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Episode: Episode 615: Vampire Talk with Doug Jones
Author: Morbid Network | Wondery
Duration: 00:57:20
Episode Shownotes
Weirdos! Are you ready to talk about Vampires? Today we are joined by the ICONIC actor Doug Jones, the nicest monster in Hollywood! He has played everyone from Billy Butcherson in the Hocus Pocus films, the Fawn & the Pale Man in Pan’s Labyrinth, to the Amphibian Man in the
Academy Award winning film The Shape of Water, as well as the titular role in David Lee Fisher’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror available NOW on AppleTV, Amazon Prime, and other purchasing platforms! We ask him about his experience playing the hilarious Baron Afanas on What We Do in the Shadows which entered its final season on October 21st on FX! Ash tops off the episode telling us about a vampire legend from Poland. It has goat throwing! It has pacts with the devil! It has supernatural halitosis! It is the vampire story that keeps giving, hopefully, with the aid of our friend Dougie, will come to a theater near you at some point in the future! Looking for the Full story of Cuntius?? Visit https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/An_Antidote_Against_Atheism/Book_III/Chapter_IXSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Summary
In Episode 615 of the Morbid podcast, titled 'Vampire Talk with Doug Jones,' the hosts engage the acclaimed actor Doug Jones to discuss his extensive career, notably his role as Baron Afanas in 'What We Do in the Shadows.' Jones reflects on the influence of creature effects artists on his journey and shares his admiration for Guillermo del Toro's directorial approach. The episode also features intriguing Polish vampire legends, combining humor and horror, while exploring complex themes of vampirism, character transformation, and the artistry involved in embodying these mythical figures.
Go to PodExtra AI's episode page (Episode 615: Vampire Talk with Doug Jones) to play and view complete AI-processed content: summary, mindmap, topics, takeaways, transcript, keywords and highlights.
Full Transcript
00:00:00 Speaker_02
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00:02:21 Speaker_02
And I'm Alaina.
00:02:22 Speaker_01
And I'm Doug Jones.
00:02:24 Speaker_02
And we have a very special episode of Morbid today.
00:02:40 Speaker_03
Whoo, Doug Jones is here, guys. Weirdos. We, I mean, Doug Jones is an absolute icon, to be perfectly honest. And also, we can also say that he is the nicest monster in Hollywood.
00:02:54 Speaker_03
Because we have had to reschedule this pod twice because of just various shenanigans that occur. Nicest man ever. Like, truly, if it was going to happen with everyone, anyone, I'm glad it happened with Doug. So thank you for being so patient with us.
00:03:10 Speaker_01
Oh, and you, me. I love you guys.
00:03:13 Speaker_03
No, we love you.
00:03:14 Speaker_01
We love you.
00:03:15 Speaker_03
So Doug has breathed life into roles like The Fawn and The Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth. Those are two of my favorites, like all-time favorites. So good. The Amphibian Man in the Academy Award-winning film The Shape of Water.
00:03:28 Speaker_03
His resume includes the roles of Billy Butcherson, iconic from Hocus Pocus. Baron Alphinos on what we do in the shadows, as well as the titular role in David Lee Fisher's upcoming film, Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror.
00:03:45 Speaker_03
And we are just so excited to have him on the pod today. So again, thank you so much for joining us.
00:03:50 Speaker_01
Oh, thank you. And I can't live up to that introduction. I think we're done here. You already have.
00:03:54 Speaker_03
Thank you.
00:03:54 Speaker_01
So, like we just said, your resume is mighty. Like, one of the mightiest.
00:04:06 Speaker_03
We have to ask, how are you able to do all that, to be all that, to personify all that, and still keep your feet on the ground and truly be the nicest monster in Hollywood?
00:04:17 Speaker_01
Oh, well, thank you for thinking of me in that manner. I don't deserve it. I love you for that. You do. You know, it's funny. My resume is long, not because I'm really that good. It's just because I'm that old. I've been around a while, you know? So...
00:04:33 Speaker_01
I've been, my career has happened because of the graciousness and kindness of the Creature Effects makeup people, honestly.
00:04:40 Speaker_01
If it wasn't for their referrals early on that propelled me to the next project and the next one and the next one, I never would have met the, you know, the wonderful Rolodex of directors I have now worked with, including the ever great Guillermo del Toro.
00:04:56 Speaker_01
It's because of those early days. You know, when you come to Hollywood, Landon, you're a tall, skinny, goofy actor boy, 6'3", 135 pounds, and you have a background as a mime, and you can also put your legs behind your head.
00:05:11 Speaker_01
So your resume says contortionist on it. There you go. So that was like my first commercial agent's dream. It's like, okay, we can do so much with this.
00:05:20 Speaker_01
Yeah, so they submitted me for all kinds of things that were physical tomfoolery and clowning and miming, of course. And a lot of those roles that came with that kind of breakdown also came with a look that needed to be glued on to me.
00:05:34 Speaker_01
So those early commercials that I did, the very first commercial I ever did was for Southwest Airlines as a dancing mummy. I love it. Right. How that worked into an airline, I'll never remember.
00:05:46 Speaker_01
And I think the fares had dropped low enough that I could finally come out of my sarcophagus and go on vacation. I think that's how it worked. And then shortly after that, I booked a commercial for a World of Wonder toys for a doll commercial.
00:05:58 Speaker_01
And I was an alien landing in a kid's backyard. And I thought I was making first contact because the doll was left out and it was a talking doll that, you know, you push it on the belly. It's like that tickles, whatever.
00:06:08 Speaker_01
So it was like a funny little, oh, we're first contact, but it was, yeah. That Creature Effects makeup designer that made those alien outfits for that commercial then also was doing the moon head for the Mac Tonight campaign for McDonald's.
00:06:23 Speaker_03
I remember those so vividly.
00:06:25 Speaker_01
Right, well, it's set to the theme song taken from Mac the Knife, but rebranded for McDonald's as Mac Tonight. I love it. It's Mac Tonight, hey, yeah.
00:06:37 Speaker_01
So I ended up booking that job as the Crescent Moonhead guy under this huge, heavy mask, also created by Steve Neal. So I was already getting a taste of, ah, the Creature Effects world is tight and almost incestuous.
00:06:52 Speaker_01
And, you know, and they like they're very loyal. So if they like working with you. So the reputation got around town that I'm tall, skinny, move well and don't complain when there's a lot of stuff on me.
00:07:04 Speaker_02
You're lovely to work with.
00:07:07 Speaker_01
So I guess that's the reputation that got around the Creature Effects. So the referrals happened and snowballed from there. And here we are 38 years later. And it's with a resume that I never foresaw. I never sought like, I want to be monsters.
00:07:23 Speaker_01
I really wanted to be a sitcom star when I started. I wanted to be like a goofy next door neighbor that comes, you know, like on the Dick Van Dyke show. Oh, I love that. or being Kramer on the Seinfeld.
00:07:33 Speaker_01
The guy who comes in and does something funny and leaves. I had very low aspirations for myself.
00:07:39 Speaker_03
You surpassed all of them, very much.
00:07:41 Speaker_01
Oh, thank you. So getting swept up by the Creature Effects world was a surprise to me, but a happy one that has turned into a career that has been very, very good to me.
00:07:52 Speaker_01
And you know, when you mentioned the likes of Guillermo del Toro, when you are standing on the stage at the Academy Awards, because a movie you were in called The Shape of Water just won Best Picture.
00:08:07 Speaker_01
And you're there with the entire team accepting the award for Best Picture. And it's an Academy Best Picture with a monster on the cover. This doesn't happen.
00:08:17 Speaker_02
Yeah, it really doesn't.
00:08:18 Speaker_01
And you happen to be the guy who played that monster. It's a surreal moment. You can imagine.
00:08:24 Speaker_03
I was gonna say, how does your brain wrap around that? Like, just being on the Academy Awards stage must be like, what?
00:08:32 Speaker_01
You're looking out at sea of the most famous faces you've ever seen in your life. And they're all looking back at you with adoration in their eyes. It's like, this moment doesn't happen to just anybody. No. It doesn't, you know?
00:08:44 Speaker_03
That's a pinch me moment for sure.
00:08:46 Speaker_01
Totally, totally.
00:08:47 Speaker_03
I feel like the aliens should abduct me now. This is insane.
00:08:52 Speaker_01
That's a good time to die happy, right?
00:08:54 Speaker_03
It's really you're like, I'm good It's funny that you brought up the Mac tonight character One I vividly remember those those commercials. So that's so funny. But also our researcher for morbid is
00:09:08 Speaker_03
Our friend Dave, his father, Jim White, actually directed a lot of those commercials. So we had, like, this weird one degree of separation.
00:09:17 Speaker_01
Isn't that nuts? What are the chances? Isn't that weird? Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah.
00:09:23 Speaker_03
And I remember us talking about this, like, a long time ago when he brought up, like, oh, my dad directed those things. We're like, oh, my God, I used to love those commercials. And then we found out you were back tonight. We were like,
00:09:33 Speaker_01
Well, if you can get a message back to him that I love him dearly to this day.
00:09:37 Speaker_03
Oh, we definitely will. I love that. Thank you. And we spoke about Guillermo del Toro. And I have to ask because I'm a huge Guillermo del Toro fan. I think he is so brilliant.
00:09:48 Speaker_03
And he seems like just one of he's one of those people that he seems like one of the sweetest, kindest, just like genuine person. What is it? Is he that person? What is it like to work with him?
00:10:02 Speaker_01
They say don't meet your heroes, but he is one you would absolutely love to meet because he will live up to all of your dreams and expectations of who he is.
00:10:10 Speaker_04
I'd love that.
00:10:12 Speaker_01
You can imagine how often I get asked, what's it like to work with Camus Latorre? Oh, yeah. Because you're not alone in that love for him. I hear I hear such love for him everywhere I go. And when you work with him, you are you're doing two things.
00:10:27 Speaker_01
You are under the tutelage of one of the most visionary, brilliant artists in the world ever. You're also hanging out with like a funny friend who is the self-effacing, hilarious and sassy as can be. So he's right.
00:10:42 Speaker_03
I love that he's sassy.
00:10:44 Speaker_01
Oh, no, he's got the best sense of humor. And in fact, he's a director that understands his actors better than any director normally does.
00:10:53 Speaker_01
He he directs all of us on the same project in different ways, depending on our personality and what we'll respond to, because he's already sussed all that out. Wow.
00:11:01 Speaker_01
That's he's he's brilliant with with the human spirit and the and psychology and all of it.
00:11:06 Speaker_01
So with with the set of buttons on us that he now knows what to push to get what reaction out of us on the day, he'll direct like so from the Hellboy movies, Ron Perlman, Selma Blair and Doug Jones, very different personalities.
00:11:19 Speaker_01
So we all got different types of direction from him.
00:11:22 Speaker_03
Oh, that's like brilliant.
00:11:23 Speaker_01
Now with me, it's very simple. He knows that he can make me laugh. I'll do whatever whatever he says. So one of my favorite examples was from Hellboy 2, The Golden Army. There was one long tracking shot that he wasn't going to cut away to anything.
00:11:37 Speaker_01
He had no coverage to cut away to. So I had to do a lot of physical business while this one camera circled me. And I had to be done with the business by the time the camera stopped. Well, I wasn't.
00:11:51 Speaker_01
The first take of this, it's like I was going slow and methodical and like milking these moments visually. And by the time the camera stopped, it just stayed there for a while. And I wasn't done yet.
00:12:03 Speaker_01
Finally, Guillermo del Toro, he finally he yells, Cut! Dougie, you're boring me to tears. And that's all he had to say. I was like, got it, got it.
00:12:13 Speaker_02
I'll go to a different direction.
00:12:14 Speaker_01
I heard you. Take two words. And yeah, yeah. I just love him dearly. We do have a shorthand like that.
00:12:21 Speaker_03
Oh, I love that. That makes me so happy because it truly is one of those things that you hear that all the time. Don't be heroes. And I'm like, not Guillermo.
00:12:29 Speaker_01
You can meet Guillermo. There you go. Meet Guillermo. Guillermo.
00:12:34 Speaker_03
Guillermo. I love it. But so one of the big things that's happening right now is that we are in the final season of What We Do in the Shadows.
00:12:42 Speaker_04
Yeah.
00:12:43 Speaker_03
Which, yeah. Bittersweet, right? It starts on the 21st. And you obviously play Baron Alphinaud's amazing character. Yes. So good. You are like chef's kiss. Thank you. So much fun.
00:12:54 Speaker_03
What is it, has it been emotional to say goodbye to that character in this show?
00:12:59 Speaker_01
Yes. By the way, the Baron loves you very much too, my darling. Don't worry about it. Amazing. Playing Baron Afanass has been the joy of my life.
00:13:08 Speaker_01
You know, after this 38-year career of mine, you know, that I have behind me with more coming ahead, of course. But looking back, it's like I
00:13:19 Speaker_01
I haven't I've looked forward to going to work a very handful of times over all of the jobs that I've done, because I know that a lot of them are very physically taxing and I know it's ahead of me and I'm going to have to go through the process and the thing and the thing.
00:13:32 Speaker_01
Right. Or I have a ton of like science fiction dialogue that I have to blurt out in a monologue with techno talk in it. And I love them, but dread them at the same time. If that makes any sense.
00:13:42 Speaker_02
Yeah, definitely.
00:13:43 Speaker_01
What we do in the shadows. Oh, my gosh. I look forward to it with like, I can't wait to get there. I love that.
00:13:49 Speaker_01
Because when you're doing something that's all for the funny and you are taking vampire tropes and sending them up and like, you know, just like mocking all of it. The best.
00:14:00 Speaker_01
You know, in this age of comedy that we're in now, everyone's being so careful to not offend. Well, our show does nothing but offend. Everybody, you know?
00:14:08 Speaker_03
And that's what makes it great.
00:14:10 Speaker_01
And it's got an old school vibe to it because of that.
00:14:12 Speaker_03
We love an equal opportunity to offender in a show.
00:14:15 Speaker_01
Absolutely. Let's just make fun of everybody and we're all taken care of. Across the board.
00:14:19 Speaker_02
So then nobody's left out and everybody can be offended together.
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Exactly. Right.
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00:17:01 Speaker_01
And what the what the Baron has also afforded me was, you know, when I I've always had a love of vampires, they've always intrigued me and I've wanted to play, you know, a classic vampire.
00:17:13 Speaker_01
So years ago, if you had asked me what's my dream role, it would have been what we're going to talk about next would be Nosferatu, right? Of course. you know, the dark mystery of him and the horrific look of him.
00:17:25 Speaker_03
Yes.
00:17:26 Speaker_01
Well, when I was offered the role as Baron Athanas and what we do in the shadows, he kind of was a parody of Nosferatu in a way.
00:17:34 Speaker_04
Yeah.
00:17:34 Speaker_01
He's the he's the vampire that comes from the old world. And he's he's sent all of his minions out to North America to conquer the new world. And they never made it out of Staten Island. So he kind of stays there with them now, like whatever. Right.
00:17:45 Speaker_04
So let's do that.
00:17:47 Speaker_01
No, I just I love the the that now that I've done the Nosferatu, a symphony of horror movie and what we do in the shadows, I've had both the light and the dark of this of this type of vampire character.
00:18:00 Speaker_03
I that's my favorite part is that you've touched both sides of the spectrum on the vampire scale so perfectly. Oh, good. Oh, thank you.
00:18:09 Speaker_03
And speaking of like just I was just thinking about like how you were saying, like some days you would be like, oh, God, I have to go in and like, you know, I'd have to like spew out all this dialogue that's crazy or I have to go in the makeup chair.
00:18:20 Speaker_03
How do you do anything specific? Cause I know you probably had to sit in that makeup chair for a lot of these roles for a long time. Do you have to do anything specific to like get yourself in a vibe to be able to do that?
00:18:32 Speaker_01
Well, here's the weird thing about me is that I don't need to do anything specific. Unlike most people, I don't get antsy. I don't get stir crazy. I can sit still and stare at a wall for hours and be completely entertained. Wow.
00:18:44 Speaker_04
What is that like?
00:18:46 Speaker_01
I know. That's amazing. Because that's the number one question I get from people is like, I would go crazy if I just sit still for that long. And it's like, nope, that's the easy part of my day. The makeup artists are doing all the work during that time.
00:18:57 Speaker_01
And I get to just kind of sit there and go over my dialogue if I need to, or we listen to music, or we tell jokes, or whatever, right? It's a great time of day.
00:19:05 Speaker_01
But now that it's on and you have extra heat, weight, stickiness to your person, and you have to perform in it all day and keep your energy up while wearing extra layers of stuff and trying to not stick to your chair when you're taking a break or whatever it is, right?
00:19:24 Speaker_01
That's the long part of the day for me, honestly. I can imagine. Yeah, yeah.
00:19:29 Speaker_03
Because that would destroy me. I'm so heat sensitive that I feel like as soon as I started sweating, I'd be like, get it off!
00:19:35 Speaker_01
I know. Help me! I delineate between suits and makeups. A monster suit would be something that you slip into to zip up the back, right?
00:19:46 Speaker_01
It might involve a head that slips over your head, snaps down to the neck, and then there's mechanics that are puppeteered in the face, right? That's a suit. Makeup would be either glued or painted onto my real person.
00:19:58 Speaker_01
So when you're in a suit, there's nothing quite like that feeling. Now, it goes on much faster. You're maybe 30 minutes into the whole thing and you're ready to perform. But once it's on, it is, they're usually very heavy and very hot.
00:20:14 Speaker_01
And you feel that trickle of sweat going down the back of your neck and you can't get to it. Or you feel that trickle of sweat coming down the side of your face. Is it going to hit my eye? I don't know. Is it going to go, ah, it's on the cheekbone now.
00:20:27 Speaker_01
There it is.
00:20:27 Speaker_04
It's in my mouth now.
00:20:29 Speaker_01
Yeah, because salty sweat in the eye, you don't want to do that when you're on camera.
00:20:33 Speaker_02
Not great.
00:20:34 Speaker_01
Not ideal. I give you credit.
00:20:37 Speaker_02
I think the heaviest thing I've ever worn is my wedding dress and even that at the end of the night. I was like, get this off of me.
00:20:45 Speaker_01
People who just wear wigs on camera, it's an itchy mess and they want them off. I totally get it. Oh, yeah.
00:20:51 Speaker_03
Wearing a wig for Halloween. I'm like, why did I choose to do this? It's awful. You end up ripping it off at the end of the night like, ah.
00:20:57 Speaker_04
Right, right, right.
00:20:59 Speaker_02
Well, going back to our love of vampires, your love and our love, we are so excited, like completely stoked for the premiere of David Lee Fisher's Nosferatu, a symphony of horror. That is premiering on October 18th on Apple TV+.
00:21:13 Speaker_02
So everybody go check it out. But this is a very different approach to remaking a classic film. It's shot in black and white. It's so hauntingly beautiful. It's gorgeous. We got to get a little sneak peek. Thank you for the screener.
00:21:25 Speaker_02
It is delicious looking. It's beautiful. So can you tell us a little bit, do you know anything about like how they really created the film?
00:21:33 Speaker_01
Yeah, yeah. Thank you for setting that up so beautifully, by the way.
00:21:38 Speaker_01
Because it's a very confusing time for the title Nosferatu, because there is another one right on our tail coming out Christmas, directed by the wonderful Robert Eggers and starring the brilliant Bill Skarsgård in the same role I'm playing.
00:21:51 Speaker_01
Now, he might be younger, hotter, and more famous than me, but I think we can have both, can't we?
00:21:55 Speaker_03
Absolutely. We all want both. Okay, good.
00:21:57 Speaker_01
We do. And I'm gonna watch theirs with every bit of glee as I'm watching on my own. Ours, though, what makes ours a little bit different is it seemed foreseen the same movie as the silent film that made it a classic in the first place.
00:22:09 Speaker_01
So I got to get into not only Max Schreck's role, but I also was in his environment, digitally reproduced from the original film. That's so cool. David Lee Fisher, our director, is a technical wizard who made this all magic happen.
00:22:24 Speaker_01
So it might be something as much as when I was out, let's say when Nosferatu was outside walking around with his coffin under one arm.
00:22:32 Speaker_01
that would be a complete 100% green screen set with marks on the floor to match exactly where I needed to turn, stop, walk up steps, whatever, right? That we would match then with the laid-in frame from the old movie.
00:22:46 Speaker_01
Then the least amount of green screen used might be Ellen's bedroom when I finally get into her and I'm finally reaching the pinnacle, the object of my desire. She's the dessert of all the meals I've had. over my vampire years.
00:23:01 Speaker_01
Her bedroom scene was walls built, furniture in the room. And the window, though, was green behind it so that they could put in the original movie window behind that.
00:23:10 Speaker_04
That's amazing.
00:23:11 Speaker_01
So there was a green screen element to every scene of the movie. Yeah. And so that does bring old and new together with a very ethereal kind of dreamlike. Yes. feel to it.
00:23:20 Speaker_01
But also, that's why we filmed ours in black and white, so that we could match the old movie more seamlessly. And also with dialogue and sound that fleshes out that silent film story.
00:23:33 Speaker_01
It is seen for seeing the same story, but now with dialogue, you get to hear more of it.
00:23:37 Speaker_03
Yes. Right, right.
00:23:38 Speaker_01
Yeah.
00:23:39 Speaker_03
And it really does have that ethereal quality to it.
00:23:41 Speaker_01
It does.
00:23:42 Speaker_03
It's almost like, I don't even know if this is the right word, it feels like gauzy. Yeah. When you watch it, it's this pretty veil.
00:23:48 Speaker_01
That's a great word. That is.
00:23:49 Speaker_03
You know, I don't know why, it just feels gauzy.
00:23:52 Speaker_02
I love it.
00:23:52 Speaker_01
It is.
00:23:52 Speaker_02
She's a novelist, it makes sense.
00:23:55 Speaker_01
Yeah, it makes perfect sense, yeah.
00:23:57 Speaker_02
Well, you mentioned before that this is a role you hoped you would play someday. So how was it playing this role? Was it completely surreal?
00:24:05 Speaker_01
Yes, yes, yes. He had been my bucket list character for many years. And I think I always had a love and fascination with vampires anyway. And of course, I love Bela Lugosi as Dracula.
00:24:17 Speaker_01
And of course, all the other Draculas over the years that have been played by various wonderful actors. But there's a certain sexiness about Dracula that I thought, I don't know that Doug Jones can pull that off. You totally could.
00:24:30 Speaker_01
Bless you, bless you for that. But then there's also the teenager sparkly ones from that other franchise that I'm like, I'm never gonna fit that demographic, so.
00:24:39 Speaker_03
That's okay. That's totally fine.
00:24:40 Speaker_01
Right, so, but the buck-toothed, pointy-eared, scraggly one, yes, him I get. Ding, ding, ding. Yeah, yeah. So that's why no strata. But what I also love about his hideous look is that he's probably not aware that he looks that bad now.
00:24:57 Speaker_01
He was a, he's a count, right? So he was, he's of nobility. In his younger day when he was a human, he probably was quite fetching, you know? Absolutely. And he, right? And he probably was respected by the community and all that.
00:25:09 Speaker_01
And who knows what story got him, what decisions he made, what, what position he put himself in to become a vampire. And now, decades, you know, millennia, you know, centuries later, who knows how old he is? He's living with his choice, right? Yeah.
00:25:25 Speaker_01
And is he is he ever satisfied? Is this a satisfying lifestyle for him? So that's why what I loved about him was his was his yearning for Ellen, the character that that I'm after in the movie. By the way, Ellen was played by Sarah Carter.
00:25:42 Speaker_01
Sarah Carter and I starred together as series regulars on Falling Skies about 10 years ago. And it's because of that relationship that I said, hey, Sarah, would you be a deer? And she's like, oh, my gosh, I love this.
00:25:53 Speaker_01
So that's how we got her into the movie.
00:25:54 Speaker_03
She's like, I'll play Ellen. Okay.
00:25:57 Speaker_01
Is she not a movie star? Oh, my God.
00:25:59 Speaker_03
Ridiculous.
00:26:00 Speaker_01
Yeah. Ridiculous from every angle. I know. I know. I know. I know. And so her husband in the movie, Young Thomas, was played by Emery's Cooper. He's a series regular on Coronation Street now. It's very British. He's from Great Britain.
00:26:13 Speaker_01
So his accent was legit. Oh, okay. So he's sent on this journey by his real estate boss who goes crazy. By the way, his real estate boss was the character Knock, played by an actor named Edgar Allen Poe. Do you believe that? Stop it.
00:26:28 Speaker_03
Destined for perfection. Should I know that name?
00:26:34 Speaker_01
I don't know what from. So Nock sends young Thomas on this journey to fetch me in Transylvania because I'm interested in buying a piece of property. in their hometown right across the street from them.
00:26:47 Speaker_01
Because something about me, you know, Ellen has been calling to me from afar and I haven't really, you know, known who she is yet or what she is, but I know that I need her. He comes to me to sign paperwork for this real estate deal.
00:27:00 Speaker_01
And while he's with me, he's getting creeped out by all that I am, what I look like. And I love those scenes when we're at the dinner table and he's eating food and I'm not. And I'm just kind of staring at him or, you know. I love that so much.
00:27:14 Speaker_02
So fun.
00:27:16 Speaker_01
Right? There was so much dialogue happening in those quiet, silent moments where he's very uncomfortable and I'm very comfortable.
00:27:23 Speaker_04
Too comfortable, exactly.
00:27:27 Speaker_01
And one of my favorite moments, too, was I'm about to sign the paperwork and I pause for a minute and say, do you have the time? And he hands me his pocket watch in which was a photograph of Ellen, his wife. And that was like, dun, dun, dun.
00:27:42 Speaker_01
That was the moment that Count Orlok realizes that's the object of my desire. That's who I've been dreaming of. That's who I've been wanting all this time. So he rushes and signs the paperwork and now it's a done deal.
00:27:53 Speaker_01
So what I love too about this story is that once he gets to the town and takes residency across the street from Ellen and Thomas, he doesn't go right for her right away. He peers at her through the window like a creep. Of course.
00:28:07 Speaker_01
uh and he other people in town are dying all around them they think there's an epidemic that's you know wiping there's some kind of a virus wiping out the city so he saves her for dessert right oh and by the time he gets to her uh this is this is the ultimate this is what uh right the moment his his whole life as a vampire has been leading to this
00:28:27 Speaker_03
It's his magnum opus.
00:28:30 Speaker_01
Right, and I love that David Lee Fisher left the camera on me for a long time while I am on her neck. Yes. And it's very sensual and very disgusting all at the same time.
00:28:41 Speaker_02
It's beautifully horrific.
00:28:43 Speaker_01
Beautifully horrific. Great way to say it. So then when he comes to and realizes that the sun is up and it's coming through the window, he's like, he kind of overdid it. He overindulged in his addiction.
00:28:55 Speaker_01
I think that's when he had his come to light moment. I wanted to add some humanity into him because Watching the silent film, of course, it's very dramatic.
00:29:06 Speaker_01
And, you know, and Max Schreck struck that pose when he got in front of the window with a hand on the heart and a hand on the window. Like, no, not the son. Right.
00:29:13 Speaker_01
So I wanted to strike that that iconic pose as I tried to strike a lot of his iconic poses throughout the film, but give some some backstory meaning and some heart and soul of why he got into that pose.
00:29:25 Speaker_04
Oh, I love that.
00:29:34 Speaker_02
This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. This month is all about gratitude, so I want to shout out the people in this room, Elena and Mikey, and from afar, Dave, because without the four of us, this show just wouldn't exist, and I love the four of us.
00:29:49 Speaker_02
But guess what? There's another person we don't get to thank enough, ourselves. I just thanked me, but you know, it's sometimes hard to remind ourselves that we're trying our best to make sense of everything in this
00:29:58 Speaker_02
crazy world, and because we're in this crazy world, it's not always that easy. So here's a reminder to send some thanks to the people in your life, including yourself.
00:30:08 Speaker_02
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00:30:21 Speaker_02
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00:30:32 Speaker_02
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00:30:47 Speaker_02
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00:31:17 Speaker_02
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00:31:23 Speaker_02
the Audible version of Slewfoot because that narrator's voice is literally the calmest voice in the world and I finished it and I could cry that it's over because I loved listening to that title so much. You guys will love it too. And guess what?
00:31:37 Speaker_02
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00:31:50 Speaker_02
That's audible.com slash morbid or text morbid to 500 500 to try audible free for 30 days audible.com slash morbid So this moment in the bedroom i'm thinking
00:32:07 Speaker_01
Wow, I had my dessert. I've reached the pinnacle of my desires. Where do I go from here? Is there anything left? And did it really truly satisfy me or am I just a pathetic being? And do I have any reason to live beyond this?
00:32:21 Speaker_01
So when the sun is coming in the window, he knows he's going to burn. Do I take my chances and try to get out of the room and pass the window? Sure. And if I die, You know what? Maybe I deserve it by now.
00:32:32 Speaker_01
I think that's kind of the backstory I gave him that maybe Max Schreck, I'm not sure, did or not. It translates, definitely.
00:32:38 Speaker_03
It really does.
00:32:39 Speaker_01
Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. That's very, very sweet.
00:32:42 Speaker_01
Beautiful and wonderful and intimidating to play this role, too, because there's no way to not compare me to Max Schreck and also to all the other Nosferatu's, including Willem Dafoe's brilliant Shadow of the Vampire version.
00:32:55 Speaker_01
And, of course, Bill Skarsgård coming. I'm sure he's going to be delicious in whatever he does with it, too.
00:33:02 Speaker_02
But, yeah, I could see why that would be an intimidating role to take on for sure.
00:33:06 Speaker_03
I love that you put, like, your own, like, spin on it, though, and that you put your own, like, feelings into those poses and everything, because it really does translate. Yeah, you left your mark on Nosferatu.
00:33:16 Speaker_01
Oh, thank you so, so much. Yeah, I was so happy that our director, too, was on board with, like, making sure we hit all those iconic notes.
00:33:25 Speaker_01
Like when he's in the bowels of the ship in transit, and the captain comes down and sees him standing up from his coffin, stiff as a board, right? So good. Right, that took some engineering, by the way.
00:33:40 Speaker_04
I bet.
00:33:41 Speaker_01
And then also that famous shadow going up the stairs on his way to Ellen's bedroom. So spooky. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, of course, like I said, the grabbing of the heart and the hand out to the sun when it's time.
00:33:54 Speaker_02
Classic. I love it.
00:33:55 Speaker_01
Classic, classic moment. Yeah.
00:33:57 Speaker_02
It's awesome. Going back to the look, you mentioned, like, does he even know that he looks like this? Yeah. What was the costuming like? Like, was it very heavy on prosthetics? How was that for you?
00:34:07 Speaker_01
Yeah, good question. This was, as far as prosthetics go, again, I've played creatures that are rubberized from head to toe. This was not that. This was head and hands, thank heaven. Nice. With a very specific wardrobe to match the original wardrobe.
00:34:21 Speaker_01
And there was a bit of a hump built into the back, because he was hunched over in the original film. I think I probably stand a little straighter than Max Schreck did, but they still did have some extra built into that hump area of the back.
00:34:34 Speaker_02
Oh, OK.
00:34:35 Speaker_01
With this long, double-breasted coat. And that was gorgeous. And the prosthetics, though, were... I wore more prosthetics than the other Nosferatu's have. Really? Including Max Shrek was very smooth.
00:34:48 Speaker_01
It was basically his face with a bald cap and, you know, some ears and some funny swaths of hair placed just so. I was more wrinkled and elderly looking. Yeah. Which was a design choice. And here's the fun backstory of that look.
00:35:06 Speaker_01
Michael Izzolde, a very talented artist who owns the Creature Shop Spectral Motion that did the Hellboy movies with me and the Silver Surfer movie with me.
00:35:14 Speaker_01
And he, as a garage project at home, started sculpting a Nosferatu decades ago on a life cast of me, my bust.
00:35:25 Speaker_04
Oh, wow.
00:35:25 Speaker_01
He added clay to me and started sculpting what he thought Nosferatu might look like in his dreams. And he came up with that. Once it was done, they had prosthetic pieces made of it.
00:35:36 Speaker_01
And just as a test, fun makeup test one day, he called up and said, would you ever want to put this on just for a Saturday afternoon fun photo shoot? I said, yes.
00:35:44 Speaker_02
It's like manifesting. Yeah.
00:35:47 Speaker_01
Right. So we went and did that. And this is, again, a good 10 years before this movie came up.
00:35:51 Speaker_04
Oh, this is my movie.
00:35:53 Speaker_01
Yeah. So when David Lee Fisher, who I'd worked with before on a movie much like this, we did we did a reimagining, a remix of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, that 1919 silent film that we made into the same thing.
00:36:07 Speaker_01
Old movie, new movie put together with dialogue, sound, musical score. So David Lee Fisher calls me up one day and says, hey, if you don't want to do this, I won't do it. But but I have this idea.
00:36:17 Speaker_01
Would you want to ever do Nosferatu like we did Caligari? And I was like, You have been reading my dreams, yes. Right? And I said in that same phone call, oh my gosh, I know exactly what makeup I want to wear doing this, too.
00:36:30 Speaker_01
So we went back to Michael Izzaldi and his design is what Mo Meinhardt and Ben Plowman put on me on the day. It took about four hours a day. And those four hours also included appliances on the back of my hands to make them more bony and veiny. Right.
00:36:44 Speaker_01
And also to add those those long, delicious talons to my fingernails.
00:36:49 Speaker_02
The acrylics.
00:36:51 Speaker_01
Yes. The acrylics. Right. Talk about Leigh Presson nails. Yeah.
00:36:56 Speaker_02
That is so cool. It was like you were manifesting this 10 years in advance. That's amazing.
00:36:59 Speaker_03
Yeah, for real.
00:37:00 Speaker_01
Isn't that whack-a-doodle? I know, I love it. Just love it.
00:37:03 Speaker_03
See, it was meant to be. Yeah, that's crazy. It really was. So, speaking of all these vampire things, because vampires are so much fun, and it's spooky season, and Nosferatu, a symphony of horror is coming.
00:37:16 Speaker_03
Like, why not talk about a funny, stinky vampire legend really quick? We thought.
00:37:22 Speaker_01
Oh, okay. I want to hear this. Yes. All right.
00:37:24 Speaker_02
I've got a stinky vampire for you.
00:37:26 Speaker_01
Okay. Okay.
00:37:27 Speaker_02
This case of vampirism brings us all the way back to Pęcz Silesia, a section of Poland. It was the yield days of 1582. Oh. And Johannes... That is yield.
00:37:38 Speaker_03
It's yield.
00:37:40 Speaker_02
Johannes Kunschis was out with one of his horses. They were all trying to repair the horse's shoe. It was him and a couple assistants. Now, something went wrong where the horse got upset and actually ended up kicking Kunschis, knocking him unconscious.
00:37:54 Speaker_02
Also, I swear that's his name and I'm not swearing right now.
00:37:57 Speaker_01
Yeah, conscious went unconscious.
00:38:02 Speaker_02
So luckily, like I said, he wasn't working out there alone. So they picked him up, they brought him inside, laid him down in bed. Now, he slipped in and out of consciousness in the following days.
00:38:11 Speaker_02
But in the moments where he was with it awake, some dark, dark secrets started to come out. Oh, conscious was very, very worried about dying because the life he led wasn't really the purest.
00:38:24 Speaker_02
He was a well-respected alderman in his small community, but he admitted while laying on his deathbed that his life had been full of various sins. Some even claimed that he admitted to making a deal with the devil. That's a big one.
00:38:39 Speaker_04
That's a huge one. That's a big one.
00:38:42 Speaker_02
That'll send you straight to babies. Life-altering.
00:38:44 Speaker_02
So the story goes that the deal was made around the same time that Conchus' young son disappeared, and many believe that he actually sold his son to the devil for money, which right after his son disappeared, he fell into a great sum of.
00:39:03 Speaker_02
That's the biggest sin you could do, I feel.
00:39:06 Speaker_03
Selling your son to the devil.
00:39:08 Speaker_01
That's damning evidence, too, isn't it?
00:39:11 Speaker_03
That's very damning evidence. The timing is suspect. The literal receipts are there.
00:39:15 Speaker_02
And that is the sin of all sins. Money has exchanged hands. Exactly. Hands, claws, whatever have you. Whatever happens. So while he lay dying in his bed, he would call out, woe is me, how do I burn him, and I'm all on fire.
00:39:31 Speaker_02
And he would repeat over and over again that his sins were, quote, bigger than all of the world besides. And we all agree. Yeah. And everyone said, ooh. They said, you sold your son to the devil, so what did you expect?
00:39:45 Speaker_01
Yeah, that tracks, yeah.
00:39:47 Speaker_02
So the night that Conscious actually did die, he did eventually come, you know, to his death. The Great Unconscious is what he became. The Great Unconscious.
00:39:56 Speaker_01
That was great. Thank you for that.
00:40:01 Speaker_02
No problem.
00:40:02 Speaker_02
So the night that he did die, his son, his oldest son that didn't get sold to the devil, was sitting in the room with him and later said that a black cat slinked into the room, jumped upon Conchus' chest and started scratching at his face feverishly, almost like the cat was trying to erase him from this world, the son said.
00:40:22 Speaker_02
And this was right before he died. That's poetic. He wasn't completely dead yet. It is poetic. His son said that as the cat suddenly disappeared from the room, Conchus breathed out his last breath. Ooh, so he did erase him from the world. He did.
00:40:37 Speaker_02
The cat said, my job here is done.
00:40:39 Speaker_01
You're okay. He licked his paws and left the room, right?
00:40:43 Speaker_02
Yeah, he said, you're welcome. He said, peace out, you guys. So the moment that Conchus did die, a great storm was said to have started, and it raged on all throughout his funeral. Henry Moore wrote,
00:40:56 Speaker_02
No sooner Conchus was dead, but a great tempest arose, which raged most at his very funeral, there being such impetus storms of wind and snow that it made men's bodies quake, their teeth chatter in their heads.
00:41:08 Speaker_02
But soon as he was interred, all of a sudden it was calm." Damn. Isn't that beautiful? That is beautiful. Is that okay, Henry? Yes. Yeah. So there were actually a lot of moving pieces surrounding Cuntius's burial.
00:41:21 Speaker_02
His friends and family all felt, you know, they had heard of his sins, but they said maybe he was just, you know, unconscious and talking crazy. They said, I really think he's a great man and he deserves to be laid to rest in a hallowed place.
00:41:34 Speaker_02
So they all got together and pooled their money to make sure that he was buried to the right of the church's altar, which I guess in ye olde days was The best place to be. Primo spot. Primo spot. Like rock star parking. No.
00:41:50 Speaker_02
Apparently, very shortly after he was put to rest there, little splats of blood started showing up on the church's cloth, which was right above where his grave was. That's so metal. And listen to this.
00:42:03 Speaker_02
People around town started claiming that they were seeing conscious roam the streets. Uh-oh. That would be, you know, well and fine. Like, cool, be a ghost, be a specter. But Cuntius wasn't just a specter.
00:42:14 Speaker_02
He was a menace to the town and a straight-up criminal. According to occultworld.com, when Cuntius started roaming the streets again, he was going wild.
00:42:23 Speaker_02
His specter, quote, strangled old men, galloped around the house like a horse, wrestled with people. This is my personal favorite. Vomited fire. Like we said... That is menacing. That's menacing. There's more, though.
00:42:39 Speaker_02
Like we said, bought a church's altar cloth with blood. This is horrible. Bashed the heads of dogs against the ground. Oh, straight to jail. Straight to jail.
00:42:50 Speaker_02
Turned milk into blood, drank up supplies of milk, sucked cows dry, threw goats about, devoured chickens, and pulled up fence posts.
00:43:03 Speaker_03
oh just a few of the activities that he was up to right through goats about and also pulled up fence posts like he was like your fence whilst vomiting fire yeah yeah wow great that was his own personal workout yeah exactly calisthenics right right so he was getting
00:43:22 Speaker_02
All of that, you know, some of that was like not so great. Most of it, you were just like, okay, Conscious, you're getting crazy. This is where it gets dark. He was also getting very frisky and inappropriate with the women in town.
00:43:33 Speaker_02
It's so like Conscious. It's so Conscious-y. Shortly after his death, he was said to have returned to his own home, which neighbors had seen physically shaking in the days leading up to this incident.
00:43:47 Speaker_02
and he supposedly just walked right into his wife's bedroom and demanded that she move over so he could get into bed with her. Whoa.
00:43:55 Speaker_02
Now, obviously that would be horrifying enough, but to add insult to injury, this specter conscious had the most foul breath that this woman had ever smelled in her life. Oh, this poor woman.
00:44:08 Speaker_01
Poor dear.
00:44:09 Speaker_02
Poor dear. Loses her husband and he comes back all stanky wanting to get into bed.
00:44:13 Speaker_01
Right, with halitosis, that's what happened. Exactly. The worst. Horrible.
00:44:17 Speaker_03
Lost her husband who sold their son to the devil.
00:44:19 Speaker_01
To the devil, yeah. And now has come back. She had some issues to work out in therapy, didn't she? Yeah.
00:44:24 Speaker_02
And then he's like, move over. I'd be like, no. No. She rode a horse to her therapist first thing in the morning and said, honey, sit down. So, now she wasn't the only woman whose bed that Conscious was trying to get into. Conscious!
00:44:38 Speaker_02
Many women in town were reporting seeing his specter appearing to them, touching them without permission, and stankin' up the surrounding areas. He would stink. He was very smelly.
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00:45:47 Speaker_02
And I said, honey, look into GoodRx, would ya? For savings on diabetes medications and other everyday prescriptions, check GoodRx. Go to goodrx.com slash morbid. That's goodrx.com slash morbid. Now this went on for months and months.
00:46:06 Speaker_02
People were seeing and unfortunately smelling conscious everywhere. He appeared to old friends, old enemies. His specter was returning to his house and scaring the shit out of the servants.
00:46:18 Speaker_02
People were also seeing flashes of lights at all hours of the night coming from the house. And people saw him on horseback a few times, you know. He goes for a ride every now and evening stroll. Oh, yeah.
00:46:31 Speaker_02
So obviously something had to be done about this. Am I right?
00:46:34 Speaker_01
Yeah, you're so right.
00:46:36 Speaker_02
Get him out of here. But what were the townspeople to do? How do you stop a dead man? No. Well, they started by going to his grave. And when they got there, they saw all these little holes in the ground. So they said, oh, that must be it.
00:46:49 Speaker_02
You know, he's like oozing out of the earth. Obviously. So they said, well, fill these up and maybe that will put an end to things. It did not. And the little holes just kept reappearing.
00:46:58 Speaker_02
So after going back to the drawing board, they decided something more had to be done here. They had to exhume his body and check it out. So they set out to do just that.
00:47:08 Speaker_02
And when his coffin was opened up, somehow, after six months of being dead as a doornail, Kuntzsch's body was perfectly preserved.
00:47:18 Speaker_04
Uh-oh.
00:47:19 Speaker_02
But I bet it stunk. It did stink, definitely. But it had to stink. Can't confirm. Had to stink, definitely. It's even said that they handed him a staff and he was able to reach out and grab it. So they were like, this rocked their worlds even more.
00:47:33 Speaker_02
They said, what are we to do here? So they went, they actually went to a judge and had asked him what they should do. And he said the best thing that they could possibly do was burn Conchus' body. So they said, okay, all right, let's do it.
00:47:48 Speaker_03
He's a vampire.
00:47:49 Speaker_02
He's a vampire. They said, you're working with a vampire here. You gotta burn him. Yeah. So they tried to. They tried to light him ablaze, but his body wouldn't stay lit. Kuncha said, no.
00:48:03 Speaker_01
It's like awful birthday candles.
00:48:06 Speaker_02
Those trick candles. They got the idea from Conchus. You didn't know?
00:48:10 Speaker_01
You know, yeah.
00:48:12 Speaker_02
If you look on the back, it actually has this legend on the little packaging. It does. It's just more condensed. That's all. So they said, well, we got to do something about this. So they ended up cutting him into smaller pieces.
00:48:26 Speaker_02
And when they made the first cut, they said blood spilled from him like it was still flowing freely throughout his body. My goodness.
00:48:33 Speaker_01
After six months of death.
00:48:34 Speaker_02
After six months of death, but luckily they ended up being able to fully burn the body once it was cut into smaller pieces and nobody ever saw or smelled conscious again. Damn.
00:48:48 Speaker_01
Well. What a crazy tale, right? That was quite a tale. So I have to ask, are these true accounts? Is this fictitious? Where does this story come from? Polish folklore, at least, right?
00:49:02 Speaker_02
Yes, it's Polish folklore. And it's based off of Henry Moore's version of events of this tale that he wrote. And it was basically something he was writing against atheism. Whoa.
00:49:15 Speaker_01
Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. Oh, interesting.
00:49:18 Speaker_02
He was like conscious. It happened. He said, let me, there's actually, you can read and I'll link it in the show notes. You can read this tale in much greater detail because Henry Moore told us a lot about conscious.
00:49:29 Speaker_01
Oh, really? Okay. So that you gave us the abridged version. This is the abridged version.
00:49:33 Speaker_02
I didn't want to keep you here. I know you have other roles to get to, Dougie.
00:49:39 Speaker_01
I wanna play conscious now, I'm sorry.
00:49:40 Speaker_03
I was gonna say your next role is right here.
00:49:43 Speaker_02
I'll send you the link to the detailed version and you find somebody to make that movie.
00:49:47 Speaker_01
Okay, it's a deal. I'm surprised it hasn't been made yet. I know. This comes from 1500 something, yeah.
00:49:54 Speaker_03
Just start practicing throwing goats about and vomiting fire.
00:49:57 Speaker_01
Right, and taking fences up by the pegs.
00:49:59 Speaker_02
Yes, just pulling fences up. Just skip the other crappy stuff, like the dog beating and the woman.
00:50:05 Speaker_01
No, I don't wanna, ooh. Intimidating. Rage, milking cows and turning them to blood or whatever.
00:50:11 Speaker_03
Yeah, maybe skip that part. But you know, throwing goats about is fine as long as you're not hurting them.
00:50:16 Speaker_01
Right, they can land on their hooves, okay.
00:50:18 Speaker_03
Yeah, just holding their hooves and running around with them.
00:50:20 Speaker_01
Yeah, there you go.
00:50:22 Speaker_02
Yeah, that's the tale of conscience. Man, I like that.
00:50:25 Speaker_01
Wow, thank you for that. That was a story I'd never heard before.
00:50:29 Speaker_02
I'm so glad. To tell Doug Jones a story he's never heard. About a vampire. About a vampire.
00:50:35 Speaker_01
about a vampire.
00:50:37 Speaker_03
Well, we would end on conscious, which would seem appropriate, but we do have one little thing that we would love to end on. We love to do a little short game with guests a lot because these tend to be fun to hear answers for.
00:50:51 Speaker_03
So we would like to know who out of these three characters that I'm going to list would be most likely to do these certain things I'm going to ask.
00:51:01 Speaker_04
Okay.
00:51:01 Speaker_03
So who out of Billy Butcherson, Baron Alfanass, and Nosferatu would have compete, which one would have won the Hunger Games?
00:51:14 Speaker_01
Okay. Okay. Oh, not Billy. I don't think he has any powers to last very long. No.
00:51:20 Speaker_02
And the mouth's so shut would be, you know, not great.
00:51:23 Speaker_01
Baron Afanes and Nosferatu. I'm going to say it's probably going to be the Baron. The Baron will have lasted longer for the Hunger Games because he tends to show, like, supernatural powers more often, right?
00:51:34 Speaker_01
When he flies, he zaps things with his hands. He could take them. He could take them all. Yeah, I think so.
00:51:40 Speaker_03
I think so, too. And he's charming. He could do the alliance thing really well.
00:51:45 Speaker_01
Yeah, he's good at gaslighting. Yeah.
00:51:49 Speaker_03
That's the perfect answer.
00:51:51 Speaker_01
Yeah.
00:51:52 Speaker_03
So the next one is out of those three characters, who would take over the world successfully, if given the chance?
00:52:00 Speaker_01
Oh, poor Billy, I'm gonna have to leave him out of this one again.
00:52:02 Speaker_03
I know, poor Billy.
00:52:03 Speaker_01
Bless his heart.
00:52:04 Speaker_03
He might win the next one.
00:52:06 Speaker_01
Yeah.
00:52:06 Speaker_03
Yeah, he probably will win the next one.
00:52:08 Speaker_01
Maybe. Okay, okay, so why don't we, I'm gonna say
00:52:13 Speaker_01
Probably, let's go with Nosferatu on this one, because I think that Count Orlok, his subtleties and his sneaking around the back door kind of personality might be what gets him to take over things with no one knowing about it.
00:52:27 Speaker_01
Whereas the Baron is very out there and very presentational. Yeah, right. Yeah. He does it with a flourish. And so you see it coming and he would be stopped before. but the count would be more shifty about it. Yes.
00:52:38 Speaker_03
Good point. Good point. I agree with that. I love the thought put into that. Yes. That was a good one. And the last one, I'm thinking about it, and it might not be Billy, but possibly.
00:52:47 Speaker_01
Okay.
00:52:48 Speaker_03
Who would have the biggest TikTok following?
00:52:51 Speaker_01
Well, no, honestly, it is indeed Billy.
00:52:55 Speaker_03
I felt like he was going to win, but I was, I didn't know if the Baron could edge him out.
00:53:00 Speaker_01
Well, the Baron would love to be the most famous of all of them because he's very, such a narcissist.
00:53:05 Speaker_01
But I think Billy would win because a scene that you did not, that you never saw, or a moment you never saw from Hocus Pocus 1 that we did film but was cut from the film was, do you remember the costume dance party?
00:53:20 Speaker_02
Yes.
00:53:20 Speaker_01
Where Bette Miller gets, the witches get up on stage and sing I Put a Spell on You?
00:53:24 Speaker_02
Of course. Iconic, yes.
00:53:25 Speaker_01
Iconic moment, right. Well, my character, Billy Butcherson, was in that scene, and I fit into the costume party. Nobody really noticed me because everybody was done up as something. And so, oh, look, the fun zombie. Right, right.
00:53:39 Speaker_01
So I'm roaming about the crowd, looking for the kids and trying to, you know, do my deed.
00:53:45 Speaker_01
And once Bette Miller sings, you know, I put a spell on you, and then the whole crowd gets in a trance and starts dance, dance, dancing until the spell is broken. Um, uh, I, I'm not under the spell, but I thought it was, it was kind of fun for me.
00:54:00 Speaker_01
So there was a scene where you come, the action continues outside the dance party, uh, but they, they come back to the dance party to show everybody still dancing a couple of times.
00:54:09 Speaker_04
Oh, I love that.
00:54:09 Speaker_01
One of those, one of those coming back to the parties was going to be Billy hopping up onto stage and dancing once he had an audience. And I, Tell you something, I threw my legs about in such tomfoolery, I bounced up and down on the floor.
00:54:27 Speaker_04
I'm so sad we didn't get to see this. Oh my God.
00:54:31 Speaker_01
That was a raging TikTok video before TikTok existed. You are correct. I think Billy would have the dance videos that could end all dance videos if he had a TikTok.
00:54:41 Speaker_02
Wow, I think that footage needs to be released and somebody needs to make Billy Butcherson a TikTok. Yes.
00:54:47 Speaker_01
Yeah.
00:54:48 Speaker_02
Come on. Oh, I love knowing that.
00:54:50 Speaker_01
Thank you for that. That was such a good one. Don't talk about that very often. So you might've gotten an exclusive there.
00:54:55 Speaker_02
I love that. Doug Jones forever. We always have so much fun with you.
00:55:01 Speaker_01
We do. Me too, you.
00:55:02 Speaker_02
So thank you so much for coming on today. We love sitting with you. You are always welcome. You are one of our most favorite, most treasured guests. And plug, plug, plug, whatever you have now, upcoming, feel free to shout it from the rooftops here.
00:55:16 Speaker_01
Well, let's let's let's go down the list we talked about. Of course, we have we have Nosferatu, a symphony of horror coming to Apple TV Friday, the 18th of October and on Amazon Prime as well. I'm also told it's on Fandango and Roku.
00:55:30 Speaker_01
And so look for it on whatever your device is. Also, October 21st starts the new season, the final season of What We Do in the Shadows. Baron Affanas does return for a few episodes. You'll see me on the first night.
00:55:45 Speaker_01
I think they told me they're going to show three episodes on the first night. So you're going to have a lot of shadows to start the season up.
00:55:51 Speaker_04
Nice.
00:55:53 Speaker_01
Also, Billy Butcherson, as we've talked about, is in Hocus Pocus 1 and 2 all month long on the Freeform channel, playing as a double feature on various nights and days. And other than that, I have more movies coming.
00:56:07 Speaker_01
I've been doing a lot of indies and shorts over the last year and a half, playing a lot of humans.
00:56:10 Speaker_02
Oh, exciting.
00:56:11 Speaker_01
Yeah, I'm loving this phase. And one of them is a funny movie called Operation Taco Garys. Obsessed already. Zany comedy, right?
00:56:22 Speaker_01
Two brothers are on a road trip across the country, and when they get to their destination, they find themselves in the middle of a conspiracy with an Earth takeover by aliens.
00:56:31 Speaker_01
And I might happen to be the alien trying to pass as a human who's at the leader of all this.
00:56:36 Speaker_04
Yes.
00:56:37 Speaker_01
I'm in. Amazing. I'm in. So Operation Taco Garry's is going to be playing at the Austin Film Festival October 25th.
00:56:44 Speaker_03
Awesome. You have an exciting October, Doug.
00:56:47 Speaker_01
I know. It's quite a month. It is. And then next week, I'm actually going to North Carolina to film an episode of Blue Ridge, which is a, this is a turning of the page for me. I'm going to play a guy who lives in the mountains.
00:57:00 Speaker_01
And what happens with me is yet to be discovered. But that's a show that's led by Jonathan Sheck, if you remember him from, he was the lead singer of The Wonders in That Thing You Do.
00:57:14 Speaker_01
And he was also the young hottie in a movie with Winona Ryder called American Quilt. That was kind of his breakout back in the day.
00:57:20 Speaker_03
I remember that movie.
00:57:22 Speaker_01
He also played Houdini in a TV movie of Houdini, which again, he was brilliant as that character. And he also played Jonah Hex in DC's, oh gosh, which DC show was that? I'm so bad at these. Yeah, I know, I know.
00:57:37 Speaker_01
Anyway, so all my scenes are with him and I can't wait to to play that out. That's this coming week. I'm going to be filming that.
00:57:43 Speaker_01
So that will come out on the Inspiration Channel and the Cowboy Way, I think, when it's when when their season two finally airs.
00:57:49 Speaker_03
Oh, that's awesome. Man, you are busy.
00:57:51 Speaker_01
Yeah, we're doing it. We're doing it this way this month.
00:57:54 Speaker_03
All good stuff.
00:57:54 Speaker_01
Getting after it.
00:57:55 Speaker_03
I love it. Seriously.
00:57:57 Speaker_02
Well, thank you again.
00:57:58 Speaker_03
Yeah. Thank you so much. And again, you are welcome anytime.
00:58:03 Speaker_01
Oh, bless you all. Thank you so much for having me. I adore you two. Don't ever change, okay? We adore you.
00:58:07 Speaker_03
You either.
00:58:08 Speaker_01
Okay. Okay. Loving you so much.
00:58:11 Speaker_03
Oh, we love you so much.
00:58:13 Speaker_02
Thank you so much. Bye, Doug. Well, guys, we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird. Unfortunately, you'll never be able to keep it as cool as Doug Jones, but never. I meant to say keep it as weird.
00:58:28 Speaker_02
You'll never be as cool as and you'll never keep it as weird as Doug Jones. Love you.
00:59:28 Speaker_01
So please tell the children that Billy Bill Chibutzen loves them very much. Would you do that for me?
00:59:32 Speaker_03
Amazing. I was just going to ask you to do that. All right. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
00:59:40 Speaker_02
If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
00:59:50 Speaker_02
Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
00:59:56 Speaker_00
Hello, ladies and gerbs, boys and girls. The Grinch is back again to ruin your Christmas season with Tiz the Grinch Holiday Podcast.
01:00:03 Speaker_00
After last year, he's learned a thing or two about hosting, and he's ready to rant against Christmas cheer and roast his celebrity guests like chestnuts on an open fire.
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You can listen with the whole family as guest stars like Jon Hamm, Brittany Broski, and Danny DeVito try to persuade the mean old Grinch that there's a lot to love about the insufferable holiday season. But that's not all.
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Somebody stole all the children of Whoville's letters to Santa, and everybody thinks the Grinch is responsible. It's a real Whoville whodunit. Can Cindy Lou and Max help clear the Grinch's name? Grab your hot cocoa and cozy slippers to find out.
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Follow Tis the Grinch Holiday Podcast on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Unlock weekly Christmas mystery bonus content and listen to every episode ad free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.