Hes retired now, but hes seen things.

Not that hes seeing them anymore.

But he is also the guy who got his nose broken by two of Hollywoods biggest names.

But when things bump in the middle of the night, he drags the expert out of bed.

Den of Geek: In the movie, Brett is plagued by nightmares from the moment the camera rolls.

You are of course the legendaryNightmare from Elm Street, so let me ask you.

How do you sleep at night?

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Robert Englund: You know?

I sleep like a baby.

But when I was a kid I had really vivid recurring nightmares and dreams.

Some of which were motivated by movies I accidentally saw when I was too young.

I talk about some of that in my bookHollywood Monster.

Not so much now, although I had a couple ofGame of Thronesdreams.

Ive had a couple ofNarcosdreams.

But theyre not really nightmares.

I sleep pretty well.

Especially since my wife got this great new mattress.

The dog and I cant get off the bed now.

Ive been out of the makeup now, pretty much since about 2003.

Occasionally I have to do a wound.

That was weird because it was outside and that stuff really gets in your skin.

I had to do some makeup forFear Clinic.

I dont really mind.

I dont miss the Freddy makeup, Ill be honest with you.

When you get two-thirds through filming, boy its really hard to face that glue in the morning.

I wish they had a way of heating it up.

But the makeup roles were kind of fun for me for a while.

When I got out of the makeup I had aged.

I was really young when I first did Freddy.

I still was getting carded in bars.

So I had this sort of crusty character face now.

I have a beard.

My beard was brown and red for a while, but now its gone pure white.

Those are always parts of scripts and Ive been doing a lot of those of the last fifteen years.

Oh Richard Price is doingThe Deucenow, which is terrific.

Those actresses are just terrific.

I love Richard Price.

Some of those books are sitting five fee from me right now.

Im looking at the shelves.

Bloodbrotherswas Richard Geres first big starring break.

Tony LoBianco was fresh offThe French Connection.

Paul Sorvino, I think that was his first time in Hollywood.

I think hed doneStardust Ballroomwith Maureen OSullivan, but I think that was for television.

So they had these three crazy New Yorkers working with me in all these scenes.

Every time I run into Marilu I always remind her how much I love her in that movie.

Richard Gere broke my nose in that movie in the fight scene.

I also cracked my ankle.

I had a fight scene with Sorvino.

He had chains, they were real chains.

I had disco boots on.

I should have learned.

I should have put my stunt shoes on for that scene but I was trying to be real.

I had my white trash Irish Westie middle 40s Streets disco boots on and I hurt my ankle.

Richard broke my nose in a take, by accident.

For a small role I had a lot of adventures.

But I also got to have lunch with Robert Mulligan.

He told me all sorts of stories about his great classic,To Kill a Mockingbird.

It was great to get these stories from the horses mouth.

When you got hurt, did Mulligan say, good use that, like a director onThe Simpsonswould?

I think they probably used that take.

He just barely buzzed it, but he got it and it swelled up later.

He was early to movies.

He was just starting to work in movies then.

On the first take he got me, knocked me back off a chair.

Then he felt terrible.

We had a couple beers.

He thought he was allowed to hit stuntmen.

I said Im not a stunt man Kris, Im an actor, Im acting here.

Ive had my nose broken by the greats.

When you were doingBloodbrothersdid you spend time in the Bronx?

I was only in New York for one day of shooting.

It was their fire escape and they said we didnt have permission to hang lights here.

They rented the companys own lights back to them.

Most of that was shot on a sound stage at Warner Brothers.

All the interiors were.

We did a couple exterior second unit shots in New York.

I think I worked there one day, walking down the street or walking into a building.

You talked about how certain roles would age you, and those disco suits would certainly date you.

We all know Freddys fedora, but that was a very cool homburg you were wearing inNightworld.

That sort of saved me in a weird way.

I was worried too much about the blind aspect of it.

I found these glasses I like that had sides on them.

I wanted him to be an old man who was retired.

Maybe from Europe somewhere.

Maybe from Bulgaria or Romania, or even Vienna, Austria.

And hed been called back to help Jason.

I wanted that aspect of something timeless.

It told the audience that he was blind.

So I didnt have to act blind all the time because blind people dont act blind.

That hat gave me that kind of sense of timelessness.

I found the jacket, a really expensive jacket that was like 30 years old.

Old people, they buy nice things, but then they wear them forever.

I wanted that to be part of the character.

InNightworld, you get the sense that he probably lives in a little tiny elegant apartment somewhere.

Hes retired and he doesnt go out a lot, so he has his old clothes still.

The scarf really tied it together.

So let me ask, as a blind man, how important was it that you looked dapper?

I think old people are like that in Europe.

Theyre not like that in America.

They wear cargo shorts and stupid t-shirts.

In Europe old men still dress up and they are quite dapper.

I hang out on a street in Rome that I love.

Fellini used to live on it.

My wife and I always go there for lunch because its such a beautiful little street.

One of my favorite apartments in the world.

Why do they have a blind man manning the video feed?

Well, I think the idea is that he wasnt blind then.

I think theres a hint that something happened.

He knows more than a lot of people.

Thats why the owners called me in.

I know things can go wrong.

I know that things can go bad there.

Or he went blind after he retired.

He wasnt blind manning the video feeds.

Im sure when he worked there, he had full sight.

Theres a line in the beginning where he says I know my way around here.

Or that was the reason for his retirement or firing.

Do you believe in an afterlife?

You know, I certainly believe that a component of our physiology is electrical.

There is a certain electrical energy to the human body.

There is a bit of that in there.

I think thats what we feel sometimes.

When the hairs feel like they are going up on the back of your neck.

You just sense something.

I think its just an energy field.

I think that exists, so if you want to call that an afterlife, yeah.

Theres just an energy of your memory left in the cosmos.

And none of the bad parts scare you because you know you made it through them.

it’s possible for you to kind of watch them, detached.

I thought that was a beautiful way of looking at death.

Ive always gone with George Carlins, that your soul goes to a garage in Buffalo.

I like George Carlins line about cocaine.

In a bare-knuckled thumb wrestling match, who would win, Freddy or Edward Scissorhands?

This is a kind of pat answer, but I really believe it.

If you go to sleep and think of me.

Nightworldopens in select theaters and on demand October 20.