Crave Online: How gratifying is it that Blu Ray shows off all the work you go through to play these creatures?
Doug Jones: Yeah, that will help answer some questions because you know the number one question I get about the makeup is how many hours did it take and was it uncomfortable and does that change your performance any? So all those questions hopefully will be visualized for people in high definition either.
Crave Online: In Pan's Labyrinth too, have you seen your work presented this way?
Doug Jones: I'm not into the Blu Ray technology myself yet. I still have a 20" screen at home with a VHS player hooked to it I think. Okay, I've got the DVD. I do have a DVD/VHS combined thing is what it is. You know, the VHS got a bad rap. It's not so bad. You know what I liked about it? I know we're talking about Blu Ray but the VHS you could pull your tape out and put it right back in right where you left off. You can cue things up. You can't do that on a disc and it drives me nuts.
Crave Online: Actually you can.
Doug Jones: Can you? Now, a techno geek can. I cannot, is all I'm saying. Wow, is there a way for you to teach me? I need help, I need desperate help.
Crave Online: Guillermo's being coy about casting The Hobbit, but have you had a conversation yet?
Doug Jones: I have not had a conversation with him about any of them at all yet but he was quoted, he was interviewed by somebody, I guess I read this that the Elfin King is not in consideration. That's one character we can cross off. I'm not sure what else. I don't want to speculate what he has in mind because if I get my hopes up about something I'll be like, nah.
Crave Online: Have you had any early thoughts about the Frankenstein creature?
Doug Jones: Oh, that's another one, oh, talk about getting my hopes up. Yeah, he was interviewed about 20 minutes before me at the red carpet of the Hellboy II premiere. One of your friends, Ryan Rotten, when I got to Ryan he said, "Oh, Doug, Doug, Doug. I just talked to Guillermo 20 minutes ago and he said that he wants to make his own version of Frankenstein." I'm like, "Aw, that's perfect for him. What a great vehicle for Guillermo." He said, "Oh, that's not the best news. I asked him who he wanted his monster to be and he said Doug Jones." And that's when I fainted. Yeah, yeah. No, that would be a dream come true that again, I don't want to get my hopes up too much just in case we never get to make it.
Crave Online: Have you talked to Guillermo about that?
Doug Jones: I have not talked to him about that and I'll tell you why. He kind of doesn't give me too much information too soon and it would be premature at this point really. We'll just slip that over here on the happy shelf and wait for it.
Crave Online: As it enters the conversation though, do you start imagining makeup and how it could look?
Doug Jones: Yeah. That's made very easy for me in the Frankenstein world because Guillermo Del Toro has a love of Bernie Wrightson's artwork and I did see a rendering of Frankenstein done by Bernie Wrightson so I have a visual to go with now. In the meantime, another fan of his, I'm going to get his name wrong, it's a French fellow with a French name I cannot pronounce. He has the screen name Riddick. Riddick submitted a piece of artwork to Deltorofilms.com, his own rendering of Doug Jones as Frankenstein and it was absolutely drop dead gorgeous. It looked like me as Frankenstein. Not the big lumbering Boris Karloff but a thinner Doug Jones with patchwork to put him together. He's been sewn together. The eyes is what really grabbed me. He kept my eyes. He gave me a very soulful, victimized look that was very sympathetic. That's one Frankenstein that I would love, love, love to take on under Guillermo's tutelage.
Crave Online: Any bolts on the forehead?
Doug Jones: No, there weren't. Not so much. I know, the bolts, that's signature, isn't it? You want to keep the bolts but that again, I leave design work like that to the artists who are the creators and the geniuses that I am not.
Crave Online: In the meantime, what else are you doing?
Doug Jones: Of course I'm in Quarantine right now. That wouldn't be the devil. That's an infected man. A movie called Legion is coming out with Dennis Quaid, Paul Bettany, Tyrese Gibson. In that I play a devilish kind of character maybe, an ice cream man that looks happy enough. It's ice cream man with an evil twist, so I morph into a little something on film in front of you. It's a one scene yummy moment in the film that kind of turns the page into the action sequence in the film. Oh, we just love our disco music, don't we? Yeahhhh. So, other things coming up, I did a film My Name is Jerry in which I play Jerry, a middle aged white guy going through midlife crisis. Coming of middle age, reinvention time, things that I actually go through in my 40s. So Jerry was kind of written specifically for me by a friend of mine and it was shot beautifully, acted beautifully by all the cast members. It's in post production now and I'm looking very, very forward to this coming out in '09. Also another fun one, a superhero spoof movie called Supercapers in which I play a knockoff of Agent Smith from The Matrix. Yes! Yes. Yeah.
Crave Online: Do you get to do the wall walking flip kick thing?
Doug Jones: No, I didn't have to do any fighting. I just kind of stood and delivered Agent Smith-like dialogue. So that was a cush gig for me. Can you imagine? Right? A pair of sunglasses and my hair slicked back. Woo.
Crave Online: No bullet time?
Doug Jones: No, no, no, no bullets. I also just finished a little project called Angel of Death. Not my Angel of Death from Hellboy II but Angel of Death starring Zoe Bell. It's a Sony Pictures thing, will come out on their crackle.com website. It'll be on webisode format first in 10 separate webisodes. Once those have all been aired, they'll compile it back together as a DVD release feature film.
Crave Online: With Lucy Lawless?
Doug Jones: Lucy Lawless, yes, she has a cameo in that which is kind of poetic because Zoe Bell started as Lucy Lawless's stunt double on Xena so that's kind of a nice full circle favor that Lucy's done that's really sweet. But Zoe Bell plays a mafia hit woman in this and she's like a killing machine but she grows a conscience throughout the story. I am her mafia doctor. I'm the one who patches her up off the record because a mafia killer can't go into a hospital and have records taken, right? So that's what I'm here for. So I'm a doctor that like had a heyday once before but this is not the heyday. I'm kind of a sad piece of work and I have to snort white things up my nose in order to do my job so he's really a sad, sorry character but I loved playing him because there was a comedy element to my character that brought a nice little flavor to the film.
Crave Online: It must be gratifying to get roles that don't require makeup?
Doug Jones: Seriously, since I got home from filming Hellboy II, most of the work I've done since then has been with my own face. Even recently, the casting office for Criminal Minds on CBS, they called up and said, "Would you please be a guest star on our show?" No audition, not even have to read for it. They want me to play the organizer captain of a fight club. Now look at me. Look at me. But someone there I guess had a vision of what they wanted, so I was the skinny, wiry, a little bit crazy behind the eyes fight club captain and that has yet to air on CBS.
Crave Online: Do you know when?
Doug Jones: I don't know exactly and I'm watching the episode guide on their website every so often like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, not yet." It's coming, it's coming this season. Season four.
Crave Online: Are you playing Lucifer?
Doug Jones: Oh, Lucifer, that's something in development right now. The project is called Lucifer in which I would play one of Lucifer's minions, like the right hand troll demon of his. Back in the makeup but it's a juicy yummy part written and to be directed by Ray Griggs. Ray Griggs directed and wrote Supercapers that I told you about just a minute ago. So that's that one and Supercapers was something he directed to prove his prowess as a director who can do visual effects and that was his first feature film, Supercapers. So Lucifer is going to need a huge budget because it's going to be epic with heaven, hell, the fall of Lucifer the angel when he became the devil. That's a big story to be told with a lot of money and they're not going to trust him with that much money until he can prove himself as a director, so Supercapers came up.
Crave Online: Is Lucifer based on anything like a novel?
Doug Jones: Oh, no, no, no, no. Basically, lore from the bible. Yeah.
Crave Online: Is Legion a lead role?
Doug Jones: Legion's a cameo. It's a special moment in the film but our director, and that's look-upable [Scott Charles Stewart], when we were done filming my scenes, we filmed in New Mexico, Albuquerque for about four days. When I was done filming my scene he said, "Your fans are going to love me for this." So whatever that means, I think that it's going to rock.
Crave Online: A minion?
Doug Jones: Yes, yes. A troll demon, yes. Yes.
Crave Online: Thank you.
Doug Jones: Absolutely. I have so much love for you guys. Aw. Thanks for ever wanting to talk to me. It really makes my world.
Crave Online: Did you Meet George Lucas at the Scream awards?
Doug Jones: Didn't meet him, no. Was he sitting close to me? Anthony Hopkins and he I think were held off in their own little… Thank you for coming out tonight and supporting our movie. Big love. Yay.
