The Starburst magazine # 284 has a feature on Blade 2 entitled "Don't Fear the Reaper" by Ian Spelling, in which he talks to Guillermo del Toro, David Goyer, and Ron. The following extracts are from Ron's section of the article.

Starburst: Ron Perlman how well did you know either the first film or the comic book?

Perlman: I did not know the first film or the comic books. For what I needed to do in the movie, it didn't matter. Guillermo needed to immerse himself in the world, but I felt that everything I needed to know was in the script and it was in Guillermo's vision of the story he was trying to tell. So, I didn't want to come into it with any kind of pre-conceived ideas. I still haven't seen the first film.

Starburst: How did you become involved in the project?

Perlman: Guillermo and I had worked together before, on Cronos. We are lifelong friends and I think he is one of the most talented directors on the planet. So he called me up and said he was getting ready to do Blade 2 and that one of the roles was being written for me. There are not a whole lot of guys I want to work with more than Guillermo and there are certainly not a lot of guys creating roles specifically for me. So I was honoured and excited…

Starburst: Can you give us a sense of who your character is?

Perlman: First there's the emperor of the vampire world, Damaskinos, who we meet in this instalment. Reinhardt is probably the most trusted and dependable member of his elite private guard. He takes his orders directly from Damaskinos and protects him. Reinhardt is a vampire but he's also a soldier.

Starburst: So lots of action?

Perlman: It was a fairly physical role, but I never had any stunts. They had a stuntman for me, but I don't think he ever worked in one shot. If I could do it all, that means the role couldn't have been that physical. There was a lot of running and shooting and stuff like that, but nothing that was physically compromising.

Starburst: Everyone in genre circles knows that del Toro wants his next project to be Hellboy, which he wrote with you in mind as the title character. Can you see yourself as this superhero?

Perlman: Yes. I have to say that when I read Hellboy I saw me all over the comic book. I was fortunate enough to read Guillermo's adaptation of it and he really did write it with me in mind. I'm not a very proprietary guy. I don't say, "This is my part" very often. But this is one of those things where you could wake me up at four o'clock in the morning and I can be Hellboy. It's kind of a seamless transition.

Starburst: The other name that's been tossed around to play Hellboy is Vin Diesel. Do you worry that financial pressures might force del Toro to make the film without you?

Perlman: Well I understand this and I try not to make it an emotional issue. Would I give my eye teeth to play Hellboy? Absolutely. Am I emotionally attached to the character now that I've read it and I've seen the fight Guillermo is putting up? Absolutely. At the same time I understand that it costs money to do movies and what the concerns are. My position on it is that there are a lot of movies that have big stars in them that die at the box office, so having a big star is kind of an illusion. There are a few actors that guarantee box office, but it's been proven that nobody really guarantees success except the word of mouth on a film. So it's a strange conundrum, but it's not anything I don't intellectually understand. I have no control over the outcome of this. All I can tell you is that I am grateful for Guillermo's devotion to me in ways that I could never put into words. I'm grateful for the fight he's putting up for me, and whatever happens happens. If it goes my way I have feeling that it will make a great film. I think people would dig it.
(Starburst)

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There is also an article on Blade 2 entitled RESHARPENED BLADE in the spring issue of SFX magazine in which Ed Gross talks to Guillermo del Toro, and David Goyer. Included in this article is a section on Ron under the title:

RON PERLMAN - "REINHARDT"

Ron Perlman goes vampiric. by Ed Gross

Actor Ron Perlman known for his roles in TV's Beauty and the Beast and such features as Alien: Resurrection and Guillermo del Toro's Cronos, portrays Reinhardt, one of the vampires Blade teams up with to take on the Reapers.

"I play the head of the elite guard that works alongside the emperor of vampires," says Perlman, who will be seen later this year as the Romulan Viceroy in Star Trek: Nemesis. "He's the soldier of fortune, joint chief of staff, So I'm forced to have this uneasy alliance with my sworn enemy, the vampire killer. That's the dynamic. We're sparking off each other from the get go, but it's not a buddy film. We hate each other and it's kind of game of one-upmanship throughout the whole film. And since the movie is called Blade and not Reinhardt, I don't have to tell you who wins.

The highlight of the film for the actor was the opportunity to reteam with del Toro. "He said if he did Blade, he was thinking of writing something for me," says Perlman. "A man of his word, he did. When we went over to Prague and shot it, it turned out to be something pretty cool. I have not seen the film, so I can only comment on the sensation of what it was like while we were shooting it. I know that it's getting a good response from the screenings they've had so far, and I'm not surprised because he's a really sophisticated, elegant film maker and he brings with him a sensibility that's kind of unique. This guy just moves the camera like he's undressing a lady. It's just a beautiful thing to watch. He classes up whatever material he's working on. I think he's taken the Blade franchise and kicked it up a notch in terms of infusing it with huge energy, a different kind of energy. Not to take anything away from the original Blade, but this is very different. You can count on a couple of fingers sequels that overtook the original. I think we have a chance of doing that. There's a good group of people working on it. It was a lot of fun to do, not arduous at all. And it was better when we finished it than it actually was when we started out to do it. We went out there to do a movie that was on the page and stuff happened every day that added layers to it and turned it into something more complex and more interesting." (SFX)