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Michael Peña Talks ‘The Vatican Tapes’ and Wanting To Do More Horror!

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Vatican Tapes

Lionsgate Films’ The Vatican Tapes opened this weekend. We managed to snag an interview with actor Michael Peña, who plays Father Lozano in the film, right before he walked into a taping of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

The Vatican Tapes follows a priest (Peña) and two Vatican exorcists (Djimon Hounsou & Peter Andersson) who must do battle with an ancient satanic force to save the soul of a young woman (Olivia Taylor Dudley). Peña has been acting since 1994, but his most notable films include Crash, Million Dollar Baby, American Hustle, and most recently Marvel’s Ant-Man. Check out our interview with him below!

Q: What can you tell us about your character Father Lozano?

A: Well I grew up Catholic, so this kind of stuff scares the Hell out of me. I love horror movies, though. I love all the Saws and stuff like Paranormal Activity and all that. The Vatican Tapes is a little bit different. It’s a psychological film which I think is cool because if I watch too much of the gory stuff I get desensitized. In that aspect this film is nice. I’m portraying someone like people I knew in Chicago that were priests but they weren’t like everyday priests, you know? They didn’t act all holy and were just regular guys that just happened to be priests. And Lozano is like that. He gets involved in an exorcism. He didn’t look out for something like this, it just happened that way. So that’s my guy.

Q: Because of your beliefs, was there any hesitation to get involved with a film about demonic possession?

A: Yeah because my mom was really heavy into dark spirits and would grab a cold egg and rub it up and down our bodies to take out the evil spirits. Then she would put it in a cup of water and whisper “evil be gone” and I’m like “wow, really? An egg? An egg’s going to catch that?” But after a while, you’d pray that it worked! Ad it’s the kind of thing where we weren’t able to play the Ouija board. We were raised on that stuff, my brother and I, so I was definitely feeling superstitious when I signed on for the film.

Q: Did you do any on-site research for the role? Like visit exorcisms or anything like that?

A: No I didn’t, man. It would have ben cool but there’s not a whole lot of exorcisms on Craigslist, you know? I would have definitely gone. There were pictures of a few exorcisms online, but there’s really not much. I just had to use my imagination and work off the script.

Q: So this is your first horror movie. Could you tell us a little bit about your experiences working on a horror film.

A: I don’t think there’s anything different. You’re basically doing the same thing: reacting off of imaginary circumstances, you know? You want to be able to feel the part and with horror films you get weirded out because of the filming locations, which I think is key. You don’t feel really super comfortable shooting in a place that used to be a mental ward. Imagining the screams and the weird shit that went on is crazy. And you know horror movies do that. Especially with the props and all that. It informs your acting, but you want to put just as much energy in anything regardless of what it is, you know what I mean?

Q: Horror films tend to require a lot of grueling physical activity. Is there one particular stunt/set piece that you found to be the most difficult to shoot?

A: There was one where I’m supposed to jump out of a house. I didn’t find it difficult, I just thought it was cool. I love that kind of stuff. You know you get a little more able. Like for CHiPs I have to get in good shape. Not just to lose weight but to be able to do those functions. I love doing that because I grew up playing sports and I just really enjoy that physical part of it.

Q: There have been a massive influx of possession films to come out in the past few years. What do you think makes The Vatican Tapes stand out more than the others?

A: I don’t know. I don’t think it has to be dramatically different. The narrative and how they film it is different. There’s a little bit of a psychological thriller aspect to it which is really cool. But to me that question is like saying “there’s been a bunch of comedies out lately. What’s different about yours?” It’s just a different kind of possession movie. There’s always action movies, there’s always comedies and there’s always horror movies.

Q: Do you see yourself acting in any other horror films in your future?

A: Yeah you know what? This is a genre that I’m just now getting into and there’s always a lot to learn when you jump genres. I’ve learned a lot and I’ve had a really good time filming. I think I want to do an indie horror film that’s shot very realistically and much more dark than what you typically see, like the first Paranormal Activity. I also want to do a slasher movie with a villain like Freddy Krueger. Then I want to do another one that’s a little bit bigger like Rosemary’s Baby.

Q: So you want to cover the whole board then?

A: Yeah, like for example I just started in comedy. I’ve done my fourth one. I’ve done Ant-Man, which is a super hero thing. I did a smaller one, which is Observe and Report, and then I did Eastbound and Down which is a TV show. But to me they’re all so different. One’s a Marvel movie, one’s a plot-driven comedy, and the other is a single-camera TV show. Those are different sub-genres within the all-encompassing comedy genre and if you’re going to do one genre then you have to do all of its different sub-genres. It’s like golf: you don’t want to play just one hole. You want to play the entire golf course. I just want to stretch my acting muscles and have fun.

The Vatican Tapes opens nationwide on Friday July 24th.

A journalist for Bloody Disgusting since 2015, Trace writes film reviews and editorials, as well as co-hosts Bloody Disgusting's Horror Queers podcast, which looks at horror films through a queer lens. He has since become dedicated to amplifying queer voices in the horror community, while also injecting his own personal flair into film discourse. Trace lives in Austin, TX with his husband and their two dogs. Find him on Twitter @TracedThurman

Interviews

“I Don’t See Retiring from This” – Joe Bob Briggs Talks New “Last Drive-In” Format and the Show’s Future [Interview]

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Hey everybody, have you heard the news? Joe Bob is back in town!

The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs has returned for its sixth season on Shudder. While the show’s format has been slightly revised adopting a new biweekly schedule with one film instead of a double feature the beloved horror host’s approach is much the same.

“It didn’t really change anything,” Briggs tells Bloody Disgusting. “We were crowding all of our movies into 10 weeks once a year and then having specials, and we found that people would rather have more weeks. It’s actually more movies than we had before.

“And some of the people on the East coast fall asleep in the second movie,” he laughs. “It’s about a five-hour show when it’s a double feature because we talk so much. Also, it’s hard to get thematic double features every single time. So our specials are still double features, but our regular episodes are single features.”

The season kicked off last week with The Last Drive-In Live: A Tribute to Roger Corman, celebrating the legendary filmmaker’s first 70 years in Hollywood with a double feature of 1959’s A Bucket of Blood and 1983’s Deathstalker. The special was filmed live in front of a fervent audience of Briggs’ fan base lovingly dubbed the Mutant Family at Joe Bob’s Drive-In Jamboree in Las Vegas last October.

In addition to his usual hosting duties, Briggs conducted a career-spanning interview with Corman and his wife, fellow producer Julie Corman. They were also joined by one of Corman’s oldest friends and collaborators, Bruce Dern. In a heartfelt moment of mutual admiration, Briggs and Corman exchanged lifetime achievement awards on hubcaps.

“I’ve known Roger for about 35 years, so I’ve only known him for half of his career,” Briggs chuckles. In his long history of reviewing, interviewing, and talking about Corman and his legendary work, one emblematic encounter sticks out to Briggs.

“I remember the very first time I went to the Corman studio, which was a lumber yard on Venice Boulevard. He had a standing set for a spaceship control room, a standing set for a strip club, and I think he had one other one, and then he had all of his editing facilities there, but it was still a lumber yard. They had not really changed any of the buildings or anything.

“He’s showing me around the studio, and we were walking past a pile of debris, and I said, ‘Roger, is that the mutant from Forbidden World?’ It had just been thrown over in a corner. And he just said, ‘Yes, Joe Bob, I believe that is. He was apparently no longer needed.’ I said, ‘Roger, you gotta get with it! That stuff is worth money.’ But he was like, ‘When the movie’s over, the movie’s over.’ That was Roget to a T.”

At least part of Corman’s longevity can be attributed to his shrewd business practices and pragmatic approach to the industry, which has included working in every conceivable genre of cinema. “I couldn’t think of a single genre he has not made,” Briggs says.

“When we did this interview at the Jamboree, I said, ‘I’m gonna name the genre, and you tell me what you love about that genre,’ and every comment that he made involved money and box office performance,” he snickers. “None of it was involved with love of cinema, although I did get him to say that his favorite genre is a genre that he didn’t dabble in much other than his first movie [1954’s Highway Dragnet], and that was film noir.”

While the fourth annual Drive-In Jamboree is still in the planning stage, Briggs is delighted by the event’s continued success. “The Jamboree is something that we literally just threw together. We’ve had three of them now. It’s something where we just show up and try to come up with programming for each day.

But I really think the Jamboree is more about the mutant family meeting the mutant family. It’s more about people who know each other online gathering and partying with each other in person. It’s not so much about what movies we have. I mean, we always have an anniversary movie, and we always have some special guests and everything, but it’s more about the gathering of the mutants. It’s fun from that point of view. They’re exhausting, I can tell you that.”

The zeal among Briggs’ audience has only grown over the years, from hosting Joe Bob’s Drive-In Theater on The Movie Channel from 1986 to 1996, to MonsterVision on TNT from 1996 to 2000, and The Last-Drive-In on Shudder since 2018. “I’m amazed, having been in the business for this many years, that I still have a show at this time, because they say you can’t repeat TV,” Briggs notes.

“Nobody wants to see old TV, and yet I’ve done the same show three times on three different networks, and every time I try to change it everyone says, ‘No, no, don’t change it! That’s the part we love.’ I always want to do something new, and I’m always told, ‘No, you’re the CEO of Coca Cola who went to New Coke.’ You can’t do that. People will revolt. So we’re still doing it.

“It’s one of the few shows that I know of that’s just sort of grown organically over, gosh, almost 40 years. We’ve just added elements to the show. We try things. If something doesn’t work, we throw it away. If something works, we do it forever!”

The mutant family will be happy to know that Briggs plans to continue hosting and writing about movies for as long as he’s able to. “I don’t see retiring from this or retiring from writing. I’m primarily a writer, and the good thing about writing is long after they don’t wanna see you on TV anymore you can still write.

“The difference today, though, is I was pretty much the only guy doing genre films when I started. Now, there are academics that do it. There are entire books written about Dario Argento and Tobe Hooper and even lesser names than those, and there are, of course, a massive number of websites, including your own, so that when something comes out today, there’s immediately a hundred reviews of it; whereas in 1982, I was sort of the only guy, because the movies were considered disposable trash. So I have been surpassed in my deep knowledge, because who can keep up with all that? It’s impossible!”

Diana Prince, who serves as Briggs’ co-host Darcy the Mail Girl and was instrumental in getting him back in the hosting chair, has been promoted to an associate producer this season. “She was sort of always the associate producer, but I guess they finally gave her the title,” Briggs explains.

“Diana Prince is in on all the decisions about programming. I always listen to Austin Jennings, the director, and Diana Prince, the mail girl, because they come from opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of what kind of movies they wanna watch, and we try to strike a balance between. You know, she’s not gonna vote for Possession, and he’s not gonna vote for Mountaintop Motel Massacre,” he chortles.

“They’re probably the principal advisors, as far as what we show. Of course, [Diana] has a lot of social media clout, and she’s extremely knowledgeable about pop culture. Wow! She has seen everything. She’s seen more than I’ve seen!”

While surprises are part of the fun of The Last Drive-In, Briggs previews some of what’s in store this season. “The place we normally live is the neglected ’80 slasher, and we still live there,” he assures. “But we’re gonna pay a lot more attention to the ’70s especially. I’ve always thought the ’70s are more interesting than the ’80s anyway. And we’re gonna pay attention to some really recent stuff.”

He teases, “We’re gonna bring back Joe Bob’s Summer School, which is something that we used to do at MonsterVision. And we may have a marathon. There’s a possibility of that. But I’ll be digging this new format of being on every other week between now and at least up to Labor Day.”

While Briggs’ hosting format hasn’t changed much across four decades, the world around him certainly has and that’s why The Last Drive-In remains relevant. He points out, “In the era of streaming, where everything is menus and there are thousands and thousands and thousands of choices, we are that thing called a curator that can direct you to the fun places on the spectrum of streaming.

“Streaming is very confusing for people, and a lot of people don’t like it for that reason. I hope what we’re doing is cutting through the weeds and bringing things into perspective. And, you know, it’s just more fun to watch a movie with us!” he concludes with a Texas-sized grin.

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