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Episode: Terrifier 3: An Interview with David Howard Thornton

Author: The Last Podcast Network
Duration: 00:42:53

Episode Shownotes

Henry & Eddie sit down with star of the Terrifier films, the man behind Art the Clown - David Howard Thornton joins the show to discuss the massive success of the Terrifier franchise, the evolution of Art, how he landed the role, and the many influences and experiences that came

together to create a modern-day horror icon. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to ad-free new episodes and get exclusive access to bonus content.

Summary

In this episode of 'Last Podcast On The Left,' hosts Henry & Eddie interview David Howard Thornton, the actor portraying Art the Clown in the Terrifier films. Thornton reflects on his journey to this role, the character's evolution through the franchise, and the collaborative atmosphere on set. He discusses the balance between horror and humor, the excitement over the franchise's growth, and his personal aspirations, including a dream role as the Joker. Thornton also shares insights into the unique nature of the horror fanbase and the sensitive nature of filming certain scenes, highlighting his transition from comedy to horror.

Go to PodExtra AI's episode page (Terrifier 3: An Interview with David Howard Thornton) to play and view complete AI-processed content: summary, mindmap, topics, takeaways, transcript, keywords and highlights.

Full Transcript

00:00:01 Speaker_02
There's no place to escape to.

00:00:02 Speaker_03
This is the last hot gas on the left. That's when the cannibalism started.

00:00:20 Speaker_01
Eddie, I'm scared today. Why are you scared? Because I'm afraid that we won't live up to the potential of the moment.

00:00:28 Speaker_02
I know.

00:00:29 Speaker_01
You know?

00:00:29 Speaker_02
I agree with that.

00:00:30 Speaker_01
Like, you remember when Tiger Woods, he got in that car accident? Well, it was late. Yeah, I know.

00:00:37 Speaker_02
Yeah, I think he was inebriated. But I don't know for sure.

00:00:41 Speaker_01
He was focusing on his recoup. Yes. Which is what distracted him from driving. That's what I'm afraid of. You were driving like a maniac this morning. I'm in a cutting phase. So I'm actually, the problem is the creatine makes me aggressive.

00:00:56 Speaker_01
But today we have something extremely special for you. Happy Halloween! It's a very special, unique, we've never done this before, it's just a one-off interview with an actor that fascinates.

00:01:11 Speaker_01
Someone that brings something extra to the table, as it were. And we're excited to have this person, we recently, we're not being paid! No. to push this. Oh, he's gone. And we lost him.

00:01:25 Speaker_02
Oh, we can still hear him. Alright, well that's fine, we'll keep going. That's fine. Oh man, I love just how it's spooky even talking to you over Zoom.

00:01:33 Speaker_01
We can't even really, just to even bring the audience in, we had a little bit of a technical kerfluffle, but it's still frightening.

00:01:41 Speaker_01
Because we're watching, it seems like, I don't know why, I don't know what it is about your energy that the tubes are afraid of. But we have one of our new horror icons.

00:01:54 Speaker_01
We're very excited to have the actor who portrays Art the Clown, nay is Art the Clown, David Howard Thornton. Thank you for being here.

00:02:03 Speaker_04
Oh, thank you. I'm glad I'm actually able to be seen now.

00:02:06 Speaker_01
Yeah, we can see you. You look good. We've been talking and singing the praises about the Terrifier films for the last couple of days. I feel like the entire country is sort of surprised at how much they've allowed themselves to like the films.

00:02:24 Speaker_01
It's a bit crazy.

00:02:26 Speaker_02
Yeah, because when you look at it, you're like, this is for nobody, right? If I showed this to my mother, she would puke and die. Well, hey, that's what it's for.

00:02:37 Speaker_01
Like, how did you, like, how did it all begin? Like, if those of you that don't know, the Arthur Clown character, it did start in All Hallows' Eve. Correct? So that was an anthology film.

00:02:50 Speaker_01
That was like, so, but he was way more, it was kind of more of like a sketch almost in a way.

00:02:55 Speaker_04
Yeah, that was that's what that was that those are basically almost like proof of concept movies at the time because you know, Damien was just doing that just you know, having fun with his friends making movies and and that was the old job and that wasn't you that's not you that's some other guy Mike Giannulli.

00:03:13 Speaker_01
Yeah. Now is he angry?

00:03:18 Speaker_04
Not that I know of. I mean, we met last year, finally got to do some comments together and everything like that. So he seems to be happy. He's a dad now. So he's got two little ones. So he's he's he's got his hands full.

00:03:30 Speaker_04
So I think he's, you know, well, distracted.

00:03:34 Speaker_01
That's actually do you think him being Arthur Clown was actually making him infertile?

00:03:38 Speaker_04
Oh, no, that's not the case with me.

00:03:43 Speaker_01
Now, did you audition to be in Terrifier?

00:03:48 Speaker_04
I did, yes. They put a notice up on Actors Access when I was living in New York, and I just went in and did that. My agent even fought me on it. She saw no value in it because she was like, oh, it's an independent, low-budget horror film.

00:04:04 Speaker_04
It'll never get you anywhere. And I was like, well, I wanted

00:04:07 Speaker_04
experience doing work on film because I had always just done stage work and voiceover work and I kept on, you know, just bugging her and bugging her and bugging her to submit me and then I'm no longer with that agent.

00:04:21 Speaker_01
Yeah, man. See, they're always wrong. Every story is like this. They're all like, they always said the Simpsons would never work. You know, like, all that shit.

00:04:33 Speaker_01
So when you, before you auditioned, cause it's like, it says here that you were also in a, you were in the Grinch musical?

00:04:38 Speaker_04
I was, yes. I, I understudied the Grinch, uh, who was Stephen Carl. He was Robbie Rotten from LazyTown. And I also played Grandpa Who.

00:04:47 Speaker_01
Oh, wow. It was that with the full face, but was that also like, have you always been doing prosthetics?

00:04:52 Speaker_04
Yeah, pretty much. Ever since I was like a teenager doing children's theater, I was doing prosthetic work and like crazy makeup and stuff like that. So I'm pretty used to it.

00:05:00 Speaker_04
They actually asked me that when I was auditioning for Terrifier if I was used to prosthetics or a lot of makeup. I'm like, oh, yeah. Are you trained as a clown? No, no. I didn't even go to school for acting.

00:05:13 Speaker_04
I just, my, my classroom was always the stage and just watching like better actors and just learning from them and adapting.

00:05:22 Speaker_01
Amen. Now, so you get into the terror fire films, like I,

00:05:29 Speaker_01
Personally I feel like some people call them the first one is probably the closest to a straight-up torture porn Versus any of the rest of them now look when you are preparing for something like this like in terms of the amount of like what the Grizzly stuff that you have to do like I I know that like on a set

00:05:49 Speaker_01
It's not that emotional because everybody's having a blast. Everybody's laughing and having a good time. So like what do you do to prepare to essentially do wanton violence?

00:06:01 Speaker_04
Nothing. I don't know what that says about me. I just go in there and just do my thing. I mean, they have given me some like instruction on set, you know, how to do certain things with certain weapons and stuff like that.

00:06:15 Speaker_04
So, you know, like on part three, I got on the set training on the proper way to actually swing an axe at a object, I guess you could say.

00:06:24 Speaker_01
Yes, well you cuz you could tell you really and this is not you progress in The fleshing out of the character of art the clown so successfully through two and three Which is like I actually thought it was it was very interesting you can kind of see you get more comfortable

00:06:42 Speaker_01
As you go, like, is it because of Damien Leone or like on yourself? Do you feel like when you are that style of character? I did a full thing on Adult Swim where I was fully body painted for many years.

00:06:56 Speaker_01
And on some level, when you're in that amount of makeup, sometimes I feel that a director, as much as I love Dave Willis, he's like a friend of mine, you know what I mean? Like we're close. At what point I was like, am I a prop?

00:07:10 Speaker_01
Like, am I just, am I like literally a piece of costuming or is there a man in here?

00:07:15 Speaker_04
I've had directors like that before, especially in my stage days. There's this one director would micro direct everything I would do on stage down to like okay, I want you to turn your head at this angle on this line.

00:07:29 Speaker_04
I'm like, Oh my God, is any of this mine? Or am I just a puppet here for you? But I mean, Damien is completely opposite. He's very actor friendly director.

00:07:38 Speaker_04
He's willing to hear ideas and like, like I would say more, he directs me more on like the killing in the horror aspects of everything when it comes to like more of the comedic bits.

00:07:49 Speaker_04
He'll give me some ideas sometimes, but most of the time he's just like, just go play. We'll see what we come up with.

00:07:55 Speaker_04
it's like the the entire like um bar scene he basically let like like howard brett striker and danny roebuck and i just play for like two or three days on set and that was that was just fun it was crazy because at terror fire three it's like each scene is a different genre of horror movie and like and that one was like a fun it was like a fun like kind of like campy scene but then the next scene it's just

00:08:23 Speaker_02
Terrifying! Yeah, he's great. That's the best part about the movie. And it really blew my mind, man. Now, one of the things I love about Art the Clown over, say, Jason Voorhees or something, is that no weapon is off-limits to Art.

00:08:39 Speaker_01
We love that he shoots people. That's like one of our favorite bits, is that he also uses a gun. He uses the fact that, again, spoilers across the board. But that's in the first one.

00:08:50 Speaker_01
Yes, but in Terrifier 3, the bombing is like, when that happens, I think I was the only person in the theater that was like, awesome! I was like, yeah, yeah, good work!

00:09:04 Speaker_02
He blew up the kids. Fuck them kids. But is there any weapon that, like, would be off limits for Art? Or is that a, is, would you know, like, if I asked you about the lore of Art, would, you know, is that even like something that you have control over?

00:09:21 Speaker_04
No, I think everything's totally within bounds for him to use the weapon. He likes to play. He likes toys. So it was like, yeah, it's like, I love that idea with the bomb too. That was like, that was a brilliant idea that Damien had.

00:09:37 Speaker_04
And he actually, you actually see me, um, the bomb being assembled during that one little bit there. And people don't see that.

00:09:44 Speaker_01
And I was like, Oh, there was like a thing. There's that little moment where it's like, Oh shit, where's that bomb going to go? Like, that was like the first thought I have.

00:09:52 Speaker_01
And I think that what you guys do good, which is like, it's a, I know that technically it's like a film trick, but I love the little pieces in the beginning, the seeds, and then you're gonna see each one of these pop off.

00:10:04 Speaker_01
Like, each, the beginning is so good in a Terrifier movie because it's setting the tone of, this person's gonna be dead, and that person's gonna be dead, and that person's gonna be dead, you love all this, you love all these people, they're all dead, and I, that's my favorite.

00:10:20 Speaker_04
Oh, yeah, Damien's great at that. He is so good at like, you know, planning everything out and just dropping little hints and everything there.

00:10:26 Speaker_04
I mean, he's been doing that from the get go with the first film, he's been dropping little seeds and stuff like that, that people still are starting now to pick up on, which is, that's why I get so irritated when people are like, Oh, there's no plot to these movies, like, Oh, no, there most certainly is a plot.

00:10:42 Speaker_02
Oh yeah, there very much is.

00:10:43 Speaker_04
Most certainly. There was some, I think, TikToker or something like that recently posted a video going over the plot of 2 and 3, especially, and all these things. I was like, wow, this guy totally gets it. He totally understands what we're doing.

00:10:58 Speaker_04
Even Damien commented on him and said, dude, you nailed it.

00:11:03 Speaker_01
My first thought when I saw 2 and 3, it was like, that's Elm Street 3 and 4.

00:11:07 Speaker_03
Yep.

00:11:07 Speaker_01
And then we're careening into, you're gonna go straight into the lore, like in 4, Terrifier 4, when it does, it probably will happen, is that it's gonna go deep into the lore.

00:11:18 Speaker_01
We're now gonna go into Art the Clown's full world, which excites me a great deal.

00:11:22 Speaker_04
Oh yeah, it sacks me too.

00:11:23 Speaker_04
I mean, I know a few things that, you know, he's got planned for part four or part five or whatever he's doing, because he's still trying to, I think, decide if it's going to be four movies or five movies because he's got so many ideas.

00:11:35 Speaker_04
I'm thinking he's probably going to have five movies at least.

00:11:38 Speaker_01
It should be. Well, this is my question, though, is that do you get afraid of yourself? Like, it's hard as an actor. I feel like as a person, you're like, I'll come back for nine of these. I can do Art the Clown forever.

00:11:52 Speaker_01
But do you ever feel like maybe yourself could end up jumping the shark with Art the Clown if you go too far? Is it a thing that if he's doing eight, nine, ten, and you're gonna be like, maybe it should be a lady.

00:12:04 Speaker_01
Maybe it should be some other version of the clown. Well, there was a lady. Yes, who's great. She's gotta come back. Right?

00:12:13 Speaker_04
Who knows? I have no idea. He's keeping so many things close to his vest right now, so I'm just like he. He likes to surprise us as well, so he doesn't tell us things until we read the script and we're like, oh shit, are you kidding me?

00:12:26 Speaker_04
So I have no idea, but to answer the question, yeah, I totally get afraid of that.

00:12:31 Speaker_04
I'm totally afraid of going to campy with things and because I, you know, I don't want him just to be just, you know, you know how Freddie became later on after West Craven lost control of the character.

00:12:42 Speaker_02
We literally were talking about this right before you came on.

00:12:44 Speaker_01
Yeah, it's the touch. The key is the touch. I've always loved, again, Freddy Krueger's probably my favorite icon because he's funny, but you know that the movies aren't as good. It's like this double-edged sword where you know the movie is not as good.

00:13:00 Speaker_01
You know that the later Elm Streets are not as good, but I'm like, just put Robert Engel into my veins, it doesn't even really matter.

00:13:08 Speaker_04
But that's definitely something we've been very conscientious of since the very first Terrifier film. We were always trying to walk that line of going too campy with the comedy in this.

00:13:20 Speaker_04
And we do film some scenes where I do a lot more comedic takes on it, and then we're like, okay, that's just too far. But we have it there just in case. because you never know, you might find something from that you can use.

00:13:33 Speaker_04
And but yeah, that's what we got. I look at like the the torture scene in the first film where I've got terror tied up to the chair. I did a whole bunch of takes with different weapons coming out. I was doing comedic routines with them.

00:13:45 Speaker_04
There was like this club with a big, huge spike on it. And I did the whole like, you know, big golfing bit from like Johnny Carson or so.

00:13:56 Speaker_02
Yeah, but he is a clown. He's supposed to. This is his act. You know, he is, there is an audience of one and you are the clown.

00:14:05 Speaker_01
He is obviously having a very good time.

00:14:08 Speaker_04
Exactly. And that's, that's the thing. We have to still acknowledge that he is a clown, so he is having fun, but we don't want to go too cartoonish campy with it all. We don't want to totally jump that kind of shark.

00:14:20 Speaker_04
We still need to keep it in that realm of believability and horror as well.

00:14:26 Speaker_01
Can I also ask, becoming now, getting this much attention as a scary person, like, do you think that your, like, your, the people that follow you, your fans, do you think that that quality has also changed?

00:14:42 Speaker_01
Because it's like, do you find that there are people

00:14:47 Speaker_01
that like when you're in a dark, darker aspect of entertainment, that there are people that sort of maybe connect with the wrong thing a little bit about what it is that you're doing and you have to deal with like a, like scary people.

00:15:01 Speaker_04
There might be a few of those people out there and stuff like that, but it's few and far between. I found like horror fans in general are, by the vast majority, are just the coolest, sweetest, kindest people you'll ever meet.

00:15:16 Speaker_04
It's actually, I think, some of the other people that kind of scare me more in real life.

00:15:20 Speaker_01
Yeah, like comedy fans?

00:15:26 Speaker_02
Yeah, are there any clowns that you would like study to get mannerisms, or is this all just like you?

00:15:32 Speaker_04
Oh, yeah, definitely. So I mean, I grew up watching a lot of the great silent comedians and clowns. I mean, I was watching like, you know, Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin and even like Emmett Kelly Jr. and Emmett Kelly.

00:15:46 Speaker_04
Gosh, Mr. Bean was a huge influence on me as well. Marcel Marceau, Peter Sellers, you know, Don Knotts. I can just go on and on and list all these. Jim Carrey, just on and on and on.

00:15:59 Speaker_04
Actually, Stephan, who I understudied for Grinch, he was professionally trained in clowning and mind work. So I took a lot of what I learned from Stephan and put it into art. You can actually

00:16:09 Speaker_04
Watch videos of Robbie Rotten and compare them to Art the Clown, and you'll see probably a lot of similarities with the mannerisms.

00:16:16 Speaker_02
That's really interesting. Now, is there any music that you would listen to to kind of get in the mood? Do you play circus music or something before you get out there?

00:16:27 Speaker_04
No, not really. I mean, not for myself, but a lot of the times in the chair, especially in parts one and two when Damien was doing my makeup, he was listening to a lot of yacht rock. Yeah, that's what I think is so funny.

00:16:43 Speaker_04
People probably think Damien is like this hardcore badass listening to heavy metal all the time. No, man, he grooves to yacht rock. He loves yacht rock and 80s music.

00:16:52 Speaker_04
We will drive like when we're going to set something like two hour, three hour drive sometimes upstate. We would just be sitting there listening to like yacht rock and 80s music the whole entire time, just grooving out. That's that's just how we are.

00:17:03 Speaker_04
But like for myself, though, I will sometimes just for shits and giggles put on something I sometimes would like to put on like the song Denny Elfman song from the first Batman movie with the Joker's like Waltz to the Death.

00:17:18 Speaker_04
Oh, yeah, that's just always that always just puts me that little wacky little mischievous evil clown type of mode. So sometimes I would just think that in my head if I have to go a little bit nuts, I guess you could say. Yeah.

00:17:33 Speaker_01
Do you feel like now that the movie got like Terrifier 3 probably got the biggest like budget, the most legit budget, how is it going from

00:17:42 Speaker_01
being driven by the director to set who would do the makeup and then you'd shoot obviously probably like five, the most shoestring crew possible to like an actual movie set. Is there anything you miss or is there anything that's better?

00:18:02 Speaker_04
Oh, we still had a lot of the old school feel to it all, because we weren't a full on like traditional movie set where we didn't have the honey wagons or anything like that.

00:18:12 Speaker_04
So it wasn't a big huge leap, but it was we did have, you know, a makeup team that came in this time.

00:18:19 Speaker_04
And so that was definitely a nice thing to have there because it allowed Damien more freedom, too, because he wasn't having to stop my making and go on the set and do stuff and come back and do my makeup more. And so That was nicer in that way.

00:18:31 Speaker_04
But yeah, we're still not like what you traditionally see here in Hollywood on a set. So we were still have that, that, you know, independent feel to a lot of things.

00:18:42 Speaker_01
Cause they changed the makeup too, right? Didn't they do a thing? Cause it used to be sort of disparate, different separate pieces. And then they just made it a whole mask for you, essentially.

00:18:51 Speaker_04
No, it was always a one whole mask, but the original mask wasn't even molded to my face. It was Mike Gianelli's original mold.

00:18:58 Speaker_03
Yeah.

00:18:59 Speaker_04
And so it didn't fully fit my face. Damien always had a manipulated suit would fit my face. But this time, Christian Tinsley, who his team that did our makeup for this one on part three, they actually did a new sculpt and mold of my face.

00:19:14 Speaker_04
So it's a little bit more gaunt than the last one was, because Damien wanted art to be more gaunt in this one.

00:19:18 Speaker_03
It looked good.

00:19:20 Speaker_04
Oh, thank I love I love the look it. And they also gave me a scar skull lenses for for my eyes this time. So I my eyes were different. And like part two, I had my natural green eyes. And part one, I had contacts for a little bit.

00:19:35 Speaker_04
And then like we had one night where I had a rip in my lenses. And so I couldn't wear them for that night. And we had to film. So we decided from that point on, I would just be wearing my my regular eyes.

00:19:47 Speaker_01
And if anybody knows what the hell, you know, yeah, why you're not paying attention to the right thing.

00:19:51 Speaker_04
Yeah, exactly. And I kind of just say in my head, like the eye color changed after he got knocked out by the exterminator. So it's like, oh, yeah, the eye, the contacts popped out. And so now

00:20:02 Speaker_03
Yeah, yeah, sure, yeah, yeah, definitely.

00:20:04 Speaker_04
I definitely didn't notice. You know, he's rebirthed, so now he's become more demonic in part three, so he has different eyes going forward.

00:20:13 Speaker_02
This is a question that we were talking about before. Is he a human in the first one?

00:20:17 Speaker_04
Yes.

00:20:18 Speaker_02
Okay, and when does he, like, when does it become supernatural?

00:20:22 Speaker_04
At the very end of part one, where he's brought back from the dead.

00:20:25 Speaker_01
Yes. And then, like, so he was just a man. Yes. And so the face underneath the makeup you would assume would have just been like Arthur Clown. So what's Arthur Clown, what was his day like? Yeah, what did he do during the day? What did he, what's his job?

00:20:41 Speaker_02
What was that? Oh, you can't say yet? Can't say yet. Wow. All right, I'm glad there is an answer.

00:20:49 Speaker_01
Yes, that's one of those things too. God, that'll be great. Everyone will be very excited to see that jump in.

00:20:55 Speaker_04
Yeah. I will say this, that I know for one thing, for his origin, we don't want to make him a sympathetic character.

00:21:03 Speaker_04
no we don't want him to have one of those tragic backstories where he was abused and blah blah blah blah blah we basically how i view him in my head is he came out of his mother's womb and strangled her with his own umbilical cord he's just evil incarnate he is just that's why hell latched onto this guy he's like this is our avatar on earth

00:21:24 Speaker_04
We love this guy.

00:21:26 Speaker_01
Yeah, we love this guy. Yeah, it's like it's the same variant of he's from the seed of a thousand maniacs.

00:21:32 Speaker_04
Yeah, exactly. He was just born evil. And that's the thing is, like, I do generally believe there are some people that are that way. They just came out of the womb and they are just fucked up in the head.

00:21:43 Speaker_04
I knew a kid like that growing up where he was this kid that lived across the street from one of my best friends. And I saw him flat out just take glee in killing, you know, squirrels. Yes. Right.

00:21:56 Speaker_04
He would like shoot him with his BB gun and watch them bleed out or he would just strangle them himself. And I was like, this kid's just evil. My mom was like, do not play with that kid ever again. He's evil. So that's how I view art.

00:22:10 Speaker_04
He was just born that way. He just had that tendency from the very get go where he just loved to kill things. It brought him joy.

00:22:17 Speaker_01
I also find that people that have the happiest existence play Unrepentant Maniacs really well, and I can tell from the Lego on the shelf behind you that you seem like a very happy-go-lucky man. I that comes from, you know, years of struggling. Yeah.

00:22:37 Speaker_01
Oh, yeah.

00:22:38 Speaker_04
Yeah. That's you know, I was bullied relentlessly growing up. But it's like I always how I escaped all that was finding the things that brought me joy and brought me happiness. And so it's like I am a child of heart in a lot of ways.

00:22:52 Speaker_04
I guess some people would say I am like a have a what is that?

00:22:58 Speaker_01
Arrested development people have said that about me too, and it's like whatever whatever you idiot I'm a child Save that in your pocket if you ever need a little turnaround on that.

00:23:23 Speaker_04
I think it's just all that bullying I went through. It's like, I think I've been able to channel a lot of that on, on set.

00:23:30 Speaker_04
I mean, there are even times on set where like, you know, I'm just not fully giving them what they need for a, an attack or something like that. And they'll just go, Hey Dave, just pretend it's this certain person and go.

00:23:40 Speaker_04
And I'm like, Oh shit, Dave, where'd that come from? It's like repressed rage.

00:23:47 Speaker_01
Do you remember how much you hate Rachel Ray? Imagine this is Rachel Ray.

00:23:53 Speaker_02
Exactly. Earlier you were saying how sometimes you like to put on the song from the first Batman movie with Joker. Now I've heard a rumor that you are gunning to play the Joker at some point. Is this true? I am.

00:24:05 Speaker_04
No pun intended. Totally gunning.

00:24:09 Speaker_02
James Gunning.

00:24:11 Speaker_04
I want that role so badly. I'm like, that's that's my dream role. That is a character I have wanted to play fully. I played him on a YouTube series like nine, 10 years ago. And, you know, that was that was that was a lot of fun.

00:24:27 Speaker_04
And I got a good taste of playing the character. I really want to play him in more official capacity. And I love the character so much. And I'm so fricking tired of seeing Hollywood bastardizing this character.

00:24:40 Speaker_01
I miss Cesar Romero jokers. I miss over-the-top ridiculous jokers.

00:24:48 Speaker_04
You can do that and be sadistic and evil and scary at the same time. Look at what Mark Hamill did. Mark Hamill revolutionized that. Exactly, exactly. That's why Mark is my favorite version of Joker, because he truly understands that character.

00:25:10 Speaker_04
You can tell he did his research.

00:25:13 Speaker_04
and especially you look at the especially the 80s 90s version of joker that's when he got a lot darker yeah and actually the very first version of joker was very dark too he was like you know a homicidal maniac then too and it was it was because you know back in the mid

00:25:32 Speaker_04
1900s, that's when they were like, oh, we got to be a lot more, you know, wholesome and friendly. So they were campy then. But it's like, I want to return more to like that, that Alan Moore era of, you know, or like, you know,

00:25:47 Speaker_01
That that that kind of dark Joker, you know killing joke have you ever thought about yeah, let me pitch this to you All right, you do a thing where your movie is everybody's calling you the Joker but It's revealed that it's a musical in a courtroom.

00:26:03 Speaker_01
Listen It's a musical in a courtroom And you've never been the Joker at all And the only time that you ever even admitted not being Joker is after you've been group sexually assaulted by a bunch of jailers. So, what do you think?

00:26:20 Speaker_01
Is that something you'd like be interested in? No.

00:26:27 Speaker_02
crazy that you as art, the clown defeated the joker. It is.

00:26:33 Speaker_01
I want to remind you, dude, technically you won.

00:26:38 Speaker_04
Technically you beat the joker. That's insane. When you think about it and it was even crazier about it. It was art, the clown versus Arthur, the clown. Yes. Wow. Yeah. I didn't even think about it. Yeah. It was insane.

00:26:53 Speaker_04
It's just like, but he was never a clown.

00:26:57 Speaker_02
Well, kind of. He's a street clown. He was sorta.

00:26:59 Speaker_01
Yeah, he's a street clown. Yeah, I guess he does. Yeah, I guess if you call yourself one, then you are one.

00:27:06 Speaker_01
So how else does your life kind of change, or is it just like, I guess people say shit like this, I know that, I'm certain that the money's just rolling in.

00:27:17 Speaker_04
It's not really rolling, it's starting to.

00:27:20 Speaker_01
Yeah, it's going to though, man.

00:27:22 Speaker_04
It's a nice trickle, which I'm okay with, because like, I spent like 13 years of my life basically struggling to make ends meet waiting tables in New York City, so it's like.

00:27:32 Speaker_02
And I hear you, village poorhouse over here.

00:27:35 Speaker_04
Where'd you work? Oh God, so many different restaurants. I started off working at Bubba Gunt Shrimp Company in Times Square.

00:27:40 Speaker_02
Oh, you poor bastard.

00:27:42 Speaker_04
No wonder you killed people. Jesus Christ, that place is awful. Oh, the stories I could tell you about that place.

00:27:51 Speaker_01
You could probably base Art the Clowns off of five people you could meet at that Bubba Gunt.

00:27:57 Speaker_04
Oh yeah, just doing a shift there one night.

00:27:59 Speaker_01
Azard would be amazing. Can I also ask you like this is like one of those very Kind of practical steady things. What do you do like Kate Corcoran's a friend of ours in her?

00:28:14 Speaker_01
Now very famous scene in terrifier for in terms of the whole films she's hung upside down completely naked and you cut her from the fuck and you cut her through her cooter through snooter and She knows that that is in there.

00:28:28 Speaker_04
That's I call that the up of the crack of dawn scene.

00:28:34 Speaker_01
Yeah Yes, of course Like when you're hanging out on set like I did it I've done a couple of movies with nudity but it's like what do you do between said like is it one of those were like obviously you're trying to get this wrapped and

00:28:48 Speaker_01
Right right like it's because she is physically hanging upside down.

00:28:51 Speaker_02
She's a wonderful lady.

00:28:53 Speaker_01
Oh, she's She's only doing it because she's so nice She's so down for it, but like what's the mid like how like would you feel like? Was that Damien's kind of role to comfort her, make sure things were moving along?

00:29:11 Speaker_01
Do you feel like in those functions, like, are you kind of, like, just trying to stay out of it and get it done as quickly as possible? Like, are you joking around? Like, how do you handle that?

00:29:22 Speaker_04
That night, I was not joking around at all, because that was very dangerous, what we were doing with her, too. And it was freezing cold in there. It was like 20 degrees that night. So that was miserable for her.

00:29:31 Speaker_04
So I was more concerned about just trying to make her feel as comfortable as possible. Yeah, I'm like that all the time.

00:29:38 Speaker_04
I'm like, with especially any of the fight scenes, I'm always trying to check in with my co-stars, making sure they're okay and everything. I think they probably get annoyed with me because I'm always saying, oh my god, are you okay?

00:29:47 Speaker_04
I didn't hurt you or anything like that. But like, especially when it has to do with nudity or anything like that, I try to be as respectful as possible. I'm like, it's just, because that's something that's, it's a very personal thing.

00:30:00 Speaker_04
It's very invasive to be exposed in such a manner. And I try to, I was raised to be a gentleman in that way by my father, especially. And so I'm like, I try not even to look at what's going on.

00:30:13 Speaker_04
I'm just kind of like, okay, I'm going to like look over here because it just feels wrong.

00:30:18 Speaker_01
Also the best part is that did you know it as a bashful as a fellow bashful man when you're in character It's it's better because then it's like I'm art the clown I can sit here I can like I'm as much scarier good like that's what's interesting, too You think like I don't want to look at these naked ladies everybody staring at you

00:30:39 Speaker_01
yeah you know like they're looking at the evil clown i think you're not wanting to look is also terrifying yeah yeah art the clown acting bashful is almost even scary i i am really i become like that that that vulture from looney tunes

00:31:02 Speaker_04
That's just how I was raised. I'm like, okay, someone's in a state. That's also how I was just doing community theater. You know, sometimes people would have to make a costume change right on the side of the stage because it's a quick turnaround.

00:31:14 Speaker_04
And you just had to like, okay, that's going on. I'm just, I'm going to be respectful and look down or something like that.

00:31:21 Speaker_01
Oh yeah, I'll always remember in junior high school when I had to choose between drama and hockey, and I remember talking to the dudes on the hockey team being like, you know that there's naked women over in drama. Yes.

00:31:35 Speaker_01
Like here I'm just surrounded by all these sets of balls.

00:31:39 Speaker_04
Sausage fest.

00:31:40 Speaker_01
Yeah. Yeah. I was like, I want to go there. And they all thought I was crazy. They thought I was homosexual, but I said no. I got that too. Yeah. And I was just like, no sirs. I am more than, I am more than just one. I am all.

00:31:58 Speaker_02
Oh man, so obviously this is Halloween, you're in your busy season, the movie just came out. This is also a straight up Christmas movie. And you're going to have to promo this again. You're going to have to go through all of this again.

00:32:11 Speaker_02
And then it's going to be. But the thing is, you know, we were talking about, you know, you know, with the budget and all that or whatever, forever, people are going to be watching Terrifier 3 over Christmas. I can't wait. It's going to be great.

00:32:23 Speaker_02
I once interviewed Macaulay Culkin. He says he gets a million dollars every year from Home Alone every Christmas. Oh, God, I wish that would happen with me. That would be amazing. I'd say probably like $60,000. Do you have like a family?

00:32:44 Speaker_04
I like, um, I have a dad and a sister back home.

00:32:48 Speaker_01
I mean, I know you come from humans, but I didn't know if you have kids.

00:32:52 Speaker_04
No, I haven't gotten lucky enough to like find a lady to settle down with yet.

00:32:57 Speaker_00
It's just, I've been too busy. Hey, come on, come on down. Arthur Clown is single. He doesn't, he doesn't know yet how to make sweet love. Someone's going to have to teach him.

00:33:08 Speaker_04
I definitely do want to like get married and have kids.

00:33:11 Speaker_04
I'm actually at that phase of my life now where I definitely do want to settle down and do that because like for years I was working just so I could live comfortably so I can have a family because like waiting tables in New York City, there was no way I was going to be able to support a family and kids.

00:33:25 Speaker_02
It's a nightmare. Just bring them to work and you're getting ready for it because You're making a children's movie, you're playing Mickey Mouse. Exactly.

00:33:36 Speaker_01
Okay, I wanna know, can I ask about, so now, for those of you who don't know, there was a little teaser trailer, before Terrorfire 3, for the new, like, I guess it was as soon as Steamboat Willie, the copyright ran out, because I got a shirt that says, fuck you asshole, with Steamboat Willie on it, immediately, from our buddies at Syndicate.

00:33:58 Speaker_01
But my question is, is that when you, Like, so how did that all happen? How quickly did that go down? So the movie's called Screamboat and you're playing a horror version of Steamboat Willie.

00:34:11 Speaker_04
Yes.

00:34:12 Speaker_01
That's all I know. Yeah. And that's all you got to tell us. But more just like how the fuck, like when did all that kind of happen?

00:34:19 Speaker_04
This all started happening like last year because the director from that is also my director from The Mean One. And he went to school with the the Fuzz on the Lens guys from Terrifier.

00:34:28 Speaker_04
So they kind of partnered up for this film because he's like, he knew this property was coming out in public domain in this year. And he's like, well, I want to snap it up before anybody else does because I have a great idea for this. And why not?

00:34:43 Speaker_04
So he approached me last year. He's like, hey, I have this script. Playing Willie, will you do it?

00:34:49 Speaker_04
I'm like, oh my God, yes, of course, because it's a full circle moment for me, too, because my first big, real leading role was back in eighth grade at my middle school. I played Mickey Mouse in Mickey's Christmas Carol.

00:35:04 Speaker_04
Oh, and that was the show that made me decide that I wanted to do theater more because I like making people laugh and everything like that. So it's a full circle moment. So I'm like, I have to do this. There's there's no way I'm not doing this.

00:35:17 Speaker_04
So I that's what we did. And we're like, OK, let's start filming it. Let's do it. And yeah, it's it's a lot of fun. I just did ADR for it last week. So that was a lot of fun for me. A lot of whistling. I can't wait.

00:35:30 Speaker_01
I can't wait to see it. It'll be like anything. It's insane. Anything that fucks with Mickey, I'm happy with.

00:35:36 Speaker_04
It is such a horror comedy is that we're really leaning into the campy horror like comedy type of vibe for this. We're not trying to go full terrified, just trying to be dark and scary. We're like, oh, no, let's we know what we are.

00:35:48 Speaker_04
We're having fun with it. And there's so many Disney jokes in there. It's just like it's a big, huge love letter to Disney and Disney fans. So I think the Disney fans will have so much fun with this movie.

00:36:00 Speaker_04
Also has one of my terrifier co-stars in it Kaylee Hyman.

00:36:04 Speaker_01
Oh great.

00:36:05 Speaker_04
She's in it too.

00:36:06 Speaker_01
She's hysterical I can't wait for this. Okay. You know now with that work. We're gonna be wrapping up here I just want to leave the audience with are you like so were you a horror movie guy really before all this? I was a little bit.

00:36:18 Speaker_01
I was more of a comedy guy, though.

00:36:19 Speaker_04
I was late to horror. I didn't start watching horror until my senior year of high school because my mom was afraid of horror movies and stuff like that. So we didn't watch them in my family.

00:36:27 Speaker_04
But I saw Scream 2 in theaters because I couldn't chicken out in front of this girl I had a crush on in a show and I wanted to go see it. So I'm like, OK, I'm going to go. And I had a blast. I love horror.

00:36:38 Speaker_04
But I never thought I would be doing this, though. I was like, I was always a comedy guy. I want to do comedy and, you know, Broadway and like voiceovers for cartoons. And that's what I was doing.

00:36:48 Speaker_04
A lot of that before I took on Terrapa, I was doing a lot of voiceover work for children's shows.

00:36:54 Speaker_01
Dude, it's kind of funny what doors open.

00:36:56 Speaker_01
And what leads you this business is very strange and I do think it's like I wish that in college Someone had taught me more about like, you know that like it's not just be a movie star Yeah is necessarily make it in show business.

00:37:09 Speaker_01
You know, I mean like you never know where the fuck it is This thing's gonna tell you

00:37:13 Speaker_04
No, you just gotta, I learned a long time ago, you just gotta go with the flow, wherever it leads you, just go with it. And I'm glad I did that because I wouldn't be here.

00:37:22 Speaker_04
I would still probably be waiting tables in New York City right now struggling to get by.

00:37:27 Speaker_01
Yeah, think about the things you didn't get that you were angry about, right? Or upset or sad about. Now you're like, now you're doing something else.

00:37:33 Speaker_04
I was up for five or six different Broadway tours

00:37:37 Speaker_04
right before I got terrifier and they all fell through for me and it was I was very frustrated I was like final final callbacks for like Susan Stroman and Roger Rees and all these people and I was like oh my god I'm so close to getting something and so I won't why won't something stick and there's a reason for that because if I had gotten any of those I wouldn't have been able to do terrifier and who knows.

00:37:57 Speaker_02
Isn't that weird? You are one of the all-time horror icons now.

00:38:01 Speaker_04
Yeah it's in there now.

00:38:01 Speaker_02
Three really solidified. Isn't that fucking crazy?

00:38:04 Speaker_01
Isn't that ridiculous? Yeah it's

00:38:08 Speaker_04
I mean, I was just walking down the street here in Burbank the other night just getting dinner. I had my glasses on, everything. I was a little bit disheveled because I had just gotten off the airplane.

00:38:18 Speaker_04
this one woman just recognized me right there on the street and like ran up to me and was like, Oh my God, I have to say something to you. And I'm like, I'm amazed. You know who I am.

00:38:29 Speaker_01
Yeah. Eventually you're going to get a lot of like, kill me. Kill me. Pretend to choke me. Pretend to choke me. Burbank is a horror town. Oh, it is very much so. Um, well, so can you, is there any, like, what's your favorite horror movie?

00:38:44 Speaker_04
I really love just Wes Craven in general. I'm a big Nightmare on Elm Street fan, also a big Scream fan. I love slashers. That's always been my favorite genre of horror movies, the slashers. I think they're just fun.

00:38:56 Speaker_01
So for tonight, for Halloween, what are you doing? What's your plan?

00:38:59 Speaker_04
Oh, actually, I don't have any plans because I'm going out of town. On Halloween? You're traveling? I am traveling on Halloween. I'm so disappointed.

00:39:10 Speaker_01
That's a true spooky professional. That's a true spooky professional. It's called a work day. It's a work day.

00:39:16 Speaker_02
It's a work day. It's the busy season, we call it over here.

00:39:18 Speaker_04
It's crazy because everybody's like, what are you dressing up as? I'm like, I'm going as myself because I dress up all year long as other characters. So I was like, I'm going as myself.

00:39:27 Speaker_01
You'll have other years where you'll celebrate.

00:39:30 Speaker_01
Yeah, and then you'll you'll celebrate you'll get eventually you're gonna be the point when you're doing terror fire 15 just being like when you're in a full scuba suit and on the water set you're just gonna be like This is the last one You're like screaming over a tender green salad be like I'm not doing this again.

00:39:49 Speaker_01
You know like just cut to that Send up my stunt double What the hell I gotta do? Goddamn Sidney, you tell Sidney Sweeney I'm busy, alright? My dick is empty.

00:40:02 Speaker_03
Thank you, I can't, I must work.

00:40:11 Speaker_01
Thank you so much to, yeah I told her, no it's disgusting, and you didn't say it, I said it. Thank you so much, David Howard Thornton. Mark the Clown. This was lovely, man. Is there anything else you want people to go look for?

00:40:23 Speaker_04
Um, well, uh, my other film stream just came out on uh streaming platforms It was in theaters a few months ago. It's called stream stream Stream now streaming. Oh, is it on do you know which one just anything to get?

00:40:36 Speaker_04
At least on amazon prime right off the top of my head.

00:40:39 Speaker_02
So yes Nice and go see scream boat when that comes out.

00:40:43 Speaker_01
I'm so excited for that and more importantly go see terrifier 3 Oh take your family And then watch it again over Christmas. Sneak in your kids. I actually think that this is the one to really sneak in the kids to, uh, you could don't, but no infants.

00:40:59 Speaker_01
Someone brought an infant. Someone brought an infant, a Terrifier 3. Why? And they were just like, I guess it's because they can't. They know that the baby won't

00:41:07 Speaker_02
They can't afford a babysitter and they have to see you kill people.

00:41:10 Speaker_01
They have to see you kill people. So isn't that great?

00:41:15 Speaker_04
We did a screening this past weekend up in Detroit to a huge giant Emacs theater. And there were children in the audience that I even called them out. I'm like, oh wait, how old are you? And they're like, I'm six. And like, where's your parents?

00:41:30 Speaker_04
And the mom's over there like, hi. I'm like, okay, your parents are here. It's fine.

00:41:35 Speaker_01
Yeah. Terrifier 3, Terrifier's hard to take.

00:41:38 Speaker_04
Yeah, but hey, I mean, hey, I leave it up to the parents to decide because, you know, oh, yeah, I can handle things. I mean, I look I look at like Chrissy Fox, you know, who's in part three, her daughter, Elle, who I would go to war for.

00:41:51 Speaker_04
She's five years old and she loves horror films. She loves horror films.

00:41:57 Speaker_03
That's how I was.

00:41:58 Speaker_04
Yeah.

00:41:59 Speaker_03
And look at me.

00:42:00 Speaker_04
She's great. She's totally fine. She's the cutest little thing. She travels like we were on an airplane together. I pass her going to the restroom and Elle just looks up and goes, I'm watching Abigail. And she's holding a clown doll in her hand.

00:42:14 Speaker_04
That's amazing. It's the cutest thing.

00:42:17 Speaker_00
I love this child.

00:42:18 Speaker_02
That's perfect, man, dude. Thank you so much, man. Happy Halloween. Congratulations, buddy. This is fucking amazing. You, you're really taking the world by storm. That's so cool to talk to.

00:42:29 Speaker_04
It's a wild ride. I'm just very grateful for it.

00:42:32 Speaker_01
So I will definitely have you back for four.

00:42:34 Speaker_04
Oh, definitely, definitely. We're definitely coming back for four, too. Hell yeah, man.

00:42:40 Speaker_01
All right, well, hail Satan and happy Halloween. Hail art.

00:42:45 Speaker_02
The clown and the genre.

00:42:47 Speaker_01
The genre of stuff. All of that. All of that.