Fright Night – Christopher Mintz-Plasse interview

CHRISTOPHER Mintz-Plasse talks about some of the challenges of remaking Fright Night, including spending hours in the make-up chair, as well as working with Colin Farrell and David Tennant.  He also talks about his career post-Superbad and some of his earliest experiences of watching horror movies.

Q. I’d imagine that part of the appeal of remaking Fright Night is that it puts a contemporary spin on a well-worn genre and gives vampires back their bite?
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: Yeah, that’s exactly what it was. Lately, vampire movies have been love-sick vampires, or a group of vampires, whereas this is bringing back the old school monster film – just one predator hunting down one man.

Q. How aware were you of the original Fright Night?
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: I wasn’t, I didn’t know it existed until I got the script for this one. I just heard that this was a remake, and I went in and got the part. Then I bought the original and watched it. I thought it was great.

Q. Some people like to stay away from the original movies when taking on something like this, in case watching Stephen Geoffrey’s performance colours yours. Was that a concern?
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: No, I wanted to watch it for that reason and I thought he did an amazing job as the original Evil Ed but it was very wacky and zany and very 80s and over the top. I wanted to see that so I knew what not to do in a way. I didn’t want to act like I was imitating him, because he was so great. So I watched it and I knew what things not to do for my Evil Ed.

Q. The camaraderie between you and Anton Yelchin is really good. I gather you got to improv some lines, including a line from you that you came up with at your audition that made the final script? How much fun was that to be able to do?
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: Yes sir, the Stretch Armstrong line, so that was really cool. Craig [Gillespie] was really cool. There are some directors out there that just kind of want what’s on the page, but Craig really let every actor bring their own flavour to it. He also let us do a bit of improv in our scenes, which was great.

Q. Are you a closet Twilight fan?
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: I’ve seen every one 17 times. I have a portable TV waiting for me outside so that I can watch them all again [laughs].

Q. But are you a fan of vampires in general?
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: I’m a big horror buff. I enjoy horror movies, I saw Blade with my Dad when I was younger. But The Thing is one of my favourite horror movies, and The Strangers. I just like violence and blood.

Q. How was working with Colin? Chris, you get to share a pool scene…
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: Four people came in today and they all said it was homo-erotic! That was not quite what we were going for. It was awesome working with Colin. He’s a very sweet guy. We shot that pool scene and we had to stay in the pool together for two hours because there was a bunch of shots going on, so we just kind of chatted. I got to know about his kids and he got to know about my family and what not. It was very sweet of him to ask.

Q. I gather he had a special take he liked to do in a Dracula voice?
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: Yeah, yeah. When I did a few scenes with him he’d do four or five takes and then at the end he would do one with this Dracula voice. It was really cool because you could just tell that he wanted to get it out and wanted to play this Dracula type vampire.

Q. How well did you know David Tennant before this film? Had you seen him in Doctor Who?
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: I did not know who he was when I did this movie, but I’d heard that he was very talented and I knew that people were very into Doctor Who. I kind of was excited that I didn’t know who he was, because then I got to work with him and I got to see up front what kind of actor he was. He was super hilarious. He’s the best part of this movie really, he’s my favourite part.

Q. How did you find the make-up process – arduous to do but cool in the pay off?
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: Exactly, yeah. The first day it was really cool because I was like: “Yeah, I’m a freakin’ vampire!” But four weeks in, after four hours every morning, you’re like [raises his eyes and sighs]. But it looks great. People are really impressed with the make-up and so I would do it again.

Q. You’ve worked with some amazing actors so far in your career – Mark Strong, Nicolas Cage, Colin Farrell – so what do you take away from those experiences?
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: I kind of just like to watch them and see… both of them, Mark Strong and Nicolas Cage, are so humble and so sweet to the cast and to the crew. I think that’s a big key… obviously their talent is why they’re working but you don’t want to work with an asshole, you know, and they’re great on-set. I mean I’ve also worked with Jack Black and Paul Rudd and these people and they’re just so nice and grateful for what they’re doing. So, I really respect that and I just want to be like that when I’m their age. 

Q. What is the state of play with Kick-Ass 2?
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: No word yet. I know we would all love to but everyone’s super busy for Kick-Ass right now. 

Q. Are there any particular films in the horror genre that made an impression on you as a teenager?
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: The first horror movie that I saw in theatres was Starship Troopers, and I was like eight. That was the first movie I saw boobs in too, so it was a double win for me. My Dad took me to that one, it was my first impression of aliens and blood and action and stuff like that. I loved it, and I loved it [ever] since.

Q. You saw Starship Troopers as an eight year old?
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: Yeah, I had an older brother and he was 11 or 12 at the time, and my Dad was a big sci-fi guy. He said: “You’re going to have to see it sooner or later, you’ll have to get into this stuff…” So, he took me as well.

Q. If some movies from the past were to be re-made, is there one that you’d like to be in?
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: When I’m older I want to play Kurt Russell in The Thing because he’s just so freakin’ handsome in that! He’s got a luscious beard and like that thick head of hair. I want to be that guy.

Q. How’s your beard?
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: It’s not coming along. My facial hair is like someone grabbed a pile of dirt and said [gestures throwing]: “Here’s your face hair, asshole!” It just sticks there and that’s all I can do.

Q. How do you cope with being recognised by your own fans? Is there a particular thing they recognise you for?
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: Well, I get McLovin’ sometimes from Superbad. And then people really enjoy… mainly over here I get Kick-Ass more than in the US. People really enjoyed that. But everyone’s been really sweet. They come up and want a picture or they want to meet us, which is really nice.

Q. In your career since Superbad, you haven’t really played the McLovin’ character again. Have you had to resist the temptation to do that again as a career choice?
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: Yeah definitely. You don’t really want to play the same character in any movies but specifically that one because that was my first movie and it was a High School movie and I’d just graduated High School at the time, so I kind of wanted to stay away from High School comedies like that because I had just done it.