Directed by Martyn Pick and written by Airell Anthony Hayles, Heckle stars Guy Combes as Joe and Steve Guttenberg as foul-mouthed Nineties comedian Ray Kelly, alongside Dani Dyer and Toyah Wilcox.

We sat down with Guttenberg to speak about fame, comedians and what it’s like playing the bad guy…

How did you get involved with Heckle?

I got a call from [Airell] Anthony Hayles and the guys and they proposed this film and I thought it would be really interesting. That’s why I wanted to do it. I thought the character was so outlandish and such a dark guy that I thought it would be really interesting to act. That’s what I’m always looking for, something that’s interesting that’s watchable… so hopefully then the audience wants to watch it!

What do you look for when choosing a role?

First, it’s the script, second, it’s the location and third it’s the money. Haha!

I look for something that’s gonna make you say ‘oh I want to do this!’. Doing it is a lot of work – you put your time and effort into something and you want it to be seen and you want it to land. Acting is a very strange profession. There are all kinds of acting. There’s acting on the stage, there’s acting on film and then there are all kinds of other acting, which is reality shows and things like that. What’s happened to the cinema is that a lot of it has become unimportant, you know, just sort of content-filling stations. So you have to adjust to that as an actor.

Sometimes you’re going to do something that is a really interesting part, but nobody’s going to see it, which might happen to Heckle. Or you do some television show that millions of people are going to see, but is kind of meaningless. It won’t ever be remembered and nobody in ten years is going to say: “Oh, you know, let’s have a whole evening of, I don’t know, Gilligan’s Island from 40 years ago” (I don’t want to say the name of a show now!). Nobody’s going to say that. But they might say, for me: “Hey let’s watch Three Men And A Baby” ten years from now or: “Let’s watch Police Academy or The Bedroom Window” (which I thought was a really good movie).

So I look for different things and I want to work. I enjoy working, it’s exciting to me. I think it’s different now. You also have a personal life, if you’re lucky, that is quite separate from your career. I really try to remember that. I think it was a talk show host who said that the other day and I thought it was really right. James Corden – who’s not just a talk show host, of course, he’s a brilliant actor and singer and musician – but he did say that in an interview, and that landed on me.

It’s really important to remember that you are not your career. You are separate. You start defining your success as a person through your success as an actor. Does Steven Spielberg want to hire me? Yes? Oh, I’m great. No? Oh, I’m terrible. Did the movie make money? Yes? Oh I’m a big success. No? I’m a failure. That’s really what I think many actors wrestle with.

I saw this interview or something with an actor who I’ve worked with and he said ‘I work really hard at being famous because that’s what it’s about today’. Do you have a lot of Twitter followers or Instagram followers? A lot of people work really hard at being famous and that feeds their family. There are great actors who are not famous but are brilliant. They’re everywhere, everywhere in the world. They’re not famous but they’re great.

The industry is starting to look very different with so many ways people can access movies…

There [used to be] fewer choices. You had maybe five television channels and you had very few theaters, so you would have maybe two new movies coming out a week? Or maybe one, and you’d go see that movie. But now there are 20 movies coming out and there are a thousand movies trying to get released. It’s all about a certain amount of success and do you have a hit movie or do you have a hit television show? But you know, I’m not complaining because the business has been better than terrific to me and my family, and my friends! I think Hunter S Thompson said a great quote, he said: “Show business is a dark long plastic hallway where pimps and thieves go free and good men die like dogs… and there’s also a negative part!”

Your character, Ray Kelly, is horrible! How did you get to grips with that role?

What I found about Ray Kelly was that, first of all, he’s the name of a former police chief of New York City and I know him –  obviously, he’s the exact opposite of this Ray Kelly, but it sort of gave me something personal to connect with.

He doesn’t think he’s a dark character. He thinks he’s actually pretty righteous in what he feels and what he’s doing. He loves himself and he thinks everybody else is wrong and everybody else is annoying and everybody else wants something from him. So he’s actually the good guy in his mind in this movie. He’s a giver. He’s generous and he’s kind, and he thinks that’s how he is.

So I watched a bunch of comics that I have admired and been fascinated by. Especially guys from New York; the more ‘angry guys’. I found that they still want to be funny, but there’s a bitterness that comes out, that maybe started when they were young, but they can’t help it. It bubbles to the surface.

So I tried to play that and play against being angry, but he couldn’t help but be angry. I thought the wig was, to me, him covering up who he really is, and he actually thinks that wig looks great. Which it doesn’t [haha] but it’s sort of his trademark. Sort of an old style, Vegas comedian, you know – wears a velvet tuxedo and he tries to hearken back to a different time.

I actually really enjoyed it because I got to improvise a lot. Martin Pick, our director, gave me a lot of room to play and that was fun. I was on a real stage in a real theater and it was terrific. I love working in the UK. There is some sort of freedom that comes over as an American actor. Probably what comes over to an English actor or a global actor who comes to the United States. There’s a freedom, you know, you’re not home, you can really be someone else. There’s something great about being overseas.

Did you look at any particular comedians for inspiration?

Yeah, I looked at Andrew Dice Clay, he was really interesting. I looked at some of the older guys, Don Rickles and Shecky Greene and Norm Crosby.

There were some unknown fellows that I would just watch their YouTubes of them ranting and raving in these small clubs too. There’s also a guy named John Mulaney, he’s not a dark guy, but I really really love his comedy. I also looked at a lot of Woody Allen’s stuff, which is not dark but really funny and I watched a lot of Lenny Bruce. His stuff was really good, really interesting and funny.

What would you say audiences will get from Heckle?

Ah well… if you like suspense and blood together (which is actually a pretty good combination) you’ll enjoy the film! I’m saying that with half a joke because there is blood, but it’s also a psychological story and I think that will keep you attuned to it as well. I just think that filmmakers just did a grand job, I really do.

Heckle’s release date is TBC. Keep up to date with Evolutionary films.

The post Heckle: Interview with Steve Guttenberg appeared first on Sci-Fi Tips.

Directed by Martyn Pick and written by Airell Anthony Hayles, Heckle stars Guy Combes as Joe and Steve Guttenberg as foul-mouthed Nineties comedian Ray Kelly, alongside Dani Dyer and Toyah Wilcox. We spoke to Airell about the Eighties, horror and stand-up shows…

Where did the idea come from for Heckle?

It was the confrontation you get in stand up comedy. I was going a lot to The Comedy Store in London, and when hecklers take on comedians it feels gladiatorial. Knowing people like Frankie Boyle who are so extreme or even Jimmy Carr – how they would take on hecklers. Looking at that really pure form of conflict and just imagining if it went too far… if it went wrong. I love films like The Fan, Play Misty For Me; all those stalker films where someone’s coming at you and they’re not going to stop. It was imagining that in the world of stand up comedy.

There’s a bit of a juxtaposition of the ‘funny’ comedy world and the ‘scary’ horror world…

A little but I also think it’s fertile ground. I think the world of comedy and the sleazy London clubs and the end-of-pier clubs and the higher end theatre venues… it’s got all that theatre and human contact. It felt like a good environment. The comedy side of it is very dark anyway. The ‘tragic clown’. When heckles go bad. It is the beginnings of something quite nightmarish.

Do you enjoy going to stand-up shows?

It’s great… it’s so brave. The performer is just there; it’s all on them. When you go to The Comedy Store, the audience has had a drink and they’re literally baying for blood. I guess in our film we imagined putting the blood in. Heckle as a title was always quite confrontational as well. There’s a lot of fun to be had there. I miss stand up. I guess there are outdoor events but it’s a really vital place. There’s a freedom of expression there.

Did you look to any comedians for inspiration for the characters?

There’s some Russell Brand [in the character of Joe Johnson] – that kind of peacocking. In his heyday, Russell Brand would take to that stage and just completely own it. It was amazing. Also Noel Fielding from The Mighty Boosh.

Old school comedians as well – really crazy people like Andrew Dice Clay. I double dare you to watch an hour of his 1987 show. It’s wild – look at the engagement from the crowd. It’s really on-the-edge stuff.

With Ray Kelly, it was more the end-of-the-pier comedians, the Bernard Mannings, the Jim Davidsons. The people who are definitely going to upset you!

Steve Guttenberg plays a really horrible character, which feels like a very different role for him…

It does! [But] I think we love seeing Steve Gutenberg going to the dark side. I grew up watching Cocoon, Three Men And A Baby, Police Academy and Short Circuit… and he was always so lovely. He was just a nice guy. So when Heckle began to happen with him, what was so exciting was just flipping the coin and seeing that guy do that so well! So horrific, so dark…

He does say some pretty horrific things…

He came up with some of that stuff. Steve was set loose with those lines. A lot of good stuff was there in the text [but] when we set him loose he just went for this Dante’s Inferno! He just went right in and we were all just in our heads thinking ‘Short Circuit’s Steve Gutenberg is swearing and being really nasty and this is really great’! So yeah he just did his thing. He got his claws right in there and went even further which is great.

Was the Eighties party element of the film a callback to Eighties slasher movies?

Yeah definitely! I love Eighties movies. That’s why Heckle has that Eighties themed party. I never really moved past 1985 [haha]! I just love that era and when you look at this universe we’re living in now, it really does feel a little bit grey. It might be nostalgia, of course, but just going to video shops… it was more fun. Now is also great fun [but] I miss VHS… the artwork on the covers and all that stuff.

We had a lot of fun with neon colours [for the film]. Martyn Pick, the director, just had that visual style with it that brought all that magic and you really do feel like you’re back there. Dani Dyer, the winner of Love Island before she went into Love Island, did this film and she was just so great, so fun as that character of Lucy, and Toya Wilcox is in the film… it really does feel like a party!

We wanted the whole [film] to be a party that then goes pretty bloody crazy –  we wanted the train in Heckle to come off the tracks quite dramatically. And I think that it does!

What is it about horror that appeals?

Horror is the best genre! It’s the best ride at the theme park. It’s the most honest genre. There are so many parts of it. I love supernatural horror films and I love films like this; the more psychological horror dramas with the blood and everything else.

I mean they don’t have festivals for romantic comedies (thank God!). I just think that with other genres it’s like a nice can of coke but if you want a whiskey and coke, then you’re going to see a horror film because you’re actually going to get the right thing delivered to you.

They are strong, primal, they wake you up. They say that about The Exorcist – while you watch that movie you know you’re alive. They just don’t mess around; you’re locked in for an hour and a half. And they don’t go on too long like other genres do.

It’s also the visuals and the fact you can go into nightmares. If movies are dreams on the screen [then] horror is a nightmare on the screen and that’s just more fun.

The dark side is just infinitely fascinating. It’s not like the dark side and light side. We are both all the time. That conflict is really interesting and I think we like that whenever we see that – Steve Gutenberg went bad in this film and we’ve seen other characters who were really nice get cast like Robin Williams in One Hour Photo. It’s just really fascinating to see.

What’s it like being part of digital FrightFest this year?

Frightfest is always the best. Of course, when it’s live there’s that party spirit and we’re really missing that. But it’s still great to have all the films and have Heckle be a part of it.

What’s next for you?

We’ve got a Christmas horror called Frostbite which is about Santa Claus turning into a werewolf on Christmas Eve and they try and rescue Santa and bring him back while getting rid of the wolf side of that. That’s a lot of fun. Emily Booth and Mark Arnold from Teen Wolf (one of my favourite Eighties movies) [are in it].

Then we’ve got Advent which is about a cursed advent calendar. It’s a supernatural horror film that we really want to scare people and creep people out with. We’re going to shoot that really soon. I like these Christmas set horror films! Things like Silent Night, Deadly Night, Christmas Evil… when you combine those elements it’s a lot of fun!

Heckle is playing as part of FrightFest 2020. Get your tickets here.

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