Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage

Skinwalkers Press Day.

A Roundtable Experence with the people behind After Dark Films Skinwalkers.

And a Short interview with actor Jason Behr.

Interview by Jack Reher.

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This past Friday Jack Reher had the chance to sit down for some roundtable action in Beverly Hills with the cast and special effects genius behind After Dark Films’ latest offering Skinwalkers which opens Friday August 10th.

First up was the uber beautiful Natassia Malthe as she confessed to her wanton desire of playing a werewolf and talked heavily about the grueling process of becoming a wolf while sitting in a make-up chair. She continued chatting about her nighttime dreams of being in a werewolf film and how it was kismet.

Land of the Dead’s Shawn Roberts was next as he chatted about the internal conflicts within the script and how the cast embraced the material. The conversation quickly veered off course and he began discussing his collaboration with Romero on Land and the upcoming Diary of the Dead. Unfortunately, he was very tight lipped about revealing any plot points but said it was one of Romero’s most personal films.

The film’s star, Jason Behr was next (see one-on-one interview below)

And last but not least was the brilliant force behind films like The Terminator, Aliens, Jurassic Park, and the upcoming Iron Man. Stan Winston, visual effects legend with a kid-at-heart approach to filmmaking. He discussed the long road Skinwalkers traveled to get made and how he’d always wanted to make a real werewolf film, prosthetics, fur, claws and teeth without the use of lavish CGI. Outside of Monster Squad, he said this film represents everything he’s ever wanted to see in a werewolf film and that he’s extremely proud of the final cut.

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After the roundtables were finished, I had a chance to sit down with Jason Behr. It was a reunion of sorts since Behr and I grew up blocks away from each other and attended the same grade school, junior high and high school back in Richfield, Minnesota. When he approached the table, a look of glee sprung from his face and we chatted about my mother giving him some Linus cartoon back in the day and how cool my parents were. For a brief moment, Hollywood disappeared and we were kids again catching up at the local 7-Eleven.

Jack R. You read a lot of scripts, what drew you to the material?

Jason B. I figured if you’re going to do a werewolf movie, I can’t figure a better person to do it than Stan Winston. He’s a legend, an absolute genius, and he has wanted to do a werewolf movie since he was a teenager. It was the whole reason why he got into this business. He’s never done it before [beyond his work on Monster Squad…not his vision and scope of a film]. As a fan of his work, I knew he’d have that same passion and attention to detail & absolute talent to make an incredibly badass werewolf. It’s something I just couldn’t pass up.

JR: What was it like shifting from your stints on Buffy to The Grudge to Skinwalkers?

JB: This is a real departure, something I’ve never done before. I finally get a chance to play the bad guy and I play the big, badass wolf. I got to do things as a character that I’ve never had the chance before; shoot guns, ride motorcycles, do all this wirework and these stunts. It was an absolute joy to go to work everyday. I felt like a fuckin’ big kid, you know!

JR: Are you a fan of the horror genre?

JB: I’m a fan of a good story. I thought this was an original & unique take on the werewolf mythology. It was something I had never heard of before and an interesting story.

JR: How about your favorite horror film?

JB: It’s a tough one. The one that scared the shit out of me as a kid, one of my favorite horror films of all time is The Shining or ummm…drawing a blank and I can’t fucking believe it-

JR: Who’s in it?

JB: Stairs and a priest-

JR: The Exorci-.

JB: Exorcist! Thank you.

JR: How about the creative process? What was it like on Skinwalkers?

JB: Let’s see—the creative process on Skinwalkers I think—I wanted to go out and see the way wolves behaved and I wanted to really understand them and truthfully represent that wolf dynamic and how each wolf has a specific job to ensure the survival of that pack. That’s what we were sort of doing with this movie. I also just wanted to really understand the behavior of a wolf; how a wolf would take in information such as smell or sight and how that general movement was. I did that for research and I let the suit just sort of take over once you put on the gloves, the teeth and the eyes you can’t help but just take that up and allow yourself to play full out and do something else.

JR: The PR chick is making me hurry up…I did a Google search on you and you’ve got quite the fan base.

JB: I’ve been very lucky-

JR: You’ve got like two dozen Myspace pages alone.

JB: Laughing… Really?

JR: Do you miss your days on Roswell?

JB: I had a tremendous experience, just a really wonderful experience. Yeah, I mean we had a great time.

JR: Is there something the public and your fans don’t know about you?

JB: What is something the public doesn’t know about me…(thinking)…One of my deepest, darkest secrets would be –

CLICK.

Behr leaned in and shut the recorder off.

– Jack Reher.