Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story (2022) - full transcript

Well, Robert's always
been very authentic.

He is a total rock star.

Criminally underappreciated.

He's Shakespearean.

He's a very serious actor,

but he's also a great comedian.

Robert, as a fellow actor,
is a dream.

Robert Englund's a great actor.

It's as plain as that.

Fasten your seat belts.

Okay, I'm ready.



Okay.

I never set out
to become a horror icon.

It's something
I wasn't planning.

It's just something
that happened.

I went right into
the makeup tests

and that's sort of where I found

a lot of the character
and the voice.

Johnny Depp waltzed in
about a week into the shooting

and Heather looking all
beautiful and young and dewy.

And there was the makeup girl

with little pink fans
she bought them:

"We have to keep
our stars cool."

What am I, chopped liver?
And I'm sitting over there.

I've been working
since five in the morning.



I'm itchy.
I've got glue all over me,

the makeup man, David Miller,

stabbing me with
this crusty makeup brush,

and I'm kinda pissed
at the kids.

They don't need makeup.
They're beautiful.

They've got their whole
careers ahead of them.

God, I envy those little...
And I went, "Wait a minute.

That envy, that jealousy I have

for those beautiful
young actors," I said,

"I can use that.
What is Freddy?

He's a child killer.
What are children?

Children are the future."

So for the rest of the movies,

I was able just to
remember that moment,

that little synapse of mine.

I can get there,
just like I got there now.

And that's all I need
to believe in Freddy,

just to get back
to that little moment.

And that becomes my shorthand
getting to an essence of Freddy

that I need to get to
without just going

"Booga, booga, booga," you know.

Robbie Englund was sort of
preordained to be a lawyer.

This is what my father wanted.

He knew I had the gift of gab,
and I broke my father's heart.

I believe it was either
my 11th or my 12th summer,

I was sent off as a chaperone

of my mother's best friend's
gorgeous teenage daughter.

She was a wannabe actress,
and a year older than I was.

So we went to this professional
children's theater together

and I figured I was
going to be sweeping the stage

and having a flashlight
and ushering people in.

And it's a big transition
in life.

You go from being...

literally from being a child
to the teenage world,

but it was also
this world of theater

that I entered that summer,

and I wound up
starring in everything.

I was Pinocchio,
I was Peter Pan, I was Aladdin.

And at some point that summer,
I was in the girls' bathroom.

And the girls were teaching me
how to blow smoke rings.

They were the harem girls.
And I'm sitting there,

and I had curly hair,
to begin with,

but they were like
giving me a perm.

I'm full of screaming hormones.

Twelve years old,
I had a breast in this ear,

a boob in this ear,
a belly button right here,

as the girls touched me
and played with me

and curled me
and rolled my hair.

And I've got a cigarette
and I sort of said to myself,

"I like this.
I think I'm gonna do this."

I had this sequence where
Pinocchio's in shorts,

lederhosen,

and I would run across the
stage mugging "Oh, no."

And the Indians would follow me
and shoot arrows at me.

And then I'd run back
the other way.

Well, during the run
of the show,

every time I came back for
my second run across the stage,

I would add
an extra arrow or two,

and the laugh got bigger.

I had arrows in my ass now;
even a bigger laugh.

Well, I got to love that laugh.
That was mine.

I controlled it,
I'd enhanced it,

and I really loved it.

I went off stage and
there were guests backstage.

And one of the guests backstage
was none other than

the great improvisational
talk show host Steve Allen.

Anyway, I know many of you
want to know

what kind of a show
we'll be doing here on Sundays.

I know I...
I'd like to know.

But this is like the late-night

talk show in the world.

The Tonight Show
before Johnny Carson,

and I idolized him.

And he had... a friend's daughter
was in the show,

and he'd come back,

going to give her
a bunch of roses,

and he'd saved a rose.

I heard this voice,

"Where's the kid
that plays Pinocchio?"

He goes,
"Oh, there's the puppet."

And he gave me the rose
and he said, "You got it, kid."

I'm literally a kid.
I'm 13 years old.

To get that kind of
vote of confidence...

You know, grownups were not
afraid in those days

to tell you you were special,
or you had a gift, you know.

They weren't worried
about being sued by

the Board of Education
or your parents,

because your parents
wanted you to be an engineer

or a lawyer or a doctor.

A lawyer in my case,
and I, you know,

my parents kind of knew.

I'd like to introduce you
to one of your sons.

- Oh.
- This is Adam, Rob. Lester.

- Lester.
- Lester. Pleasure to meet ya.

What's so touching
about Robert is that

maybe we're with
a group of people

and there might be someone
who's new to the acting world.

He'll immediately say to them,
"Oh, I saw you when you were

in that after-school special
when you were 14 years old,"

and he makes you feel like
you're one of the club.

I think one of the things

that you realize if you start

to last a while in the business

is that every year
there's a fresh crop of people

who are breaking into it

who don't know
as much as the veterans do,

and Robert was always teaching.

We figured out how to do it

safely.
- Yeah.

Run, like Peter Cushing

in Horror of Dracula.
- Right. Okay.

Run on the table

and jump over the fire...
- Right.

...and then land with a sword
and, "Stand back.

He's mine."
- Yeah. Argh. Boom.

This was my first time
directing.

I was fucking scared.

I mean, this is Robert Englund.

This is Lin Shaye.
This is big time.

Robert put his arm around me,
and he gets real close,

and he's like,
"I know you're nervous.

Don't be.
You come to me for anything."

He set the tone.

All right, picture.

Enough, guys. Quiet.

Here we go, guys.

I'd just wrapped,
you know, everybody did the...

the big clap, you know.

And I was heading to my hotel,
and I heard "Corey."

And I turn and I look,

and in one of the side rooms
was Robert.

He goes, "Come in here.

I think you really have
a lot of talent.

And it'd be really cool for you
to keep going and do that."

He's like,
"You did a really good job,"

and I just went...

To me, it was like,
such a great compliment

from an amazingly accomplished
actor.

And it takes
a really generous person

to actually turn that spotlight
onto all the people around him.

I just think that's really rare
in... in... in Hollywood.

Robert knew from an early age

that he was talented at this.

It wasn't just a hobby.

It was something he was,

not only that he loved,
but that he was good at.

The reason you would
discourage a child

from being an actor is because
it's a pretty sketchy,

scary way to make money.

My parents sent me off
with... with...

with good tidings
to the teenage drama workshop.

It was a shock to me later on

to find out they didn't
want me to pursue it.

And I had been recruited
by Stanford,

and I didn't want to go there.

They didn't have
a particularly great

theatre department
or anything else.

It really damaged
the relationship, I think,

with my father;

not my mother so much,
but my father, and...

you know, that his son
was going to,

"Hey diddle-dee-dee.
An actor's life for me."

You know, I don't think
he wanted that.

I think he worried for me.

I don't think they disapproved
of acting per se.

They just recognized
that it was a really tough job.

I did all the
traditional academic training.

I did Julius Caesar,

and I did
Playboy of the Western World.

I was doing classics now
as well as I did, not Dracula,

but I played Jonathan Harker,
the young man whose girlfriend

is suffering the effects
of the vampire.

I looked like a kind of
skinny, big Adam apple,

Danny Kaye back then.

Of course, I was, you know,
ripped because I was a surfer

and I had long blonde hair,
but I was hardly a leading man.

He was a very plain kid.

I mean, he was, he's not
the Robert we see now.

I don't know what the hell
I meant by that,

but, you know, they were...

they were kinder
to plain-lookin' people.

I was pretty plain.

My audition in college,
I followed Richard Dreyfuss,

who had done
an Edward Albee monologue.

And that was like, just amazing.

And I knew enough
not to follow him.

I took my name off the list

because I knew
I could never top his...

it was just, he was brilliant.

He in fact, dropped out
a couple of weeks later,

and he actually told me,
you know,

"You got to get out of here."

And so, we went off and formed

our own theatre company
in Hollywood.

I left home.

I wasn't speaking
to my parents anymore

and I was living
in the basement of a theater.

Girls were opening the trapdoor
in the theater floor

and lowering me down
doughnuts and French fries.

I was broke.

We were all broke
and living with girls.

Every girl I seemed to meet
that was single in New York

had a cat
with a stinky-ass cat box,

and the whole apartment
smelled like cat shit.

You know,
you'd sleep on her couch

until she got tired of you.

And then we'd get a job
and everybody like, like,

fucking smoke signals and drums
knew you had a job.

They'd walk up to you and go,
"Hey, I heard, man."

Can I have a little
more light, please?

Let's see, I met Robert back in
1972, I think it was, or '73,

and got to know each other well,
and we had a lot of fun.

Just a bunch of
crazy guys on stage,

all kinds of shenanigans
going on.

I remember going to a party

with all the football players.

And there were like ten guys
for every one girl at the party.

And all the guys
got really sick and drunk

and throwing up
from the beer kegs.

And the next weekend,
I was invited to

a drama department party.

And it was ten girls
for every one guy.

Not beer kegs
but mixing cocktails.

And there weren't
a lot of straight guys there.

Kind of a
"don't ask, don't tell" time.

And I, it was...
that was a very exotic,

kind of eye-opening
experience for me.

Another perk about
being in the theater is

you're like playing
many different characters

during the course of
a two-and-a-half-hour play.

What happens invariably
is that you run off

to the side of the stage,
and you all strip

and you put on
your next costume.

And you could be standing
right next to a young lady

- who was stripping.
- Really?

Not that you were
paying any attention,

but, you know, occasionally
you just kind of...

glance like that.
That's probably not...

it's... it's probably not...

um, I shouldn't say that
nowadays.

That about does that for me.

I went back to college
after that

and was very successful there,

and that's the beginning
of my professional life.

But I became dissatisfied
and disaffected

with the politics of theater.

I was naive enough to think
the theater was free of that

and pure and...
and fairness prevailed,

and of course it's just
like any other business.

And I returned to Hollywood.

Betsy, my first wife.
We were high school sweethearts.

I can still remember
seeing her, you know,

get in my car in high school

to take her to the movies,
with her, you know,

her surfer girl
sun-streaked hair,

and her sunburned,
you know, shoulders,

and I was kind of a bad boy.

And then we patched it up.

And then I went off
to go to college.

And then she wound up
at that college,

and we sort of
came back together again.

I think I'd... I'd...
I'd matured just enough

that I thought maybe, maybe,

maybe Betsy and I
are meant to be, you know.

We'd known each other
for so long, it felt like...

when you're young,
it felt like forever.

And so, we made a go of it.

I don't think
she ever understood

how serious I was
about being an actor,

how much I loved it,

and I was so sure of what
I wanted and what I needed.

I think Betsy kind of
wanted us to, you know,

come back to California
and have a house

and a picket fence and babies.
We tried, but we just...

we were just
different people by then.

And you know, I, you know,
we were very young then

and that can damage a marriage.

And I think we just changed,
not necessarily grew apart,

because we had
a very amicable divorce.

You know, we just
got married too young.

I had retained an agent who'd
seen me doing Hello, Dolly,

and I went on
my first interview,

and I got a starring role
in a movie.

1973, Buster and Billie,

which was sort of a strange,

romantic, and brutal true story

about a couple of teenagers
in the American South,

post-World War Two.

He definitely
made an impression on me,

even at that age.

He didn't look
like a movie actor

and the performance
was really special.

And it's not
a genre film in any way.

It's a coming-of-age drama,
but it's kind of intense.

I beat out a ton of people
for that part.

I found out later,
some of the people that...

that were up to that role,
that Who's Who in Hollywood.

I had this great Emmy
award-winning makeup man,

Del Armstrong,
and my character was an albino

who idolized and sidekicked
this, this older boy.

In the form of the very hunky
Jan Michael Vincent.

Well, you're talkin' to
the Lone Ranger here.

I ride alone, kemo sabe.

My albino character
doesn't like being an albino

and he dyes his hair black,
uses shoe polish.

We wanted it to look
like an old crew cut,

but my hair doesn't do that.

We go to this great
Russian wig maker

in the San Fernando Valley,

and she's got
an entire mantelpiece

full of Emmy awards and Oscars.

And there in this room
is John Wayne's hair

and Jimmy Stewart's hair.

She's got everybody's hairpiece
and everybody's toupee.

She tried a couple of them
on me.

And Alan Arkin
had just done Catch-22.

Well, I got Alan Arkin's toupee.

And we're going to wear
contact lenses

to make my eyes pink.

First day starring in a movie,
I get the contact lenses in,

and they're colored pink
to show that my eyes are green.

Pink and green
together make brown.

I look more like an albino

with my own eyes.
And if I squint a little bit,

then it's... it works, you know.
So I'm in my first movie now,

and I gotta get my courage
with the director.

And I go, "Dan, this just
doesn't look right to me.

I don't know if
I can act in these things."

And he goes,
"Robert, take them out.

They don't look right.
Your own eyes are good.

The windows of the soul."

First minute on a set,
pop them out,

my eyes stop watering,
action, nailed the first scene.

Again it's that thing,
it's that an adult,

someone famous, someone
tried and true and tested

listening to you.

And that's why they're good,

because they know when to listen
and telling me that,

and now my confidence
is through the ceiling.

They had the after party
of my premiere

at Chasen's in Beverly Hills,
which is the restaurant

and it was like Who's Who
of show business in there

at any given night.

My father went without me.
I couldn't attend

because I was doing another job.
I was off on location.

My father really
kind of saw this world

and realized that I was
doing really well in it.

But it was I think just
seeing the family name,

single card
that really touched him.

And we were off and running.

It's fun now to go back through

Robert's early movies.

I actually appreciated Robert
from the very beginning.

Is it a cop?

You're gonna wish I was.

At that time,
Robert was building

a nice gallery of characters
as a character actor.

I was a character actor
in the theater,

and I was a character actor
on film,

and I understand those roles.

So I get best friend,
pissant cowboy,

scuzzy little junky boy,

and I'm getting lots and lots of
screen time with those roles.

Hands on the counter, asshole.

I did a little filler job

for the great American director
Robert Aldrich who did

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

and The Longest Yard
with Burt Reynolds.

They did this movie
called the Hustle.

Real, dirty,
dark contemporary noir,

and I'm hired to play the guy
that kills Burt Reynolds

in the end, this just
sort of random killing.

And one of the shots they want
is that Dirty Harry shot,

that great camera looking down
the barrel of a gunshot.

Prop man put in
too much of a load.

So when they get back
for the shot of me

actually shooting Burt,

Burt's a couple of feet
away from me. I fire the gun

and Burt's toupee goes...

"Whoo, whoo, whoo."

I didn't even know
Burt wore a toupee then.

I'm like, "Oh my god."

Burt invites me
into his trailer.

Burt pours me
a shot of Bushmills.

Burt says, "Now, kid,
don't worry about that.

That wasn't your fault."

He goes, "You gotta be
as mean and pimply

and junky as you can be.

Because the meaner
and nastier you are,

the more the audience is going
to feel bad about my death."

And this is the biggest star
of the '70s telling me this,

someone of power
and major stardom

speaking to me one on one,
making me feel good,

taking this pressure off me
after that horrible accident.

We go back in, and we shoot it.

Get in! Come on!

And it's a great moment
in the film.

The first time I noticed
Robert Englund in a movie

was in Bob Rafelson's
Stay Hungry.

Now, from the man who
directed Five Easy Pieces

comes Stay Hungry,
an extraordinary new film

that takes you
into a fascinating world.

It was like Who's Who.

The great Bob Rafelson,

who had just come off of
Five Easy Pieces.

Jeff Bridges,
one of his early great roles.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know,

and I know Arnold Schwarzenegger
has done a brief cameo

in a Robert Altman movie
called The Long Goodbye,

and he's done a documentary
called Pumping Iron,

which is the beginning of
the fitness fad worldwide.

And this movie is
the first movie to address that.

Lots and lots
of wonderful people.

And me, I'm one of the stars.

I'm like
fourth or fifth billing.

Robert played
a bodybuilder in that.

Tank top and all.

He's a little guy but,
you know, he'd been a swimmer.

What you trying to say?

Thor didn't tell me
nothing about it.

Well, he told me.

It's better if you don't have
nothing on your stomach.

There were wonderful actors
in that film,

and just this amazing
crosscurrent

of Hollywood culture,
the '60s and the '70s

all coming together.

As Jimmy Karen said,
it was Arnold Schwarzenegger

before he could say money.

Arnold, who was like,
this is at the absolute peak

of his beauty
as this sculpted man.

And Arnold's
brilliant and funny.

We all came back to Hollywood.

We were going to help Arnold out

because we all
fell in love with him.

Arnold already, through his
endorsements from bodybuilding,

owned what is considered
Ocean Park now.

He was such a shrewd,
savvy businessman.

So, immediately, we all realize

he was already
vastly successful.

It's hard to give up.
I'd rather stay hungry.

I remember walking
through onto this set,

and there were tumbleweeds

and a two-story Victorian
wooden rundown house

that was supposedly in
the desert somewhere in Texas.

And then, in the on the porch,

there was a monkey
with bald spots all over

and picking his hair,
and he was mad,

and he was rattling in his cage.

It was one of those
roadside attraction places

that they had in the '40s

in that kind of newly mobile
national highway system USA.

"Last stop for gas,
500 yards on the right,

see the giant iguana
and the bats from hell."

So it's one of those places
off on this side road

where obviously Tobe Hooper's
families, and guests,

and victims will show up.

Eaten Alive
was my first horror film,

and it was called Death Trap.

We had to change the title
because of the famous play.

I get this part.

And you have to remember
in the '70s,

my go-to stereotype was redneck,

Western, neutral sidekick.

And so I did my little pissant
cowboy and I got the role.

Get off my property!

Aw, look at that,
done ruffled his feathers.

Eaten Alive was awesome.

You know, 'cause I'm a big
Tobe Hooper fan

and I didn't realize
it was Robert until,

of course, you know,
after the fact

and looking back on stuff.

Howdy, ma'am?
The name's Buck.

We had to finish
the movie without Tobe.

Talk around the set was
it had something to do with

Tobe not making it
violent enough.

Tobe Hooper?
You know, leave him alone.

You'll... you'll see it
when he edits together.

The only thing I regret
is I had to really wrestle

with a giant rubber alligator.

The day we were going to do

the scene with making love and...

and then him getting up
and going outside

and getting eaten,
that was the nude scene for me.

And that's the day
the producer comes in and goes,

"Gotta tell you something.

Tobe Hooper's not going to be
here to direct this."

He goes, "I am,"
and I went, "Oh, my, no."

I was really scared.

But Robert
was really supportive.

He was really there for me
because I was really nervous.

He kept me calm.

Something about him
just made me feel at ease.

Yeah, apparently
in the Japanese release,

there's actually in the middle
of one of my scenes,

they go beyond
and there's actually like

a sexual insert shot.

No pun intended.

Oh, okay.

And... and I'm telling
everyone right now,

it's not me. It's not me.

Name's Buck.
I'm raring to fuck.

Let's just get it over with.

I sort of thought we could, uh,
try something new.

"My name's Buck
and I'm here to fuck."

I didn't even realize
that's where Quentin got it

for Kill Bill.

So you're starting to see
Robert's influence

echoing through pop culture.

My name's Buck
and I'm here to fuck.

I auditioned for Kill Bill
for the orderly.

Quentin has told me
he loves Eaten Alive.

He has a great aesthetic
for grindhouse,

and I have a nice talk
with Quentin.

And my first take
was not what he wanted.

But then I had to do it again.

And I... it was so dim that
I put on my reading glasses.

And I put on my reading glasses
and it really... it changes me.

You know, and I become
the, you know,

the druggist at the store
or something, at the pharmacy.

So, Quentin, confused,
he hired me.

My name's Buck

and I'm here to fuck.

Mornin', Beebo!
I'm feelin' lucky!

I'm starvin'.

The third of the trio
of '70s Southern rednecks

that I played
was Last of the Cowboys,

also known as
The Great Smokey Roadblock.

You have to remember,

trucking movies
were real big in the '70s.

Keep on truckin'.

I had the honor of starring
with the great Henry Fonda,

arguably one of the best actors
in American film history.

Also in that film,

I had a lovely young
leading lady, Susan Sarandon,

in one of her earlier roles.

It was sort of
a double whammy for me,

this, uh, this working
character actor

getting to work with one of
America's greatest film actors

and soon-to-be Oscar-winning
Susan Sarandon.

I had met William Katt
at a Saturday audition,

and it was my third
or fourth callback for Carrie.

Creepy Carrie!
Creepy Carrie!

They were liking me
for the John Travolta role.

And I believe that day
it was myself,

William Katt, and Nancy Allen,

who eventually
married Brian DePalma.

Obviously, Travolta got the part

and was fabulous in it.

Young Robert Englund was
obsessed with George Lucas

and Zoetrope
and Francis Ford Coppola.

We idolized these guys.

And we had heard rumors
about Apocalypse Now

in the acting community,

and I managed to
wrangle an audition.

And I wanted to read
for the cook.

I dressed military.
I had a tank top on,

an old green military
thrift shop tank top,

wife-beater,

and I had dog tags
and I was 170 pounds of muscle.

I had an old military shirt
with the sleeves rolled up

on over my sleeveless t-shirt.

So I had a kind of
cool look about me.

They said,
"No, you're too young."

They looked at me
for a minute and said,

"You know, they may want to
see you across the hall.

George Lucas is working
on a new project."

Scene four, take one.

Chick's out again,
there's no mistake.

You can't find a major?

I found it, it's just...
it's just not there.

George Lucas and Brian De Palma

were casting at the same time.

So all those casting sessions,
they held it together

and I think they saw
every up-and-coming

young actor and young actress
in Hollywood at the time.

They wanted Han Solo
to originally be kind of

like a cool older uncle.

You know, that kind of guy
that would, you know,

give you your first beer.

Now they were kind of
bobbing and weaving.

They didn't know
whether to keep it older

or maybe have Han be somebody
almost Luke's age, you know.

It could be
a contemporary of Luke's

but you know, a bad boy.

Over my dead body.

Now that we have seen
Harrison Ford as Han Solo,

you cannot picture
anybody else in that role.

I'm sure Robert would have
given a great performance.

But it's just like asking,

"Can you picture somebody else
as Freddy Krueger?"

You have nothing to worry about.

Immediately,
they thought I was too young.

And they took a Polaroid of me,
I think,

and maybe they filmed me with,
you know,

with a lampshade off on Super 8.
I can't remember.

But I do remember
there being a table in there

and I saw the sides
for Luke Skywalker.

I didn't have sides.
They just took a picture of me.

I didn't even read for Han.

But I stole the sides
for Luke Skywalker.

I get home and my girlfriend's
in the back bedroom typing away.

She's working on a script that
would later become Lost Boys.

Mark Hamill, my buddy.
Always at our house.

And Mark's entrée was always,

he always brought
a six-pack of Heineken.

And I come in and I... I...
I gave him the sides.

I said, "Mark, you might
really be right for this."

He got on the phone
with his agent,

got an interview I think
that very next day.

Went in,
and the rest is history.

We have to find the rebels.

What we're carrying
belongs to them.

Mark Hamill...

Darn him! It was almost mine.
It was that...

It's...
it's a great '70s moment

for how everything came together
and blended together

and how things
bounced off each other.

You know, it's just interesting
how that all works.

Well, back in the '70s,
I wasn't working constantly,

and there were some
unemployment checks.

Sometimes I'd help out friends

in front of
and behind the camera.

My neighbor who lived downstairs

worked with Tommy Lee Wallace
and John Carpenter.

And I offered to
help him one day.

He wanted me to gather leaves

and stuff them in garbage bags,
to all these dead leaves

from the gutter and the streets
so he could go off,

throw them in front of a camera

and have them blow
through the air

in front of a lovely young
actress named Jamie Lee Curtis

in another iconic '70s movie...
Halloween.

I professionally knew
what Robert was up to

and watched his career grow.

We were all kind of
growing at the same time.

But obviously, I didn't
really have an opportunity

to spend time with him again
until we did Big Wednesday.

Big Wednesday,

the day you face your own
biggest challenge.

The day you risk it all.

I had idolized some of
those surfers as a child,

that... whose story
Big Wednesday is.

And John Milius,

the great John Milius,
the writer/director,

was also at Malibu

at that special, special
moment of time.

John directed it and...
and cast all of us in this...

another tribe of guys

that was living on
that ribbon of life

right on the coast
during the '60s.

So it's his memory,

but I remember
some of what he remembered.

We... we're not
that too far off in age.

It wasn't so much
about the party scene,

but it was about tasty waves.

So we would always hunt,

so you'd have to get in your car
and run up and down the coast.

That was my life.

And I know, I know
Robert shared that kind of life

for a long time.

So when I met Robert,

I remember
there was a perfect thing

because he shakes hands when
somebody's going off to war,

and he has lines, so when
I met Robert the first time,

I shook his hand and I said,
"Stay casual, Barlow."

Stay casual, Barlow.

But what was
fascinating about it was

he didn't go
"Oh, I'm glad you've seen

one of my other movies."

What he said was,
very seriously,

"Oh, I love that movie."

Robert has this wonderful
speaking voice.

He was the narrator
of Big Wednesday,

which a lot of people
don't know.

In the old days,
I remember a wind

that would blow down
through the canyons.

It was a hot wind
called a Santana.

The narration
was so rhapsodic and beautiful,

and Robert spoke it
so wonderfully.

My friends and I
would sleep in our cars

and the smell
of the offshore wind

would often wake us.

I... I kind of
pinched my nose for it,

just a little bit.

"I remember the three friends,"
you know, and "Santa Ana winds."

I didn't get it to...
I didn't dude it like...

like Sean Penn.
I didn't go full, "Dude."

Oh, gnarly!

But I did
just put enough of it on it,

but I also wanted it to be

as if it was a remembrance
of things past

and give it the kind of
class that...

the gentle poetry
in the narration required

that John Milius had written.

It was about...
their friendship was the film,

and it was another guy standing
just outside of that,

talking about their friendship.

I hadn't done a part
that small in ten years.

I had worked at
Warner Brothers a lot.

I felt comfortable
taking a pay cut.

And I know that story
that they told.

Big Wednesday for me

is literally the last day
of my youth.

This is the road
to Potter's Bluff.

Maybe you've been there.

Clean, picturesque, full of
old-fashioned friendliness.

I met Robert Englund
in some casting sessions

when I was casting
some television projects

in Los Angeles.

But Gary's hired me
several times.

I mean, we did that...
we had done Mysterious Two,

the television movie.

And Robert came in and
I found him really interesting

as an actor and as a person.

I just really liked him.

And I really went to the wall
to convince everybody

that this guy could hold
his own against Noah Beery.

Reverend MacLeish?

You know, whose name was
on that tent permit?

Yeah.

Well, he up and died
six months before it was issued.

And I was right.

And he did, and he was
absolutely fantastic.

And then I hired Robert again
on Dead & Buried.

By the time I saw Dead & Buried

for the first time, I was
already a big Robert Englund fan

and just so excited to see him
outside of Freddy.

Any chance I could see him
outside of Freddy,

I was just fascinated.

Did you get a good gander
at that face, Danny?

Yes, Harry, I did.

I actually
tailored that part for him.

Actually, I don't even think
in the...

in an earlier draft
that Harry had a name.

He was just
the tow truck driver,

and he just had a few scenes.

And what we did was, you know,
what I did is I sat down

and I expanded the part of...
of Harry and gave it to Robert.

Gary was wonderful
with all of us,

you know, and we were kind of,
like, treated like an ensemble.

It was still that moment of time
in Hollywood,

where even if you had
a small role,

they wouldn't bring you in
for two days

and work you really hard.

You'd be run of the show.

So I was there
for the whole shoot.

Listen,
I just pulled a late-model Ford

out of the water
down by the south beach.

Yeah?

It appears
she come off the bluff.

When we were doing the setup,

he had the kid's
airplane in his hand,

and he was sitting there
flicking the propeller.

It was almost kind of
an ad-lib of his, and I said,

"That's great."

That's the thing about Robert,

is that his dialogue delivery
is so natural.

It's just so real.

The great Jack Albertson
is in that movie.

Lisa Blount plays this sort of
death nurse in that,

and really, I think that may be

the original
death nurse performance

in the genre of films.

And what's funny
is the character

who gets the needle in his eye,
his name was Freddy.

Stan Winston also
worked that film,

the great Stan Winston.

That was one of my very early
effects makeup experiences.

It's also one of my favorite
posters of any film I've done.

And occasionally I'll get a
European version of that poster

with beautiful signing,

you know,
at one of the conventions.

It's just an amazing poster,
kind of a classic.

Roger Corman had just
purchased some warehouses

in Venice, California.

So it was... all these warehouses
had been converted

into Rogers's
new low-budget studio.

Roger was doing sci-fi,
getting... getting in

on that sci-fi bandwagon.

He knew what the audiences
wanted.

Prepare yourself for...

...Galaxy of Terror.

I did Galaxy of Terror

because there was going to be
an actors' strike.

I had the shittiest,
crappiest little dressing room.

It was like two theater flats,
pin-hinged together,

couple of bent coat hangers
hanging on a dowel,

and a little stained
plastic chair.

That was my dressing room.

Across from me
was a little makeshift office

for the art department.

And there was a guy

with scraggly long blond hair
in there,

and he would be drawing
all the time

creatures for the show,
and he was the art director.

And he would throw
balls of paper out

and I would grab them
and open them up;

they were great drawings.

Well, the guy was James Cameron,

who went on to some success.

And he'd covered the walls
in Styrofoam boxes

from the dumpsters, like...
it looked like...

it looked as good as Star Wars.

What is it?

Nothing.

I keep seeing something...
then nothing.

I've been a huge Robert Englund
fan for a long time,

but the first time I saw him
was in Galaxy of Terror,

which is a...
this little sci-fi gem

that a lot of people don't
know about, which annoys me.

Of all my movies,

Galaxy of Terror
and Ford Fairlane

have the two craziest
pop culture casts.

We had the star of Happy Days,
Erin Moran,

Grace Zabriskie from Twin Peaks,
Ray Walston,

and then the great,
late Sid Haig.

I live and I die
by the crystals.

Sid was, you know,
just a sweetheart.

I was off to do
my Vietnam movie,

Don't Cry, It's Only Thunder.

Sid had done a hundred movies
in the Philippines,

and Sid wrote down
all these places for me to go,

the best sushi bar,
the best Chinese restaurant.

He was like this sort of like,

back then for me,
just sort of like a mentor,

big brother, about, you know,
the crazy world of

being a character actor
internationally,

which was about to
happen for me.

You know,
Don't Cry, It's Only Thunder,

I call it my Vietnam movie.

And it's a true story.

The boy it's about

was actually
the technical adviser

on Apocalypse Now.

It's really, I think,
a worthy, amazing,

and an important story about
the other aspect of Vietnam,

which is why
Francis Ford Coppola insisted

that Paul Henssler,
who wrote this project

about his life,
make it into a film.

My character is into
taking drugs.

He's a very confused
and misguided

and a very unhappy person

because of the situation
that he finds himself in,

doing autopsies on casualties
in Vietnam.

My name was Tripper

because I was
an ambulance driver,

and I was sort of this stoner.

One of the things that
we know now about Vietnam,

is a lot of young men
went that far from home,

and that was the first place
they'd ever been high,

because drugs were everywhere.

So that was sort of
my character.

The guys that just
kept themselves

lightly buzzed all the time.

Ain't she a little
young for you, Brian?

Goddammit, haven't you
ever heard of knockin'?

We just clicked right away.

He's a very impassioned actor

and I was too,
so it was a perfect match.

Dennis just sort of taught me
how to go on location.

And I had big cases
that musicians travel with.

And he had a couple of things
from home that he needed.

I remember he had
silver framed pictures of...

of... of his friends
and his family.

I brought a boom box with me
with two speakers.

I know that Robert
checked this out

and was very like, "Whoa,
look how you roll." You know?

Dennis and I
went into town one night,

and Dennis had cut the sleeves

off of one of
the military shirts.

And that's... we were on a...
on a pub crawl,

and we got arrested because
Dennis got busted.

You're not allowed to
mutate the uniform.

I remember the guards,
the MPs got us,

and Dennis says,
"You can't arrest us.

We're movie stars."

"Dennis, that's not
going to work."

What?

And Susan St. James got us out,

and I think
she had to promise some DJ...

she was going to be DJ

on Armed Services Radio
in the Philippines.

You know, she had to like,
you know,

a bunch of tapes with her.

Hi, this is Susan St. James,

and you're listening
to the Eagles here on KNAVYN.

Or something like that.

We hung out quite a lot
and had a good time, yeah,

trying to find these guys

and to not make this
a morality tale about

the sweet Americans who were
saving orphans in Vietnam.

It's really, I think,

a worthy and amazing
and an important story

about the
other aspect of Vietnam.

There's a great deal of
resonance in it today,

of what you do
with the collateral damage.

And is it collateral damage
or are they people?

And of course...
the creatures!

Television at the time of V

was mostly something I didn't
pay much attention to.

I loved movies, TV was
kind of the same old same old

all the time,
and then along comes V.

Suddenly, we're talking about
lizard aliens

underneath human skin
splitting open and the like,

and I loved it.

V was about this alien
species that has come here

supposedly to be our friends,

but they have a dark agenda
just like the Nazis did,

when they rolled
into northern Europe.

I have a dear friend,
and he was...

he was close
to the casting director,

Phyllis Hoffman.

And Phyllis had brought me in
on several projects

and brought me in for V.

It was to play this alien

who had a proclivity
for malapropping,

for using the wrong word
to mean another word.

So I was going to be
comedy relief, and I go,

"That's a lot to parcel
right there."

Robert walked in, and I thought,

"Oh, this is just so right.
He looks so right."

So we started reading together
and it was like, bang,

this is the guy
that I had in my mind

when I created
the character of Willie.

I said to Ken, you know, I said,

"Give me some help here.
What... how do you see him?"

You know? And I remember
Ken saying two words:

"Gene Wilder."

And that just was so out of
the left field for me,

but I love Gene Wilder.

Robert absolutely captured
that desire to please and...

and to be involved from
the very first time we see him,

in the scene with Jason Bernard

where they run into each other,

and Jason is this big,
gruff son of a gun

who just doesn't like
these aliens taking their jobs.

And he bumps into Robert
and says,

"What the hell are you doing?"

And Robert just
takes his glasses off...

oh, first the dark glasses
so that we could see his eyes...

and he says, "I-I need help."

Help what?

I am just...

Just what?

Yes.

Oh, get out of the way.
Damn stupid alien.

And he absolutely got the moment

that I was looking for.

He was somebody who was not
menacing or dark or evil

and didn't really believe
in the leaders' plans

but rather was more connected
to humanity.

He was the first alien

that really kind of took
humanity's side, I felt like.

You know, he fell in love,
um, but he was so innocent.

I think it was his innocence
in V that really,

kind of made me fall in love
with the character

and I think made everybody
fall in love with the character.

And, you know, you kind of
counteract him with...

Diana Jane Badler's
like the super evil one.

He was just this nice mixture
of like, you know,

humor and innocence
and sweetness.

Just... just what everybody
wants to find in a guy

that doesn't exist
in real people.

Hello, Harmony.

Robert has
a great ease and facility

that was really fun
to be around.

And we hit it off right away
because we're both talkers.

You want a burger?

No.

Don't you guys ever eat?

Sometimes.

I love the juxtaposition
of the way

Kenny Johnson wrote
the two characters

because I played sort of
the salt of the earth.

I, with the catering truck,
you know,

innocent, very grounded,
and he was this confused alien

who was on the side of good
and didn't speak English.

So it was two great,
very different, you know,

characters, Mutt and Jeff,
you know, Abbott and Costello,

which is a perfect combination
for a great, great relationship.

I think they look
real snappy in those uniforms.

Robert and I worked together

before either one of us
were known for our characters.

And I did a couple episodes

as one of his lizard men
or something.

I was in a makeup
but, you know, technically,

one of his bad guys.

V was the number one
mini-series in America,

with ratings as good as Roots.

It was my first sort of
big introduction to,

wow, television really reaches
a lot of people.

And V did two things for me.

It made me international
overnight

and people knew my name
overnight.

He began to get recognized.

And that's a moment when
an actor transitions

from being just a working actor
to being a recognizable star.

You know,
I was flying over for awards

and film festivals and
publicity.

So it was... it was just
a great experience for me.

I had a window
within my schedule

and the only project
that really fit

was this thing called
A Nightmare on Elm Street.

An awkward, strange title.

I knew a little bit
about Wes Craven.

I had him filed under,

like David Lynch,
"artist, dark, strange."

So when I went on the interview,

I was sort of expecting
Rasputin or some goth guy.

Of course, Wes is sitting there
dressed in Ralph Lauren,

pinwale corduroys,
brilliant, erudite, smart,

puns a lot, likes...
likes corny jokes.

What's interesting
about Freddy Krueger is

that when Wes was first
looking for this character,

he was auditioning stuntmen.

He wasn't even looking
for an actor.

Interesting fact, I had,

way back before
Robert was hired,

had a meeting with Wes Craven
because I had done

The Hills Have Eyes II.

Wes knew that I had burn scars,

and he said he was developing
a new character

that is going to be a horror
character who's been burned.

And he goes,
"I'm thinking of using someone

with real burns scars."

When Kane tells that story now
and you just start to wonder,

what if it had gone that way?

But everything always
works out like it should.

I was in the middle
of spring surfing.

I was tan, I had
long curly blonde hair,

and I thought,
"You know, I don't feel like

I look anything like
what they're going to want.

I'm not big enough.
I'm not scary enough."

There's nothing threatening
about Robert,

at least in his demeanor
when you're meeting him.

So I went,
and I took the dipstick

from under the hood of my car
and I got some oil on my hands.

And I greased my hair back
straight to my scalp.

Realized my buddy had left
a cigarette butt

in my ashtray in my car.

So I took a little saliva,

and I mixed it
with the cigarette ash

and I put circles under my eyes.

They looked very natural,
just kind of discolored,

like I am permanently now.

Now my face looked
long and lean.

I got in there and I just
let Wes do all the talking.

I kept my mouth shut.

And I played... a staring game
with Wes.

And as long as he talked,
I tried not to blink.

And it worked.

This... is God.

You really look for actors

that you think can break through

all the veneer of civilization

in one way or the other,
either as victim or as,

you know, perpetrator.

There's that sort of
Kosovo factor of people

that at one moment
can be nurturing their children,

the next moment
slashing each other's throats.

And so, you look for
that willingness

on the part of an actor
to expose that

and to be cruel or to be
inventive in the cruelty.

Quite often, it's the person
that's the most gentle

or the most civilized.

Now I'm going to be
truthful and honest

as I can here.

People are so kind and nice,
and they say that Wes thought

I was the only person
that understood

when he pitched the idea to me,

but it could have been
as simple as

me having a thin face
and Wes being paranoid about

the makeup effects
and how they would work.

Just knowing
that my skinny thin face

when you put
the foam latex on it

would still be natural in size,

in ratio with
my broad shoulders.

The day that I saw him really
in his makeup was...

it was part of
that high school scene

where I go into the basement

and I see Freddy Krueger
for the first time

and I think it was the first
time I saw him in makeup.

And maybe Wes had
planned it that way.

I mean, if he had,
it was really genius

because I turned around
and I see him in his makeup

and it's dark
and it's really scary.

Eugh! Creepy.

So I remember thinking,

"Wow, that's what
Freddy's gonna look like."

It was what I'd pictured,

but it was shocking
to see it in person.

I mean,
it worked well for my character,

death being the first person

to fight Freddy.

Aaahh!

You can't have Freddy Krueger
without Robert Englund.

It's Robert
who makes that character.

You can see
the way Nick Castle moves

when he's playing Michael Myers.

You can see the way
Kane Hodder moves.

When he's Jason he's got, like,
very specific body language.

But Freddy's the one that,
under all that makeup,

Robert really has to act.

Watch this.

Robert said, "Well, you know,

I've just done this movie.

I'm covered in makeup.
I don't have many lines.

I don't know.

Maybe I should get
into real estate.

What should I do?"

My feeling is
the monster characters,

they don't become iconic
because of the writers.

They don't become iconic

necessarily
because of the directors.

They don't even become iconic

necessarily
because of the makeup,

although it certainly helps.

You can have all those factors.

If the guy behind the makeup
isn't selling it right,

isn't convincing,
isn't himself convinced,

then it doesn't work.

Like most actors,
you don't, you don't realize

that this is going to be
a life-changing moment.

A Nightmare on Elm Street,
the first one,

was really a big breakthrough
for everybody.

I first saw
Nightmare on Elm Street

and I don't know if I had ever
been that scared in a movie.

It just really struck a nerve

with audiences
all over the world.

I was frightened.

I mean, I was stunned

because it was the first time
in a long time

where the process
of the filmmaking disappeared,

and I just was blown away.

It was different in so many ways

because the concept of it
was just so like

outrageously beyond
every other slasher movie.

It's a very strange movie.

Such an offbeat movie.

I remember
really being blown away

by how popular

a horror film could feel.

People were shrieking, laughing,
enjoying themselves.

I remember going to
my girlfriend's house

at the time to watch
Nightmare on Elm Street,

and I'm unabashedly
not afraid to say

that I was nervous.
And to watch that

and try to keep my cool

in front of my girlfriend
was challenging enough.

It was just so imaginative,

such strong characters,

and I'd never seen
like a villain like Freddy.

He was the first
real slasher film icon

that had style.

The movie influenced me so much

that I wrote a prequel
and sent it to Bob Shea

when I was 14.

I ended up interning
at New Line when I was 19.

I worked there for 11 years

and that's where
I made Final Destination,

so I... I literally credit
Nightmare on Elm Street

as starting my career
in the business.

I went to see
Nightmare on Elm Street

with a girl,
and I was just blown away

by the imaginative
characteristics of the film

and his character.

Six months later,

I get a call from
my friend Bart Mixon,

who was working
with Mark Sjostrom,

who invited me to come work on
Nightmare on Elm Street 2.

I was going to work with,

you know, the big new
horror star Robert Englund.

He brought so much into
Freddy the way he built Freddy.

And then you see the footage
that they tried to use

in Nightmare on Elm Street 2
with the doppelganger,

and it's night and fucking day.

I remember being at a meeting

at the production office,

and they were
actually kicking around

whether it was worth bringing
Englund back to be Freddy.

I guess the norm at that time
was using stuntmen

for, you know, Jason
or Mike Myers or whatever.

I mean,
there's just like this asshole

in a cosplayer outfit, you know,
kind of walking out of the steam

and you're like,
"That's so not Robert Englund.

What the fuck is going on?"

"Why hire an actor
and then bury him in makeup?"

It's like, "That's why
you hire an actor."

Thankfully, I think
the main producers recognized

what he brought
to the first film

and I'm sure there would have
never been a part three,

you know, had that happened.

And he brings
that character back to life.

That's special, man.

And that's... it's the gift
of a true actor.

We got special work to do here,
you and me.

My actual first meeting
with Robert Englund

was on set after working
for about three months.

He had just finished
having his makeup done,

and I turn over

to see him tapping
his finger on a mirror.

Oh, Mister Knify hands.

Mister Knify hands
is here, oy vey.

He came up full
Chevy Chase style and said,

I like it.

As Freddy.

There might
have been drugs involved.

What a rush.

When I got to work with
Robert on Nightmare Three...

You.

Oh, my God.

He was the elder, but
I was like the mid-elder,

and then we had
the younger kids,

and we both took a much more
protective attitude

about the kids.

He's often in a fantastic
image of himself:

puppeteer in the sky,

or he's a giant snake
coming out of a floor

swallowing Patricia Arquette.

The effects on part three
are fucking amazing.

And so, having him
on the set as himself,

there weren't
that many days of that.

He's larger than life in a way.

He is a character in that dream.

He's not the actual,
real, pathetic,

strange little man
that was Freddy Krueger.

I asked Robert, I said,

"Are you a child murderer
or a child molester?

There's a big difference here."

I mean, the guy
was a fucking child molester.

There really isn't much
sympathy for Freddy Krueger.

I mean,
kids love Freddy Krueger.

There's something about him
that everyone has sort of

dismissed the child molester
part and thought,

"Oh, this is a guy
who kills you in your dreams."

He became the boogeyman.

And the fact
that Robert still managed to

make him not just horrific,
but likable,

where you wanted to see
more of him

and you're not just hating him
and waiting for him to die

or go away, that's everything.

And that's why Freddy will last.

And New Line
quickly moved away from

anything molesting,
which is wise.

So he just murders them,
which is bad enough.

I did notice that
there were little kids

coming to my door
dressed as Freddy

and that's when
I really realized

that it had hit
this pop culture place.

When I was
in his dressing room with him

and we were talking,
there was a huge crowd

and they started
rocking the trailer.

And he was so great with them.

He went out there
and he was dressed in his...

in his stuff, you know,
in his outfit,

and he went out there
and he was like,

"You guys gotta quit
knocking the thing

or you're gonna knock me over.

But I appreciate you all
out here."

You know, it was really nice
and it was scary.

I mean, we thought
we were gonna be tipped over.

Freddy Krueger right here.
Nightmare on Elm Street.

Yeah?

This is my Freddy Krueger mask.

I made it myself,
the sculpting on up.

This is my claw.

He doesn't
become a rock star of horror

because he's a child murderer,
molester.

It's because Robert Englund
has so much humor

and so much personality
and so much joie de morte,

instead of vivre.

You can't have any film
or any style of film

without having a charismatic
person at the helm.

I love... just loved the way
that Robert was able to juggle

humor with horror.

The humor
was very rare in the first one,

but it was there.

And it became embellished
in the sequels afterwards,

in some people's opinion.

Freddy does speak.
Says "bitch" a lot.

Bon appétit, bitch.

But it's Robert playing
this scarred character

who has this wicked,
nasty sense of humor.

And it really appeals to
a young audience

because they don't
think about mortality,

and they enjoy the rending
of these bodies on screen

by the bladed glove
of Freddy Krueger.

I don't believe in fairy tales.

At that point, I had a little
boy who had nightmares,

and kids that have nightmares

always want the thing
that scares them;

that's what they seek.

So he was always wanting
all this Freddy Krueger stuff.

So it was such a trip.

He wouldn't understand
"I work with that guy."

In fact, it would probably
have freaked him out.

For the same reason
you'll embrace black metal

in the hopes that your parents
would hate it,

you'll embrace outrageous
violence in films.

And so Robert is a de facto
uncle to this audience.

I mean, I've always said

that horror films are to film
what rock is to music.

By the time Nightmare 3 came out
and Robert was a guest VJ on MTV

and you had the Dokken song,

interestingly enough,

that was the first time
I met him.

When that came...
came on MTV, I was like...

whooh!

♪ We're the dream warriors ♪

I lost my mind.

This was like a real deal,
serious, serious video.

I've always said that

Freddy is rock and roll, and
Pinhead is a requiem mass.

We made a lot of fun
of him and what he had become

and what Freddy had become,

and why the pop culture
around Freddy was just so,

you know, it was just really
amusing and... and crazy.

Gah!

And he's Robert fucking Englund,

for God's sake.

Guys, Freddy Krueger,

the star of
Nightmare on Elm Street,

portrayed by
this very fine actor...

not a school teacher, Debbie...
Mr. Robert Englund.

Please welcome the man
who plays Freddy Krueger,

Robert Englund.

- Robert Englund.
- Robert Englund here.

Do you like your movies?

Yeah, I do.
I... I... I think there's a,

I think there's a need
for these movies.

I hate to say this, Freddy,

but I can't go
and see your movies.

I am too afraid.

Well...

It's a complete accident.

It's a happy accident.

The double whammy of me
being an international

television science fiction
character that everybody loved,

that's very, very different

from the dark boogeyman
of these incredibly imaginative

and original horror films
that I did

that became a franchise.

There was just so many
things you could buy.

Record albums, and sweaters
of course, and hats.

There's just so much that
they ended up marketing

that as much as it's nice to see
Freddy be a rock star,

I thought that it kind of...
there was something cheap...

that cheapened
the whole thing by it.

The reason that I...

a benefactor from this gift
that just keeps giving

is because simultaneously
another happy accident occurred.

First, there was early cable,
and I was on cable,

parts one, two, three;

early video,
the mom-and-pop video stores.

People would stay home now
on weekends, save money.

They'd let the kids
pick a movie.

Well, of course,
the kids would pick

Nightmare on Elm Street 1
or Nightmare on Elm Street 2

or three or four,

and they'd bring it home
on a Saturday,

Mom and Dad sit around
and they'd let them watch

Mom and Dad get scared,
have a pizza.

And then there was
Freddy's Nightmares.

I mean, like Freddy had
his own television show.

Freddy killed children,
and he had a television show,

which everybody loved.

I was lured into
the television series

by a number of factors.

Not the least of which
was money, I'll be honest.

I was lured in
specifically because

they were gonna give me
my DGA card,

my Directors Guild
of America card.

I directed several episodes.

I did not have to give
Robert much direction.

He knew Freddy
better than I did.

If the suspense doesn't
get you, I will.

I was in like a motel room
with my family and...

and we were clicking
through the channels,

and it was like an ad
for call Freddy at one point

where it was like a like
"1-800, call Freddy

and he'll talk to you
on the phone."

Join the Freddy Fan Club.

Freddy Krueger has a special
message just for you.

It was like phone sex,

but it was with Freddy instead,
you know.

Robert was willing to make fun
of himself a great deal

and I think he knew how...

how absurd and crazy it was
that Freddy Krueger has now been

this worldwide phenomenon.

But he loves it.

I never set out to be an actor
to sign autographs or...

or drive a Mercedes,

but I must confess
that I do like the attention.

My mother died early on
in the Freddy phenomenon.

She'd see me on chat shows,
on talk shows.

Or she'd be watching
the late-night talk shows

and Johnny Carson,

or someone would do
a Freddy Krueger joke.

You see Mayor Bradley's
in a little bit of trouble?

He declared
today Freddy Krueger Day.

It had begun to enter
the vernacular then,

and so she was
receptive to that.

But then she passed
and didn't really see

the sort of peak
of the phenomenon,

but my father got to experience
a lot of that.

And the only time my father
ever visited me,

I could have been, you know,
not wearing makeup,

I could have been at any one of
dozens of other projects,

but he came the day
that I was crucified

with Makita screws
on three-quarter-inch plywood.

That was the first project
I worked with Robert on,

Nightmare 4.

This is the biggest sequence,

it's the finale, it's the end.

Roll it.

Souls burst out of him and
get their vengeance on Robert.

And I had this
animatronic chest and torso on.

Adjacent to me

was a giant, King Kong size
chest of souls.

They were doing a ratio thing
with the camera.

So I had these phenomenally
sculptured special effects

makeup heads of my victims,
the souls of my victims,

moving around and talking and...

and their little mouths
and their lips would move,

and their nostrils would flare,

and I could feel
the little clockwork mechanisms

behind them, you know,
tearing at my flesh.

I was up there
for probably eight hours.

We tortured the poor guy.

We're shooting all day.
He can't move.

He's literally
glued into that wall

in this big animatronic body

that's sticking out
of his chest.

Total trouper.

And that's the day
my father came to see his son,

recruited by Stanford,
crucified in makeup

with men that had like,
there were like wires

going up every orifice
on my body.

You know, "Oh, hi, Dad.

How are ya?"

It wasn't embarrassing as much
as it was surreal and funny.

But looking back on it,
it was a rather strange way

to have your father
see you working as an artist.

But you know, behind the scenes,

it's a different story.

I think I ended up
partying with Robert

more than I ended up
working with him.

I very well could have
partied with those guys.

I just don't remember.

I like it!

I was in the makeup trailer,

and I was watching him
get his makeup on,

which was elaborate.

And we would talk about
things like, you know,

acting and Shakespeare,
and I was thinking,

"God, I have to be
afraid of him.

He's so... he's so sweet."

But then when I saw him
in the scene,

when I had scenes with him,

he becomes this swaggering,
sexy almost, villain.

I mean, he's got this sexiness
about him, I think.

That menace has
a certain sexual threat to it.

And his victims are women,
and I mean, they're...

that's all built
into the character.

He had a predator posture, and
he comes to your bedroom.

He's in your subconscious,

so he knows
what's in your diary.

He knows what you want.
He knows your fantasies.

That's what's sexy about it.

I know he's going home with me

so I really don't have to
be jealous about that

fabulous Freddiette there

with her skirt that stops there

and shirt that stops there.

Doing a horror film

was like one step above
like crappy porn.

You know, they're like,

"Oh, you got a horror film,
big deal."

But anyhow, we didn't know
it was gonna explode.

But Robert Englund
had become a star

and I knew who he was too.

And then we're wrapping up
the film and he...

I say, I go, "Hey, can I
get an autograph from you,

like people do now?"

He says, "Danny, hopefully we'll
get to work together again."

And then like,
three weeks later,

we ended up getting Nightmare
5, it became a real thing.

So I've been a fan of Robert
for a long time.

I knew
of Nightmare on Elm Street

but I had never seen one,
but it's kind of like,

"I didn't know this shit
was this serious."

This is a cultural phenomenon.

People love Freddy Krueger.

And I feel very blessed
and fortunate

that I even had the opportunity
to work with Robert.

I mean, he's super nice.

I don't consider that
I've done six horror movies.

I consider I've done one roll.

It's a chance,
every once in a while,

to get it just the way
I want it.

And it's kind of fun
because of Freddy,

I can do a little bit of that.

I changed the voice.
I changed the way I moved.

You can't replace him.

You can't put
somebody else in that makeup.

It has to be Robert,

and I don't think anyone
will accept anybody else.

In 50 years, I hope
there will be other actors

playing and doing a fabulous job
at Freddy Krueger.

My only problem with Freddy now

is that I'm turning down
other projects

that I'd like to do.

When the Freddy project
comes alive last year,

I had to turn down
a great movie in Australia.

It's the actor's nightmare,
you know,

that you can't like
divide yourself

and split like an amoeba.

That's very frustrating.

I mean, gosh, you know,
I've waited all these years to...

to have this problem.

All of a sudden,
you get a role that defines you,

and sometimes
people don't allow you

to escape the confines
of that character.

Here was a guy
that as a character actor

could have, I think,
done anything

because his skill set is there.

However, having done Freddy,

it launched him into a kind of
American subconscious,

and now a worldwide subconscious
where he's iconic.

And yet it was
oddly limiting for him.

Robert became
so associated with Freddy

that Freddy gets the credit
for his performance.

There's so much more
to Robert than Freddy Krueger,

and I think if there's any,
I'm gonna say downside,

is that it's deprived us
of seeing him

branch out into parts
that might have actually

also really thrilled us.

I can play a lawyer tomorrow
if somebody asked me,

and I'd be very happy to.

Does KISS get sick

of playing rock and roll
all night, every night?

Probably.

But that's what
everyone's there to see.

So in a case
like Robert Englund,

where you get to play
a character like Freddy,

you've just completely
knocked it out of the park

and everybody knows you as that
and loves you as that,

that's pretty amazing.

He is a really talented actor.

And I think assumptions
get made about horror actors

that they're less than,
and it's unfair.

One of the problems
with being, you know,

an icon, if you will,
or having an iconic part

is that you end up
holding on to it

like it's a life raft,
you know, like, you,

"Boy, without this,
I am nothing."

I don't think you get trapped
in that role like you used to.

I think that it's a bit of a...

like a bit of a gift
and a curse.

It's not a curse,
it's a blessing.

And I think
Robert appreciates that.

He has
learned to appreciate that

as much as I have.

At some point...
I know I've found this...

is that I kind of
just have been really happy

with the idea
that this will be the one part

that people know me for,
and I have to be okay with that.

And I think
Robert probably is too.

And I think he's been able
to handle it quite well.

I thought a little bit
about fighting it.

And there came a point when
I absolutely surrendered to it.

Partly on the advice
of Wes Craven, but also,

with myself as an actor,
I embraced it.

Turn your head slightly.
Vacuum off.

Keep turning the head now.

Robert is such a pro.

And it's not just that he's
a pro about his own performance.

He's one of those film actors
who understands film.

Robert has probably
seen more movies

than all of us combined.

Oh, one of my favorite films,

a 1974 Brian DePalma film,
Sisters.

After the day's work,

he would get out
of his whole outfit

and we'd all have
a couple of beers

and go to a small
screening room,

and he'd draw something
to my attention

that maybe I wasn't aware of,

and I could draw something
to his attention

that he wasn't thinking about.

No matter where you are or
what you're talking about...

he is just a 100-mile-an-hour
ball of ideas.

Well, Robert pays attention.

It's not all about Robert.
It's not all about Freddy.

It's not all about
that character,

but he really understands
the machinery of filmmaking,

as well as the creative depth
of the actor.

It goes beyond the actor.

Knows where the camera is,
knows how close the shot is,

knows how to pitch
his performance accordingly.

So he's hyper-aware of
what lens is on the camera,

what's the... not just
what the angle of view,

but what's the lens so that
if he takes two steps back

on a move, is that going to be
really impactful

or is it not going to be
so impactful?

Because the lens selection
is going to change that. Right?

And so there's a very
like interactive way

that Robert works
with the people around him.

People have often talked about

how he angles Freddy's glove.

It's not a surprise
that, you know,

he's a director himself,
976-EVIL.

I thought I told you
not to tell anybody

about last night.

Mommy said we were
blessed by the Lord.

I directed
my first professional play,

I think in 1966.

For me, directing film is not
as pleasant an experience

as I thought,

and I'm much more at home
directing in the theater.

The only offers I ever get
are genre.

It takes a year off of your life
because there's pre-production,

and then there's the shoot.

Tick-tock tick-tock,
the nervous stomach.

Time is money. Not...

you can't really luxuriate in
the creative process

like you imagine you can
in theater.

But I had some wonderful actors.

I got to work and direct the
late great Sandy Dennis,

who literally invented the
neurotic female on film.

I've enjoyed working
with him very, very much.

First of all, because
he enjoys me, I think.

I can justify that experience
just for that.

On the set of 976-EVIL,

I was actually nervous
about working on this movie,

because I'd heard that the
director was an actor,

and he was
a first-time director,

and those can be
a pain in the ass,

especially
in the art department.

I was a set decorator.

So if they don't know anything,
they'll go in,

"Oh, that's not how it was
in my grandma's house.

You have to have
this kind of rug."

It's like,
"Go play with the cameras."

I hadn't seen any
of the Nightmare movies.

There was a Rolling Stone
magazine with his picture

and I was like, "Okay.
Oh, yeah, that's him. Okay."

Nancy drew the short straw,
and got the grunt job

of having to drive the
location manager and myself,

looking for locations
in Hollywood.

I had already picked
a couple of locations.

I would make Nancy drive anyway
to those locations.

And she got to drive
on the freeways for hours

and I was slowly
falling in love.

And this is so creepy now
when I think back on it,

but I also, I found out
where she lived.

Hm... Okay.

And a couple of nights,

I drove...
getting my courage up

to knock on the door
and ask her out.

I'd wait and like sit,
watch her light go on upstairs,

like a Hitchcock movie
or something.

Okay, fine.

I remember taking her
to a famous bar

across the street
from the Formosa.

And I kissed her,
and my knees almost buckled.

I was like a little kid.

Because I'd been around.

I'd been divorced.

I'd come out
of a ten-year relationship

that wasn't working.

I had a lot of, you know, scars.

And I was probably 38 years old.

I remember saying to her,
and I stole this line

from an old
James Garner-Sally Field movie,

"I think I'm in love
for the last time in my life."

You know, I'm gonna be
running on empty.

And she said, "Well, you know,
clear out your baggage,

and call me." And I did.

I was on the show when
Robert and Nancy met.

And I can tell you
that by the end of the show,

you could hear their heartbeats

and you could see
the twinkles in their eyes.

They were so in love.

I saw
that this could be serious;

that he was a serious man

and he had serious intentions
for me and...

and therefore we wanted to be
logical about it.

Who is this lovely
woman next to you?

This is my fiancée, Nancy Booth.

We did, and it worked.

Nancy, you have
strange taste in men.

Is he... is he... off screen,
is he regular, normal,

all of that?

Sweet, intelligent,
wonderful. Yes.

I don't actually think
I've seen Robert without Nancy

as long as I can remember.

They were like two little
sweet peas in a pod.

She strikes me as someone

who can just keep the train
running on the tracks,

and they just bring out
the very best in each other.

I think that they're
a pretty humble couple

but they just happen to live
this really rock-star lifestyle.

Also contributes to why
we don't have children now,

because, you know,
I wanted to be with him,

be traveling the world, so.

He worships the ground
she walks on.

It's a really beautiful
thing to see.

And I just think they're
a really good team together.

And here we are,
30 years later, so...

I have all kinds of memories

about Phantom of the Opera.

That was part of
a two-picture deal for me

with a big
international company,

Canon Jones 21st century,
and it's a family business.

Menahem Golan realized that the
Phantom of the Opera title,

the literary title,

had come into public domain,
so he thought,

"