Ron Perlman: It's not that bad. The tail is probably my biggest obstacle because it sometimes zigs when I zag. And you don't want to trip over the tail, because then you squish the rubber.
Crave Online: Hellboy II seems much more comical than the first one. Did you improvise any of the one-liners?
Ron Perlman: That's simply the way Guillermo writes. I mean, it sounded like I was making the whole movie up in Hellboy 1, and yet I think there was maybe one improv in the whole movie. You know, he's got this idiom down, this
kind of like longshoreman guy who's raised in New Jersey, eastern kind of barroom American slang for a guy who English is his second language. It's kind of remarkable.
Crave Online: How did Hellboy get from hellspawn to cynical New York trash talker?
Ron Perlman: Well, the cynical New Yorkish guy is strictly a product of his environment. He grew up in New Jersey and he didn't get to go out very much, but I'm sure that there were an awful lot of local people that intersected with him in his youth that gave him the accent, gave him the swagger, gave him that sort of worldly, world-weary New York/New Jersey kind of vibe. At least, that's what I decided. With regard to the heart of the guy, that was completely a gift from Professor Broom to Hellboy, and I think it's so strongly embedded in him that even though he has these primal impulses, things that come with his DNA. Somehow the heart triumphs over the nature. The nurtured aspect triumphs over the nature aspect in Hellboy, at least so far. He's been tested, but not nearly as much as he will be in the third one, if there is a third one.
Crave Online: How much input did you have with Guillermo before shooting?
Ron Perlman: Zero. I didn't want any input. Why would you ever think that you're going to come up with a better idea than this guy who's truly got a handle on this thing in a way that's complete and holistic, profound? You just bask in his glow and thank him and be grateful for the amazing dramatic opportunity he's given you.
Crave Online: When you signed on for Hellboy 2, did you have any idea there was going to be singing?
Ron Perlman: No. I'm very happy. What a bonus.
Crave Online: Has Barry Manilow seen the movie yet?
Ron Perlman: I don't know.
Crave Online: Doug Jones got to use his own voice for Abe Sapien this time. How did that affect your performance with him?
Ron Perlman: It didn't change my performance in any way, shape, or form. I thought it was phenomenal that we finally got a chance to bask in the greatness of Doug Jones. Times three by the way, because he's also the Chamberlain and the Angel of Death. And it's his voice in all three instances I think. Maybe not in the case of the Chamberlain, but it's certainly his voice in Abe, and it's certainly his voice in the Angel of Death, for sure. He's a major talent who's finally getting the attention that he so richly deserves.
Ron Perlman: I think it's a possibility. I think it's completely a function as to how Hellboy II does in the marketplace. If it does quite well, then I'm pretty sure there'll be a third one.
Crave Online: How would you like to see the character development in the third one?
Ron Perlman: Well, I don't have an agenda. I'm completely in the hands of Guillermo, because where he takes it is going to be fine with me. He has given me a rough idea about the direction the third one will take, and I can tell you that in true trilogy fashion, it's the closing of all of the things that have been forboded in the first two films. It's the "come into Jesus" moment, and it gets very, very heavy and very dark, and very cinematic.
Crave Online: Why do you think Guillermo is the right person to do The Hobbit?
Ron Perlman: I think Guillermo's the right person to do any movie that you can think of. I think that he was born to be a filmmaker, that he occupies a class unto himself as a filmmaker. He's already made one movie in his short career which goes on the 100 Best Movies Ever Made, which is Pan's Labyrinth. I think that The Hobbit, which is an exercise in fantasy, is very, very, very, very lucky to have Guillermo del Toro at the helm.
Crave Online: Who are you going to be playing in The Hobbit? It's a given that you're going to be in it.
Ron Perlman: Well, I hope you're right. We haven't discussed it. I did say, when I found out he was going to be out of the country for four years, "I'm going to miss you, pal," and he said, "No you won't!" That's all he said.
Crave Online: But you know what's in The Hobbit, so are there any characters you might want to play?
Ron Perlman: Well, I haven't read The Hobbit since I was in sixth grade, and so that's about four and a half decades ago. If you wanted to give me a test on comparing and contrasting The Hobbit to the works of Carl Jung, I'd probably fail.
Crave Online: Are you doing any voicework?
Ron Perlman: I do voicework all the time.
Crave Online: Are you doing the new Batman cartoon?
Ron Perlman: I can't do the new Batman cartoon because they were looking for people who are here all the time, and I'm traveling too much. I do a lot of stuff with Andrea, as much as we can logistically swing. I love doing voice work.
Crave Online: What do you like about it so much?
Ron Perlman: Well, I love acting, and I love acting quick. The process of voice work is very result-oriented. You really go for the big performance like the first time out. That's my favorite way to work, is on a purely instinctive level and voice work is fun to do. You don't have to shave. You don't even have to put on pants. And you know, there's a nice little check in the mail.
Crave Online: What else are you working on?
Ron Perlman: Well, right now, I've had to put everything aside because I just started a new TV series called Sons of Anarchy, which will premiere on the FX channel about September fourth. It's about a motorcycle club not unlike the Hell's Angels, in a town called Charming, California. I'm the president of the club. It's written by the guy who was the head writer on The Shield. We have an order for 13 episodes on the air, so we're going to get a chance to spread our wings a little bit and truly begin to explore this twisted, sick world.
Crave Online: FX pushes the envelope. Is this in the vein of things like The Shield?
Ron Perlman: Yeah, it's The Shield on steroids.
Crave Online: If The Shield pushes the boundaries on violence and nip/tuck on sex, what boundaries does this show push?
Ron Perlman: Not so much sex, but definitely violence. These guys are completely ruthless. Let's put it this way: the character I'm playing in Sons of Anarchy has the least feminine side of any character I've ever played. In fact, he has no feminine side. Hellboy has a huge feminine side compared to Clay Morrow, the character that I play. He is the quintessential alpha male in terms of anything that I've ever attempted to do.
Crave Online: What is Mutant Chronicles?
Ron Perlman: Mutant Chronicles is a picture that is finished, but yet not finished because I guess there are enough problems with it. We're actually going to take it to Comic-Con and have a fan screening to sort of find out what is right and wrong with it. There's a huge amount of great work in it, particularly on the part of Simon Hunter, the director. And Thomas Jane and John Malkovich and I are incredibly proud of the picture, and we're going to do everything we can to help get it out to the marketplace.
Crave Online: Will you be at Comic-Con?
Ron Perlman: We're going to be at Comic-Con with a screening. It's either a 10 o'clock at night screening or a midnight screening. It's just coming together as we speak, on the 26th of July, Saturday night. They've got a venue and stuff.
Crave Online: How would you compare Uwe Boll and Guillermo del Toro as directors?
Ron Perlman: Well, they're both foreigners. That's where the similarity ends. Uwe Boll is kind of like a P.T. Barnum. He's a guy who makes the show possible, in a very good way. He loves movies, but he hasn't devoted his life to filmmaking as Guillermo has. Anything more I would say would be unfair to both people. You can't name those two people in the same sentence, even though you just did.
Crave Online: But having worked with Uwe Boll, what do you think of his reputation?
Ron Perlman: I'm not going to comment on Uwe. I never saw the film. Let's say that. I never saw Dungeon Siege. I hear it's got problems. I like the guy a lot. I like the guy a lot and I'm not going to say anything negative about him, ever because he's a really good-hearted guy. That's all I have to say.
Crave Online: Any chance of bringing Outlander to Comic-Con?
Ron Perlman: I don't know what's going on with Outlander. Outlander was supposed to come out last March, and I don't know why it didn't. I can't get any kind of answer as to what the status of it is.
