Mutant Chronicles star on his latest role
There are many faces of Ron Perlman. There’s the noble “beast,” of course, of Beauty and the Beast. The loyal “muscle,” Angel de la Guardia, of Cronos. Johner, the smuggler in Alien: Resurrection. Reman Viceroy Vkruk of Star Trek: Nemesis. The hero he made his own as the title character in Hellboy and its sequel. And most recently, the grieving, enraged Gunnar in Outlander and Father Duffy in the quirky I Sell the Dead.
The real Ron Perlman? Cool as a cucumber. Direct and, as I come to find in our chat about his latest turn in Mutant Chronicles, still voraciously excited about his craft. For an actor who has amassed a list of credits like he has, that’s incredible. Below is our brief conversation about MC and his integral role in the film as a protector of the human race.
ShockTillYouDrop.com: I was on the phone with director Simon Hunter the other day and he sounded like a real class act. A guy full of ambition and ingenuity. Am I close?
Ron Perlman: I’m definitely the number one president and founder of the Simon Hunter fan club. I think the guy is a really nice human being, first and foremost. He’s very kind, genuine and bright. He just put everything he had into this film. It was a beautiful thing to watch him throw all he had into this with such limited resources, something that was as high concept and technically mind-boggling as this film.
Shock: How would you see he differed from the kinds problems versus other directors…
Perlman: You never really felt like he was breathing heavy. If he was having problems, he never showed it in his demeanor. The set was a very positive, easy place to be creative in. A lot of wonderful collaboration among all of the players, depending very much on the actors for performance, depending very much on the camera guys to give it a really interesting look. He also had to know how to collaborate but know how to preside with a very clear vision of the movie he wanted to make. If there were problems, you just didn’t feel it and that’s the way it should be in a happy household.
Shock: Was it a meeting with Simon that hooked you on the project or was it the script?
Perlman: It was the script, then the character. I loved the character. [Producer] Ed Pressman then sent me this six minute mini-film that Simon made to set the tone of what he was thinking of doing with it visually. That was amazingly compelling. He did that with spit and chewing gum. He probably called in a lot of favors because there were like 300 actors in it. Then I chatted with him over the phone, but by that time I was already quite pregnant, that sealed the deal for sure.
Shock: Now who’s this character that you fell in love with?
Perlman: He’s Brother Samuel who presides over a hilltop monastery buried deep in some undisclosed mountain range. Although this monastery serves a spiritual purpose, it’s basically there to be the keeper and protector of these chronicles which talks of this visitation by a diabolical race which was able to, through some amazingly strange and twisted machinery, exchange bodily fluids of humans and turn them into mutants. They’re being to mutanize the entire population and wipe out humanity. The film marks the second visitation by this ugly force. It animates Brother Samuel who’s protecting this chronicle which was put down on paper by this warrior prophet. He was the first to confront the mutants in their first visitation and the chronicles how the machine they use can be neutralized. Everyone is evacuating the Earth, Samuel has limited resources at his disposal to try and save the world from utter extinction.
Shock: You then find yourself teaming up with some great actors. Malkovich, Jane…
Perlman: And it was a superb experience. Tom Jane has become one of my life-long friends. It’s rare you come away from a little gig with a life-long friend. But we hit it off really well, I’ve worked with him subsequently. He did a film called Dark Country that I was in. I just love the guy, he’s got a great head. His heart’s in the right place. He loves movies like I do. The two days that Malkovich worked on the film, I was in all of his scenes and they were head-to-head, he and I. That was just phenomenal because I’m such a fan of his, I revere him, I really do.
Shock: So the thrill of working with people you’ve looked up to never gets old…
Perlman: It never gets old. The people who are involved in it are the brightest and best I’ve ever met in any of my walks of life. The storytelling continues to be…I think there’s a genius born every day. When the cream rises to the top and you get a chance to work with people who have these things they need to tell and they tell them in ways that are smart, compelling and cutting edge. The Guillermo del Toros, the Jean-Pierre Jeunets, being around these guys animates you and keeps you young and engaged in ways that never gets old.
You can find Perlman is in the television series Sons of Anarchy. Mutant Chronicles is now available on VOD and will launch into a limited theatrical run on April 24th.
Source: Ryan Rotten, Managing Editor
