H2: Halloween II – Malcolm McDowell
H2: Halloween II – Malcolm McDowell
Round Table Interview
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Staci Layne Wilson reporting
Here is a bit of the usual (and lovely!) piss-n-vinegar from the one and only Malcolm McDowell, who is back in Halloween-Loomis mode for H2, opening this weekend. This is a Q&A from our roundtables, but I'll have much more Malcolmy, less H2ey, piece posted soon from my 1:1 100% exclusive interview with him.
Q: Tyler has seen the film, but Danielle and Brea have not. Have you seen it yet?
Malcolm McDowell: No, I see it tonight. My one and only time I will see it.
Q: Do you have trouble watching horror movies?
McDowell: I’m not really a fan. I’d rather watch a really good sophisticated comedy myself, but there you are. I don’t mind being in them. It’s all make-up, let’s face it, and they’re kind of fun to do. As a member of the audience, it’s not my thing, but I know people love them.
Q: I find it really interesting in that here’s a movie where it’s literally you’re in your own movie up until the last few minutes. There’s no like Loomis has to go and stop Michael Myers. Loomis has to get his book out. I thought it was a real interesting choice. Were you attracted to that?
McDowell: Yes, I didn’t want to do a repeat of what I did in the first one, running after Michael Myers and me going into the town, all that bullshit. I did all that. I didn’t want to do that again, and Rob knew that. Also, I didn’t want to play the same part. I mean, I have the same name, but he’s been through a life-threatening experience, and I figured that would make him a total asshole. That was great fun. Also, it needed light moments because there’s a lot of dark stuff in this script. And so, stuff like the TV show with Mr. Weird was sort of fun. [Laughter] I mean, he’s such a buffoon, you know, Loomis, really. And you know, a lot of doctors that I’ve known through the years have been very ego driven, and I think that was a fun way to go for me.
Q: The girls said the original cut was four hours long, so I’m sure there’s a lot more.
McDowell: A lot more, probably. I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know what’s in and what’s out.
Q: Did you do different endings and stuff?
McDowell: I think the ending is pretty much the same. They just wanted big inserts and stuff like that so we did all that. Then they wanted a cast of my head so they could rip it off, but you know, I’ll be back for the next one. [Laughter] No, but you know, what are they going to do? [Laughter]
Q: So you’d play Loomis again if they came back to you?
McDowell: Sure! If they’d paid up. [Laughter] Like getting blood out of a stone out of the Weinsteins. [Laughter] But hey, listen, they had a good opening weekend, thank God. I’m very glad for them.
Q: Did you see Inglourious Bastards?
McDowell: No, but I want to go see it. I hear it’s fantastic.
Q: They use the song from Cat People by David Bowie.
McDowell: Wow, that’s interesting.
Q: One observation: my wife was sitting next to me watching this and she was just [disgusted] during the gore. The only thing that kept her in the theater and not throwing up outside was your segments.
McDowell: I was only needed [for] eight days filming on the piece. I’m not in it that much. There’s only so much you can do throwing a guy in a book tour. What do you do? It was kind of fun doing things like the book shop when the guy comes in wants to blow his head off. Loomis, the big hero is going, “Call 911!”
Q: Was there a lot of improv for you?
McDowell: All improv.
Q: Really?
McDowell: Pretty much everything, yeah. Rob had written a sort of road map and then we filled it all in. I had a wonderful actress, Mary, whatever her name is, Mary, to work with. She was absolutely great. She was lovely.
Q: The line of calling Weird Al Yankovic “Mr. Weird,” when Loomis is on that talk show — that was your idea?
McDowell: I thought that was his name. I seriously did. I thought he was Mr. Weird. I think Loomis would have thought that he was “Mr. Weird.” Seems like a weird name, but people are weird, aren’t they?
Q: It was a nice touch, also. After you left the studio it was like you were grateful for it all.
McDowell: Yeah, I mean, Loomis isn’t so passive. He’s going, “I’ve never been so humiliated!” and then, [breezily] “Bye!” It’s so typical, isn’t it? There’s plenty of humor there. It was fun. I don’t know whether all of the stuff in the limo is still there. Is it?
Q: A lot of limo stuff is in there.
McDowell: Oh good. We were laughing so hard we were crying. “Get your fat ass in there! Go get me a latte!” or “PG tips - a little milk,” and all that kind stuff.
Q: It’s in there.
McDowell: Oh it is? Oh wow.
Q: Did you find that the fan reaction after…because obviously Don Pleasence created the character…
McDowell: Don Pleasence is a great actor. I knew him briefly. I met him at the Royal Court and had a drink with him one night. We were watching a play and then at the interval I saw him at the bar and sat with him. He was a wonderful guy, a great actor. Nobody did that sort of creepy. He wasn’t when he did Loomis, but his main thing was this sort of ominous kind of creepy character that he could do. He did it in Bond and all these things. He was a brilliant actor, no question about it. For me to take over for him, I guess it was much harder for the fans than for me. I just did my own thing. I chose not to see the original Halloweens because I did not want to be influenced by him. Of course, we all know what a great actor he was. I just did my thing and hopefully people liked it. I think the fans liked it.
Q: It worked really well. You’re the only person, I think, who could have pulled this off.
McDowell: Oh, there’s so many. [But] Thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment.
Q: I’m a big Halloween fan.
McDowell: Are you? How did you like this one?
Q: I always said after the first one that I want to see what Rob does with the second one when he doesn’t have baggage of the original movie. I like that he went in a different direction.
McDowell: Good. I think that’s great. That’s why I liked it. “What’s the point in doing the same [thing]?” That’s what I said to Rob when he told me, “Look, we’re going to do a sequel. You’ve got to do it.” I said, “I don’t want to do the same bullshit running after him like warning everyone about this crazy man. Fuck that. Let the cherub do all that.” So I got to really play such an asshole. I mean, Loomis is such a buffoon that he’s sort of like Malvolio in Twelfth Night in a way. He’s such an ego, really, but haven’t we all met people like this? I know I have. I just get a great kick out of pulling their legs a bit.
Q: Do you think his motivation was purely promotional to go after Michael Myers at the end or do you think there was a sincerity in him?
McDowell: Look, I think the thing is once you’ve had a taste for money, it’s a strong element. Obviously, it seems that Loomis has only got one patient [Laughter] and it would appear how good of a doctor can this man be? He’s been his patient for seventeen years. He escapes and kills half the town. [Laughter] So I would say that the therapy is not working. That’s what I would say. Also, the script that I read, I realized it was very dark, and it needed lightening up, but not in a fake way; in a real way. You can’t cheat it. You have to do it real. The situation is sort of funny. When everybody else is a drug addict, depression, he’s in limos, presidential suits, and then really complaining about an old photograph. I mean, that was a pure adlib. I went, “Jesus! I’ve got a beard here! Do you see a beard?” [on me now] I went off. [Laughter] It was fun, and she was great. She’d come right back at me.
Q: She was. I want to know if I’ve seen her some where before.
McDowell: She’s on the Comedy Channel on a show that’s basically improvised. Yeah, she really is a wonderful actress, and immediately we got it. I think this first scene I was chatting up this pretty girl and she comes and bugs me, and I’m going, “What? Take my coffee and get your fat ass in there.” She was happy with it. No problem at all.
Q: The world of Halloween movies are very anachronistic in that they sort of reside in the 70s but they’re still…there’s no cell phones. There are a lot of different things, but there’re big screen TVs and stuff. How much does Rob talk about how anachronistic the movie needs to be?
McDowell: He doesn’t at all. It’s just what it is. It’s what it is. [But] I do have a cell phone. My first appearance I think I’m on the phone in the limo. In the actual shot I squashed her into the wall in the hotel because he wanted to write this part because of personal experience that he had, which we’d both had. It was fun. Take the piss out of that. No names, no pack drill as they say.
Q: Did he tell you straight off that there’d be improv in the film? Was that attractive to you?
McDowell: No, that’s Rob’s way. You work with Rob, you better come prepared. Even on the read through, I barely even looked at the script. I just went off. I think it relaxes people. He has parameters and boundaries that you stick to and then everything is pretty much fair game. Mind you, having said that, I think he cuts most of it out of the film.
[end]
Also see:
Exclusive Interview with Malcolm McDowell [soon]