Terrence Stamp Talks SuperMan

In a recent interview where we sat down with Terrence Stamp we had an interesting moment where he talked about his role in the original Superman as General Zod. Here is what he said;

There are certain films that change your life. I hadn’t worked for about 10 years when I got the Superman offer and I was very nervous because it was apparent that they just wanted like an ugly and I had the feeling that they were going to just like me ugly and dress me ugly and give me ugly stuff to say. And I had a friend at the time, he was a Baron, a Dutch Baron, he was called Frederick von Pallandt and he was a very wise guy. He was a bit older than me. And I said, “I’m having doubts about this.” And he said, “You shouldn’t really have doubts about it because for loads of kids, Superman movies will be the first movie they ever go to see. And by the time they grow up, there’ll be more people who want to be like Zod than Superman. So you really shouldn’t worry about it. You should just be as ugly and as horrible as you can be.” And it kind of came to pass, you know.

I’m just thinking of a funny example. We didn’t have a bathroom when I was a boy, so I became a clean freak very early and if I can get into a steam bath, I do, and especially after a jet flight. So I was taken to a steam bath in New York and I walked in and I undressed. And it was just all guys, you know. And I said to somebody, “Where are the loin clothes?” They said, “Oh, they’re at the front.” So I walked to the front. Very little loin cloth, like a little towel. And I’m not…a lot of guys in the steam bath, they go there to be nude, you know. [laughter] I’m walking back towards the steam and I see in front of me three enormous guys, two of which are black, and they’re just kind of staring at me and I revert to my East End spiv mode. So I just walked straight towards them and as I got close, one of the black guys said, “Are you that Zod guy?” And I said, “Smile when you say that!” [laughter] And there were these three big grins. So whenever I see big, fierce guys staring at me, I know they recognize the General.

Look for Sheilas entire interview with Terrence Stamp tomorrow!