Jackie Earle Haley, Sam Bayer Interview, NOES Remake

Freddy Krueger returns in a contemporary re-imagining of the horror classic, in which a group of suburban teenagers share one common bond:  they are all being stalked by a horribly disfigured killer who hunts them in their dreams. As long as they stay awake, they can protect one another…but when they sleep, there is no escape.

MoviesOnline recently caught up with actor Jackie Earle Haley, director Sam Bayer, and producers Andrew Form & Brad Fuller at the A Nightmare on Elm Street press conference at Comic-Con. Here’s what they had to tell us:

Q: In the sequel, you wear the classic sweater and hat.

JACKIE EARLE HALEY: It feels warm and shady.

Q: Was that important to the character?

JACKIE EARLE HALEY: It was incredibly motivating. Just throwing on the iconic outfit was surreal is what it was, standing there the first time wearing that get up.

ANDREW FORM: It was surreal for me to see you come out in it.

JACKIE EARLE HALEY: It was a trip. And then, you add in the makeup on top of the wardrobe and it was surreal. It was a trip to be looking in the mirror at Freddy.

Q: That could have been something they changed in the update. Why was it important to keep the sweater and hat?

SAM BAYER: I think that it’s like any kind of iconic figure. There are certain symbols that make them who they are. I couldn’t imagine making this movie without the hat and sweater and the glove.

Q: Why was there a strong desire to revisit what’s considered to be an iconic classic horror movie?

ANDREW FORM: I think for us the concept of this movie was one of the strongest we had ever heard: you fall asleep and you die. And, it scared the hell out of Brad (Fuller) and I when we were kids and we talked to Michael (Bay) about it and it was a movie we pursued for a long time. Just the idea of being able to tackle that movie, you know, after what we had done with Texas Chainsaw, The Amityville Horror, and Friday the 13th, Nightmare was a movie that we always talked about and New Line gave us the opportunity and we jumped on it. But, to go back, the concept of the film is brilliant: you’ve just gotta stay awake. If you fall asleep, there’s this guy that can kill you in your dreams and that concept alone was best for us.

Q: Jackie, when you played this iconic character, was there anything specific you wanted to bring to him to make him a little bit different?

JACKIE EARLE HALEY: I thought it would be really interesting giving him a Scottish accent. Not sure why. Think it works though. (laughs) No, I think it’s definitely a scary process trying to step into the shoes of Robert Englund who has owned this character for decades. He’s done a brilliant job with it. His embodiment, his performance is what makes Freddy who he is. The challenge now is going back in time and paying homage to this first movie and rebooting it. It was kind of important again to have these qualities that you’re familiar with -- the sweater, the hat and the gloves -- things we know but also to try to find a freshness and a newness to this re-envisioning. I think the makeup that Andrew Clement designed, it’s incredible. I think where Sam and I were coming from with it is darker, more serious, less jokey. Hopefully scarier, more intense.

Q: I always liked the funny Freddy that got some laughs.

JACKIE EARLE HALEY: Me too.

Q: Is there no room for dark humor?

JACKIE EARLE HALEY: I think there’s some of that in there. I think this is probably a better question for Sam.

SAM BAYER: It’s open to interpretation. What you find funny, someone else might find funny. I think there’s a macabre quality to the character anyways, but if you’re looking for just an imitation of what the other actor did or what they did in the other movies, then I think you’ll be disappointed. If you’re looking for a laugh, I don't think it’s a funny movie. I personally don’t think if a character is wisecracking and killing you at the same time, it’s very funny. I’m taking this very seriously and I’ve said this many times, I said it in the big room (referring to the NOES panel that took place in Hall H of Comic-Con). I really do look at a movie like The Dark Knight as an inspiration for this. I don't think people dress up in outfits and fly through the sky and have cars and dress up as bats, but Christopher Nolan made me believe it. What I’m trying to do with this is I’d like you to almost believe that this could be real.

Q: Is he a child molester?

SAM BAYER: You’re going to have to see the movie. There’s some plot stuff I don’t want to give away, but you’ll see.

Q: Do you deal with the violence differently?

SAM BAYER: I’m a little bit of a -- I think the scariest stuff is when you believe in your characters. I think we put a lot of emphasis in developing our characters, our kids. What Jackie did with Freddy I think you’ll see is multi-dimensional. It isn’t just one-dimensional. There’s a lot of scares in our movie and when blood happens, it’s bloody. I’m not the type of person and I don’t think we are (referring to producers), we don’t want to depend on blood and gore to scare you. It’s the dreams that make it really scary.

Q: It’s always been a very imaginative series? Where do you go with the imaginative nature of NOES?

SAM BAYER: I think our dreams are pretty imaginative. To be perfectly honest, I think it’s one of the things that dates the original series. I look at the original series and sometimes the films look like they were made in 1988 or whenever. When they go into dreamworld, it’s cloudy and smoky and fog machines. I think you’ll see we did a much more sophisticated 21th century take on the dream sequences. The dream sequences are an integral part of the movie. That’s what separates this from just a maniac running around with a hatchet. Not only the characters, but the dreams are really thought out and very intricate, and sometimes they’re very beautiful. They’re not just scary places. They’re actually rather beautiful to look at.

Q: How big of a role does Nancy play in this film? Does she still play a main character or is it a more ensemble piece?

BRAD FULLER: Nancy plays an important role. She’s there all the way through. In some ways, she’s the heart and soul. The movie isn’t an ensemble the way you’re talking about it. At the end of the day, two of the characters are really the focus of a good portion of the story.

Q: Do you think this may lead to another movie?

BRAD FULLER: We never know. We set it up to make the best movie we can and if we’re lucky enough that they’ll want more, then we’ll give it to them.

Q: Jackie, have you ever had intense nightmares and did that inform your process as an actor in this movie?

JACKIE EARLE HALEY: I don't know that it really figured into the process, but I do recall this crazy recurring dream when I was a teenager. Maybe it started younger. I was literally in the bed that I’m sleeping in so it seems like I’m awake, but I’m obviously still sleeping. This big tarantula, six foot tall bug thing chases me down the hall and whacks me. This day, I could not stop dreaming this thing and then finally it stopped, but it was very unsettling, very scary, and just really bizarre. Then, of course, there’s the wonderful nightmare of being on stage and the curtain opens and you haven’t even looked at the script yet. That’s a fun dream.

Q: After playing Rorschach, is it daunting to take on another iconic character?

JACKIE EARLE HALEY: Definitely. Daunting, scary and just super exciting and thrilling at the same time. I mean, just the notion, when these guys asked me to play Freddy Krueger, just the notion of playing another iconic character like this, so iconic, it’s a thrill. It’s scary and it’s a thrill, and again, because somebody has owned this character for so long, but what a wonderful opportunity to get to step in and have a go at it.

Q: Have you talked to Robert (Englund) at all about the character?

JACKIE EARLE HALEY: No, I haven’t. We were going to hook up at some point in time and I was never able to get into the same city at the same time. We were going to hook up and have a dinner. For my birthday, my manager and my agent have gotten me an original Nightmare on Elm Street poster. So, I’m going to try to hunt down Robert and get him to sign it, if he’ll be so kind as to sign it for me. I want to hang it in my office. That’d be really cool.

Q: What was it like for you putting on the glove?

JACKIE EARLE HALEY: It was pretty cool. It’s cool and weird and surreal at the same time. The very first one I put on didn’t fit at all. It’s this process of them making it exactly fit my hand. There wouldn’t be a lot of setup time between shots so I’d just have this thing on and it’d be stuck there sometimes for an hour. I was a little worried about poking my eye out or accidentally scratching my makeup and “Oh no! Two hour fix on the makeup.” Luckily, we never had that [happen]. I also was a little concerned about maybe falling on the thing and luckily that never happened.

SAM BAYER: Nothing is actually scarier than Jackie with his contact lenses in, covered in makeup with a deadly weapon. I mean, it is real. It’s got really sharp blades and it can really hurt you very badly walking around the set at three o’clock in the morning. You just keep your distance.

Q: What about creating the voice of your character? What can we expect?

JACKIE EARLE HALEY: It’s this organic process of embodying the character. Especially when you throw on the clothes and everything and working in the mirror. You start playing around and trying different things. To me, it’s not so much just sitting at a table and going “Alright, let me try this voice and let me try that voice.” It’s a matter of months, where you’re driving along and then a voice comes out. And a day later, you try other things. It’s just this weird process of almost letting your subconscious do some of the work and see what bubbles up. You’ve got to give it the time to do that. I think it’s still a work in progress right now. I think what we heard today is mostly me with some enhancement on the front half of it. These guys will play around with it a bit. My guess is sometimes it’ll be a little closer to me and sometimes they might pump it up for effect. It’s hard to say. That’s a Sam question. What do you think?

SAM BAYER: I think it’s been an ongoing process that Jackie really went pretty deep on set finding the character’s voice and he will definitely be a part of our mixing sessions on the back end, which add a supernatural quality to it, an unearthly quality, so it’s a process. Like Jackie said, it’s organic. It’s not going to be Rorschach. You got a taste of what it’s going to be today but it’s still a work in progress.

Q: What role do effects and new technology play in this movie? Are there any specific scenes that you’re really excited about?

SAM BAYER: Jackie got to see us pre-vis. I’m a very old school filmmaker. There’s not a lot of computer generated effects in this movie. We did a lot of stuff practically but Jackie got to pre-vis – it’s something we do called pre-visualization -- he got to see one sequence that we did, an idea of what we’re going to do that I think people seeing the movie will be pretty blown away by. I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve. A lot of the stuff is very photographic. What you’re not going to see is something -- hopefully when you see the movie, it’s seamless enough that you’re not saying, “Oh, that’s a special effect.” And that’s what we’re really going for.

Q: How much fun did you have making this movie?

JACKIE EARLE HALEY: Quite a bit. It took a while though, man. I really needed to acclimate to the makeup. While I was acclimating to the makeup, there was still this incredible process of finding this guy organically. I think I kind of found him by fusing it, like using all of this uncomfortableness, this wacky acclimation process to the makeup and giving into Freddy. It’s a real kick playing such a mythical boogieman. It was fun but it was a challenge. There was a lot of arduous work to get to the fun. One of the things I discovered was, I’ve said this before, but all these years, I thought Freddy was the one doing the torturing. It really looks like he was the one being tortured. 3-1/2 hours of makeup and then out to the set Robert goes. He must’ve had a heck of a time working on those [movies] for all those years.

Q: Kellan Lutz plays one of the characters in the movie. After playing Freddy Krueger, did you trade any advice with Kellan about how to play a better vampire?

JACKIE EARLE HALEY: No, we never talked about that but I’m sure thrilled that he’s in the movie. I actually just met him here [at Comic Con]. I never saw him when we were out there [on set shooting NOES]. He’s a really nice guy. He signed a couple of Twilight books for my nieces and so I was a hero there.

“A Nightmare on Elm Street” is scheduled for theatrical release on April 16, 2010