SKINWALKERS
By : Suzanne Philips
“We’re going to Mayberry and Andy Griffith is a Werewolf!”
by Suzanne Philips
The above line by Creature Creator Stan Winston sums up the new film
SKINWALKERS, which opens on August 10th. Skinwalkers, or Werewolves, are
living with a curse that allows them the power to change from human to wolf
and move at the speed of lightning. There are two very distinct types of
Skinwalkers- those who embrace their animal side and feed off human blood,
and those that reject it and want the curse to end. A young boy, Timothy
(Matthew Knight), holds the key to ending the curse forever. Both groups
wills stop at nothing to gain control of the boy.
We recently were able to sit down with some of the stars of SKINWALKERS in
Los Angeles to get their take on this really unique project.
NATASSIA
MALTHE (Sonja): Sonja used to be a ballet teacher in her other life; she
was bitten and turned by Varek. She is very attached to Varek and very
territorial. She is a raving female in the worst time of her month.
(laughs). Sonja is bad, she wants to be bad. They are very self-absorbed.
It’s all about your world. What you want is what you do and that is the
attitude of most of them.
I had never heard of Skinwalkers before but I did look online about it and
found a lot of information. I did study wolves, I found what animals worked
for me, I used a little bit of cat and panther. Anything that could get me
into an animalistic and dark kind of feel or mood. I also used music that
leaned toward the dark or wild side to get into that frame of mind – mostly
Soundgarden, Metallica and Faith No More.
I really wanted to do a werewolf movie and I asked my agent to send me out
for werewolf films. I had this dream about doing a werewolf film, which I
know sounds corny but it’s true. And I got SKINWALKERS and I kind of knew
that I had gotten it before I did.
We
did some stunt work and some wire work. I had done wire work before so the
training was easy for me. I have a background in dance and gymnastic, so I
like to do as much of my own stunts on set as possible. If I wasn’t an actor
I would probably get into stunts.
I have a lot of respect for Stan Winston. I was very happy to be working
with him, I am a huge fan. Putting on the makeup is tough. We women have
sensitive skin and they had to use all of this glue and it was not very
comfortable. It was like wearing a very uncomfortable wool sweater all over
your body all the time. The mask was very hard to remove. When they were
taking it off, it was like getting a facial - it just pulled out everything.
I had glue on my arms like the black marks you get from bandages every day.
It was
very scary to look at myself with a totally different face. It somehow upset Natassia Malthe me, but it helped my performance.
SHAWN ROBERTS (Adam): I have always had an affinity for wolves so I already had that connection. My character only gets to a certain stage of transformation and then restrains himself so I didn’t have to really worry about the movement. You have to put yourself in a position where you are restrained all the time. It is an exhausting process but it’s an experience all it’s own. You get to free yourself and really go for it. It’s great. Once you have tasted blood, there is a certain change that happens and you lose total control. Now you can maintain control as long as you don’t give into the hunger but we never allow ourselves to be in a position where we can feed. Hence the restraints. Once you have tasted blood it’s like drugs to an addict. Being a good werewolf, it’s morally wrong to feed off humans and you don’t
Shawn Roberts do it. (laughs)
It’s incredible to be working with Stan Winston who has really put his heart
and soul into this. To be working with someone who has affected our lives, I
think we can all agree to some extent, forever. It’s amazing.
From the first read through, Elias (Koteas who plays Jonas) was right there
and so present. You could really see him working through the script. He is a
very giving actor. Even when it’s not his close up, he is giving you 150%
the entire way through. And Rhona (Mitra who plays Rachel) is very much the
same way.
This movie is really about people more than about special effects. I think
this film is creating a different outlook for the genre and I am very happy
with how it turned out.
JASON
BEHR (Varek): I was drawn to playing a bad guy, something I have never
done before. It’s such a departure for me. I got to do all of these things
that I always wanted to do both as a kid and as an actor. I got to shoot
guns, ride a bike, and be a werewolf - just be a big bad-ass.
Varek is the very Alpha leader of this group of wolves who are purists. They
embrace the power and freedom and the believe the power to be a gift. The
others, the “wimpy” wolves, believe the power to be a curse; they have
suppressed that power for centuries.
Jason Behr
I wanted to be as truthful to the
character as I possibly could. We started off with watching this documentary
about the Sawtooth Mountain wolves. You could see this incredible footage of
these very free, very beautiful wolf packs. Beyond that I went to the zoo in
Toronto which kind of polarized it for me. I felt really bad for them, I am
sure they are well cared for, but they were subdued, they were repressed,
they were confined. It gave me a little more of an insight - to have a
little bit more empathy for them. It also gave me a real clear vision of
what the other guys believe.
How was the werewolf sex? (laughs) Fantastic. What a question! To be
able to actually answer that is pretty amazing. We had our teeth in, we had
our eyes in. You are out in the middle of nowhere and totally naked. It was
interesting I will tell you that. You had to be careful of the teeth cause
you could take some flesh off with those.
The
make-up process was pretty long, but it did help to get into that mode. Stan
is a legend; he is the best at what he does. Pure genius. He has wanted to
do a werewolf film since he was a kid. His creation, his wolf suit gave us
the freedom and allowed us to work. You put in the teeth and the eyes and
you really feel like you become something else. The vision thing was a
little tough . You are talking about contacts that pretty much cover your
entire eye so your peripheral vision is pretty limited, but you get used to
it.
We
had a stunt guy name Steve Lucescu who would show me what to do and I would
learn it and come back the next day and say “give me more”. I did most of
the stunts. I think there were some things that they had a double for only
due to time constraints but most of it was all me.
Stan Winston
STAN WINSTON (Creature Creator): This is the first time that I
have been able to accomplish the werewolf that I have always wanted to do.
SKINWALKERS for me is a good story, a good script. I asked the head of my
production company to find me a good werewolf script. I have been a werewolf
fan since I was a kid and haven’t been able to do the werewolves that I
wanted to do and now is the time. This script is about people and conflict.
It’s about the beast within - something we all deal with on a daily basis.
These guys don’t have a choice, it just comes up.
I wanted to give the performance back to the actor. I was turned on as a kid
watching the old Universal films – Lon Chaney, Spencer Tracey – these great
actors playing these great parts.
These great characters that we cared about. I knew very
instinctively that what I cared about wasn’t the beast, but the performance,
the character. That is why I came out here, to be an actor and I failed
dramatically.
In recent years, with the advent of digital technology – which I embrace, I
founded one of the biggest digital companies in L.A. (Digital Domain) – so I
have no aversion to digital. I have an aversion to people using it
improperly or not to it’s best effects. And when you take the performance
away from the actor I think it’s a mistake. Recently in films, the actor
plays the role from here to here and then the animator takes over and does
it from here to here. And I am out of the movie. I am no longer in touch
with that character. I am very in touch with what is digital. It might just
be my eyes but I am going…Where is my guy? Where is the guy that had the
problem? I wanted to get good actors who could bring great performances and
could bring their inner beast to the screen and never hide them and never
take it away from them. That is not to say that SKINWALKERS doesn’t use
every trick in the book - make-up, prosthetics, digital effects….but only so
far that you couldn’t tell. Only so far that you don’t know, you will just
think it looks cool. Everything you see in SKINWALKERS is the total
performance of the actors. When you see Jason,…boy when that guy is a
werewolf, that guy loves it and it is obvious and he truly couldn’t wait to
get into that makeup. He couldn’t wait to be a werewolf. And it shows, he is
relishing it. Elias Koteas hated the idea of being a werewolf and his
character doesn’t want to be a werewolf and it comes through.
If you want to see UNDERWOLRD, don’t go see this movie. It’s not a big,
extravagant movie. It’s about a small town. We are going to Mayberry and
Andy Griffith is a werewolf.
I am the most pacifistic person you will ever meet. All of my dark stuff
comes out in my art and what I do. I feel very strongly that people who feel
that horror movies are bad for kids are projecting their own fears onto
their kids. When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait for the next monster movie. We
all have fear, we have to get rid of it. Why not get rid of it in a theatre
where it is safe? Go into a theatre where it is safe and get your fix and
then get rid of it. Then you can deal with love and laughter. It’s cathartic
and healthy. That’s my take and I take myself as an example. I have seen
every violent movie there ever was to see and every horror film and I was
not affected negatively by it, if anything I was affected positively.
Check out SKINWALKERS when it opens nationwide on August 10th!
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