Tyler Mane is actor who seeks out challenges. Until now, the burly 6' 8" Canadian was probably best known for his part as Sabretooth in the first X-Men movie. But this year he took on his toughest role yet, playing masked killer Michael Myers in Rob Zombie's take on the Halloween horror franchise. SuicideGirls got a chance to talk to Tyler about what it takes to make a classic horror icon shocking again, keep the fans happy, and bring emotion to a character that has no soul.
Rob Zombies Halloween arrives on DVD in stores today, December 18th.
Jay Hathaway: Hey Tyler, how are you? Tyler Mane: I'm doing great, man. JH: Cool. So let's talk about Halloween. How did you land the role? How did you get to be Michael Myers? TM: Well, when Rob [Zombie] was writing Halloween, he wrote it with me in mind. So, that was kind of nice, you know? I was up in Canada getting ready to talk to producers about another project, and Rob called me and said, "Hey, I've got this project I want you to do." And I said, "What is it?" and he goes, "Halloween." I go, "Oh, great. You want me to get killed in another one of your movies." He goes, "No, I want you to be Michael Myers, and is going to be the Michael Myers story. I wrote it with you in mind, you have to do this for me." How do you say no to that? JH: Right, of course. You get to play this absolute horror icon. You had already seen Halloween when you started talking to him about the part, right? TM: I had seen it quite a while ago, but when I started talking to Rob about it, I went and revisited all of them. I saw all the Halloween [films] except for number three, where Michael Myers doesn't even appear. I knew it had a big following, and I wanted to see what people were expecting from Michael Myers. He's pretty much a one-dimensional character, and I want to kick it up a notch. There are specific things, like the walk, and the way he tilts his head. It's very tough when you're playing a character where your face isn't seen, and all you have is body language to portray yourself. It was kind of a neat acting challenge to be able to do that, and give some emotion and some feeling to this character. JH: When you're playing a character that has no soul -- literally -- how do you get inside the head of a guy like that? TM: What I did was, I looked at some of the serial killers in the past and I realized everyone has their human side. I wanted to bring sort of a human side to Michael Myers. But I also needed to figure out what was driving him. And what was driving him was to reconnect with Laurie Strode. Once he's lost Loomis in the asylum, he has nobody. So where is he gonna go? He's gonna back to family, and it's basically the only thing that he knew. And that's what it was; it was basically Michael Myers trying to reunite with his family. And as we all know, it went horribly wrong. JH: And that's kind of interesting, because before Rob got a hold of it, there wasn't much backstory in place. You could watch the other movies but it wasn't necessarily as clear, as it is now, who Michael Myers was supposed to be. TM: Exactly. It was kind of a prequel-sequel-remake all in one, and it explained Michael Myers and how he became a product of his environment, and what drove him to turn out the way he does. JH: You had a lot to live up to, re-imagining this classic, almost cult movie. Was there any trepidation about approaching something that big? TM: Any time you're doing something like that, where you have such a fan following ... I just wanted to make sure I got it right. And I think people responded very positively to the way I portrayed Michael Myers, which is fantastic. It turned out great. JH: This is also the role that you're going to be known for, going forward. Has doing Halloween landed you other horror movies, anything like that? TM: You know, tons of people have been sending scripts. They look at what I did in Rob's movie, and they're saying they want me for their projects. I'm very picky about the projects I do, so we'll see which ones I do. I am cast in a couple of projects, one which is in the horror genre, and we will see what happens with that. JH: Is that a genre you want to keep working in, or are you worried that doing horror movies might get you typecast in the future? TM: Man, I'm 6 foot 8. I'm gonna be typecast. It's not like I'm going to be the romantic lead, although that wouldn't be bad. But it is what it is, and we'll just see where it goes. That's where you have to be very picky and make sure the script is right for the next one and hopefully make the right moves. JH: Ok, this is the cheesiest question, but I feel like I have to ask. Who would win in a fight: Freddy, Jason, or Michael Myers? TM: Oh, Michael Myers, come on. JH: You're not just saying that because you know him so well? TM: I have been in his head. He would win. He would definitely win. Unless I was playing the other characters, too; then it would be a tossup. Okay, no, it wouldn't be a tossup. Michael Myers would win. JH: Is this the end of Halloween? Have you and Rob now said everything that can be said about this story? TM: Well, I am signed to another one, so... JH: Oh, wow. Ok. Can you talk about it at all yet? TM: Well, I signed on to do, and that's all I know so far. JH: Is Rob working on that one, too? TM: I signed on thinking that he was going to be doing it, but Rob feels that he's told his story, with a beginning, middle and an end. Who knows, you know? The one thing I've learned in this business is, never say never. We'll see. JH: Absolutely. There are always going to be surprises, especially in horror movies. TM: Exactly. If you've got blood and killing, you've got a horror movie. JH: How do you feel it compares to the original? Certainly you've got a lot more gore now, 20 years later. TM: Well, you've got the original in '78 by [John] Carpenter, which is a fantastic film. And then you have Rob Zombie's version today, where you do have more blood and gore, and they both tell a very good story. It's kind of hard to compare them, simply by the timeline that you have between them. JH: Is having a bloodier, more violent movie just an adjustment for a difference time and a different audience, or was Rob trying to crank it up a bit more than that? TM: Well, let's face it -- nowadays people expect to see blood and guts and all of that stuff in a movie. Otherwise they're like, "... Oh." JH: They think it's pretty tame. TM: The audience has seen so much. It's the whole shock factor. If you don't do stuff like that, you're not going to be shocking today's moviegoers, and that's what it's all about: shocking 'em, scaring 'em and giving 'em a thrill. With Rob, it's also got that intense feeling to it. JH: Yeah, absolutely. TM: One of my favorite scenes is when I'm going into the truck stop after Joe Grizzly. You hear Rush, Tom Sawyer. You know something's going to happen. And I go in there with Joe Grizzly and I tear up that stall ... just talking about it now, I'm getting goose bumps. It's just that shock factor. You go in there and see that bathroom stalled just being destroyed by two big guys, and that's right there at the beginning of Michael Myers coming back, when he gets his suit. JH: I think the music choices were awesome, on top of what you've already got with the Michael Myers theme music, the sirens. When Rush comes on, it becomes this intense, dramatic moment. TM: You just know something big is going to happen. They did great with the music, and it's just fantastic. Fantastic. JH: And this is interesting, because it's very obviously a Halloween movie, but if you've seen Rob Zombie's other movies, it's definitely going to remind you of those, too. TM: Oh yeah, he's like any director. He's going to put his own touch on it. Rob's films are known to be pretty gory, you know? JH: Do you have any plans to work with him on projects in the future? TM: That is up to Rob. I'd like to work with Rob again. It was the best experience in the business to date, working on Halloween. I would [like] to work with all of them again; it's just fantastic. JH: How do you feel about remakes in general? I know this isn't a normal remake, but there's been a backlash against them lately. Were you skeptical about doing it because of that? TM: Well, there is this backlash. You have to make sure that it's done right. Once I read the script, I saw where Rob was going with it. It isn't a remake, like you said. It's a prequel, sequel, remake -- it's hard to describe it completely. This one tells the whole story of Michael Myers, from a 10-year-old boy being picked on, and how he becomes a product of his environment, and what leads to that night. Any time you're doing something like that, believe me, the fans are like, "Oh, don't a do Halloween remake," and all of this. But now a lot of them are saying that it's their favorite one. Any time you get into something like that, it can be very sticky. But Rob had a story he was going tell, we told it, and it turned out very well. JH: Is there anything in it that you would want to change if you had to do over? TM: No. And with the DVD release out, there's some added stuff that we did shoot, that Rob wanted in the film. Once you see that, you'll even see and understand more of the story Rob wanted to tell. The last day of shooting, I kind of looked at a rough cut, and it was something like three hours, and without the music, and it was intense! I told him he should release one like that. But one of the DVD releases is going to have the extra minutes in it and I think people are going to see and like that, too. JH: Do you ever get recognized as Michael Myers, even though you were in the mask for almost all the movie? TM: Believe it or not, I do. I've done all this other stuff in the past, so people recognize me on the street, which is really cool. People are like, "Hey, Michael Myers!" But I think they're afraid to really come up to me, and get into it. They don't want me pulling me out my knife. I've got that thing in my back pocket. JH: It also had to be weird to go out when you were shooting, and still be in this Michael Myers mindset. Maybe still walking around like him -- TM: You know, I had quite a bit of time to figure out what I was going to do for the character. As soon as you get the bloody coveralls on, and the boots, you put the mask on, and that knife is handed to you, you're pretty much in character. While we were shooting, I couldn't go around to the stores in Pasadena, 'cause I had the bloody coveralls. Everybody was wanting me to go into the cigar shop and buy a cigar like that, but I'm like, "Oh, God, no. We'd have cops everywhere."
For more information on Tyler Mane and Rob Zombies Halloween, check out www.myspace.com/rzofficialhalloween, www.robzombie.com and www.tylermane.com
Rob Zombies Halloween arrives on DVD in stores today, December 18th.
Jay Hathaway: Hey Tyler, how are you? Tyler Mane: I'm doing great, man. JH: Cool. So let's talk about Halloween. How did you land the role? How did you get to be Michael Myers? TM: Well, when Rob [Zombie] was writing Halloween, he wrote it with me in mind. So, that was kind of nice, you know? I was up in Canada getting ready to talk to producers about another project, and Rob called me and said, "Hey, I've got this project I want you to do." And I said, "What is it?" and he goes, "Halloween." I go, "Oh, great. You want me to get killed in another one of your movies." He goes, "No, I want you to be Michael Myers, and is going to be the Michael Myers story. I wrote it with you in mind, you have to do this for me." How do you say no to that? JH: Right, of course. You get to play this absolute horror icon. You had already seen Halloween when you started talking to him about the part, right? TM: I had seen it quite a while ago, but when I started talking to Rob about it, I went and revisited all of them. I saw all the Halloween [films] except for number three, where Michael Myers doesn't even appear. I knew it had a big following, and I wanted to see what people were expecting from Michael Myers. He's pretty much a one-dimensional character, and I want to kick it up a notch. There are specific things, like the walk, and the way he tilts his head. It's very tough when you're playing a character where your face isn't seen, and all you have is body language to portray yourself. It was kind of a neat acting challenge to be able to do that, and give some emotion and some feeling to this character. JH: When you're playing a character that has no soul -- literally -- how do you get inside the head of a guy like that? TM: What I did was, I looked at some of the serial killers in the past and I realized everyone has their human side. I wanted to bring sort of a human side to Michael Myers. But I also needed to figure out what was driving him. And what was driving him was to reconnect with Laurie Strode. Once he's lost Loomis in the asylum, he has nobody. So where is he gonna go? He's gonna back to family, and it's basically the only thing that he knew. And that's what it was; it was basically Michael Myers trying to reunite with his family. And as we all know, it went horribly wrong. JH: And that's kind of interesting, because before Rob got a hold of it, there wasn't much backstory in place. You could watch the other movies but it wasn't necessarily as clear, as it is now, who Michael Myers was supposed to be. TM: Exactly. It was kind of a prequel-sequel-remake all in one, and it explained Michael Myers and how he became a product of his environment, and what drove him to turn out the way he does. JH: You had a lot to live up to, re-imagining this classic, almost cult movie. Was there any trepidation about approaching something that big? TM: Any time you're doing something like that, where you have such a fan following ... I just wanted to make sure I got it right. And I think people responded very positively to the way I portrayed Michael Myers, which is fantastic. It turned out great. JH: This is also the role that you're going to be known for, going forward. Has doing Halloween landed you other horror movies, anything like that? TM: You know, tons of people have been sending scripts. They look at what I did in Rob's movie, and they're saying they want me for their projects. I'm very picky about the projects I do, so we'll see which ones I do. I am cast in a couple of projects, one which is in the horror genre, and we will see what happens with that. JH: Is that a genre you want to keep working in, or are you worried that doing horror movies might get you typecast in the future? TM: Man, I'm 6 foot 8. I'm gonna be typecast. It's not like I'm going to be the romantic lead, although that wouldn't be bad. But it is what it is, and we'll just see where it goes. That's where you have to be very picky and make sure the script is right for the next one and hopefully make the right moves. JH: Ok, this is the cheesiest question, but I feel like I have to ask. Who would win in a fight: Freddy, Jason, or Michael Myers? TM: Oh, Michael Myers, come on. JH: You're not just saying that because you know him so well? TM: I have been in his head. He would win. He would definitely win. Unless I was playing the other characters, too; then it would be a tossup. Okay, no, it wouldn't be a tossup. Michael Myers would win. JH: Is this the end of Halloween? Have you and Rob now said everything that can be said about this story? TM: Well, I am signed to another one, so... JH: Oh, wow. Ok. Can you talk about it at all yet? TM: Well, I signed on to do, and that's all I know so far. JH: Is Rob working on that one, too? TM: I signed on thinking that he was going to be doing it, but Rob feels that he's told his story, with a beginning, middle and an end. Who knows, you know? The one thing I've learned in this business is, never say never. We'll see. JH: Absolutely. There are always going to be surprises, especially in horror movies. TM: Exactly. If you've got blood and killing, you've got a horror movie. JH: How do you feel it compares to the original? Certainly you've got a lot more gore now, 20 years later. TM: Well, you've got the original in '78 by [John] Carpenter, which is a fantastic film. And then you have Rob Zombie's version today, where you do have more blood and gore, and they both tell a very good story. It's kind of hard to compare them, simply by the timeline that you have between them. JH: Is having a bloodier, more violent movie just an adjustment for a difference time and a different audience, or was Rob trying to crank it up a bit more than that? TM: Well, let's face it -- nowadays people expect to see blood and guts and all of that stuff in a movie. Otherwise they're like, "... Oh." JH: They think it's pretty tame. TM: The audience has seen so much. It's the whole shock factor. If you don't do stuff like that, you're not going to be shocking today's moviegoers, and that's what it's all about: shocking 'em, scaring 'em and giving 'em a thrill. With Rob, it's also got that intense feeling to it. JH: Yeah, absolutely. TM: One of my favorite scenes is when I'm going into the truck stop after Joe Grizzly. You hear Rush, Tom Sawyer. You know something's going to happen. And I go in there with Joe Grizzly and I tear up that stall ... just talking about it now, I'm getting goose bumps. It's just that shock factor. You go in there and see that bathroom stalled just being destroyed by two big guys, and that's right there at the beginning of Michael Myers coming back, when he gets his suit. JH: I think the music choices were awesome, on top of what you've already got with the Michael Myers theme music, the sirens. When Rush comes on, it becomes this intense, dramatic moment. TM: You just know something big is going to happen. They did great with the music, and it's just fantastic. Fantastic. JH: And this is interesting, because it's very obviously a Halloween movie, but if you've seen Rob Zombie's other movies, it's definitely going to remind you of those, too. TM: Oh yeah, he's like any director. He's going to put his own touch on it. Rob's films are known to be pretty gory, you know? JH: Do you have any plans to work with him on projects in the future? TM: That is up to Rob. I'd like to work with Rob again. It was the best experience in the business to date, working on Halloween. I would [like] to work with all of them again; it's just fantastic. JH: How do you feel about remakes in general? I know this isn't a normal remake, but there's been a backlash against them lately. Were you skeptical about doing it because of that? TM: Well, there is this backlash. You have to make sure that it's done right. Once I read the script, I saw where Rob was going with it. It isn't a remake, like you said. It's a prequel, sequel, remake -- it's hard to describe it completely. This one tells the whole story of Michael Myers, from a 10-year-old boy being picked on, and how he becomes a product of his environment, and what leads to that night. Any time you're doing something like that, believe me, the fans are like, "Oh, don't a do Halloween remake," and all of this. But now a lot of them are saying that it's their favorite one. Any time you get into something like that, it can be very sticky. But Rob had a story he was going tell, we told it, and it turned out very well. JH: Is there anything in it that you would want to change if you had to do over? TM: No. And with the DVD release out, there's some added stuff that we did shoot, that Rob wanted in the film. Once you see that, you'll even see and understand more of the story Rob wanted to tell. The last day of shooting, I kind of looked at a rough cut, and it was something like three hours, and without the music, and it was intense! I told him he should release one like that. But one of the DVD releases is going to have the extra minutes in it and I think people are going to see and like that, too. JH: Do you ever get recognized as Michael Myers, even though you were in the mask for almost all the movie? TM: Believe it or not, I do. I've done all this other stuff in the past, so people recognize me on the street, which is really cool. People are like, "Hey, Michael Myers!" But I think they're afraid to really come up to me, and get into it. They don't want me pulling me out my knife. I've got that thing in my back pocket. JH: It also had to be weird to go out when you were shooting, and still be in this Michael Myers mindset. Maybe still walking around like him -- TM: You know, I had quite a bit of time to figure out what I was going to do for the character. As soon as you get the bloody coveralls on, and the boots, you put the mask on, and that knife is handed to you, you're pretty much in character. While we were shooting, I couldn't go around to the stores in Pasadena, 'cause I had the bloody coveralls. Everybody was wanting me to go into the cigar shop and buy a cigar like that, but I'm like, "Oh, God, no. We'd have cops everywhere."
For more information on Tyler Mane and Rob Zombies Halloween, check out www.myspace.com/rzofficialhalloween, www.robzombie.com and www.tylermane.com
erin_broadley:
Tyler Mane is actor who seeks out challenges. Until this year, the burly 6' 8" Canadian was probably best known for his part as Sabretooth in the first X-Men movie. But this year he took on his toughest role yet, playing masked killer Michael Myers in Rob Zombie's take on the Halloween horror franchise....
jawaman77:
Loved the film, Tyer did a hell of a job. Man that dude is HUGE! 