Exclusive: Bill Moseley from "The Devil's Rejects" (2)

Part 2 of 2

Yeah, right. Otis doesn’t kill everyone he encounters. Even though he is a necrophiliac, he had no intention of killing the ladies in Charlie’s Frontier Town brothel.

No. No, I was starting to work out with Candy [before something else happened]. Actually, I’m not sure if it’ll ever make it to DVD but Candy and Otis did a lot together. Rob just loved our chemistry [E.G. Daily plays Candy]. We had a lot of funny scenes. She was not going to screw me, basically, and it was like ‘Come on!’ She was holding a gun on me, we were drunk, we were dancing to crappy music, wrestling. And there was even a menu that she had given me to show all the different things that were available for a fee. It was really funny. I remember there was a Japanese Hot Wax Dip… I go, ‘What’s that?’ and she goes, ‘Well, that’s where we dip your balls in hot wax.’ And I’m like, ‘Wait a minute!’ [laughs]

So there, Otis finds his love interest. When you think about the lines to the song on the soundtrack, ‘Fooled around and fell in love; I must have been through a million girls,’ you know. Unfortunately, the million girls wound up dead. But he likes Candy — he’s got that great pick up line, ‘I set my sights low, that way I’m never disappointed.’

Charming, indeed.

That was love at first sight for them.

You were talking about Otis’s family loyalties. When I saw the movie I definitely did not think that Otis was Capt. Spaulding’s son, but some of the reviews I’ve read say otherwise.

Oh god, no. The one thing we all have in common is Mother Firefly [played by Leslie Easterbrook]. She’s kind of like the queen in the movie ‘Aliens’. She’s the broodmare. She sleeps with a lot of different characters and ends up with a lot of children, all of whom are related. Baby’s Father is Capt. Spaulding. Otis’s father… we’re never really sure. I tend to think his father is Dr. Satan. Tiny’s father is Earl, the red monster who chases the girl with an ax at the end of ‘House’.

I think it’s interesting how the fans have made up some mythology to justify the big changes in the characters’ looks from ‘House’ to ‘Rejects’ — one brilliant observation was that Otis was in costume as an albino for Halloween in the first movie, so that’s why he looks normal now.

Yeah, I like that. It’s fun for the fans to try and justify the changes, but I just took them as very interesting and insightful ways to make a whole new movie on Rob’s part. He jumped genres, almost — I mean, ‘Rejects’ is kind of a horror movie and that’s how they’re marketing it, but really it is a violent crime picture. A Peckinpah-style Western/Action/Adventure. I think it’s really interesting that Rob not only changed genres, but also really changed our looks. Capt. Spaulding’s makeup isn’t really in the new movie, but his teeth are a lot narlier. The teeth this time are really black and funky.

Another question about differences — I read an interview with Sheri in ‘Femme Fatales’ magazine, and she was saying that the ice cream scene, which is so funny and light in the finished ‘Rejects’ film, was originally shot as serious and so emotional that Baby was actually crying. Is that true?

I don’t remember that. So I’d have to defer to her younger, clearer brain. I don’t remember it as such, but I do remember that it was a tough scene for me to play. Because actually we were driving, and I was the one piloting the vehicle, which was that funky Banjo & Sullivan van. We were driving along narrow back roads in the California hills, and Sheri expressed to me that she was a little nervous [laughs] with me behind the wheel.

So you guys weren’t being towed for that?

No. That actually worked for me in terms of… actors talk about obstacles and challenges in the scene of whatever, and so that kept me focused and [laughs] made whatever Baby and Spaulding were doing annoying and peripheral. I really was trying to keep us alive and also there was a camera crew in the van, and Rob… I mean, there were a lot of people in there. I like that scene because it really plays as if it was filmed by a fly on the wall, and not ten people in the van with sound equipment and cameras. I glad to keep it on the road! [laughs]

I was also glad Rob kept the take in where [Otis gets ice cream on him]. Several of the takes show her just brandishing the ice cream, but there was only one where she got it on my nose.

Are you an actor who likes to make up a whole entire back-story about your character that only you know?

I don’t really need to, and that’s not actually part of my preparation.

I’m glad to hear you say that. I’ve always thought that sounded a little silly.

That’s not my job. My job is to basically take what I’m given and just become familiar enough with it so that my imagination fills some stuff in. I don’t really need to know all that stuff. There’s usually plenty of information given any given screenplay that will inform you generally who you are, and specifically what you need to know or do.

What’s been your own family’s reaction to the Otis character?

My 88 year old mother has not seen ‘House’, although I think it pains her not to be able to… but she’s a good church lady. I recommended that maybe she not see ‘Rejects’ either. There’s a part of her, you know, the stage mother, that really wants to go see them to support the efforts of one of her kids… so, she really hasn’t been able to do that. She’s pestering me to send her a bunch of posters and stuff. My older brother saw ‘House’ and he liked it… he said. [laughs] My brothers and I share the same sensibilities, and a bond that would allow them to enjoy the movies [as I do]. They’re not resounding horror fans, though.

What about your wife and older daughter?

Neither of my kids have seen it yet, but I went with Lucinda [Jenney] to see it on Saturday night. I dragged her along, and… actually, she wanted to see it. She’s acted for 20+ years, so she liked my performance in it. She did a lot of covering her eyes [laughs]… she’s not necessarily a horror fan either, but she soldiered through it commendably. She had a lot actor’s insights into different scenes and performances, and I think that’s how she was able to deal with it. She was kind of clinical about it.

My 18-year-old daughter… I certainly don’t want to go see it with her. I’ve suggested that she not see it at all, but she probably will.

What do you think of the online petition to the old fogies on the Oscar Nomination Committee? It says they should consider your performance for an Academy Award.

I think it’s very cute, and I do appreciate it. It’s certainly flattering. I hope it ends up with 10 million signatures! [laughs] If this juggernaut starts to roll, well hey — I definitely have on my mantle for an Oscar. Right between the smog monster and a wooden statue of Buckethead.

If you did win, I’d like to hope that you won’t be thanking your lawyer and your publicist.

Well you know, I’d have to get those first in order to do that.

You’re in a band with the infamous Buckethead, called ‘Cornbugs’. I have not yet sampled your oeuvres, but… I was reading that it’s alternative-progressive rock. Is that right?

[pauses] That was the best we could come up with. Alt-prog.

OK, well… I’m in a quandary. I generally like alternative, but hate progressive. So which is the stronger leaning?

I have no idea what progressive rock is. [laughs]

It’s like Yes, ELP, Genesis…

No. But there’s no easy category description for ‘Cornbugs’. I keep saying it’s like ‘Primus’, but that’s not right either. First of all, there’s no bass guitar in ‘Cornbugs’. There’s only bass guitar when Buckethead plays only the bass. There are never two guitars at any one time. I make up the words and vocalize them.

Just on the spot?

Yeah, sometimes. Some of the lyrics are poems or different song lyrics that I’ve written, but I’d say more than 50% of ‘Cornbugs’ is improvised. All of our music is made-up. We don’t rehearse or practice. All five of our CDs have first take - only take songs.

Sounds almost like jazz-metal.

[laughs] Jazz-metal. There you go. I like that better than alt-prog.

It’s yours.

Going back a little ways, now… I think it’s remarkable that you were a writer and journalist — especially since you’re a man of such few words in your emails. Writing generally takes a lot of… writing! [laughs]

[Doesn’t laugh]

[Uh-oh… I think I insulted ‘Otis’!]

I did that for about 10-15 years in New York, right out of college. I worked for a lot of different magazines — one of my bigger employers was a science magazine called ‘Omni’. I also worked for ‘Interview’ magazine, ‘National Lampoon’, and ‘Psychology Today’. I tended to like science and entertainment.

What did you write for ‘Psychology Today’?

In the early 90s I was in a play where I was Timothy Leary. It was a fiction, and it was about an imaginary night when Timothy Leary and Charles Manson were in fact historically side-by-side in solitary at San Quentin for one night. Using that as the foundation, the playwright Tim Reihl, wrote ‘Timothy and Charlie’ using this dialogue between them that that actually ends up in them dropping acid together and roaring out their polemics from one cell to the other.

It was a cool play. Timothy Leary loved it. He came to at least seven performances, sometimes stumbling in… one night he kicked over the floor lights. Some members of The Manson Family showed up one night. I mean, it was a pretty wild crowd. Timothy Leary loved my performance of him, because instead of trying to act intellectual, I’d play him like… Timothy Leary is from Southie in Boston, where I had lived for a couple of years, and he was a tough Irish kid. I was able to sound erudite, but at the same time I wasn’t taking any crap.

I remember calling up my editor at ‘Psychology Today’, Hara Marano, and asking if they would like an interview with Timothy Leary, and she said sure. So I went up to his house and have a nice interview with him. He guided me through the interview. He said, ‘You know, I think this is a better question than that one…’

Really?

Oh, yeah. He was very helpful. [laughs] After that, I became really good friends with him, and his son Zach.

Another piece I did for ‘Psychology Today’ was about single parenting my then-six year old daughter. A photographer followed us around, and I kept a journal about the father/daughter [relationship] and stuff like that.

Since you are a wordsmith, I hope that you’ll be willing to play a little word-association game with me.

Sure.

I will name off some of your costars from ‘Rejects’ and you just say the first word that pops into your mind.

Go.

Sid Haig – “larger-than-life”

Sheri Moon – “beautiful”

William Forsythe – “intense”

Ken Foree – “funny”

Matthew McGrory – “big”

Leslie Easterbrook – “loud”

Geoffrey Lewis – “smart”

Priscilla Barnes  - “huggable”

Kate Norby – “sexy”

Lew Temple – “twang”

E.G. Daily – “ice-cream”

Brian Polsen – “hilarious”

I hope that there’s sort of a Quentin Tartino ripple effect for all those actors… Rob did such a good job directing everyone.

Yeah. It’s an extreme piece of entertainment and I think that that’s the risk you take in pushing the envelope. When I was working for ‘Omni’, one of the stories I covered in the late 70s/early 80s, back in New York, was subway graffiti art. I went into the history and everything, and learned that in a lot of these risky things there are the pioneers. There are the ones who actually climbed up on the ceiling of Grand Central Station and left a tag. A lot of times, the pioneers may get the glory historically but not necessarily the money. It seems like the people who take advantage of the ground broken by the first through, end up maybe exploiting those pioneering ideas more fully and more financially.

‘Rejects’ is so extreme, and it’s such a groundbreaker in terms of what’s out in the movies these days, it might just be off-putting to a lot of people. But maybe the next ‘Rejects’-like movie that comes along will take advantage of a little thawing in the MPAA, or find that the culture is starting to wrap their heads around extreme entertainment. I’m not so sure if Rob isn’t paying a price, but at the same time, I don’t know if anybody thought that this movie was going to bring in everybody in America… they would have been sorely mistaken. [laughs]

Yes, I think it’s a very special sort of movie. Not for the masses. But a classic, for sure.

Yeah, it’s a special movie for a specialized audience. I was online at Box Office Mojo to see what the estimate was, and they said $7 million. But one of the things I noticed when visiting some of the horror message boards, like HorrorChannel.com and Fangoria.com, — even the posts on my own website Choptopsbbq.com — is that a lot of people went to see it on Sunday. Maybe the Box Office Mojo estimation curve goes: starts on Friday, big day Saturday, tapers off on Sunday. So I’m thinking maybe the hardcore horror fans were packing the seats on Sunday just as heavy as they would on Saturday.

Well, you know they weren’t in church on Sunday!

Yeah, that’s right.

I’m going to pay to see it again — that’s how much I liked it.

Oh, good. Well, thanks. You know, I’ve seen it five times and I actually enjoyed it more the fifth time. Prior to that I was seeing it at screenings and premieres in companied situations where a lot of people were keeping an eye on my reactions. So I had that comfortable, man in the theater viewing on Saturday. I just enjoyed it.

So, what is next on Mr. Bill’s agenda?

I have a 3:20 audition today for a guest lead on Crossing Jordan. I’m going up for the part of Teddy DuBois. Teddy is a biker with a heart of gold.

I think you’ll nail it.

Thanks.

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That’s one of the cool things about Moseley — he’s refreshing in that he doesn’t give the stock actor answers. When I asked about his agenda, I was fully expecting the usual long-term goals and planned projects one always hears about from actors… Or the old, ‘I have something, but I can’t talk about it right now.’

Moseley, like Otis, is a straight shooter.

[end]

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Interview by Staci Layne Wilson