The native Texan shares of his decision to get in a Uhaul and head to Hollywood, funny stories about casting for JC and pranks they did on set, his connection to a CO dude ranch, his (epic fail) dinner with Coppola, as well as his thoughts about films that he compares to “lipstick on a pig”. Read on for more with this really nice and genuine guy.
No, actually I used to come to CO as a kid with my family. We would go to a dude ranch in Evergreen, CO. My family of 7 would load up in this giant, blue Econoline van and fight and kill each other all the way from Texas. I’ve never really spent time in Denver, so this is my first time here.
Can you tell me any funny stories from the set of Jeepers Creepers?
First one that comes to mind is from the set of JC2. We had a large cast of mostly young actors. It was the first movie for most of them, so they were really excited and impressionable. We had already done the first movie, we were coming back to do the second, so we were just having some fun. We got a “Wanted” poster and put it up of the Creeper, and then I would creep around and hide in places like the girls’ restroom in one of the stalls and wait for one of the girls to come in. I just had a blast terrorizing all the kids that I worked with. The more they reacted, the further I went with it, because I love doing that kind of stuff.
What advice would you give to young, aspiring actors?
Work. When you’re new, I don’t know if there’s such a thing as bad work. I would really put yourself to work, get yourself on a set. I went to Hollywood, I didn’t know one person. I did it the old fashioned way, like you see in the movies. I loaded up the UHaul, drove out there, and I was going to roll off the cabin of the UHaul and Stephen Spielberg was going to be sitting there and he’d offer me a three picture deal. It didn’t work out that way. People aren’t going to hire you or make you famous because they think you’re cool or they meet you at a party or you have a beer with somebody at some stupid party. People who make it work hard. Ask yourself why you want to do it? If you want to be famous or be rich, that’s fine, but that’s not the reason to be an actor because this business is so difficult and it will challenge you at every turn. At the core, there has to be a love for wanting to do this. Whether anyone pays you, you have to do it. When I was younger, I would hear actors say, “The reason I did this is because I couldn’t do anything else” and I used to take it so literally and think “That’s bullshit. There’s a million jobs out there they could do.” Now I understand they didn’t mean physically they couldn’t do anything else, they meant for their soul, they couldn’t do anything else. It was the only thing they could do in their life. That’s the best advice I could give. It will test you, and you have to be willing to put it first, before everything else, which is tough for people to do.
How do you stay grounded in an industry that can be very seedy?
It’s very difficult to stay grounded, especially if you don’t have a family or you don’t have a good relationship that you’re in. It’s really hard because it’s a tough city. You could wake up and six months are gone. It’s tough to stay focused in a city like that. So I just made a decision, I needed to get some perspective after 14 years in LA, so I moved back to Texas, where I’m from. I live in Austin now, which has a great little film community. Now I go back to LA for work, but I don’t live there necessarily, which is much better for me. I have a lot better perspective. In LA, it’s all about the window dressing; it’s a lot about the look of a person. All the external things that have nothing to do with being a good actor or wanting to tell a story the right way; the publicity, the PR, the magazines, all the shit—getting out of that has helped me see that this is all irrelevant.
What actor/director is on your wish list to work with?
The list is really long. I’d be lucky to work with people like Morgan Freeman. I’d like to work with him; I’ve never seen him be bad. I’m inspired by Philip Seymour Hoffman, I think he’s fantastic. For directors, I like Marc Forster, Darren Aronofsky. Of course the masters, I did a film for Oliver Stone recently and just had a ball. That was one of my ‘check off the list’ guys. It was nothing like I thought it would be which was great. I’ll never get to everybody that I want to work with. I’m a fan of most of these people; I’m a big fan boy, so I have a lot of respect for a lot of different directors and actors out there.
Have you ever been star-struck with anyone you’ve worked with?
I worked with Mel Gibson years ago and I was kind of freaked out about that. It was more than I could wrap my head around at the time. But it was really important for me too, at that stage of my career, because I really got to watch him the whole time we were on set. I think I realized at that point, it wasn’t some magical, mystical thing that he was doing. He was a real guy, like I was and he flubbed his lines, like I do, and somehow it became tangible, that kind of success in the business. But it took me awhile.
Also Francis Ford Coppola. He produced the Jeepers movies and his assistant came to my trailer and said he wanted to have dinner with me. I had dinner with Francis and I think I maybe said 2 words. It was ridiculous. I felt like such a fool when I left. He was trying to get me to talk, God bless him. Everything I said sounded stupid, and I didn’t say much. He’s a legend you know, but I didn’t avail myself more.
If you could chat with him again now, what would you say that you didn’t get to say then?
I think I would ask him a lot about the business, I would pick his brain more. I’d not be so demure and shy, like when I was with him. Because like I said, after all, he’s just a guy who happens to be really good at what he does. I would talk to him more about character development, writing, and the process of staying viable in the business for 50 years. I would just dig in there, although he might tell me to stop with the questions, but I wouldn’t be shy about it, because it’s a hell of an opportunity to have dinner with that guy.
If you weren’t acting, what do you think you’d be doing?
I have a lot of interests. Playing music, I’d love to coach football. I love baseball too, but I think football would be my first choice. Teaching is fantastic. Flying, I love to fly. I have a lot of interests. Certain things get hot at certain points in my life and then cool off. I have to say, I was never one of those guys that lived, breathed, ate, slept acting. I love it and I enjoy it and when I am hooked into a part, I’m completely obsessed, but I don’t need it to breathe. I’ve found that it’s better for me to live my life and somehow that feeds my performances as far as the dimensions I’m able to give a character and the experiences I’m able to bring to a character. I feel like it’s important to live and not forget that side of life.
What’s one example of an encounter you’ve had with a crazed fan at a trade show or festival?
I’m always amazed when fans show me their tattoos of my character. There was this guy with a huge belly and he lifted up his shirt and he’s got a big Creeper on his big belly. I just thought, “Man, more power to you. One day you’re going to be 70 and the Creeper aint going to look so good.”
But I’ve had the best fans, they’ve won me over. I was never really a big horror fan growing up; I wasn’t that guy watching all the horror films. I think it served me when I did the first Jeepers, because I didn’t have any notions of what others actors had done before me. In my subconscious I wasn’t copying or imitating or anything like that, I approached the character fresh. I am a big horror fan now.
Horror fans are the best in the world, they’re so loyal. They’ll buy an independent film I did 15 years ago that’s absolutely garbage, just because they want to support my work. A few years ago, these kids that were like 20 drove a bus from Florida to New Jersey, and they stopped and chopped corn off and did all these things from the film and that reminded them of the film, they collected all these things on the road trip on their way to see me. It was amazing, and we hung out for like 15 minutes and then they got back in their bus and went back to Florida.
What was the casting process like for Jeepers Creepers?
That was a trip. My agent called and said, ‘They’ve got this little movie that they’re casting, and they’re looking for this character and they want you to take a look at it. I’m sending you over the script, which is typical. That’s how they always do it. So she sent me over this script and I read it and there were no lines, and I called her back and said “What do they want me to do?” and she said, “Well they want you to create this character, this fully realized character and then just come in the room and show them who this character is.
Fortunately I had a week to think about it, which never really happens in the business. In LA, if you’re not a big star, you’ll get a day, two to prepare this role. I had a week, so I had a lot of time to sleep on it, think about it, daydream and dream at night about it. For whatever reason, the character just made sense to me. I started developing this character. His character is a lot about behavior since he doesn’t have speech, so that’s how I got into the character originally.
It was a pretty cool experience. The night before the audition I ended up shaving my head. Even though they said I’d be in makeup, I knew if I walked in like this, no matter how powerful my performance would be, first impressions are important. First of all this character, he eats people, so he wouldn’t want any hair because you have to worry about cleanup, and everything else. So I woke my roommate up at like 4 in the morning and said, “You’ve got to shave my head.”So he did. The experience of shaving your head, I’d never done it before. I’m glad I did it anyway, even if it wouldn’t have resulted in the part because it takes a layer off. It just kind of centered me.
So I walked in the room, and everyone was in the room. They’d been auditioning for this character for awhile and for whatever reason they hadn’t been able to find anybody they liked. They were up against it; they had like 36 hours to hire somebody. Everybody was in the room; producers, Victor [Salva], casting directors, everybody. Another actor just left and I walked into the room. A lot of times there’s a room full of guys waiting to go in you walk in and they’re all like eating, on their phone, looking at the last guy’s resume, but nobody pays attention to you. I walk in, there’s a chair out in the middle of the room and they’re all sitting behind this table and waited for them to finish. Finally the director looks up, looks at me, looks at my picture, and says, “You don’t have any hair”. I replied, “Well, Mr. Salva, this character wouldn’t have any hair, so I shaved my head” and the whole room was now paying attention. Then I realized it was mine to lose.
The audition Jonathan speaks of is actually taped and on the Special Features of the DVD
How did you get in the business? What made you get the U-Haul and head to LA?
I acted all through school but came from a very conservative background so something like this wasn’t something you actually did for a living. I got out of college and got into the business world, the corporate world and did that for four years. I was really successful at that but was completely unfulfilled. I thought I was staring down the barrel of forty years of this. Yeah I’ll make some money but my days were filled with something that I don’t I love. I thought there has to be something in this world that I can spend all my time doing that I really love and make money at. I really felt like I had a bit of window, personally at that time I didn’t have a family, didn’t have a serious relationship at the time. I felt like if I didn’t jump at the opportunity situations change, the window closes. So I really felt like I had to jump at the opportunity, with equal parts stupidity and courage, I like to say.
What are some of your favorite horror movies of all time?
I just saw Eileen’s [Dietz, who was also at the Mile High Horror Film Fest] film the other day. I mean, who doesn’t love The Exorcist. That film is seriously twisted. I love that film. I like a little film they came out with a few years ago, The Descent. I think they did a really good job with that.
Outside of horror, I like all the classic films, going back to Casablanca. From the 60s: Requiem for a Heavyweight, On the Waterfront. I love the early 70s time in film, China Town, Godfather, all those types of films. I love recently The Wrestler. I love films that serve the story first and foremost. I miss the storytelling aspect of filmmaking, which has been lacking because we have much more toys we can work with now. We have effects. I think a lot of younger generation filmmakers become really enamored with the toys and they forget about the bones of what makes a good film, is first and foremost in my mind, the story. If a story doesn’t work, you can put all the Christmas ornaments you want, dress it up how you want, but it’s still a pig, right? It’s like lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig, right? That’s how I feel about film. I really enjoy films that seek to tell a story first.
Will we see you taking on the role of writer or director in the future?
Absolutely, I already have. I co-wrote a film that’s going to be produced later next year. It’s (believe it or not) a WWII period film. That’s in pre-production right now. I’m actually developing a horror film, which I’ve been thinking about for a long time, so I’m finally putting pen to paper and getting it going. I’ve produced three films, so I want to keep doing that. I’d like to try my hand at directing, which is scary, but I’d really like to try. I think they all feed each other and serve each other. When I started writing, I became a better actor. I understood more clearly how my part was in service to the whole piece. I didn’t have such a myopic view of “Well I want to do this because it’s cool” or “I want to do this because it’s an interesting choice”. I really understood how pieces fit together from a storytelling point of view. So it really made me better as an actor, and I feel like directing will do that too.
It’s more about instinct for me, if something grabs me, and I have to do it. Unfortunately sometimes it’s to my detriment. I’ve made some bad choices, but it’s some little film that I believed in or some little character that I thought I could approach from an honest perspective. That’s kind of how I’ve made those choices. Certainly filmmakers or actors that you want to work with, they entice you into wanting to do certain roles. I’m still very much at the stage in my career where I’m certainly building my career, outside of horror, so I can’t afford to be as choosy as maybe other people can. If it’s a good opportunity, I’m an optimist and I like to see the best in the opportunity, and I can make something of it. I can always find something positive to hold on that’s interesting with a character. It’s really instinct, there’s no career planning.
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