Last Podcast On The Left - Terrifier 3: An Interview with David Howard Thornton

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

Henry & Eddie sit down with star of the Terrifier films, the man behind Art the Clown - David Howard Thornton joins the show to discuss the massive success of the Terrifier franchise, the evolution of Art, how he landed the role, and the many influences and experiences that came together to create a modern-day horror icon. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to ad-free new episodes and get exclusive access to bonus content.

There's no place to escape to. This is the last time. On the left. That's when the cannibalism started. What was that? Eddie, I'm scared today. Why are you scared? Because I'm afraid that we won't live up to the potential of the moment

I know you know I agree with that like you remember when Tiger Woods mm-hmm you got in that car accident well it was late. Yeah, I know yeah Yeah, I think he was inebriated, but I don't know for sure hey what he was focusing on his recoup Yes, which is what distracted him from driving That's what I'm afraid of. I'm driving like a maniac this morning. I was in a car. I'm in a cutting phase So I'm actually the problem is the creatine makes me aggressive But today we have something extremely special for you. Happy Halloween Is it very special

Unique we've never done this before. It's just a one-off interview with an actor that fascinates. Someone that brings something extra to the table, as it were. And we're excited to have this person. We recently, we're not being paid. No. To push this. Oh, he's gone.

And we lost him. Well, oh All right. Well, that's fine. We'll keep going. That's fine. Oh man. I love just how it's spooky even talking to you over zoom We can't even really just even bring the audience in we had a little bit of a technical core fluffle But it's still frightening because we're watching it's like it seems like I don't know why I don't know what it is about your energy That they're the the tubes are afraid of but we have a the one of our new horror icons Yes, we're very excited to have the actor who portrays art the clown nay is art the clown David Howard Thornton. Thank you for being here. Oh, thank you. I'm glad I'm actually able to be seen now. Yeah, we could see you. You look good.

We've been talking and singing the praises about the Terrifier films for the last couple of days. Surprise. It's like I feel like the entire country is sort of surprised at how much they've allowed themselves to like the films. It's a bit crazy. Yeah. Cause like when you look at it, you're like, this is for nobody, right? Like, you know, like if I showed this to my mother, she would puke and die.

Well, hey, that's what it's for. Like how did you like, how did it all begin? Like if those of you that don't know the art the clown character it did start in all hollows eve Correct so that was a anthology film that was like so in but he was way more It was kind of more like a sketch almost in a way Yeah, that was that's what that was those were basically almost like proof of concept movies at the time because you know, they meals just doing just you know, having fun with his friends making movies and And that was the old job and that wasn't you that's not you. That's some other guy Mike Gianelli. Yeah

Now is he angry? Not that I know I mean we met last year finally got to do some cons together and everything like that. So he seems to be happy He's a dad now, so he's got two little ones So he's he's got his hands full. So I think he's you know, well distracted That's actually do you think him being art the clown was actually making him infertile? Now I so did you audition to be in Terrifier?

I did. Yes, yes. They they put a notice up on Actors Access when I was living in New York and I just went in and did that. My my agent even fought me on it. She she saw no value in it because she's like, oh,

it's an independent, low budget horror film. It will never get you anywhere. I was like well, I wanted experience doing a work in on film because I had always just done stage work and voiceover work and I kept on at you know, just Bugging her and bugging her and bugging her doesn't submit me and then I am no longer with that agent Always wrong No longer with that agent. Yeah, they're always wrong They're always every story is like this. They're like they always said the Simpsons would never work You know like never did all that shit though So when you before you audition because it's like it says here that you were also in a you were in the Grinch musical

I was yes, I Understudied the Grinch who was Stefan Carl. He was Robbie Rotten from LazyTown. And I also played Grandpa Who. Oh wow. It was that with the full face. Was that also like, have you always been doing prosthetics? Yeah, pretty much. Ever since I was like a teenager doing children's theater,

I was doing prosthetic work and like crazy makeup and stuff like that. So I'm pretty used to it. They actually asked me that when I was auditioning for Terrifier, if I was used to prosthetics or a lot of makeup. I'm like, oh, yeah Are you trained as a clown? No. No, I didn't even go to school for acting I just my my classroom was always the stage and just watching like better actors in and just learning from them and adapting

Amen. No so you get into the terrifier films like I Yeah, just learning from them and adapting Amen now so you get into the terrifier films like I Personally, I feel like some people call them. The first one is probably the closest to a straight-up torture porn Versus any the rest of them now when you are preparing for something like this Like in terms of the amount of like what the grizzly stuff that you have to do Like I know that like on a set It's not that emotional because everybody's having a blast everybody's laughing and having a good time

So we're like, what do you do to prepare to essentially do wanton violence? Nothing I don't know what that says about me. I just go in there and just do my thing. I mean, they have given me some like instruction on set, you know, how to do certain things to certain weapons and stuff like that. So, you know, like on part three, I got on the set training on the proper way to actually swing an axe at an object, I guess you could say.

Yes. swing and accent object, I guess you could say. Yes, well, you could tell you really, and this is not, you progress in the fleshing out of the character of Art the Clown so successfully through two and three, which is like, I actually thought it was very interesting. You can kind of see you get more comfortable as you go. Like, is it because of Damien Leon or like on yourself? Do you feel like when you are that style of character?

I played a I would I did a full thing on Adult Swim where I was fully body painted for many years and on some level When you're in that amount of makeup sometimes I feel that a director as much as I love Dave Willis He's like a friend of mine You know, I mean like we're close At what point I was like am I a prop like am I just like literally a piece of costuming or is there a man in here? Like do you fuck? Yes, I've had directors like that before that especially my stage days There's this one director would micro direct everything I would do on stage.

Now it's like, okay, I want you to turn your head at this angle on this line. I'm like, oh my God, is any of this mine? Or am I just a puppet here for you? But I mean, Dane is completely opposite. He's very actor friendly director. He's willing to hear ideas. And like, I would say more, he directs me more

on like the killing in the horror aspects, everything when it comes to like more of the comedic bits, he'll give me some ideas sometimes, but most of the time he's just like, just go play. We'll see what we come up with. Like the entire like bar scene, he basically let like, let Howard, Brad Stryker, Danny Roebuck and I just play for like two or three days on set. And that was, that was just fun. It was crazy because it terrify or three. It's like each scene is a different genre

of horror movie and like, and that one was like a fun, it was like a fun, like kind of like campy scene. But then the next scene is just terrifying. Yeah. That's the best scene is just terrifying. Yeah. That's great. That's the best part about the movie. Yeah. And it really blew my mind, man. Now, one of the things I love about Art the Clown over,

like, say, like Jason Voorhees or something, is that no weapon is off limits to Art. We love that he shoots people. Yeah, yeah, I think it's like one of our favorite bits is that he also uses a gun. He uses the fact that, that's like one of our favorite bits is that he also he uses a gun uses the fact that again Spoilers across the board, but that's in the first one. Yes, but in terrify or three one. Yeah, therefore terrify three the bombing Is like when that happens? I I think I was the only person in the theater that was like awesome that was like awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good work. I mean, we saw the kids, but is there any weapon that like would be off limits for art or is that a, is would you know, like if I asked you

about the Laurel, the lore of art would, uh, you know, is that even like something that you have control over? No, I think everything's totally within balance for him to use a weapon. He, he, he likes to play. He likes toys. So it was like, yeah, it's like, I love that idea with the bomb too. That was like, that was a brilliant idea that Damien had. And he actually, you actually see me, um, the bomb being assembled during that one little bit there and you do, yeah, people don't see that and I was like There was a good thing. There's that little moment where it's like, oh shit Where's that bomb gonna go?

Like that was like the first thought I have and I think that what you guys do good Which is like it's a I know that technically it's like a film trick, but I love The little pieces in the beginning the seeds and then you're gonna see each one of these pop off like each the beginning is so good in a terrifying movie because it's setting the tone of, this person's gonna be dead, and that person's gonna be dead, and that person's gonna be dead.

You love all this, you love all these people, they're all dead, and that's my favorite. Oh yeah, Damien's great at that. He is so good at like, you know, planning everything out and just dropping little hints and everything there. He's been at that. He is so good at like, you know, planning everything out and just dropping the little hints and everything there. I mean, he's been doing that from the get-go with the first film. He's been dropping little seeds and stuff like that. The people still are starting now to pick up on, which is, that's why I get

so irritated with people like, Oh, there's no plot to these movies. Like, Oh no, there most certainly is a plot. Oh yeah. They're very much. Certainly there was a, that some, I think, tick talkers or something like that recently posted a video going over the plot of two and three, especially in all these things. I was like, wow, this guy totally gets it. He totally understands what we're doing. Even Damien commented on them and said, the dude, you, you, you nailed it. My first thought when I saw two and three, it was like, that's Elm Street three and four. Yep.

And then we're careening into, you're gonna go straight into the lore, like in four, Terrifier four, when it does probably will happen, is that it's gonna go deep into the lore. We're now gonna go into Art the Clown's full world, which excites me a great deal. Oh yeah, it excites me too.

I mean, I know a few things that he you know, he's got planned for part four or part five or whatever he's going because he's still trying to, I think, decide if it's going to be four movies or five movies because he's got so many ideas. I think he's probably going to have five movies at least. It should be. Well, this is my question, though, is that do do you get afraid of yourself? Like, it's hard as an actor I

feel like as a as a as a person you're like I'll come back for nine of these right like I can do art the clown forever but you ever feel like that you maybe yourself could end up jumping the shark with with art the clown if you go too far like is it a thing that like if he's doing eight nine ten and you're gonna be like maybe you could get maybe it should be a lady maybe be like, you know, somebody had some other version of the cloud. Like, well, there was a lady. Yes. Who's great. She's got to come back. Right. Who knows? I have no idea. He's keeping so many things close to his vest right now. So I'm just like, he, he likes to surprise us as well. So he doesn't tell us things until

we read the script and we're like, Oh shit, are you kidding me? So I have no idea. But to answer the question, um, yeah, I totally get afraid of that. I'm totally afraid of going too campy with things. And cause I, you know, I don't want him just to be just, you know, you know, how Freddy became later on after Wes Craven lost control of the character. We literally were talking about this right before you came on. Yeah, it's the touch. The key is the touch. I've always loved, again, Freddy Krueger is probably my favorite icon because he's because he's funny.

Yeah, but it's but you know that the movies aren't as good. It's like this double edged sword where you know the movie is not as good. You know that the later Elm Street are not as good, but I'm like, just put Robert Engel into my veins. It doesn't really matter. Yeah. Yeah. But that's, that's definitely something we've been very conscientious of since the very first Terrifier film. We were, we're always trying to walk that line of going too campy with the comedy in this. And we do film some scenes where I do a lot more comedic takes on it. And then we're like, okay, that's just too far. But like we have it there just in case,

because you never know, you might find something from it you can use. And, but yeah, that's, we got, I look at like the torture scene in the first film where I've got Tara tied up to the chair. I did a whole bunch of takes with different weapons coming out. I was doing comedic routines with them

There was like this one thing that I had a club with a big huge spike on it And I did the whole like, you know big golfing bit from like Johnny Carson or so like Yo, yeah, he's a clown he's supposed to this is his act, you know, he is perfect They use it there was an audience of one and it's our clown He's obviously having a very good time exactly and that's that's the thing we have to still acknowledge that he is a clown So he is having fun, but we don't want to go to Cartoonish can't be with it all we don't want to totally jump back kind of shark We still need to keep it in that realm of belief ability and horror as well

Can I also ask becoming now? Getting this much attention as a scary person like do you think that? you're Like you're the people that follow you your fans Do you think that that quality has also changed because it's like I do find that There are people That like when you're in a dark at darker aspect of entertainment that there are people that sort of maybe connect with the wrong Thing a little bit about what it is that you're doing and you have to deal with like like scary people

There might be a few of those people out there and stuff like that, but it's few and far between. I found like horror fans in general are by the vast majority are just the coolest, sweetest, kindest people who ever meet. It's actually, I think some of the other people that kind of scare me more in real life. Like comedy fans? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, like comedy fans. Yeah Yeah, are there any clowns that you would like study to get man your isms or is this all just like you oh

Yeah, definitely. So I mean I I grew up watching a lot of the great silent comedians and clowns I mean I was watching like, you know Mark's brothers and Charlie Chaplin and all even like Emma Kelly jr. And Emma Kelly and Gosh, mr. Bean was a huge influence on me as well Marcel Marceau Peter Sellers, you know Don knots. I can just go on and on list all these Jim Carrey Just on and on and on Ashley Stefan who I understood for Grinch. He was professionally trained in clowning and mime work. So I took a lot of what I learned from Stefan and put it into art. You can actually watch videos of Robbie Rotten

and compare them to Art the Clown, and you'll see probably a lot of similarities with the mannerisms. That's really interesting. Now, is there any music that you would listen to to kind of get in the mood? You know, do you play circus music or something before you get out there? No, not, not really. I mean, not for myself, but like I, a lot of the times in the chair

when Damien, especially in parts one and two, and Damien was doing my makeup, he was listening to a lot of yacht rock. Yeah. That's what I think is so funny. People probably think Damien is like this hardcore bad-ass listening to heavy metal all the time. No, man. He grooves to a yacht rock. He loves yacht rock and eighties music. We will drive like when we're going to set something like two hour, three hour drive, sometimes upstate, we would just be sitting there listening to like yacht rock and eighties music the whole entire time. Just grooving out. That's, that's just how we are. But like for myself though, I will sometimes just for shits and giggles,

put on something I sometimes would like to put on like the the song, Danny Elfman song from the first Batman movie with the Jokers, like Waltz to the Death. Oh, yeah. That's just always that always just puts me that little wacky little mischievous, evil clown type of mode. So sometimes I would just think that in my head if I have to go a little bit nuts, I guess you could say. Yeah.

Do you feel like now that the movie got, like, Terrifier 3 probably got the biggest, like, budget, the most legit budget. How is it going from being driven by the director to set who would do the makeup and then you'd shoot obviously probably like five, how much such the most shoestring crew possible to like an actual movie set. Like how would like, is there anything you miss or is there anything what's better? Oh, we still had a lot of the old school feel to it all because we weren't a full on traditional movie set where we didn't have the honey wagons

or anything like that. So it wasn't a big, huge leap, but we did have a makeup team that came in this time. And so that was definitely a nice thing to have there because it allowed Damien more freedom too because he wasn't having to stop my making and go on the set and do stuff and come back and do my makeup more. And so that was nicer in that way. But yeah,

we're still not like what you traditionally see here in Hollywood on a set. So we were still had that, that, you know, independent deal to a lot of things. Cause they changed the makeup too, right? Didn't they do a thing cause it used to be sort of despair different separate pieces And then they just made it a whole mask for you essentially No, it was always a one whole mask, but the original mask wasn't even molded to my face It was Mike Giannelli's original mold. Yeah, so it didn't fully fit my face

Damien always had a manipulated suit would fit my face Holy fit my face. Damien always had a manipulated suit would fit my face. But this time Christian Tinsley, who his team that did our makeup for this one on part three, they actually did a new sculpt and mold of my face. So it's a little bit more gaunt than the last one was because Damien wanted art to be more gaunt in this one. And then I also, Oh, I love, I love the look. And they also gave me a skull lenses for my eyes this time. So I, my eyes were different. And like part two, I had my natural green eyes. And part one, I had contacts for a little bit.

And then like we had one night where I had a rip in my lenses. And so I couldn't wear them for that night. We had to film. So we decided from that point on, I would just be where my my regular eyes And if anybody knows what the hell you know yeah, why you're not paying attention the right thing Yeah, exactly, and I kind of just say in my head like the eye color changed after he got knocked out by the exterminator

So I was like oh, yeah, die the contacts popped out and so now The contacts popped out and so now that's why. Yeah, sure. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, but this one he noticed, you know, he's rebirthed. So now he's, he's become more demonic in part three. So he has different eyes going forward. This is a question that we were talking about before. Is he a human in the first one?

Yes. Okay. And when does he like, when does it become supernatural? At the very end of part one where he's brought back from the dead. Yes, and then like so he was just a man Yes, and so the face underneath the makeup you would assume would have just been like Arthur clown So what's on the clown? What was his day? Like? Yeah, what did he do during the day? What are you? What's a job? Did he what was that? Oh, you can't say you can't say it What's a job? Did he what was that? Oh, you can't say you can't say it

All right, I'm glad there is an answer yes, that's one of those things to work I'll be great everyone will be very excited to see that jump in yeah I will say this that I know for one thing for the his origin We don't want to make him a sympathetic character No, we don't want him to have one of those tragic backstories where he was abused and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Now we basically, how I view him in my head is he came out of his mother's womb and strangled her with his own in Bill Gokor. He's evil incarnate. He is just, that's why hell last jaundiced guy. He's like, this is our avatar on earth. We love this guy. He is pure evil.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we love this guy. Yeah, it's like, it's the same variant of, he's from the seed of a thousand maniacs. Yeah, exactly. He was just born evil. And that's the thing, it's like, I do genuinely believe there are some people that are that way.

They just came out of the womb and they are just fucked up in the head. I knew a kid like that growing up, where he was this kid that lived across the street from one of my best friends and I saw him flat out just take glee in killing squirrels. He would like shoot them with his BB gun and watch them bleed out or he would just strangle them himself. I was like, this kid's just evil. My mom was like, do not play with that kid ever again

He's evil So that's how I view art. He was just born that way He just had that tendency from the very get-go where he just loved to kill things that brought him joy I also find that people that have the happiest existence play Unrepentant maniacs really well. And I can tell from the Lego on the shelf behind you that you seem like a very happy-go-lucky man.

That comes from years of struggling. Yes, in pain. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's, you know, I was bullied relentlessly growing up, but it's like how I escaped all that was finding the things that brought me joy and brought me happiness And so it's like I am a child a heart in a lot of ways. I guess some people would say I you know like a Have a what is that? Arrested development people have said that about me too, and it's like whatever whatever you idiot

Shut up, oh I'm a child. Well you're fucking you got big ass stupid feet Yeah, save that in your pocket if you ever need I think it's just all that bullying I went through. It's like, I think I've been able to channel a lot of that on, on set. I mean, there are even times on set where like, you know, I'm just not fully giving them what they need for a, an attack or something like that. And they would just go, Hey Dave, just pretend it's this certain person and go. And I'm like, yeah, like, oh shit, Dave, where'd that come from? Like repressed rage. Do you remember how much you hate Rachel Ray? Imagine this is Rachel Ray.

Exactly. Earlier you were saying, Oh, sometimes you like to put on the song from the first Batman movie Joker. Now I've heard a rumor that you are gunning to play the Joker at some point. Is this? I am totally gunning James Gunning. I, I, I want that role so badly. I'm like, that's, that's my dream role. That is a character I have wanted to play fully. I played him on a YouTube series like nine, 10 years ago. know that was that was that was a lot of fun and I had got a good taste of playing the character and I really want to play them in more official capacity and

Because I love the character so much and I'm so frickin tired of seeing Hollywood bastardizing this character Caesar Romero. Yes. Yeah, like I like over-the-top Yes, ridiculous Joker. Well, I said you can do that and be sadistic and evil and scary at the same time and and Mark Hamill revolutionized that angle of Joe exactly exactly he that's That's why mark is my favorite version of Joker because like he truly understands that character.

He, you could tell he did his research and especially you look at the, especially the 80s, 90s version of Joker, that's when he got a lot darker. Yeah. And actually the very first version of Joker was very dark too. He was a homicidal maniac then too and it was because you know back in the

mid 919 hundreds that's when they were like, oh we got to be a lot more, you know wholesome and friendly So they made more campy then but it's like I want to return more to like that that Alan Moore era of you know or like you know That that that kind of dark Joker, you know killing joke. Have you ever thought about it? Let me pitch this to you. All right, you do a thing where your movie is everybody's calling you the Joker but It's revealed that it's a musical in a courtroom listen

It's a musical in a courtroom listen It's a musical in a courtroom And you've never been the Joker at all In the only time that you ever even admit to not being jokers after you've been group sexually assaulted by a bunch of jailers What do you think? Is that something you'd like be interested in? I guess that's something you'd like be interested in Crazy that you as art the clown Defeated the Joker

Technically you won Technically you beat the Joker that's insane when you think about it. And it was even crazier about it. It was art. The clown versus Arthur the clown. Yes. Wow. Yeah. I didn't even think about it. Yeah. It was insane. It's just like, but he was never a clown. Yeah. Well, kind of street clown. He was sorta street clown. Yeah, I guess it does. Yeah. I guess if you call yourself one, then you are one So how else does your life kind of change or is it just like I guess People say shit like this is I know that I'm certain that the money's just rolling in But I it's not really rolling is starting to yeah, it's going to go and trickle I'm okay with because like, I spent like 13 years

of my life basically struggling to make ends meet waiting tables in New York City. So it's like, I hear you village poor house over here. Where'd you, where'd you work? Oh God, so many different restaurants. I started off working at bubble gun shrimp company in Times Square. You poor bastard. Jesus Christ. That place is awful. Oh, you poor bastard. Holy fuck. You're fucking hell. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jesus Christ. That place is awful. Oh, the stories I could tell you about that place. You could probably base Art the Clowns, like, off of, like, five people you could meet at

that bubble. Oh, yeah. Just doing a shift there one night. Yeah, that's enough to make you go crazy. As Art would be amazing. Oh, my God. It was horrible. It would be amazing Can I also ask you like this is like one of those very Kind of practical seddy things. What do you do? Like Kate Corcoran's a friend of ours in her

Now very famous scene and terrifier for in terms of the whole of our films She's hung upside down completely naked and you cut her from the fucking you cut her through her cooter through her snooter She knows that that is in there See I call that the up of the crack of dawn scene. Yeah Yes, of course Like when you're hanging out on set like I did it I've done a couple of movies with nudity But it's like what do you do between said like is one of those were like obviously you're trying to get this wrapped

Right right like it's because she is physically hanging upside down. It's a wonderful lady. Oh, she's She's only doing it because she's so nice Yes, she's so down for it, but like what's the mid like how like would you feel like? Was that Damien's kind of role to comfort her make sure things are moving along Do you feel like in those functions like are you kind of? Like just trying to stay out of it and get it done as quickly as possible Like are you joking around like how do you handle that that night? I was not joking around at all because that was very dangerous what we're doing with her too, and I it was freezing cold and there was like 20 degrees

That was miserable for her. So I was more concerned about just trying to make her feel as comfortable as possible I'm like that all the time. I'm like with especially any of the fight scenes I'm always trying to check in with my co-stars making sure they're okay and everything I think they probably get annoyed with me because I'm always saying, Oh my God, are you okay? I didn't hurt you or anything like that. But like, especially when, when it has to do with nudity or anything like that, I try to be as respectful as possible.

I, I'm like, it's just, cause that's, that's something that's, it's, it's a very personal thing. It's very invasive to be exposed in such a manner. And I try to, I was raised to be a gentleman in that way by my father, especially. And so I'm like, I try not even to look at what is going on. I'm just kind of like, okay, I'm going to like look over here because it just feels wrong. Well, you also, the best part is that, you know, as a bashful, as a fellow bashful man,

when you're in character, it's better because then it's like, I'm art the clown. I can sit here. I can like, I'm as much scarier. Good like that's what's interesting too. You think like, Oh, I don't want to look at these naked ladies. Everybody's staring at you. Yeah.

Yeah. Like they're looking at the evil clown. I think not wanting to look is also terrifying. Yeah Acting bashful is almost even scary. Yeah, I am really I become like that that that vulture from looney tunes That's just how I was raised on like okay someone's in a state of I'm that's just how I was raised. I'm like, okay, someone's in a state of... That's also how I was just doing community theater. You know, sometimes people would have to make a costume change right on the side of the stage. Because it's a quick turnaround.

And you just had it like, okay, that's going on. I'm just, I'm going to be respectful and look down or something like that. Oh yeah. I'll always remember in junior high school when I had to choose between drama and hockey and I was talking I remember talking to the dudes and the hockey team being like you know that there's naked women over in drama yes yeah like here I'm just surrounded by all these naked dudes balls sausage fest yeah yeah I was like I want to go there and they all thought I was crazy. They thought I was homosexual but I said no Yeah, it was like no sirs. I am more than I am more than just one

Man so you were you're obviously this is Halloween you're in your busy season the movie just came out. Are you? This is also a straight-up Christmas movie.. You're going to have to promo this again. You're going to have to go through all of this again and then it's going to be, but the thing is, you know, we were talking about, you know, you know, with the budget and all this or whatever forever, people are going to be watching terrifier three over Christmas. I can't wait. It's going to be great. I once interviewed McCauley Culkin.

He says he gets a million dollars every year from home alone, every Christmas. Oh, God. I wish that would happen with me. That would be amazing. I'd say probably like 60,000. You know, like Lego sets. Absolutely. You get more expensive each time.

Do you have a family? I like I have a dad and a sister back. I mean, I know you come from humans, but I didn't know if you have kids No, I haven't gotten lucky enough to like find a lady to settle down with yet. It's just Come on come on down out the clown is single. He single. He doesn't know yet how to make sweet love. Someone's going to have to teach him. I definitely do want to get married and have kids. I'm actually at that phase of my life now where I definitely do want to settle down and do that.

Because for years, I was working just so I could live comfortably so I can have a family. Because waiting tables in New York City, there's no way I was going to be able to support a family and kids with you know You just bring them to work and you're getting ready for it because You're making a children's movie. You're playing Mickey Mouse Exactly. Okay. I want to know

Can I ask about so now for those of you don't know there was a little teaser Trailer of before terr fire 3 for the new Like I guess it was as soon as steamboat Willie the copyright ran out because I got a shirt that says fuck you Asshole with steamboat Willie on it immediately From our buddies met syndicate, but my question is is that when you like so how did that all happen? How quickly did that go down so the movie's called? Scream boat and you're playing a whore Version of steamboat Willie yes, that's all I know

Yeah, and that's all you got to tell us but a more just like how the fuck like When did all that kind of happen this all started happening like last year because the director from that is also my director from the Mean one and he went to school with the the Fuzz on the Lens guys from Terrifier so they kind of partnered up for this film because he's like he knew this this property was coming out in public domain in this year and he's like well I want to snap it up before anybody else does because I have a great idea for this and why not so So he approached me last year, he's like, hey, I have this script, playing Willie, will you do it? I'm like, oh my God, yes, of course.

Because it's a full circle moment for me too, because my first big real leading role was back in eighth grade at my middle school, I played Mickey Mouse in Mickey's Christmas Carol. And that was the show that made me decide I wanted to do theater more. Cause I liked making people laugh and everything like that. So it's a full circle moments.

I'm like, I have to do this. There's no way I'm not doing this. So I, that's what we did. And we're like, okay, let's start filming it. Let's do it. And yeah, it's, it's a lot of fun. I just did a ADR for it last week. So that was a lot of fun for me a lot of whistling I can't wait. I can't wait to see it. It'll be like anything. Oh, it's insane

Fucks with Mickey. I'm happy with it is such a horror comedy is that we're really leaning into the campy horror Like comedy type of vibe for this. We're not trying to go full terrified, just trying to be dark and scary. We're like, Oh no, let's, we know what we are. We're having fun with it. And there's so many Disney jokes in there. It's just like, it's, it's a big, huge love letter to Disney and Disney fans. So I think the Disney fans will have so much fun with this movie. It also has one of my, uh, tear fire co-stars in it. Kaylee Hyman. Oh great nice. She's in it too. She's hysterical I can't wait for this. Okay, you know now that we're gonna be wrapping up here I just want to leave the audience with are you like so were you a horror movie guy really before all this?

I was a little bit. I was more of a comedy guy though. I was late to horror I didn't start watching hard So my senior year of high school because my mom was afraid of horror movies and stuff like that. So we just didn't watch them in my family. But I saw Scream 2 in theaters because I couldn't chicken out in front of this girl I had a crush on in a show and they all wanted to go see it.

So I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go. And I had a blast and was like, I love horror. But I never thought I would be doing this though. I was like, I was always a comedy guy. I wanted to do comedy and Broadway and like voiceovers for cartoons. And that's why I was doing a lot of that before I took on TeraBrother. I was doing a lot of voiceover work for children's shows.

Dude, it's kind of funny what doors open. It's crazy. This business is very strange. And I do think it's like, I wish that in college, someone had taught me more about like, you know that like, it's not just be a movie star Yeah, is necessarily make it in show business You know what I mean? Like you never know where the fuck it is this thing's gonna tell you no

You just got it. I learned a long time ago You just got to go with the flow wherever it leads you just go with it And yeah, I'm glad I did that cuz I I wouldn't be here I was so crazy waiting tables in New York City right now struggling to get by. Yeah. Think about the things you didn't get that you were angry about, right? Like you were upset or sad about.

Now you're really, now you're doing something else. I was up for five or six different Broadway tours right before I got terrified and they all fell through for me. And it was, I was very frustrated. I was in like final, final callbacks for like Susan Strowman and Roger reason, all these people. And I was like, Oh my God, I'm so close to getting something. And so I won't, why won't something stick? And there's a reason for that. Because if I had gotten any of those, I wouldn't have been able to do terrifying. And who knows? You are one of the all time horror icons now. Yeah. It's in there now. Three really solidified crazy. Is that ridiculous? Yeah, it's weird.

It is very, I mean, I was just walking down the street here in Burbank the other night, just getting dinner. I had my glasses on everything. I was a little bit disheveled because I had just gotten off the airplane and this one woman just recognized me right there on the street and like ran up to me and was like, Oh my God, I have to say something to you. And I'm like, I'm amazed. You know who I am. Yeah. And so eventually you're going to get a lot of like, kill me, kill me, pretend to kill, pretend to choke me. Yeah. It didn't choke me. And Burbank is a horror town. Oh, it is very much so. Well, so Kenny,

is there any like, what's your favorite horror movie? I really love just Wes Craven in general I'm a big Nightmare on the Street fan also big scream fan I love slashers that that's always been my favorite genre of horror movies to slashers. I think they're just fun So for tonight for Halloween, what are you doing? What's your plan? I oh actually I I don't have any plans because I'm going out of town so Travel traveling on Halloween. That's a true spooky professional. It's called a work day. Yeah.

It's a work day. It's the busy season. We call it over here. Yeah. It's crazy. Cause everybody's like, what are you dressing up as? I'm like, I'm going as myself because I dress up all year long as other characters. I was like, I'm going to myself. You'll have other years where you'll celebrate. Yeah. Yeah. And then you'll, you'll celebrate and

you'll get, eventually you're going to be the point when you're doing terrifier 15, just being like when you're in a full scuba suit and on the water set, you're just going to be like, this is the last one. All right. I'm not here. Like screaming over a tender green salad. I'm not doing this again. You know, like just cut to that. Send out my stunt double. I'm not doing it. I gotta do goddamn Sydney. You tell I can't, I must work. Thank you so much. Yeah. I told her, no, it's disgusting. And you didn't say it. I said it. Thank you so much. David Howard Thornton. This was lovely, man. Is there anything else you want people to go look for?

Well, my other film stream just, just came out on streaming platforms. It was in theaters a few months ago. It's called Stream? Stream. Stream? It's now streaming. Okay. Do you know which one?

Just any? I know it's at least on Amazon Prime right off the top of my head. That's nice. Nice. And go see Screamboat when that comes out. I'm so excited for that. And more importantly, go see Terrifier when that comes out. I'm so excited for that and more importantly go see terrifier 3 Oh take your family and watch it again over Christmas. Sneak in your kids

I actually think this is the one to really sneak in the kids to uh You could don't be but no infants. Someone brought an infant Someone brought an infant Terrifier 3 why and they were just like, I guess it's because they can't, they know that the baby won't know for the babysitter and they have to see kill people. They have to see you kill people. So isn't that great? We did a screening this past weekend up in Detroit to a huge giant EMACS theater. And there were children in the audience that I even called them out. I'm like, oh wait, how old are you and they're I'm six

Your parents Parents are here. It's fine. Yeah, tear fire three servers hard to take. Yeah, but hey I think yeah, I leave it up to the parents to decide because you know, oh yeah, that's a handle things I mean I look at I look at like Chrissy Fox You know who's in part three her daughter Elle who I would go to war for she's a five years old and She loves horror films. She loves horror films. That's how I was. Yeah, look at me. She's great She's totally fine. She's the cutest little thing. She travels like we're on an airplane together. I pass her going to the restroom. L just looks up and he goes, I'm watching Abigail.

And she's holding an art and found all at her hand. That's amazing. It is the cutest thing. I so yeah, that's perfect. Yeah, dude. Thank you so much, man. Happy Halloween. Congratulations, buddy.

This is fucking amazing. You're really taking the world by storm It's so cool to talk. It's a wild ride. I'm just very grateful for it. So I definitely have you back for four Oh, definitely definitely definitely coming back for four, too All right, well hell, and Happy Halloween. Hail Art! The clown and the genre of stuff.