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![[Ray Wise blows it in Dead End]](../images/features/raywise.jpg)
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![[Ray Wise as Leon Nash in Robocop]](../images/features/raywise2.jpg)
![[Ray Wise drives his family up the wall in Dead End]](../images/features/raywise3.jpg)
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You seem to be undergoing something of a horror renaissance, Sir. Ray Wise: "Absolutely. Well, I've been a big fan of the genre since I was a little boy. I remember the effect that The Creature From The Black Lagoon had on me, back around 1956! Then all through the '60s, the Hammer films - Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were my idols. I really love being scared, in the relative safety of my theatre seat, or on my couch at home. I'm very pleased to be in these new horror films." Dead End achieves a great, rare balance between horror and comedy. That must be hard to play. Ray: "Yeah, right in the middle of that supernatural surrealism and explosive violence, you've got these comic moments. It's comic relief that comes right out of what's going on. It alleviates the shock a little bit, but compounds it, in a way. That's what appealed to me when I read the script: the humour amidst all these horrific situations." A lot of the film's humour is derived from people losing their minds... Ray: "It's kind of a cruel humour, isn't it! But there are a lot of white-knuckle terror moments, too. And that's what makes the film rather unique, in a way. Not many films can blend the two so nicely." How did you come across the Dead End project? Ray: "Well, the two writers and directors (Jean-Baptiste Andrea and Fabrice Canepa) were fans of Twin Peaks and the character that I played, Leland Palmer. My agent got in touch with me and said that a couple of French guys were making a movie in Hollywood, and did I want to meet with them? I met them in a restaurant on Melrose Avenue and they told me about the story. When I read the script, I was totally captivated. It was something that I had to do: Frank, the father, was just right for me." Without wanting to give anything away, did the film's ending confuse you? Ray: "Somewhat, yeah, but I could justify all of it. I don't know. Maybe it was one twist too many, but I guess it's a matter of taste." It's definitely a film in which you'll see more, the second time around. Ray: "That's right, and it makes the ending a little clearer." There's a great scene, involving you striking a match (see picture above). How many takes did that one require? Ray: "Oh, God (laughs). We didn't have many takes of anything, really, because we had to work pretty fast, but I think we did that three or four times. I was walking around in a dark cabin and I couldn't really see anything for real. So I definitely had the right feeling for what was going on!" The characters you play in Jeepers Creepers 2 and Dead End couldn't be much further apart, besides being strong family men. Ray: "Yeah, that's true. In Jeepers 2, I enjoyed my character's stoic intensity. He's a hardworking farmer - a widower. He's trying to raise his boys and work the farm. He's a simple man. And of course, what happens changes his life completely and sets him on a path. He becomes rather like Captain Ahab with Moby Dick, pursuing that Creeper." In JC2, we know that many of the effects were achieved with CGI. Yet when your character Jack Taggart Sr is standing on the truck with his home-made harpoon gun, it looks fairly hectic. Was it very physical work? Ray: "The whole shoot was very physical. All except for jumping off that truck at the moment of it exploding (laughs), I did everything else and really enjoyed it too. I got myself into pretty good shape before the shoot started. One day consisted of just running up and down corn fields. Then Dead End was a marathon in another sense. It was all night shoots, down one stretch of highway in one of the Hollywood canyons. I believe it took us about 22 or 23 days to shoot, and we used the same mile-and-a-half stretch of road for the whole movie. It gave us the right atmosphere, because it was pretty creepy. They used helium baloon light which hung up in the air and provided this kind of moonlight glow. It looked great onscreen and gave us a great atmosphere on the set, too. We really enjoyed it, and the people playing my family members all became very close." When did you last watch Twin Peaks? Ray: "I saw some episodes a couple of weeks ago. My son, who's now 19, got turned on to it a few years back. Now my 16-year-old daughter is going through her Twin Peaks revivalist period. We have the DVD of the first season and I think the second will be out shortly. But I have all 30 episodes, plus the movie, on Laserdisc. I'm very proud of it - I think it will hold up forever. It's a well-done piece and I feel very fortunate and honoured to have been part of it." Allow me to be the 666th person to ask you what it's like, working with director David Lynch... Ray: "It's wonderful. He's a rather ordinary, pleasant fellow with a good sense of humour and Mid-Western type ethics. We just had a very good time. I think he has a pretty dark imagination and it's sometimes hard to get inside another person's head, but on the surface he's just a really normal fella. I remember that, before each scene was shot, we'd sit down for a couple of minutes and talk about it, and laugh about it. Then go and do it. We knew the importance of what we were doing, but we took it very lightly too. That made for a nice, relaxed working situation. It was the same with Dead End." Does Lynch find the more abstract elements of his work amusing, then? Ray: "Yes, I think he does. I think he can see the bizarre, in just the mundane workings of everyday life. It's very evident in his writing and certainly in the way he approaches his film-making." What are your main memories from Robocop, in which you played bad guy Leon Nash? Ray: "We had a great time for a couple of months. We were blowing up streets in Dallas, Texas - we were like kids playing war! We were running around with these big, outrageous 50-calibre guns and being as nasty as can be. But again, there were a lot of laughs too. Once again, humour and nastiness seemed to go hand-in-hand. Of course, I got blown up at the end. Nancy Allen shot a rocket at me and blew up the crane booth I was in. I went out in a big blaze of glory!" You certainly seem to pick your movies well. Ray: "I like things that not only appeal to the emotions, but the intellect too. Things you can think about and feel all at the same time." Can we expect to see you in more horror movies soon? Ray: "Absolutely. I'm currently shooting a science fiction comedy with a lot of action and horror elements. It's called Cyxork 7. It's a movie within a movie, about a sci-fi movie series which is in its seventh instalment. We're shooting it out in the California desert and a big earthquake comes along. And it goes from there! In the meantime, I'm open to all horror film offers!" 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