So
Cameron, can you set the scene for us and
describe the room where you are answering the
questions?
Ugh -
it's my computer room and it's a complete mess.
Lots of 'to be filed' paperwork to my left and
beyond that a pile of stuff in the 'I need to go
through this to figure out what it is' pile. On
the wall in front of me is a Lindsay Lohan
calendar that my brother decided I absolutely had
to have, and behind me is a framed comic strip
that friends of mine did of me and an
old-fashioned gumball machine.
Okay first off
can you tell me how your role of Chris, the
alcoholic real estate agent in 'Hell
House' for Digital Shadow Film
came about?
It was a
regular audition - I came in and read and they
offered me the part. I remember that, in the
audition they basically told me to just let go
and go for it. I read a scene where I was
growling and writhing on the floor threatening to
kill someone. The scene I auditioned with is
actually is in the final movie, too.
In it I hear
you have the "honor" of being possessed
by a demon...so what exactly did that make up
entail?
I was
possessed - that was fun. The makeup wasn't too
much, surprisingly. Mostly stuff to make me look
really washed out and creepy. But it was more
than just the makeup. The costume and set helped,
too. The costume was just jeans and a t-shirt but
they wet them down, threw them in the dirt and
then stomped on them until they were really
filthy. Apparently people who are possessed are
not terribly interested in personal hygiene. And
the abandoned house that we filmed in was scary
all by itself. When we got there, there was blood
on some of the walls and dead birds in a lot of
the closets - not in the rooms, just the closets.
One night we were filming something upstairs when
there was a big crash downstairs - one of the
windows had just shattered. No one was near it,
it just shattered on its own. It's not hard to
act possessed in a place like that.
And as an
actor...what are your tips for acting possessed?
Act in a
haunted house! Plus drop your voice about an
octave and make it really gravelly. Basically,
act feral - like nothing else matters but the one
task at hand, which is usually not something
nice.
Another new
horror film you have coming out is your work as
Nigel Curwin in 'In Search of
Lovecraft'. Why don't you tell me
about your role and how it fits in with the
overall film?
I play a
half of a husband and wife research team in the
'30s that is studying a cult and the cult's
connections to the works of H.P. Lovecraft. My
wife and I are filming our study when things
go... awry. The movie jumps to present day where
a reporter finds the film and begins to restore
it. Throughout the course of the movie, bits of
our film are recovered and viewed, and you start
to see what happened to us and how it parallels
what is happening in current time. This is a
fantastic script, and I think the movie has a lot
of potential. Plus, the movie contains the first
really disturbing scene I ever shot, so that was
a lot of fun - it's one of those nail-biters
where we had one take to get it right and
fortunately we did! 'Lovecraft' is due out
March/April of 2007. Your readers can learn more
about it, and see the trailer on the website, www.insearchoflovecraft.com
We also have a
lot of sci-fi fans on this site so can you give
me a little teaser about your work in
'Eye on You'?
This is a
very ambitious, special effects-heavy project.
It's set in the near future, and I play Brennan
Stark, the controller of surveillance in San
Francisco. The movie actually addresses a lot of
the privacy issues currently facing the US. Half
of my scenes were filmed on a rooftop in Oakland,
CA overlooking San Francisco, and the other half
were filmed in a greenscreen room. There was
literally nothing in that room except a green
table, a chair and green walls. But it doesn't
look that way I'm still amazed at what effects
can do. The director has cut a 55-minute version
of the film, and he is shopping it to major
studios down in Hollywood. It's another great
script, so please keep a lookout for it!
Do you have
any other upcoming projects you would like to let
the www.racksandrazors.com readers know about?
Thanks
for the opportunity! I just finished a lead in a
comedy titled "Teachings of the Disgusting
and Awful". I'm not necessarily the bad guy,
but I'm definitely not the guy you're rooting
for. It's really funny. The director is still
editing it, but he feels it's got a lot of
potential and I think he's right.
You're
primarily a stage actor, correct. What are the
best and worst aspects of stage vs. film for an
actor?
I started
in stage, but now I go back and forth. Stage has
this immediacy to it that you don't tend to get
on film - there are people literally right in
front of you and you don't have much margin for
error. And if you do make a mistake, you and your
fellow actors have to figure out a way to make it
work. But there's an excitement to live
performance that you don't usually get in film.
Film, though, lets you do a lot of things that
are pretty much impossible in most theatres. You
can have fire, rivers, whatever... you can go
from a haunted house to an outdoor picnic in
seconds.
Okay, what was
the first movie you saw that scared the shit out
of you?
I'm not
easily scared, but this one is easy - The Omen.
There's something much, much scarier about quiet
menace than there is about a guy screaming at the
top of his lungs. It's the quiet ones you have to
watch out for - you never know they're coming.
We're pulling
the car into the Cameron Weston Drive In. What
three movies are on the horror bill for tonight
and what goodies are they going to be serving up
at the concession stand?
The first
film has to be The Evil Dead. Bruce Campbell is
an icon and I love the compass in the foot!
Second would be The Ring - that's a movie that,
for some reason, has stayed with me even years
after I first saw it. I think it's the TV static
that gets to me. The last film would be Shaun of
the Dead, because we started with laughs and
scares, and that's a great way to finish. This
movie is funny and gory and even kind of scary -
a great nightcap. At the concession stand, we've
got diet Coke (because I absolutely live on the
stuff), and since it's my drive in, draft beer.
We've also got popcorn with real butter, where
they fill it up halfway, put butter on, then fill
it to the top and put more butter on. Also
nachos, soft pretzels, pepperoni pizza and Philly
cheesesteaks. And lots of napkins.
Vampires,
zombies, creatures, aliens, witches, werewolves,
psychos, telemarketers --- what does it for you
horror wise and why?
Any and
all of the above can work. I think it goes back
to my answer earlier - I'm not the biggest fan of
bad guys screaming at the tops of their lungs. I
think quiet menace is much more frightening. That
definitely does it for me.
What's
something that frightens you in real life?
Clowns.
GOD I hate clowns. They creep me out and they
have always creeped me out.
And what makes
you go psycho in real life?
Bad
drivers. I am definitely the guy in the car
screaming at the cars around me. But then I'm
originally from Jersey - I think everyone is a
bad driver. Plus customer service people on the
phone who know you can't get to them so they feel
free to mess with you. And do.
Finally, I
want to hear about the first time you realized
you could actually put your entire hand in your
mouth.
Ah yes,
my special skill! I actually remember exactly
when this was - I was home and my Mom was having
a party. I think her friends were bored because
they kept betting me money to see if I could do
things (in retrospect it\rquote s a little
twisted). One was put my heel in my ear - no
problem, I was about 10 then. But then someone
said put your fist in your mouth. I did, wiped my
hand off and got my dollar. It got a great
reaction, and I've been doing it ever
since. Everyone should have their own parlor
trick!
Any fiinal
words?
Thanks
for the opportunity to do this - it was a lot of
fun! And I'd love to invite your readers to come
visit my website www.cameronweston.com to see updates on
all the above movies, plus find out first what's
happening next. |