Stan Winston Interview, SkinWalkers

MoviesOnline recently sat down with special effects legend Stan Winston at the Los Angeles Press Day for "Skinwalkers.” The suspense horror thriller directed by Jim Isaac tells the tale of two sects of werewolves who battle one another for control of a child, half human/half wolf who has the power to end their curse. The film stars Jason Behr, Elias Koteas, Rhona Mitra, Kim Coates, Natassia Malthe, Matthew Knight, Sarah Carter, Lyriq Bent, Tom Jackson, Rogue Johnston, Barbara Gordon and Shawn Roberts.

Skinwalkers are creatures bound by the blood of the wolf, who move at lightning speed, feeding on human flesh and blood, waiting for the blood-red crescent moon that signals each pack to rise. Who better to design the creature effects for this film than the amazing Stan Winston? Not since Lon Chaney has one individual been responsible for the creation of so many memorable character icons. Winston is indeed the world’s foremost creator of creatures, the common denominator linking some of cinema’s most innovative and accomplished character designs.

From "The Terminator” and the extra terrestrial monstrosities of "Aliens,” to the amazing dinosaurs of "Jurassic Park” and the fanciful character of "Edward Scissorhands,” Winston has garnered a record number of awards for his achievements. He has won four Academy Awards and has been nominated for ten. He has also claimed three British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards, two Emmys and numerous other industry awards. He is only the second artist in the field of make-up effects to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Stan Winston Studio in Los Angeles continues to break new ground in the areas of design, make-up and creature effects. Embracing the technology of CGI, Winston was a founding partner of the successful computer effects company Digital Domain in the mid-90s. Currently, he has formed a new division of his studio called SW Digital, which will enable his team of creators to expand the possibilities in developing realistic characters – bringing together the best of the live-action and CG worlds. Some of SW Digital’s most recent work is showcased on features such as "Eight Below,” "Fantastic Four,” "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,” "Garfield,” and "The Cat in the Hat.” Stan Winston is an extraordinary artist and a super nice guy and we really appreciated his time. Here’s what he had to tell us about his work on "Skinwalkers”:

MoviesOnline: How come it’s taken you so long to do a werewolf movie when you’ve wanted to one for so many years?

A: Well it’s not really the first time we’ve done a werewolf. It’s the first time I’ve been able to accomplish the werewolf that I’ve always wanted to do. There’s a difference there. I actually did a werewolf in a movie that they just released the DVD on called "The Monster Squad.” There’s a werewolf in there. And design-wise, the ending design is a direction I always wanted to go in, but technically I wasn’t able to do it the way I wanted to and it ended up being a mask and there wasn’t any animation in it and there wasn’t facial expression. There was a look, but I wasn’t able to do what I wanted to do. I got a look I wanted to get but I didn’t get a performance I wanted to get which is what this is all about, which is what "Skinwalkers” for me is about. Beyond the first, which is the most important thing, is that it’s a good story, it’s a good script.

The script came to me four years ago. The head of my production was Brian Gilbert who has an executive producer credit actually on this movie. I had told him when I started my production company that I wanted to find a good werewolf script because I was a werewolf fan. I had been since I was a little kid and I haven’t had a chance to do the werewolves that I want to do. Now it’s time. He said, "I’ve got something I think you should read.” And I read the script "Skinwalkers” and said, "I loved this. It’s the best werewolf script that I’ve ever read. It’s got people, it’s got conflict, it’s about internal conflict, it’s about the beast within which we all deal with on a daily basis but we usually keep it down. These guys don’t have that choice. It comes up. And it’s about real people.” And I said, "Let’s get me this. I want to produce it.”

We tried to get a hold of it and unfortunately someone else had just gotten an option on it and the script got away from me. Then about a year and a half later, almost two years later, I got a call from Dennis Berardi with Jim Isaac on the phone. Dennis owns an FX company in Toronto that had done the FX work for a movie I’d produced in Canada called "Wrong Turn.” He said, "You know what, I’m producing this script with Jim Isaac and we’d like you to read it and see if you’d like to get involved and produce with us. And they sent me the script and it was the script that I was in love with and tried to get two years ago so it came back to me. Karma. "Listen, I love this script. I want to do it. I’ll help you get it done and we’ll get it produced.”

And that was the beginnings of "Skinwalkers.” It was based on a script. I knew it was the perfect vehicle and the perfect time for me to do exactly what I wanted to do which was give it back to the actor which is what turned me on when I was a younger kid than I am today. I was turned on when I was 12 years old watching TV of old classic Universal movies, Lon Chaney Jr.’s’ "Wolfman,” Henry Hull’s "Werewolf of London,” movies about the beast within, Spencer Tracy’s "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” -- these great actors playing these great parts and creating these wonderful characters that we cared about. And I knew very instinctively that what I was attracted to was not the beast. I was attracted to the performance, the actor, the character, and that’s why I wanted to be an actor. I wanted to play these parts. That’s why I came out to be an actor, failed dramatically. Fortunately my son is a successful actor so I live vicariously through him. But I wanted…that is what turned me on – these characters.

In recent years, with the advent of digital technology which I embrace, I had Stan Winston Digital. I founded with Jim Cameron and Scott Ross one of the biggest digital companies in L.A. which is Digital Domain. So obviously I have no aversion to digital. I have an aversion to people using it improperly or not to its best advantage. When you take a performance away from an actor, I think it’s a mistake. Recently, the werewolf movies I’ve seen have been an actor plays the part from here to here and then it’s handed off to an animator and the animator plays the part from here to here because the werewolf is animation. Nothing against animation. Great shot, nice. Great performance, not the same. This person isn’t this person. I’m out of the movie. I am no longer in touch with that character because I’m very aware of what’s technical. It could just be my eyes, but I’m going, "Oh, great, but where’s my guy? Where is so and so that has the problem?”

So that was my big deal with this. I wanted to give it all back to the actor. We wanted to cast good actors who could create great performances that would bring their beast to the screen and never hide them and never take it away from them. That is not to say that "Skinwalkers” in this movie don’t have every trick in the book. That is not to say that we have not used state of the art make-up and effects, prosthetics, contacts, teeth. That’s not to say that we have not used digital effects. We have. I’ve tweaked them. I’ve taken them further than we could just do with make-up effects but only so far as you couldn’t tell, only so far that you don’t know. That for you it’s just going to look cool. For me, I’m going to go, "That couldn’t have been done with make-up. And they couldn’t have been done without that actor. And it couldn’t have been done without digital.” And that makes it magic.

And so what you see in "Skinwalkers” are skinwalkers/werewolves that you have never seen before but the entire performance is the performance of the actors, the people that you are talking to today. When you see Jason, boy, when that guy does a werewolf, he loves it and it’s obvious and that’s his character. He truly could not wait to get into that make-up and he couldn’t wait to be a werewolf. And it shows when he is a werewolf, he’s relishing it. Elias Koteas hated the idea of being a werewolf and his character doesn’t want to be a werewolf, but he is and you can see the pain. You can see the conflict. And it comes through because the guy is a wonderful actor and you see that with all of the characters. They’re all very specific. They’re all delineated.

The story is very clean and simple. I’m very proud of it. If you want to see "Underworld,” don’t go see this movie because it isn’t a big, extravagant movie. It’s a small movie about people in a little town who just happen to have a problem bigger than ours. We’re going to Mayberry and Andy Griffith is a werewolf.

MoviesOnline: Where is the beast within you?

A: Oh I get it out every day, thank God. I mean that’s what I do. Listen, I look at myself in the mirror. I feel the dark stuff and I create it and I draw it and I sculpt it or I share it with the people that work with me and love the concept of ripping somebody’s head off. I love the concept of creating a creature because I’ve got that in me. But I’m also the most pacifistic person you will ever meet. I’ve never owned a gun, can’t kill a fly, don’t know how, but I think part of it is because I live vicariously. All my dark stuff comes out in my art and in what I do.

I feel very strongly that people that feel that horror movies are a bad thing for kids are inflicting their own fear on their children. When I was a kid, I loved to go. I couldn’t wait for the next monster movie. I couldn’t wait for the next horrible thing that I could see -- the beast that I wanted to see. And I was a good kid. But we have that. That’s your fix. We all have that. We all have fear we’ve got to get rid of. So why not get rid of it in a theater where it’s safe? Why take it home with you? Why go to bed with it at night and be afraid of what’s outside?

Go into the theater, be scared, get your fix, walk out, and go, "Okay, I’m done with fear for the day.” Now I can deal with fun. I can deal with laughter. I can deal with love. And I’ll go to another movie. This one will make me laugh and this one will make me cry and this one will make me wish I was in love and this one will make me feel better about the person I love. And that’s what we do in movies. And it’s great, it’s cathartic, it’s healthy. Even the tough stuff is healthy.

Now that’s my take and I take myself as an example. I have seen every violent movie there ever was to see. I have seen every monster movie there ever was to see. And I’m not and I wasn’t affected negatively by it. If anything, I was affected positively by it. That’s Dr. Stan.

MoviesOnline: In this movie, there are two different kinds of werewolves. There’s the restrained kinds and then the all out beasts. Did you design them differently?

A: No, designing is about reality. You don’t design attitude. You don’t design performance. You don’t design what’s inside. What you design is reality. You don’t design something to be scary. You don’t design something to be funny. You design something to be real. And then what is good, bad, funny, scary, all comes from performance, all comes from the written word. When I design – when I say "I,” I’m talking about my studio because I don’t do anything. I walk around and go, "Cool. Do more of that.” My name.

We design based on the reality of the film. So Jason’s Skinwalker is about Jason. It’s about his face. It’s about his physicality. It’s about exaggerating that person. Elias’ is about his face, his character, his physicality. And Natasha – I’m not putting Jason’s face on Natasha. I’m not putting his body on Natasha. It’s a huge challenge. How do you take a beautiful girl like her and go turn her into a werewolf. She’s got to have hair all over her body and she’s got to still be sexy and we’ve still got to know it’s her. We’ve got to use finer hair. It’s got to feel like fuzz. It’s got to feel like peaches. It’s got to be sexy. You’ve got to look at her and still know that you didn’t just stick a hair suit and a wolf head on a beautiful, sexy, evil girl, woman. You don’t do that. That’s a design problem. It’s a huge problem. How do I turn this person into a werewolf and hold onto her character? That’s the job.

MoviesOnline: How does that compare to Iron Man?

A: There’s no similarity. There’s no correlation. This is taking a person, their internal self, their features and exaggerating them and bringing out the beast. "Iron Man” is creating a suit. It’s putting somebody inside a suit and making the suit legitimate to its comic book basis. And so Iron Man, which I am so proud of, there was nothing about designing it for Robert Downey Jr. It was designing it so that Robert Downey Jr. could get in it, but it had to look like Iron Man which is a suit, which is supposed to be a suit, which is not pretending to be anything else. And therefore you design the suit to look like the real version of a comic book that you’ve been in love with for years. And that’s what we did and it’s friggin’ brilliant. I have never been so jazzed about anything as the Iron Man suits that we created at our studio. They’re beautiful. But you don’t create a suit based on a character, on that person’s internal self. You create it on what the suit’s supposed to be like.

MoviesOnline: How long did it take you to come up with the final look of the werewolves?

A: We designed for probably a couple of months, just designing. We didn’t have a lot of time to build once we started but we spent a good amount of time really nailing the designs. And then we had to build fast because we had a small budget in a short amount of time. It’s a small movie, it’s not a big movie, but it’s about the art, not about the technology, and the art is as artistic for what it is as anything we’ve ever done. I mean it doesn’t have to be big and expensive to be artistically correct for the story.

It’s hard to compare the T-Rex in "Jurassic Park” to Edward Scissorhands in Tim Burton’s movie with Johnny Depp playing it. They’re both character designs. One is no more difficult than the other. This is what this one is. This is what this one is. And they present their own challenge. It’s all about what’s written. It’s all about story. It’s all about the character and you always design for the character and I always look at it which has helped me with my success. I always look at everything we do through my eyes as an actor as if I were playing the part. I don’t care if it’s a T-Rex or if it’s a guy with scissors for hands or it’s a werewolf. If I were playing the part, how would I want to look and how would I act and can I get that performance.

When you’re talking about humanoids, the performance has got to be for the person playing it. Therefore, how do I create it so I don’t take away from the actor? That was the big job for "Edward Scissorhands” to make sure that Johnny Depp could perform, that I wasn’t strapping him, that I was giving him freedom to be Edward Scissorhands, not stopping him from being able to act because he’s confined in something that doesn’t allow him to work. It’s the same thing with the werewolves, the same thing with the Skinwalkers. We had to design characters that helped these actors create the Skinwalkers, not hinder them.

We want to thank Stan Winston for his time! He is truly a legend. "Skinwalkers” opens in theaters on August 12th checkout the trailer for the film below!