Doug Jones Has More to Say About Hellboy 2

iF MAGAZINE: What kind of interaction do the actors have with HELLBOY creator Mike Mignola when he is on set?

DOUG JONES: I love him, we get along really well. He’s not well and I mean that in a good way. He’s not physically ill, but he’s not quite right in the head and that’s what I love about him so I hope he never changes. He’s got the most twisted sense of humor and he makes me laugh and laugh. Four people can be looking at the same dot on the wall, and Mike Mignola will find it so twisted and funny that you want to listen to his description of that dot. He’s wonderful and he doesn’t try to overstep Guillermo [Del Toro]. He knows where the line of what the director’s job is. As actors we need to talk to our director, because that’s where we get a lot of our inspiration from. Mike Mignola is there an he does inspire us and his presence is very welcome and very comforting.

iF: Following on the heels of being dubbed for the first HELLBOY, now you’ve not only done your own voice for Abe for this new movie, but also for other projects?

JONES: I did my own voice for the HELLBOY video game which is coming out soon and of course for the animated features SWORD OF STORMS and BLOOD AND IRON, which have already come out. I really enjoyed doing those, because it’s such a different animal to voice animation. It’s different than on camera acting, but you still need to find the character and make him real using just your voice.

iF: How is your working relationship with Ron Perlman and Selma Blair, now that you all have worked together on so many different HELLBOY projects?


JONES: In the first film I wasn’t really on camera with either of them very much, especially Selma. Now this time around we were almost constantly on camera together through much of the shooting, and that was wonderful. We also spent more time off camera together all of us, on the weekends, and Jeffrey Tambor too. I just adore all of them. My friend Brian Steel came back as well. I think this is my seventh movie with him, and we’ve been credited alongside each other for so many films now. So it really was a family project and a family reunion. Ron Perlman really is like a big brother to me. It’s funny because RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER came out in theatres and on DVD while we were filming and Ron never let me forget that I was the Silver Surfer now, and that was a razzing point for him during shooting. I told him that was all fine and good and I loved being the Silver Surfer, but in all sincerity, my honor at that moment was to be his trusty sidekick. It was my pleasure to be his little brother on film. He took the big brother role off camera and on camera very seriously and he is very protective of the people he loves. He’ll bark for you if you’re not barking for yourself. I really appreciate Ron. Selma and I really bonded too, into that sort of family role; she’s like a little sister. She’s out of her mind and I hope she never changes. She’s got this deadpan delivery, she can say the funniest things and never change her cigarette in hand and her straight on stare at you.

iF: How did the makeup evolve on this from the first film?

JONES: The makeup evolved because in the first movie, you only saw Abe primarily in a pair of shorts and that was a full-body makeup that took seven hours to complete that had to evolve because of this new schedule. To give you an idea of how much my involvement changed, in the first film Abe Sapien was on the call sheet seventeen days of the film which is not that much. On this movie I was on the call sheet one hundred and eight days. So the seven hour makeup had to get easier. On the long days, when I was wearing nothing but shorts it was down to five hours, so they cut two hours off. The merciful thing about this movie is that Abe is in a new costume with long sleeve, pants, gloves, and boots; so the makeup is pretty much from the neck up. So, when I was wearing the full outfit this time it was about a three hour makeup. They cut down the number of pieces and it became more of a form fitted suit that they could glue down the edges of as opposed to twelve separate pieces that had to be individually glued on and blended to my skin. We cut down on a lot of airbrushing time and gluing time form the neck down.

iF: Did anyone discuss the possibility of a third movie?

JONES: The third movie was talked about the entire time. In fact, Guillermo has been talking about HELLBOY 1, 2, and 3 since we were filming HELLBOY 1. He said he had three HELLBOY movies in him then. Now, as the footage was being edited and put together and the studio was getting more and more excited about what they were seeing, now we’re all excited for HELLBOY 4, 5, and 6 even! If it can keep going why not? I can’t speak for everyone, but I did here lots of speculation about how long this can go. It’s very exciting. So we don’t want to put limits on it if we can help it.

[For the full interview check out IFMagazine.com right HERE]