 [home]
[news]
[reviews]
[features]
|
|
CREIGHTON DUKE, JASON HUNTER
Jason Arnopp interviews legendary Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday
and X-Files star Steven Willams...
It's October 22, 2005. LA's excellent Screamfest event is hosting a Friday The 13th party, in honour of the franchise's 25th year. As a big fan of Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday, I'm delighted to secure an interview with Steven Williams, who so memorably played bounty hunter Creighton Duke. The tape recorder comes on and the man's familiar voice booms out...
Slasherama: Hello Sir! Jason Goes To Hell is one of my favourite entries in the Friday The 13th series...
Steven Williams: "It was one of mine also: it helped to pay some mortgage (laughs)! It seems like a very long time ago, so when this party reunion came up, I was very excited. JGTH was very early on in my 'career'. I've done fan conventions, but not with the Jason side of things: only with The X-Files. This is my first big event with Friday The 13th!"
Slasherama: So I'm even more glad that I collared you. Now obviously, you had some great hero dialogue in Jason Goes To Hell. Cowboy-type lines!
Williams: "Well, initially they had a whole other outfit for me. Because Creighton Duke was a bounty hunter, I said, 'I don't like this outfit - I wanna do the cowboy thing'. So I created Creighton's outfit and to this day I'm still searching for that hat! They wouldn't let me have it, but I want it! It was a beautiful cowboy hat."
Slasherama: Because the movie's funny, scary and gory at different times, was it a challenge to pitch the tone of your delivery?
Williams: "It wasn't really a challenge. I'm a director's actor. Like they say, 'If it's not on the page it won't be on the stage. I read it, I relate to it, I've got a director telling me what his vision of it is, and I've gotta try and give that back to them. It wasn't that kind of challenge: just a fun experience."
Slasherama: The scene that most people remember was you and John D LeMay's finger-breaking scene.
Williams: "That's what's interesting with acting. In the script it just said, 'Creigton takes Steven's finger and breaks it'. But I added this other thing, where you don't know whether he's coming on to the guy or not! That moment just came to me - I don't know where from, but those are the moments that make it exciting for me as an actor. Something just pops into your head and you decide to do it. And the director went it."
Slasherama: So Jason Goes To Hell was the first - and possibly last - Friday movie with a homo-erotic undertone?
Williams: "Probably, yeah! From a macho guy like me (laughs)! There was one other scene that, to this day, I don't get. There's a scene where I'm on my compound and I'm giving the reporter a tour. We sit down and we're talking. He asks what something reminds me of, and I say something of, 'Like a little girl in a pink dress, punching a hole through a donut!'. To this day, I have no idea what that meant! It was the oddest line and I had no idea how to deliver it. So I just said it."
Slasherama: Ha! I'm really looking forward to re-watching that scene, knowing that, in your head, you had no idea what you were talking about!
Williams: "(Laughs) I had no idea! But ambiguity works, a great deal of the time, because the audience has to figure out what it is he's talking about. It allows them to make their own interpretation. I keep segueing into other stuff - and I'm not PR-ing myself here! - but it's kinda like my X-Files character, Mr X. I made the decision to just deliver lines and not put anything on it. I would be as ambiguous as I possibly could and let the audience figure out what the hell X was talking about."
Slasherama: Do you miss The X-Files? Or has that series had its day?
Williams: "I... think it's had its day. The magic, for me anyway, was the magic of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, who were the oddest actors on TV at the time. They were just so low-key! You thought, 'This is never gonna work - these guys are dull as hell!' but the chemistry was magical. And then the storyline - I loved the whole alien arc which was happening. It was wonderful. After that went away, some of the individual stories were great. But it was the serial aspect that excited me. And I was through with the show after they killed me off anyway! To hell with them (smiles)!"
Slasherama: There's regularly talk of another X-Files movie, of course...
Williams: "I don't know if I'll ever be a part of it. There were things which went on with that show, personally. There was stuff I've heard about why I was killed off and let go so early. So I don't think I'll ever be a part of it. There's a bitch-slapping coming to somebody!"
Slasherama: Would that somebody be either of the main two stars, or were you okay with them?
Williams: "I thought I was okay with them!"
Slasherama: See? Ambiguity works! So when was the last time you saw Jason Goes To Hell?
Williams: "Oh, I have not seen that since it ran! I rarely see the movies that I've been in, more than once. And I've not been in a lot of movies: I'm primarily a television 'celebrity', 'star' or 'personality', whatever you wanna call it. I rarely see movies unless they come to television. I figure that if I'm not in a movie, then the hell with them: they're not gettin' my $8.50!"
Slasherama: What have you been up to lately?
Williams: "Well, I just finished a film called Graves Inn, which the producers are looking for a distribution deal for. I have just won three Best Actor awards at film festivals, for Graves Inn. It stars Eric Roberts, myself, Daniel Roebuck... I've just finished a Walker: Texas Ranger movie. And I'll soon start a Richard III movie - Shakespeare done in modern dress, executive-produced by David Carradine. I play a small role in it, but it's gonna be interesting for me. I've never done any pure Shakespeare at all - I did a street version of The Taming Of The Shrew, very early on in Chicago, in my theatrical career. So this'll be the first time I'm on film doing any Shakespearean. It promises to be exciting and challenging."
Slasherama: Despite Shakespeare being ancient, actors generally think of his stuff as the highest attainment...
Williams: "Well, I don't know that that's true. For me, the hardest part is figurin' out what the hell I just said. 'I vouchsafe, sir!'. Okay, what did I just say? Once you know what you're saying, then Shakespeare's like any other acting."
Slasherama: And you thought the little girl in the pink dress was tough! Well, I vouchsafe that this is the end of the interview, sir. I thank thee.
Williams: "Jason, thankyou very much!"
Thanks to the Screamfest event for inviting us in 2005. We'll be back in 2006, just as YOU should be, sir/madam!
[Interview with JGTH director Adam Marcus]
[Interview with JGTH star John D LeMay]
[JGTH review]
[Features Menu]
[Back To Top]
[Home]
© Copyright Slasherama 2005. No part of this interview, or the photographs, may be reproduced without permission.
Or Jason'll get ya. And we don't just mean Arnopp. Or Donovan.
|
|