Stu, first off for our visually oriented www.racksandrazors.com readers can you describe
the room where you're answering these questions?
As I write to you all,
I'm in my 10'x10' jail cell in Los Angeles.
It's quite comfortable and fairly well lit.
I guess the fact that I can "come and
go" as I please, makes it seem like I'm just
"home", but tricks like these don't
fool me..........
Many Racks and Razors
readers know you from your role as Ted in 'Friday
the 13th Part 2' (1981) though since
that time you have been in many other
films. Looking back what did you find
unique about that particular shoot?
Y'know, it was only my
second job as an actor, so I had nothing to
compare it to, other than some summers I spent in
the Catskill and Pocono mountains, working
as a musician in the hotels there. I had a
cabin to stay in, just like this place in Kent
Connecticut, working then as an actor... So we
were just a bunch of young pups, happy to get a
month's work. Who knew that 25 years later,
we'd be chatting about it?
Ted is one of the few camp
counselors to survive the wrath of Jason.
Were you ever approached to reprise the role in a
sequel?
NO! Dammit!
Don't those fools see what we all see?! I'm
sorry.... I'm just kinda upset that nobody DID
ask Ted to come back n' kick Jason's ass.
The hooded clod hurt my friends.... now I'm
pissed....
'Friday the 13th'
fans can be a bit "intense" --- what is
the strangest request a fan has ever made of
you?
I get asked to be a woman's
love slave all the time, but I figure that that
happens to most guys... No.... I think it was the
blood sample request from a Chinese midget
living in Malaysia, at the time I believe.
She said it was for her "friend", but I
saw right through that.... She later ran
for political office. I think she won....
Are you still recognized
from that role 25 years later?
Amazingly yes.... it's such
a blast for me to see that look on someone face
when they first see me, and recognize me from
something. Remember, I've done well a
hundred commercials as well as dozens of episodic
television roles, so this face has been seems by
millions and millions of folks, and every now and
then someone will look at me, blink a bit more
than usual and point uncontrollably. I love
that...........
I want to hear about 'Christine'
(1983) as well. From an actor's point
of view what do you consider to be
John Carpenter's greatest strength as a
director?
I'm not a director, so I
really don't have a very clear idea of his
artistry, but I am a human, and he was a really
good one to me. He was relaxed and calm
when all around him was insane madness. I
loved that....
You were also in another
Stephen King film adaptation the 1992 movie 'Sleepwalkers'.
What was your predominant memory of shooting that
mother & son & the blood of virgins film?
The mother, Alice Krige,
and her husband, writer-director, Paul
Schoolman, had been learning the martial art that
I teach, for about five years at the time (and
they're still students). We were in class
chatting about work we had coming up, and I told
them about my gig on Sleepwalkers and we all
crapped our pants laughing, when she told me that
she was working as the lead in the same film....
You also have a good role
as Abell in the 2003 sci-fi flick 'Alien
Hunter' with James Spader. Do you
think aliens exist and if so what would they
discover if they abducted Stu Charno for the
obligatory mental and physical probe?
The official report I got
back from the last aliens that abducted me,
unanimously agreed that I don't actually
exist. It happened when I was in
Bulgaria to shoot Alien Hunter, and the abduction
occurred on a cold night, walking in the dark
hills there. My memory of it is kinda
sketchy, but that always happens when I drink
vodka. Anyway, they said that though I
obviously DO exist physically, there is no
"Stu" in my head, thinking n' making
decisions n' plans n' stuff. What I hear in
my head is actually kind of like a radio
broadcast and I can't stop it or even hardly
affect it at all. I think that's when I
passed out..........
Speaking of sci-fi credits
-- I am sooooo impressed that you
co-wrote three episodes of 'Star Trek:
The Next Generation'. Did you
approach that task more as a writer with a task
at hand or a huge fan of the show eager to
see his idea realized?
That was with my first
ex-wife (regretfully, I have two ex's now...),
and she was sitting on the crapper and yelled
out, "I figured out how to kill the
Nanites! We were both fans of the
show and had both been writing for years n' years
(she's now still a successful a writer), and
managed to get to pitch to the open-minded staff
of writers and producers there. We pitched
on Valentines Day and brought candies for
everyone and we all became great friends.
They wound up producing three of our stories....
So, we were fans and they were open.... a
miracle...
Another TV credit that I
think R&R readers will be interested in was
your work as the 'Bell Hop Psychic Serial
Killer' in the 'X-Files'
episode 'Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose'.
Can you give a quick description of your
experience on the set?
It was shot in Vancouver,
Canada, which is a beautiful city... I knew
Darren Morgan, who was one of the writers on the
show, and he wrote the role with me in mind for
it. I think, he actually wanted me to kick
the koodies out of Mulder in that last scene,
but I didn't get to do much... Scully
shot me. Duchovney does a
fantastically hilarious Christopher Walken
impression, by the way...
You were originally a
musician before you got into acting and since
then have also gone into the martial arts
field. What common thread do you see
as linking all three of those disciplines?
I also build custom wooden
furniture, and more. What they all have in
common is ME. Stu Art... Artistry, is
what manifests in all these parts of my life,
from -- improvising jazz, to creating a cabinet,
to word play, to moving with power, to acting
under imaginary circumstances -- these are all
arts, and are manifestations of how
life moves through me.... I think
I'm just a passenger on this bus....
What scares you in real
life?
This
question............
shit...
now I'm gonna have
nightmares................
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