Transcript from Hellboy Message Boards Subject: Carpe Diem ... Questions for Ron Perlman

In view of the fact that many people are not able to access theHellsite message forum, Ron has kindly given his permission for this Q&A to be transcribed here on the Perlman Pages.

The first questions were tentatively put forward in the hope that Ron might possibly agree to go onto the Hellsite message forum to answer them, and happily he did just that! There was a pretty long list of questions, but to simplify matters I've only included those which Ron has actually replied to so far. If he comes back again, as we hope he will, and answers a few more, I'll update this transcript accordingly.

Questions from Hellmistress.

1. You have played many roles in your career on stage and screen with a bewildering variety of subject matter. Of all the plays, TV stuff and movies you have done (and I include Ice Pirates in this one) , which role have you found the most difficult and challenging? A while back you said it was probably Colonel Nathan Jessep in A Few Good Men, and you have also mentioned Amoukar in Quest for Fire, but you've made ST: Nemesis since, and I was wondering if your choice has changed?

2. Speaking of challenges, what has been the most challenging thing about Hellboy (film and character)?

3. You have worked with three very different directors several times (Jeunet, Annaud and GdT). Different methodology, different style of film-making - you have seamlessly fitted into each director's vision perfectly, and you keep going back when they ask you to work with them. What I suppose I'm getting at is ... what have you gained from each experience? How has each director influenced how you perceive a role/film?

4. Finally, I've heard a rumour or three that you are to direct a little film called Wooden Lake, written by Bryant Turner. Is this true, and if so can you tell us more about it?

Helen
09-03-2003

Replies from Ron.

H.B. -- Carpe diem. or so!

o.k. Perlman here. And new as I am to chat boards and such, also not being the sharpest knife in the toolbox re: sites and the rules of engagement thereof, here goes. With apologies in advance.

I believe the first question concerned my ongoing associations with Annaud, Juenet and Del Toro, a subject that is profoundly dear to my heart. For they are indeed three men of unparalleled intellect and integrity as any I have known in any profession. And I consider myself graced to have found my way into their lives and twice blessed to have revisited their worlds over the years, all the while participating in their passions and evolutions. Since Quest for Fire, my very first film and certainly my first collaboration with Annaud, they have written specifically for me. They have each tapped into completely separate quadrants of my wiring, and yet have each provided me with roles that reflected totally recognizable aspects of my twisted personality, thereby enabling me to be as engaged in the roles as one can be. In a career that has it's own fair share of missteps, the work I have had the priviledge of doing alongside these three filmmakers stands out among the things of which I am most proud!

Fun with acting -the question: Which were the more difficult roles?
Salvatore in Name of the Rose is a mentally challenged hunchback who speaks six languages, usually all in the same sentence. A true braintwister!!

Hellboy's slipperyest slope?
The only thing hard about playing Hellboy was the obsession to rise to Guillermo's elevated love and passion for the character. To be discharged with the task of bringing to life someone as important to GdT as big red is was daunting and humbling, and a blast!!!

Wooden Lake, et al.
Bryant and Neal Turner are brothers whose writing I admire a great deal. They have written two screenplays that I have optioned and hope to bring to the screen. One of them is WOODEN LAKE, a film I am searching for the financing to direct. I will apprise you of my progress along the way. They are also in the process of writing a movie called SOLOMON'S TURN, which, if I end up loving the role and feel I can be helpful with, will act in as Bryant's directorial debut.

Perlman
09-14-2003

Various people on the list asked Ron about his favourite movies, music, books, etc, and here are his replies.

H.B. ---Movies, music, stuff...

Movies: The Godfather part I, Citizen Kane, Gunga Din, Elmer Gantry, anything Frank Capra, Preston Sturgess, Kurosawa, Bunuel, Cary Grant, Burt Lancaster, John Ford ever did. Lately Nobody's Fool, Talk To Her, Paul Michael Anderson movies, Chicago. Anything with the Marx Brothers, Errol Flynn, all of Milos Forman, David Lean and yes, Jerry Lewis.

Music: Sinatra, Aretha, Joni Mitchell, Stevie, Tom Waits, Chopin, Satie, Rachmaninoff, more Sinatra, Bill Withers, The Fugees, Wyclef Jean, Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, more Sinatra, Dino, Beatles, Sinatra, Sinatra and Sinatra. and so much more...

Authors: Steinbeck, William Goldman, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Nick Tosches, Norman Mailer, Shakespeare, Hemingway, Del Toro...

Perlman
09-14-2003

Question from Ta2grrl.

Mr P : I had asked GdT about what it was like to direct a fellow he had known for years and was curious to know your thoughts. Is it any more or less difficult to be directed by someone you are friends with ?? Do you feel added pressure to live up to past successes ?? How much do you feel GdT has grown as a director since Cronos and in what way??

Erin
09-03-2003

H.B. -- Bill & me.

Working with Del Toro: It is always a groove getting to work with someone you'd just as soon hang out with. Guillermo and I have been pals since the first time we broke bread together. We like each other's company. We root for each other whether together or apart. I have had the pleasure and also the priviledge to be able to see him direct a small budgeted indy labor of love and also the big studio, pull out-the-stops, sprawling, unwieldy epic. Same guy every time out. Same sense of fun, humor, wide-eyed almost childlike wonder, passion. Hellboy was different, though. I believe we were both playing Hellboy; Guillermo was playing him, I was playing him; me physically, him in every other way. What a time. Unforgettable. Unreplaceable.[sic] Singular. Went by like a bullet.

Perlman
09-14-2003

Several people, including myself, asked Ron about the makeup process for Hellboy by Rick Baker, who also created Ron's Vincent makeup.

H.B. -- Random thoughts to lots of questions...

How curious that Rick Baker's makeup adorned me for the two most profoundly important moments in my professional life, and how very similar those two experiences were in the most mind-bogglingly fundamental ways. First of all, Rick Baker lives in a class all by himself. Anyone lucky enough to be the recipient of his genius is far far ahead of the game. Secondly, there are only two times in my acting life where I walked onto the set every day having not prepared; the Beast and Hellboy. Those characters would only have suffered from overanalyzation. I felt, in both cases that the best thing I could do in playing them was to be in a constant state of primal instinct, no predisposition, no planning. And last but not least, it takes that much makeup to get me to the state where getting the girl is within reason. They are the only times I've ever gotten the girl.

Perlman
09-15-2003

Question from Ta2grrl

I work in the art industry and, as with any industry, there are several levels of training. I personally have never been to art school and it seems, when I come across those who have, that they've felt as though it has really only played a minor role in their success. Do you feel as though going to Fine Art school and getting a degree has had a profound affect on your skill as an actor or do you find you rely more on those characteristics you've picked up just by being in the biz?? What would you say was the single most important thing school taught you and what was the single most important thing you've learned from another actor/actress??

Cheers, Erin
09-14-2003

(Along with this question from Erin, Ron was also asked by several people if he had any plans to return to the stage sometime in the future. He combined his replies below.)

H.B.

Yes, I would love to revisit the stage. It is always interesting to revisit the place that started you off with the new layers that life has encrusted upon you. And speaking of life, no, I never learned much about acting from class. But going to school allowed me to act in theater in a safe institutional environment. That's where the real learning happened. I was, however, lucky enough to encounter some great literary men along the way who helped forge my sense of the well crafted script. Unbelievably important!!

Perlman
09-15-2003

And here are a few more that Ron obviously forgot to include in his original post about movies, music , etc.

H.B. ......!

How could I forget... Miles, Trane, Oscar, Bill Evans, Monk, Tony Bennett, Nancy Wilson, Phoebe Snow who traded in an entire career to raise her son....

Perlman
09-15-2003

Hellmistress --Another question

You've mentioned a taste for Harold Pinter before, and I know you did a play or two of his 'way back when the world was young. Now I find him hard going at the best of times - 'drearily depressing' comes to mind, but then I'm not an actor . But I am British and Pinter is soooooooooo British it's painful. What on earth, with the greatest respect, attracts you to Pinter's work? As an actor, what do you find attractive about his plays, as compared to, say, Arthur Miller?

Helen
09-14-2003

H.B. --Pinter

Kinky, clean, economical, clean, theatrical, charged, smart. And very very clean. One of the most actable authors ever.

Perlman
09-15-2003