Derek Mears - On-Set Interview
I've got a bellyful of cake and coffee, and I'm pretty comfortable now thanks to crafty on the set of the Friday the 13th remake. We're in an actual building, not a tent. It's kind of upscale for a location movie shoot, in spite of the occasional cockroach scuttling underfoot and the screech of tree bats drifting down from the eaves.
For several hours prior to this, heaven knows what might have been scuttling underfoot when I — along with a select few other genre journalists — were standing outside in mud and damp grass watching "Jason Voorhees" do his thing in the dead of night. Bats were definitely flitting in the tall trees that surround the location, but the movie lights kept them at bay. Crickets could be heard, and things were definitely going bump in the dark which had absolutely nothing to do with what the DP, Daniel Pearl, was getting on film.
As we huddled around video village to watch playbacks and to catch the actors for quick interviews between takes, the night seemed to zip by. But eventually, one gets hungry for dinner… at 3 or 4 a.m. After our break, we sat with Derek Mears, the strapping stuntman and actor who embodies the iconic role of Jason Voorhees in this Platinum Dunes incarnation. Although there have been several sequels and many Jasons, this is the very first all-new reimagining of the original, and Derek, a fanboy himself, couldn't be more enthused. Even as a fearless cockroach approaches his huge, booted foot…
Q: You've got some massive boots there. We can see, of course, but how would you describe your look in the this film?
Derek Mears: There are some well worn combat boots. This is supposed to be some high-fashioned T-shirt that costs a hundred dollars, but we use it cause it’s so thin so you can seen inside through the holes to [makeup man] see Scott [Stotard’s] chest piece. Once it’s all down, it’s up now cause I’m sweaty, you can see individual muscle movements under the shirt cause Scott put in so much detail. There’s a slight scoliosis in the body, a slight hump on the back and the deformation of the head. The piece is from the chest up.
I have a prosthetic eye that goes on which is really cool because Scott, being a fan, wanted to make sure it was as realistic as possible so it’s actually glued to my face and not the mask. If it were glued to the mask, when the mask moves the eye would move. This way it’s stationary. I really hate seeing horror movies where you see the guy with the dead eye and you can tell how fake it is because it never does anything, but they’re talking about putting in a CG eye blink, really fast, so you notice it but it’s very subtle.
The jacket that I’m wearing is actually two jackets sewn together, kind of a mishmash mess. The reason for that is when we did wardrobe there were so many jackets to choose from and one that I really dug had a textured collar, kind of a Dickies hunting jacket, and the other was a military jacket. They wanted to go with the military one, which was longer so you could see the movement more, and with a handheld camera it’d look a little freakier. So they took the top of the Dickies-type jacket and just sewed it on to the military jacket, then trimmed it down a bit.
I had to grow my fingernails out for the part, which was my Christian Bale commitment level (laughs). They told me if I used fakes they’d be popping off all the time, so of course I agreed to grow them out, and had to keep them when I left to get married, which my wife was thrilled about (laughs).
I have so many stories of catching them on things … I’ve been smashed in the face, punched, kicked and knocked silly in my career, but as soon as I get my fingernails long I’m like “Ow, they’re catching on the doorknob!” I just became a big sissy pants.
Q: How'd you come on board for this?
DM: Their vision of Jason was a bit slimmer, they imagined it more real so if you have a guy living in the middle of the woods he’s not going to be able to eat so much, you know? But he’s still lean and functional. So I told them when I met with them for this, “If you think I’m right for this, awesome, but as a fan I just want to see more Friday the 13th, so just keep doing it!”
Q: We understand you're really a Friday fan…?
DM: Back when videos were first available to rent at home, when you had to actually rent the VCR to watch the movies, the first two videos I watched were Friday the 13th one and two, and I just fell in love with the character. He’s a victim. He represents those people in high school who were different, the ones with the lisps or the hair lose, the outsiders and the misfits. Being rejected by society and the beautiful people. We’re not allowed, socially, to lash out and get our revenge, but Jason does, albeit it on a poor way. He just wants to be left alone but people kept crossing into his territory.
Growing up, I had alopecia so I was going through the issue of losing my hair very young. So when they did Part 4 with Tommy Jarvis, when he shaved his head and came downstairs, I could completely relate to that; I could identify with Jason!
It’s still so surreal to me. I watch the monitors and I just want this to be so good because I can’t believe that I’m being able to be Jason!
Q: What have you learned about acting from behind a mask?
DM: I started my career as an actor, then became a stuntman, so I had learned something from a friend of mine a long time back called Greek Mask Work. You have the mask, and you have the actor, and they’re two separate entities but depending on the combination you’ll get a different result every time. They asked me this when Scott put my name in for the job; they had been told they really needed an actor for this part, so they asked me to explain why I thought that was. I told them that, as an actor, I believe it doesn’t matter if you have something covering your head, as long as you’re in the right mindset it doesn’t matter. As long as you’re realizing, not to get all metaphysical, that we’re all made of energy and that the camera will pick that up, it will translate it so it’s relatable.
I used the symbolism like this is a NASCAR race; I’m the lucky one who gets to be the driver but the effects team are seeing things I can’t see, they’re my pit crew and will call me in when things aren’t looking right. So we work together as a team to get this character together. If you’re in the right mind-space and not just thinking that you’re a guy in a suit or behind a mask, it’ll come across.
Q: How do you make your Jason different?
DM: Growing up I was a fan of all the guys playing Jason, Hodder and Booker and Grahams, but again like the Greek mask work, when you put someone else in it no matter what their life experiences and what they’ve been through will make the character something else. I see it like handwriting; how you make a D and how I make a D are totally different, but it’s still a D. That’s what I’m trying to get across.
There are some homage shots, though. There’s one where I come through a window and grab somebody and I pointed out how it was similar to Part 2 when he comes through the window. So I’ll add those things in, but mainly I’ve been trying not to think of Jason as the character I grew up with but my take on him.
In my head, this Jason is a mixture of John Rambo from the first film, a little bit of Tarzan and the Abominable Snowman from Looney Tunes. You really see Jason thinking and planning in this one, setting people up, and in my opinion it’s very similar to First Blood where he’s been wronged, people invade his space and he fights back and it’s just brutal, but you also understand why he’s doing it. You have sympathy for the character.
You realize that this Jason is much more intelligent, he’s setting people up. There are scenes that you don’t think are a big deal, then later on you’re like “holy fuck, he just set that guy up!” Yeah, I’m really really excited because he’s a much smarter Jason.
I did some research for the character, reading up on survivalists and making things work in the wilderness, but also child development because the trauma that caused him to be like this happened when he was very young and saw his mom get killed when he was about 8 or 9. At that stage of development you’re starting to integrate yourself into society and seeing how society was already against him and his mother was the only tie to the world and she’s killed so early, he never had the chance to develop skills to deal with other people.
Throughout my career I’ve learned a lot about how to be in a suit for most of the day. The original suit was just one big piece but as you go on you realize what can be cut out so there’s more comfort. But learning how to work with those around you is most important. I do a lot of internet videos over at Channel 101, just playing around with my friends; that along, just being in different positions from writer to director, you start to really get a feel for what needs to be done so everyone is able to do their jobs better, what you can do to make that happen.
I’m really excited as an actor that they’ve really been listening to my input on things, letting me try moves again if they don’t feel right, that sort of thing. It’s been really great.
Q: You're so nice. We can see it, and everyone says so. How do you just switch over to being a cold, calculating killer?
DM: I have other friends who play “bad guys” who think they have to be mean and tough all the time, that they have to intimidate their fellow cast members, they can’t hang out with them. Buy my theory is that we’re all actors, so we should be able to be both. When you do a fight scene you know you don’t have to go full force, and since I specialize in fighting from my stunt background I know how to make it look really intense without scaring the people I’m working with.
It’s funny; when I was first cast I was hanging out with Brad and Drew (Platinum Dunes) and we’d go out to suishi and have a good time and they were like “you’re really nice …you can switch right?” (laughs) and I was saying “Of course, I will totally do a switch … I have a lot of dad issues” (laughs). Then once they see me switch over, they were convinced.
It’s a mindset. I call it “fight mode”. You can be fun and jovial before a shoot but when the cameras start rolling, you get that visual of going into the ring, envision what your goal is, and you can channel the anger.
Q: How do you work your machete magic here?
DM: I’m very privileged to have learned from so many great teachers with my stunt background, but even with that with one eye covered up my depth perception is totally off. So one of the tricks of the trade is you space out how many steps you can come in without hitting something. I had a scene where I had to go over Amanda with a real machete and I made sure that, even though I couldn’t see her, I could slide my foot against her while she was kneeling, I know my leg is here and I’m not going to cut my own leg… it’s always jut plotting your course.
Q: Does your stuntman background come in handy for the actual "acting" moments as well?
DM: I see it as a left brain/right brain sort of thing. People ask me “are you a stunt man or are you an actor” and I can see myself on both sides. If you’re doing a fight scene with an actor, the actor gets very emotional and very into the moment and that’s what you’re focusing on, you’re not focusing on angles and looking good for the camera. As a stunt person going through a fight, you see it more logical, where you’re going to step and how many beast before I swing, that sort of thing.
Q: Is your performance background mostly stunts?
DM: My background is actually improv comedy, so I see myself as an actor before a stuntman. What got me interested in acting in general was playing Dungeons and Dragons, actually, the role-playing aspect. I moved on to high school drama, and then joined up with a comedy troupe, I was their youngest comic at 17, and decided to move to L.A. when I was about 25. My first audition was for the Universal Studios Wild, Wild, Wild West Stunt Show and about half the cast were actors and half were stunt performers, so the actors were taught stunts and the stunt people were taught acting. At the time I had “comedy body”, I was really out of shape, and the guys they cast were either huge Conan looking guys or heavyset hillbilly looking guys.
So I started hanging out and ended up getting cast in a short film, got my SAG card really fast, and some of my friend were stunt people and they’d invite me when they’d go out to practice stunts and that’s how I learned. Early on they told me “you need to decide if you’re an actor or a stunt man” and I was like “why can’t you do both?”.
At the time I was also taking a class that basically taught us that movies these days are modern myths and you need to find your archetype in that myth. I realized then that if I started working out, I could become a big bad guy for TV and film … so I started training hardcore, started eating right and dropped my weight down, then got my first big break which was Wild Wild West, the movie, ironically. That’s where I met Rick Baker for the first time, actually, and he pointed out because of my physical attributes I fit in perfectly with what they wanted for stunts. From there I just kept meeting more and more people in this industry and it keeps getting better and better!
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Staci Layne Wilson reporting
For more details on the actual set visit and what was shot, please read our article