It wasn’t the typical chat.įive years later, I’d gone on to do a bunch of other things, and I got another random phone call, this time from Steve Wang from Spectral Motion talking about this part for a director who knew me. He had such an encyclopedia in his head, and we had a mutual love for creepy-crawly things, so we were like two kids talking. I ended up doing a few days on the film, and the second day was when I really met Guillermo.ĭuring lunch, he sat across the table from me and said, “Tell me everything you’ve been in before.” This was 1997, so I’d been in a few movies by this point, and with every one I mentioned, Guillermo knew who the creature shop was and who the artists were that put me into makeup. I was out of work, so I jumped at the opportunity. Out came the “tall skinny guy Rolodex,” and I got the call to be a bug man. They filmed it in Toronto, but I was called in months later when they were doing pick-up shots - the movie was coming out in three weeks and it was too expensive and time-consuming to get the Canadian actors down to Los Angeles. I met Guillermo del Toro on the set of Mimic, which was his first American film. Abe Sapien in ‘Hellboy’ (2004) and ‘Hellboy II: The Golden Army’ (2008) And, now I get to play him again in Hocus Pocus 2, which I’m working on right now. It’s the biggest compliment that that role meant so much to people. It reminds me of the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, because I grew up with him. Now, when I do the convention circuit, I hear so much about Billy Butcherson from fans and how they’ve grown up with him. He was handsome too! They gave me a little more cheekbone, and I thought Billy looked pretty good. He was fun - I was able to give him some goofy, floppy limbs, and I got to be a zombie before zombies were cool. For one thing, he’s human - he’s a dead human - but he was still human, and the farther you get away from human, the more uncomfortable you’re going to be. None of us had any idea that Hocus Pocus would become the annual event that it is today. At first, I didn’t think Hocus Pocus was going to be a big deal - my part was originally just one line, and when the movie came out in July 1993, it didn’t do that well. I was in Batman Returns in a non-memorable role, but having that on my resume helped get me seen for Hocus Pocus. If you need a movie monster in five hours of makeup and prosthetics, he’s your guy.īelow, he shares what it’s been like to take on cinema’s most iconic monster roles, including the one where it all started - a bizarre, moon-headed singer trying to convince people to eat Big Macs after 6:30 p.m. Even outside of his work with del Toro, Jones has brought life to characters like the much-beloved Billy Butcherson in Hocus Pocus, the Silver Surfer in the second Fantastic Four film and Commander Saru in Star Trek: Discovery. To help him realize those creations, del Toro has turned to the same man time and time again: Doug Jones.įrom Abe Sapien in the Hellboy films to The Faun in Pan’s Labyrinth to the romantic lead in The Shape of Water, Jones’ unique physicality and talents as an actor have made him Hollywood’s go-to monster. An auteur who’s found success in horror, science fiction, fantasy and even romance, del Toro is a filmmaker with a distinct style and vision, particularly when involving the monsters and creatures in his work. However, there are a few filmmakers who still prefer their tangibility - none more so than Oscar-winner Guillermo del Toro. In an era of Hollywood where a CGI Thanos can dominate an Avengers movie, or a CGI chimpanzee can lead an entire Planet of the Apes trilogy, the demand for practical effects has declined.
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