We were absolutely thrilled to be able to sit down and talk with the one and only Richard Brake as he was taking a moment from his VERY busy schedule prompting his new film, Rob Zombie’s 3 from Hell. As always Richard was full of fantastic insight about his role in the film, working with Rob Zombie and acting alongside Sherry Moon and Bill Moseley. So without further ado, let’s take a moment and do the devil’s work, and while we’re at it, let’s snag tickets Fathom Events showings! Tickets for the September 16th/17th/18th nationwide release of 3 FROM HELL are available at FathomEvents.com/3FromHell
HF: Hey, Richard. How are you?
RB: Hey, Ash. Good, man. How ya doin?
HF: I’m doin alright. Doin alright for a Tuesday Mid-day here in the Midwest. Not too shabby at all.
RB: It’s 5 o’clock here in London, so…
HF: Well, thank you so much for taking a few moments with us. Hopefully I can get through these questions without a lot of stuttering and stammering and we can make the most of our time.
HF: So, one thing that really interested me about the film that I wanted to ask you was that both Devil’s Rejects and now 3 from Hell are films written around sadistic characters with a nihilistic world view with no real heroic archetype, or even an antihero with a redemption arc, how did you approach playing the character of Winslow Coltraine?
RB: (laughs) Um… Gosh, good question. I don’t know if I fully agree with … agree that these characters are that nihilistic… They are definitely outsiders and that’s kind of how I approached it more. I love, I’ve always loved Captain Spaulding and Baby before I even got involved in this world and I think one of the reasons why audiences love them so much is because we really identify with their rebel nature. They’re absolute outsiders and you know, maybe they’re extremely outside, obviously. All of us I think feel that, all of us that love Rob’s films feel that kind of, we’re outsiders and try to find ourselves in hem and we find ourselves rooting for them. I think Foxy is part of that world outside that I identified with that, as an actor. Obviously. I don’t know if I would necessarily identify with some of the things Foxy gets up to shall we say, or otherwise I’d be incarcerated right now BUT I do, deep down inside, take away obviously some of the things.. you just look at them as characters that are basically fighting against the system that’s kinda screwed them over here and there and I love that about the film and I love that about the characters and the film definitely continues that storyline.
HF: Well, I think that that’s a great answer to an extremely wordy question. So I appreciate it Richard. I really do.
HF: Now with Captain Spaulding being one of those more iconic genre characters the last 25 years and knowing that you had as much screen time with both Sherry and with Bill was there any trepidation knowing that there was a lot of that void you’re going to fill.
RB: Noooo, um, there’s no way you can fill Captain Spaulding’s place. That performance, just like you said is iconic. I mean he’s a fantastic actor and what he created with that character is just brilliant so I never once considered that I was ever filling anything, There would be no point in even trying to look at it that way. I’m just a new cog in this whole world that Rob has created so completely over the last two films and now continues with this one. I felt no trepidation because I never thought of it as anything of, any sort of any need to fill anything. That, as an actor I could never attempt to fill anything. I just created something completely new and fresh to bring to the table.
HF: So there’s a lot of sometimes intentional and sometimes almost accidental comedy that plays really, really well in this film. I think even more so than Devil’s Rejects. Did you have the expectation that that was an element of the script going in or it was that something that was just sort of spawned from your rapport?
RB: Umm… probably a mixture of both. I think Rob just always writes really solid scripts. Great script to begin with. 31, the character Doomhead is probably the best written character I’ve ever come across in the work I’ve done. Then again, with this script, the scenes would just be so well written. With Rob we always shoot what’s written on the page initially. In this film, in particular, with some of the scenes we would do some improvising which rob really encourages the fact he would come up to you and whisper some ideas to improvise and then he would walk behind the camera and go “action!” and I would have about 4 seconds to take it all in before the camera starts rolling I’d go over and have to deliver some crazy ass monologue to Bill and watch his reaction and Bill inevitably because he is such a fine actor, would come up with some retort that I would then riff off of. Rob really had a real feel for Foxy and obviously knows Baby inside out and even more so Sherry and Bill know Baby and tis inside out, the two of them are absolutely incredible in these roles. I mean, they embody them so well because they have been doing them for so long and are such fine actors. So for me finding Foxy’s world and finding Foxy’s place in this world was probably the joy of doing this and part of that was improvising with the two of them and a lot of those improvisations could just turn out being a little hilarious.
HF: Playing so well, as one of these three, horror fans are rabid fans and when they attach themselves to a character you’re sort of that character in their hearts and in their minds did, you know, reading the script, were you like, man, I’ve got to prepare myself because this is entering me into a whole new world.
RB: Yeah, well, no. I don’t really think about like in terms of what fans think, or what they’ll think. I just really try to make it as real as I can. And then serve the script and then roll with it. Also because of Doomhead and doing 31 with rob and it impacted so many horror fans I hope it will just add to that reaction from them, because this character is so totally different from Doomhead which both Rob and I just loved and really worked on as well. So Doomhead had his own thing and Foxy has a completely different take on things. Hopefully this will just broaden that relationship with horror fans, who I absolutely adore, and especially Rob’s horror fans who are one of a kind, for sure.
HF: Well, we absolutely loved it, and we think it’s going to get an absolutely amazing reception. So, I think you’ve got a lot of pleasant surprises ahead of you Richard. Thank you so much.
RB: Thank you man, I appreciate it. Thank you so much.
