Which I enjoyed because I love David, he's a great actor
and an awesome human being. The thing I remember most about that
movie is I have a scene where David I think is my shrink and I have
to scream at him, and I did it so many times and misused my vocal
cords so badly because I hadn't had my vocal training or how to
support them when your screaming that I actually ruptured a polyp in
my vocal cords. So I had to have surgery on it the following year.
Oh my God,
that's awful!
Yeah,
I went on to do a movie called Psychic which was filmed right after
Mortal Passions and by then I started sounding like Tom Waits. I
couldn't get hired because I looked like this sweet innocent
twenty-three year old baby faced kid and I sounded like Tom Waits. I
basically sounded like Louie Armstrong but I looked like C. Thomas
Howell. It was a very very weird thing so I had to go in and get the
surgery so I could sound a lot like myself, which I did as soon as I
had the surgery. In fact I've never been able to recover the top
quarter of my range after having that surgery.
Wow...thanks
Mortal Passions. (Laughs)
Yeah
I kinda fucked that one up.
I'm a big
fan of Psychic, you filmed that up in Canada?
Yeah
we shot it up in Toronto in the winter of 1990/91 so it was half
December, half in January.
What was
that like?
Cold,
really really cold. I had a great time on that movie. There were some
really terrific people on that film. Catherine Mary Stewart was
great, Michael Nouri was a real sweetheart, really loved him and got
along well. I like Toronto a lot, I was staying in a really nice
hotel called The King Edward Hotel, everybody calls it the King Eddie
Hotel, it's a huge actor place where people come to stay when their
shooting stuff. There's probably actors staying there right now. It
was actually really funny, it was 1990 like I said and The New Kids
On The Block were staying there also.
Oh God...
So
I would come home after work, and you gotta remember I was about the
same age as The New Kids On The Block at that time, I was in my
twenties. So I pull up in a car and all of these girls with New Kids
signs outside the hotel screaming like I'm the Beatles, and I step
out of the car and their screaming and screaming and then they see me
and obviously I'm not one of The New Kids On The Block so the
screaming stops within half a second and they all start looking at me
like “You asshole you fooled us” And I'm just a guy getting out
of a car , I didn't do anything!
Which I
don't really get at that point people would have known who you were
and it's not like your ugly or something. (Laughs)
They
recognized who I was, but they were so pumped up for New Kids On The
Block , and I wasn't a New Kid. If your looking for Justin Bieber and
fricking like Jake Gyllenhaal walks out your like “Your not Justin
Bieber! Your...you.”
So did
that go on your business cards from that point on. Like...Zach
Galligan...not a New Kid On The Block.
God,
I don't think I used a business card until I was like thirty-five.
Wow...thirty-five,
that's ancient...kidding.
(Laughs)
I was a knuckle head, I was like “I don't know, I'll just say hi to
people and shake their hand!”
(Laughs)
And that worked for a little while.
Yeah
it did for a while (laughs).
After the
Waxwork films you appeared in Warlock 2, and Hellrasier III: Hell On
Earth. Can you tell us how you came about doing cameos in those two
movies for Hickox?
Well
they both came out the same way, he was working on a movie and they
were made about a year or two apart. Like I said we were best friends
so he would call me up and ask me to visit the set. So I came to the
set and I remember for Warlock 2, I got there and asked where he
wanted to go for lunch and he says “You gotta do your part first.”
and I had no idea what he was talking about and he goes “You need
to do your role, opposite Julian Sands.” and I was like “Dude
stop being ridiculous.” and the wardrobe woman came up and started
sizing me and I just look and go “What are you doing?” and
Anthony goes (English accent)
“Your doing a party today with Julian Sands, go get changed and
here's your lines.” So he hands me a page of dialog and I thought
“Oh my God, don't tell my agent about this!” And I didn't.
(Laughs)
So
I basically ran to the dressing room, threw on my clothes which were
like velvet pants...and I went out and met Julian. And Tony says
“Your gonna do this scene with Zach.” I did three or four takes,
two different angles, and left and had lunch with him. The whole
thing took forty minutes. Then when I came for Hellraiser III I was
wise, I was like “I'm not doing a speaking part in Hellraiser III.”
because at that point my agent was like “Dude you need to stop
doing these horror movies all the time, you gotta try and do some
more mainstream stuff.” So I went there and he's nagging me saying
“Come on, be in the film!” and I told him my agent is gonna kill
me! So he goes “What if we do a cameo, a really short cameo “ so
I go “Like what?” and he says (English
accent) “Get
impaired with a pool cue.” So I went “Oh my God that's so
ridiculous.” and he said “Come on, it will be fun!” They put a
lot of pressure on me so I just thought, let me just do this. It was
one shot.
It was,
your in it really quick. You have to freeze the DVD to see you.
Exactly!
So I went with one of my agents to the screening because one of his
other clients was in there and he asked “Is that you?!” and I
said “Noooo...”
(Laughs)
Well I love that you did those parts, nice little Easter Eggs for
horror movie fans. So when were you first approached to do a sequel
to Waxwork?
Well
Tony told me he was writing it. And this is my recognition of it. It
came about very quickly, and he wrote it very quickly. Which is one
of the reasons it's like bat shit crazy. I feel, and I could be
wrong...but I think he wrote it in less than a week. I know there was
a lot of pressure to get it out so he started throwing everything in
but the kitchen sink and he whipped it out. When he gave me the
script and I read it I was like “Um...okay...” I just thought it
was kinda wild. Then we started shooting it and the only thing I
remember about shooting that movie was that I was in practically
every, close to every shot. So they had two units going. An A unit,
and a B unit going. So I would do my A unit stuff and they would rush
me over to the B unit and I would shoot that. I was going like
fourteen hours a day, six days a week. For like six weeks. It was
kinda blur to me, I remember a few things like shutting down the
Westside Pavilion and shooting the zombie Dawn Of The Dead sequence
which was awesome. And then the sword fight with Alexander Godunov,
we did that on a Universal back-lot which was great. We had a lot of
fun shooting that movie, but it was very chaotic.
Yeah you
said the filming seemed very fast.
Well
it took a while but I think it felt so fast because I barley sat
down. It was one of those things where it just kept going and going.
Almost
five years later form the original Waxwork you returned to the
character of Mark Loftmore. How was it like returning to that
character and what was it like teaming up with a new leading lady
that replaced the Sarah character?
Well
you know it was strange, it was completely expected because Tony
dated Deborah Foreman, had a relationship and dated her for like two
years. Then the relationship fell apart about six months to a year
before they decided to do Waxwork II. So I knew he wasn't going to
work with her again because things between them weren't going well.
So I knew they had to find a new actress. I was very surprised with
the person that he chose because she's so totally and completely
opposite 180 degrees different than Deborah. In terms of looks and
style and everything. There wasn't even the tiniest attempt to have
any kind of continuity from one to the next. So that was a little
strange. Also she had no acting experience of any kind so she was
very nervous the first couple of days, then eventually she calmed
down. I acutely thought she did kinda a nice sweet job in the movie.
They cut around some of her awkward moments and she's fine.
The ending
to Waxwork II was left kinda open ended. Was there ever any talk
about returning for a part III or doing another project with you and
Hickox?
Well
after Waxwork II I always thought Hickox and me would do another
project. Then it never really panned out. If you do look I did do
Prince Valiant with him. But the weird thing about this which I still
don't understand is he kept giving me these stories of investors
wouldn't take me because I wasn't a hot enough name or something like
that. But then Stephen Moyer who was a 100% complete unknown gets
cast as the lead and I who had been in two movies of his and made
half a billion dollars worldwide, it never made any sense that I
wasn't a hot or big enough name so they would go with total unknowns.
I mean maybe that's the way it works like “Oh this person is hot
and up and coming.” So their more likely to gamble and take a
chance. I mean some of the people I would get replaced for I was
kinda surprised. I suppose you could say he's vindicated on True
Blood and everything, but also if you go back and look he didn't do
anything from 1997 to 2005. He had eight years where he was pretty
much some unknown British actor. So the whole thing that's very
strange for me is I didn't understand why I started getting cast in
these really tiny roles. I mean in Prince Valiant I have five lines.
And some of these English actors you've never heard of before had
like fifty! The whole thing sorta left a bad taste in my mouth. I
went over there and basically spend five weeks in Berlin and a little
time in London and a big chunk of time in Whales, and here I was in
this big movie with all these big people and I ended up having maybe
half a day where I actually worked. The rest of the time I literary
was a guy who stands in the background with a sword. I kinda thought
to myself...the whole thing just doesn't make sense.
Would you
have done a Waxwork III with him after your experience working on
that film or did you feel it was time to shift gears?
It
wasn't that I had a problem with a Waxwork III per say, I felt I
should kinda stop doing horror movies in general. I feel I was
starting to get pigeonholed. And you know what it's like when your
young, you feel like “I wanna establish myself as a serious actor!”
which I am, and I feel I did do. I just didn't want to keep going
back to doing special effects stuff. I wanted to do a few movies
where I'm sitting on a couch talking to people about things and
relationships.
A few
years you were able to show audiences a spooky side of yourself in a
film called Cupid.. Tell us a little bit about how you got into the
character of Eric Rhodes, the psychopath who murders his girlfriends
on Valentine's Day?
(Laughs.)
Well I told you the story of how my mother gave me the biggest
compliment of my acting career because of that movie right?
Yeah I
remember you mentioned how she couldn't finish watching it.
Yeah
so I gave my mother a copy to watch while I was staying with her, so
I went upstairs to bed and the next morning I asked her what did she
think? She told me she turned it off after forty-five minutes. I was
like “What? Why did you do that?” And she was like “You know
that scene where your talking to yourself in the mirror?” and I
said “Yeah?” She said “There was no part...that I couldn't
recognize watching on the screen and it unnerved me.
(Laughs)
So
I said “What do you mean?” and she said “Well I'm used to
watching you, I'm used to watching Zach...like act.” and she goes
“I didn't know who that person was on the screen talking that way
into the mirror and acting that way and it weirder me out so I shut
it off.
Oh my
God...
Yeah,
and that's my mom!
That's
insane! That must have been creepy, I mean you really were scary in
that role.
Am
I?
(Laughs)
You were scary, I never thought the kid from Gremlins that I grew up
watching could be so creepy. I watch it every Valentine's Day now and
yeah, you're scary in it Zach. You should play more villains, I think
you have a knack for it.
I
think so too.
My friend
Tara, I'm sure you've seen she's an artist and she's working on a
beautiful piece for myself of you from the Tales From The Crypt
Episode Strung Along. Have you seen it?
She
actually tweeted me some of it and it's excellent!
Yeah, she
just finished it and mentioned that she'll try and make sure you get
some prints of it, which leads me to my next question. The first
thing I actually ever saw you in was that episode from Tales. What
was it like appearing in such a popular TV series and working with
director Kevin Yagher with all the animatronic puppets?
Well
of course I was super used to that and I think that's one of the
reasons Kevin casted me in that. Because he knew I was good with
puppets and stuff. But the most fun thing about that was the casting
director Victoria Burrows. After I read for her and the producers,
they left the room and I was like “What's going on?” and Victoria
came back in and she goes “Come with me?” and I asked “Okay,
where are we going?” and she says “We're going going down to the
costume fitting.” So it's the only time in my career that I
auditioned and got the part right then and there and went and got
fitted for the costume. So I call my agent and they asked how it went
and I said “Um, I got fitted for the wardrobe and I start shooting
tomorrow afternoon.”
Yeah
everyone I talk to always remembers that episode, I don't know if
it's the clown puppet but your part was very memorable and yet again
played the villain!
(Laughs)
Yeah
I think it worked out well because of Patricia Charbonneau who plays
the shrillish wife who's pretty good and I think there's a nice
physical chemistry between us even though nothing ever happened. The
kiss we had I felt works out really good for our characters. Gives
the audience the idea, that wow...these people were really hot and
heavy lovers and that's why they murder the guy.
I actually
just showed a few friends of mine that episode a few months ago, and
it's always fun watching it with someone who's never seen it before
because they were upset at first when the wife character throws you
out. In fact one of them yelled at the screen “Don't throw Zach
Galligan out! He's the friend!” But as soon as you stepped out of
the other room at the end, they gasped. It was so awesome to see that
kind of response because so many people aren't used to seeing you as
the villain.
Right.
I just had
the pleasure of watching you for the first time in Round Trip To
Heaven. What was it like puking pizza on a woman's breasts?
That
movie...it was made at such a strange time in my life, that I really
don't have a whole lot of recognition of. Not that I was out of my
mind on booze or something but the whole thing was shot very quickly
and it's just kinda of blur. I basically signed onto it because I was
dating one of the girls in it, Julie McCullough and we were living
together and our relationship was just a disaster! And I thought
maybe if we did a movie together it would somehow bring us closer and
we would have fun...but we shot on different days, she was gone a
lot, there were all these naked girls around. The whole thing was a
fiasco. It was just a miserable shoot.
That's
terrible! That poster always makes me smile you and Corey Feldman
sitting on the limo together!
Well
I had one of the stupidest haircuts ever created in that movie.
(Laughs)
It
was seriously one of the dumbest haircuts ever, so what I found out
later was that the director Allan Roberts had done all sorts of Time
Square cheep crappy exploitation movies and if you watch Round Trip
To Heaven you notice I don't think the camera ever movies. It's like
static. But he just sets it up shoots, sets it up shoots. I think I
have a few funny moments in the movie though with the Russian girl.
Like when I find the money and go “These are fake!” and she looks
down and says (Russian accent)
“These are not fake!” and I go “No the bills! (Laughs) That
scene still cracks me up.
I love the
scene where your trying to buy the condoms and your throwing tons of
stuff on top of them and she ends up holding them up. I think it's so
funny that in 1984 you and Corey Feldman were in Gremlins together,
and you know he was like the little boy who got to see the mogwai and
then you two are trying to get laid together a few years later. Goes
to show what a few years difference can make.
Oh
yeah...
What are
your thoughts, as you know I'm trying to kick start the two Waxwork
movies to be released on blu-ray. I'm in talks with different people,
trying to raise fan's support and just try to get these two movies
that I think a lot of fans love released on blu-ray. What are you
thoughts on fans having a passion and wanting to see these movies in
blu-ray twenty-five years later?
Well
I think you know the fans have an expectation that the technology
will keep up for the stuff that they love. If there is the technology
to see Waxwork one or two on 10.80p blu-ray then they wanna see it.
So obviously it comes down is it worthwhile to spend a little money
on the packaging and the this and the that. I think you just need to
let Lionsgate know that there's a ground swell of people who want it.
I think some online petition or something would be a way to go about
it. You go to them with thousands of signatures their not gonna
sneeze at a fifty-thousand dollar shipping sales or something.
Yeah
that's what a lot of people have been telling me. The more support
you have from fans the studios can't ignore it and I think after all
these years these two movies are still loved. I mean I was born the
year the original Waxwork came out and it's one of my all time
favorite movies. So if there's any way we can get a special edition
blu-ray of both these movies and get you on the commentary I know I'm
not just speaking for myself but that would be a lot of fan's dream
come true.
I
would be happy to do the commentary on both of them because I find
when I watch the movies again it really stimulates my memory and a
lot of stuff comes flying back that I haven't thought about in years.
Okay well
my last question Zach is are you a suspense, thriller, or horror fan?
And if so what are your favorite titles?
Well
those are three very different genres, so the answer to all three is
yeah! My favorite horror movie is definitely John Carpenter's The
Thing. That's the perfect horror movie and I love it. The original
Dawn Of The Dead I saw in theaters was very seminal for me. I really
liked The Decent, that's kinda an amazing movie. I really liked the
Conjuring that I just saw. I thought that was one of the best made
horror movies in the last three or four years, and Insidious. I like
James Wan a lot. I'm sure I'm forgetting some. Suspense movies?
Um...name a couple and maybe it will jog my memory.
Um, Rear
Window...The Brain De Palmer movies...
Oh
yeah! Well Rear Window is an incredible movie. It might be
Hitchcock's best. I love that movie, that movie is awesome. Oh...and
this is sorta a guilty pleasure but I love The Exorcist III.
I love
that movie too!
I
love that movie and that single shot in the hospital...
The nurse
scene. Oh my God...
That
static shot is an absolute masterpiece. That scared the crap put of
me. You know what also scared me a lot. It's cheap but it made me
scream a lot is this low budget movie called Grave Encounters.
I haven't
seen it yet but a lot of people are raving about it. Do you recommend
it?
I
would...oh you know what movie I loved. The original Spanish movie
REC.
Oh my God
yes!
That
movie is pronominal, I love that movie!
Have you
seen the sequel yet REC 2?
I
haven't yet.
You'll
love it. I highly recommend it.
I
hear REC 3 isn't that good.
No, I
haven't heard one good thing about that one.
Yeah
and you know I actually enjoyed the first Paranormal Activity movie.
I also just saw recently but more as a guilty pleasure was a movie
called Troll Hunter?
I saw
that, I surprisingly really liked that movie...it made me very
nervous.
Yeah
I really liked that...I really like the whole found footage thing
when it's done well. Which is not that often. But when it is done
well I definitely like that. But that REC movie scared the crap out
of me.
Oh yeah
it's terrifying.
Yeah
that was a good one. So yeah a little sampling for you right there.
Well I'll
definitely have to check out those movies. You got great taste Zach.
Thank-you.
With
Hatchet III coming out on blu-ray this up coming week, do you think
you might appear in movie horror movies now or are you trying to
stray away from it?
Well
at this point I just wanna work. So it really doesn't matter to me
that much. I don't know I'm kinda attached to something right now. I
don't really wanna talk about it simply because I don't wanna screw
it up for the guy. Not that being attached to it would screw it up
for him but people get very cautious when things are sorta in
development stages. They don't wanna jinx anything or have anything
leak out or get annoyed for some bizarre reason. It's a good script
though and I'm really excited about it.
Well I
just want to thank you Zach so much for taking the time to do this
interview and speak with me. As you know I'm a huge Waxwork fan and
you have been a huge part of my childhood, so thank you again from
the bottom of my heart.
Of
course!
Special thanks to Kristy Jett and Zach Galligan.