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Sorry to post another Nightmare article, but he just keeps saying adorable things and I feel like I have to share them!
Jackie Earle Haley 'happy to be second place Freddie Krueger'
By David Bentley on May 13, 10 10:10 PM
JACKIE EARLE HALEY says he is happy to be a runner-up Freddie Krueger behind Robert Englund's iconic portrayal of the dream-stalking bogeyman.
Haley donned the stripy jumper and clawed glove in Samuel Bayer's remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, released in the UK last weekend.
"It was a real challenge," he tells us. "The notion of getting to play such an iconic character was incredibly exciting and after Rorschach [in Watchmen] it was like, 'Wow, these two iconic guys'."
"A lot of the hardcore fanbase is going to have a hard time that it isn't Robert, how do you compare? You can't, because its one movie versus decades of developing a cultural icon.
"I'm perfectly happy to be second place Freddie, it's not a competition," he admitted.
Haley says he's somehow drawn to such roles: "I guess I like playing the darker guys. And I think people like me playing them so there's that too. It's just part of the business and how it works but I definitely find it interesting."
As well as Krueger and masked vigilante Rorschach, he portrayed disturbed inmate George Noyce in Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island; shady number-cruncher Guerrero in Human Target; and was nominated for an Oscar for his role as a paedophile in Little Children.
"There's a very specific place in our culture for horror films which goes way back to Frankenstein, Dracula, and it's kind of cool I've been fortunate to work in these kinds of genres", he said.
To prepare for the Krueger role, Haley had hoped to meet Englund but they never managed to arrange it. So he started reading up on vampire legend Nosferatu and serial killers - specifically Ed Kemper, a man who murdered a string of female hitchhikers in the US in the 70s. But it then dawned on him that there is no emotional depth to either Kemper or Krueger.
"I started getting into the psyche behind Kemper and you can imagine it's kind of uncomfortable even listening to that c**p. I took all my research and threw it across the room and thought, 'I'm playing a monster, I'm playing a bogeyman'. I realised that I wasn't playing this deep character, and that I didn't need to torture myself in that direction for Freddie. He was a bogeyman and that's what I needed to embrace."
Haley reveals that he "almost drove myself psychotic" preparing to play Rorschach and that portraying such a flawed character changed his outlook forever ("He's made me more cynical and more independent. I don't want to drink the Kool-Aid at the party any more").
But playing Krueger ended up being far less intense once he ditched the needless research: "I think I left Freddie pretty much on set. I also had a lot of decompression time in that when they say 'wrap' I've got an hour of make-up removal. I can safely say that what stuck with me most with Freddie was the glue.
"It was kind of ironic discovering that after all those years of Nightmare On Elm Street, the only real person being tortured was Robert Englund, in the make-up chair for three to four hours a day - unbelievable."
Jackie Earle Haley 'happy to be second place Freddie Krueger'
By David Bentley on May 13, 10 10:10 PM
JACKIE EARLE HALEY says he is happy to be a runner-up Freddie Krueger behind Robert Englund's iconic portrayal of the dream-stalking bogeyman.
Haley donned the stripy jumper and clawed glove in Samuel Bayer's remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, released in the UK last weekend.
"It was a real challenge," he tells us. "The notion of getting to play such an iconic character was incredibly exciting and after Rorschach [in Watchmen] it was like, 'Wow, these two iconic guys'."
"A lot of the hardcore fanbase is going to have a hard time that it isn't Robert, how do you compare? You can't, because its one movie versus decades of developing a cultural icon.
"I'm perfectly happy to be second place Freddie, it's not a competition," he admitted.
Haley says he's somehow drawn to such roles: "I guess I like playing the darker guys. And I think people like me playing them so there's that too. It's just part of the business and how it works but I definitely find it interesting."
As well as Krueger and masked vigilante Rorschach, he portrayed disturbed inmate George Noyce in Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island; shady number-cruncher Guerrero in Human Target; and was nominated for an Oscar for his role as a paedophile in Little Children.
"There's a very specific place in our culture for horror films which goes way back to Frankenstein, Dracula, and it's kind of cool I've been fortunate to work in these kinds of genres", he said.
To prepare for the Krueger role, Haley had hoped to meet Englund but they never managed to arrange it. So he started reading up on vampire legend Nosferatu and serial killers - specifically Ed Kemper, a man who murdered a string of female hitchhikers in the US in the 70s. But it then dawned on him that there is no emotional depth to either Kemper or Krueger.
"I started getting into the psyche behind Kemper and you can imagine it's kind of uncomfortable even listening to that c**p. I took all my research and threw it across the room and thought, 'I'm playing a monster, I'm playing a bogeyman'. I realised that I wasn't playing this deep character, and that I didn't need to torture myself in that direction for Freddie. He was a bogeyman and that's what I needed to embrace."
Haley reveals that he "almost drove myself psychotic" preparing to play Rorschach and that portraying such a flawed character changed his outlook forever ("He's made me more cynical and more independent. I don't want to drink the Kool-Aid at the party any more").
But playing Krueger ended up being far less intense once he ditched the needless research: "I think I left Freddie pretty much on set. I also had a lot of decompression time in that when they say 'wrap' I've got an hour of make-up removal. I can safely say that what stuck with me most with Freddie was the glue.
"It was kind of ironic discovering that after all those years of Nightmare On Elm Street, the only real person being tortured was Robert Englund, in the make-up chair for three to four hours a day - unbelievable."