Sid Haig Q&A

Outspoken and always provocative, Sid Haig, the veteran actor (Spider Baby, 1968) and evergreen horror icon (he embodied the character of Captain Spaulding as one of writer/director Rob Zombie's indelible "Devil's Rejects"), sat down recently with horror.com to talk about his professional plans, and his political aspirations.

Sid Haig:  Professionally, I would like to do maybe two to three pictures a year, but really quality stuff. Films that are meaningful. Personally, I just love interacting with the fans going to conventions and stuff.

Staci Layne Wilson / Horror.com: Do you really? Because you see, to me it seems like it would be a grind. All that traveling and glad-handing.

Sid Haig:  I just have fun. I have fun with the people. Professionally I just want to do good work, you know, and there are some films that I want to make. I want to, because it's a part of my culture. I want to do a film on the Armenian genocide. That has never been done because the State Department will not let it be done. So it would have to be done as a foreign film. Because for some bizarre reason, we need these baby killers as allies, because we need their air bases in the Middle East so that we can stick our nose where it doesn't belong. That's politics and that's the way that goes.

You sell yourself out, when you do that. You sell your country short when you do that. 1.5 million people were murdered throughout the Armenian Holocaust, and hardly anyone knows anything about it. They don't teach it in school. Because the jerks to this day refuse to acknowledge the fact that it ever happened. They say yes, a lot of people died, but it was because of overzealous young Turkish soldiers, that just took it upon themselves to go do this. Well that's bullshit. So that story needs to be told and I would love to be the person that can tell those kinds of stories.

I think your political outlook is pretty impressive and interesting. Who do you think our next President should be?

Sid Haig:  It should be me. I'm serious. It should be me because I see what's going on. And I see how to fix it. A lot of people who are running for office right now feel that they have the right idea, but they are still stuck in the status quo. First of all, they are fighting for themselves. There's no such thing as public servants anymore. It's “How do I get elected, and how do I stay in office?”

While still doing all these other scandalous things that hoping nobody will find out about… but they will.

Sid Haig:  Eventually, they will. It's scandalous what they're doing. They are giving our country away. I find nothing wrong with immigration, if it weren't for immigration all of this would be trees and rocks. Our Native Americans emigrated from the Bering Straits and populated North and South America. I see nothing wrong with it, when it's done legally. When you break the law you pay the price. Don't play the family card. Don't say you can't deport me because it's going to break up my family. You know what, you should've thought about your family before you committed a crime.

And all of the test scores in schools are suffering because it's easier for a kid to live within his own culture than assimilate the new culture. And most immigrants don't want to assimilate they want to remain autonomous. Well, you know what?  If you're going to be a part of this country you are going to have to shape up. My grandfather and my grandmother on both sides of my family came here as immigrants. They learn the language right away. They took the citizenship test in English: no translator, no pictures.

I mean, it's gotten so bad that in fast food restaurants there are little buttons that they press on the cash register. The employee doesn't even have to read the name of the product. It's a picture of a hamburger and a picture of an order of french fries. Excuse me, no… You'll learn the language, you will respect the laws of the country, or you'll get out. That's it, nobody said that you had the rights to do anything. You have the right to shape up to be a part of the society. Not to start a separate society. To become part of the society you obey the rules. You do what is right for your family, and you do what's right for your country. Somebody sent me an e-mail that said, oh… it was George Carlin said here's the way he saw the immigration problem: These guys want to become citizens put them in a uniform, give them a gun, send them to Iraq with a canteen of water and let them fight for their country and then when they come back, they can become citizens. If they don't want to do that send them to Iraq without the gun or canteen.

That would separate the men from the boys, wouldn't it?

Sid Haig:  You used to be able to do that in this country when you came in as an immigrant. And you signed up for the armed services, and you served your term. You have the right to become a citizen, because you helped to defend the country. It sounds good to me.

There are 400,000 people coming across our borders, illegally, every year. And what are the politicians worried about? Those 12 million votes. There is a documented 12 million illegal aliens in this country so they are going to do everything that they can to get those 12 million votes. They’ll promise them anything. What about the rest of us, who were born here, or who worked for our citizenship papers? That made a contribution to this society, what about those people? They’re not equal in the eyes of the law anymore, and that is the deterioration of the society. Look at any fall in any culture in history, and that was one defining reason for a fall. When the culture gets dissipated, assimilated by other cultures, when law becomes a joke, something to be manipulated, then society falls.

You don’t have to take a test to become a politician. You have to take a test to become a barber. But you don’t have to take a test to become a politician. They should all be able to take a test - and pass 2/3's at least - on the Constitution and the history of the United States of America.

That’s a great point.

Sid Haig:  You know what, 90% of them would fail if you gave them that test today.

George W. Bush wouldn't be able to find the pencil. Do you think that our major problems are at all solvable within our lifetimes? I mean, the political system seems so unbelievably f'ed up, I don't know if we can ever get out of this.

Sid Haig:  We can, but it takes assertiveness. It takes some drastic changes. It takes the oriental philosophy towards art to make changes. You know, less is more. You have to do that. You have to make some drastic changes in order for anything to change. If you do stuff half assed, that's what you are going to get, a half assed result. It's not going to be anything better than what we have right now.

First of all, you have to get people running against the establishment who are vibrant and vital people to stir something inside you that makes you want to get out there and vote for that person.

I did vote for Bill Clinton both times, and that's the only time I ever voted in a presidential election.

Sid Haig:  There you go. And why did you do that?

Because I watched all the debates and found that I was interested in him as a dynamic person who seemed very proactive, intelligent and accessible.

Sid Haig:  Yeah, and he was. And during his term of office, our economy was in better shape than it had been in the previous 12 years. People had more disposable income. They were happier. His one indiscretion, he plays around with this girl who her friends called a star-fucker, and that was it. Almost every president that we have in this country has had that problem. Buchanan was the worst. There is a report that says that his wife was trying to get into a closet where he was screwing his secretary. And she was being held at bay by Secret Service agents. Well, Jesus, how much more promiscuous can you get than that? That's pretty out there. People love people in power. You're never going to change that.

I don't want to take up any more of your time, so I'll close by saying that it's you that are reading this right now that are the ones that can make change happen.

The catch phrase for the last couple of elections has been "Rock the Vote". Well, let's really show them how to "Rock the Vote". What I would like you to do, is to register to vote and on Election Day write in the name Sid Haig for President. Will I win..? Hell, no. But we can sure make some people nervous as hell.

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Visit the official Sid Haig Website at SidHaig.com