He chopped Sean Connerys head off inHighlander.
Saved the human race inStarship Troopers.
And was really mean to pretty much everyone inThe Shawshank Redemption.
His name is Clancy Brown Clarence J.
Brown III if you want to get specific and he is awesome.
He even squared up to The Statham in last yearsHomefrontand lived to tell the tale.
In short, hes the best kind of supporting actor.
Any film hes in gets better whenever hes on screen.
Its also got Anne Heche in it.
Which is where we started … Ill answer as much as I can, which isnt very much!
Okay, Ill start with easier ones then.
Nothing Left to Fear.
How did you get involved?
Was it a call from Slash?
Well, Id done a movie with a friend of his, Clifton Collins Jnr., calledHellbenders.
I read it and I thought it was a really cool script, actually.
You mentioned Hellbenders … this isnt your first time playing a up-to-no-good man of the cloth.
No, its not the first time in the cloth for me.
Youre not doing them the best of favours.
[laughs]
Your character, Pastor Kingsman, is actually quite a charming guy for the most part.
Is there an attraction to playing a bad guy by being that charming and nice?
Well, I dont think hes a bad guy!
They view the welfare of the flock before they consider the welfare of the individual sheep.
You mention the visual aspect of the film.
But, you know, nothing is spelled out.
I mean, that spells it out but you dont know its being spelled out.
Thats what I loved about the script.
There were moments of obviousness that were not obvious in retrospect.
Do you find that exciting or do you shy away from it?
You shy away from it, especially if its all on the nose.
I think the best audiences are bored of that stuff.
you’ve got the option to mess that stuff up too.
you’ve got the option to have that idea and not do it well.
There are plenty of films like that.
I always think of it like the anti-Bond villain in a sense.
Characters who dont have that moment of explaining everything.
When you play duplicitous characters or outright bad guys, theyre not big talkers and theyre better for it.
Yeah, I think so too.
But then if you go to a Bond movie you expect that.
Thats part of your enjoyment of the Bond picture.
And in this, nothings really explained, you know?
I see this film as really just a first chapter of a horror novel.
[laughs] I just do what Im told.
But Ive also been burned by first time directors.
Hes very visual which is exactly what you want for this.
He reminded me a lot of Kathryn Bigelow, when I first met Kathryn Bigelow.
The way he thinks about telling a story and the way he visualises a story.
Also the way he communicates is very similar to how Kathryn does.
Im a big fan of Blue Steel.
So how does that work when you have such a visual director?
How does that relationship work?
You have to trust them a lot.
You do seem to have an association with first time directors.
The Shawshank Redemption, obviously, was very early in Frank Darabonts career.
Do you actively look out for that kind of fresh voice?
And you know, Anthony is very different than J.T.
Petty [director ofHellbenders].
is very, very verbal.
He has an encyclopaedic film knowledge and appreciation.
So he would know exactly what he was going for.
I wanted to go back to a few older movies from those 219 credits.
Three of them define the 80s for me and are still very fond in my memory.
Oh yeah, Im a child of 79 so Im just there.
How did you feel making those?
I wondered how it was to work on those.
Yeah, certainlyBuckaroo Banzaiwas out there and I was quite young when that came along.
Mac Rauch wrote the script … and thats the other way it gets communicated, the script.
And I was kind of along for the ride on that one.
So I was kind of along for the ride for that.
But I thought it was really going to be something.
I cant speak to the vision thing.
Ric Richter is a tremendously articulate and calm guy.
Highlanderwas another … it was just a great idea, right?
It looked like a franchise.
It sort of became a franchise but a kind of ruined franchise, if you ask me.
It could have been something much more powerful than it became but I loved the idea behind it.
I heard about Russell Mulcahy and hed done a film calledRazorback.
Yeah, back in Australia.
The killer boar film.
Thats a good film.
Right, which people at the time were saying, ItsJawsin the outback.
And I remember enjoying it but not quite getting theJawscomparison.
He was a young guy really having fun with the camera, and I liked the idea.
I think I was the second choice for that part.
But thats the story of my life.
Who was their first choice?
I think probably Arnold Schwarzenegger.The Terminatorwas just out.
I think probably that.
They got me because I was a lot cheaper.
[laughs]
Im fascinated by IMBD trivia and how accurate some of that is.
On Buckaroo Banzai it says youre still contracted to do a sequel.
They wanted tie you up, you know?
They wanted to pre-negotiate.
[laughs]
I would heartily disagree with that!
Im running out of time so I have to ask two questions very quickly.
David Fincher and Mike Richardson as producers.
You and Paul Giamatti amongst the voice cast.
Are you any closer to that?
Well, I havent heard anything about it.
I really dont know what the status is.
But those are very cheap right now.
Somewhere in there theres a business model.
Theres no point in doing it if you cant really realise how the books look.
But the place for it in features doesnt really exist.
Its never been a very lucrative place.
And the place for it is late night prime time animation, and those are notoriously cheap.
So, you know, somewhere in there theyll find a way to do it.
It will either get cheaper to do or someone will throw some money at it.
Ill drop everything to do it.
[laughs]
Apart from Warcraft!
Which youre on now?
Yeah,Warcraftis interesting, right?
It sounds a huge project.
And Duncan [Jones] is terrific.
Ive followed the couple of movies that hes made.
Its an interesting franchise, an interesting thing.
You know, its like Han Solo, Darth Vader, Princess Leia.
If they get that right then I think they could be making those for some time to come.
And on a film of that size do you get to mould your character a bit more?
But, yeah, absolutely.
I think thats incumbent upon the actors to do that.
Its kind of like going to church to go to the prequels.
And so I think everybodys having a great time right now.
So its all going to work, I think.
Itll be a franchise.
Clancy Brown, thank you very much.
Nothing Left to Fear is out now on DVD, Blu-Ray, On-Demand and O-Download.
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