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[Exclusive] Ted Raimi Talks Reprising Iconic Role for “Ash vs Evil Dead”
Someone’s back in the fruit cellar.
The Starz series “Ash vs. Evil Dead” has been pure fan service in all the best ways, essentially serving as the Evil Dead 4 that we were all 100% convinced we were never going to actually get. Season 2’s penultimate episode, which aired this past Sunday night, was in many ways a prequel to the original classic, as a drunken and inconsolable Ash Williams traveled back to the 1980s on a quest to rewrite history: if he never messed around with the Book of the Dead in the first place, well, his life and the lives of many others would’ve been a whole lot better off.
And Pablo would still be alive.
Ash headed back to the cabin in “Home Again,” and the episode was capped off with a surprising appearance from Evil Dead 2 villain Henrietta. The possessed wife of Professor Knowby, Henrietta tricked Ash into unshackling her down in the fruit cellar, leading to an epic battle that managed to take place 30 years before their first one. Or I guess Evil Dead 2 was their second battle.
Time travel is confusing!
Believe it or not, Ted Raimi was once again the man who brought Henrietta to life in “Ash vs. Evil Dead,” just as he did in Evil Dead 2, and we caught up with Raimi for an exclusive chat about the unexpected role reprisal. As it turns out, it was as unexpected for him as it was for us.
“I thought I’d left that behind me 30 years ago,” Raimi explained. “You know, like a girl you might have dated decades earlier. She was fun, sweet and sassy but you lost her number in 1999. Then she calls you and asks for a date and you say, ‘Well, why not?’ In this case, it was the Henrietta that got away.”
“It was like some kind of an acid trip flashback,” he continued. “No Fallujah to recall, thank goodness, with me shaking in my dark closet gripping an M4 rifle, but powerful. The set was exactly the same and Bruce and I were dressed the same – gave me chills. At one point during shooting in the cabin for episodes 209 and 210, Bruce turned to me and said: ‘Well Ted, we’ve come a long way in 30 years!‘”
Talk about careers coming full circle, huh?
Ted Raimi’s struggles with the massive Henrietta costume on the set of Evil Dead 2 have been well documented – he’s gone on record as stating that it was the most grueling experience of his entire career – so we naturally had to ask him if things were a little easier this time around.
“Well, SORT of!” Raimi replied. “The special effects team in Auckland, New Zealand that created Henrietta’s suit and make up is really a first rate, top notch, super-talented group. They kick some special effects ass down there. They did make it easier to wear but now that I’m older it balances out: Easier EFX make up but harder to be in a burning hot suit! It was hell to wear. But doing the fight scenes again with Bruce Campbell was well worth it. Also, Rob Tapert, our executive producer, was incredibly encouraging and enthusiastic about me doing it. I think under normal circumstances, a producer wouldn’t give a shit WHO was under that make up. But Rob is an actor’s producer – he loves watching actors do their stuff – he wanted an performer and not a double so I was very happy to oblige him.”
Raimi went on to explain that the process of getting into the costume was much the same as it was back in the 1980s.
“Essentially, there is no difference,” he told us. “It was three or four hours in the chair every day while the effects team glued that stuff on me and slipped me in the fat suit. Hell on earth but I loved every minute of it. Digital effects have progressed ten thousand years worth since we shot ED 2 but practicals are still JUST the same: Blood pumps, rubber latex, glue, the works.”
“I’m a very lucky character actor,” Raimi added. “That monster, Henrietta, is in the famous monsters hall of fame now. She made an impression. It’s a great honor. It still really resonates with fans for some reason. It’s a thrill.”
Catch the “Ash vs. Evil Dead” Season 2 finale this Sunday night, December 11th!
Only one episode remains in Season 3 of “Chucky,” and what a bloody road it’s been so far, especially for actor Devon Sawa. The actor has now officially died twice on screen this season, pulling double duty as President James Collins and body double Randall Jenkins.
If you thought Chucky’s ruthless eye-gouging of the President was bloody, this week’s Episode 7 traps Randall Jenkins in an elevator that feels straight out of an iconic horror classic.
Bloody Disgusting spoke with series creator Don Mancini and actor Devon Sawa about that ultra-bloody death sequence and how the actor inspires Mancini’s writing on the series.
Mancini explains, “Devon’s a bit of a muse. Idle Hands and Final Destination is where my Devon Sawa fandom started, like a lot of people; although yours may have started with Casper. I was a bit too old for that. But it’s really just about how I love writing for actors that I respect and then know. So, it’s like having worked with Devon for three years now, I’m just always thinking, ‘Oh, what would be a fun thing to throw his way that would be unexpected and different that he hasn’t done?’ That’s really what motivates me.”
For Sawa, “Chucky“ is an actor’s dream in that the series gives him not one but multiple roles to sink his teeth into, often within the same season. But the actor is also a huge horror fan, and Season 3: Part 2 gives him the opportunity to pay homage to a classic: Kubrick’s The Shining.
CHUCKY — “There Will Be Blood” Episode 307 — Pictured in this screengrab: (l-r) Devon Sawa as President James Collins, K.C. Collins as Coop — (Photo by: SYFY)
“Collectively, it’s just amazing to put on the different outfits, to do the hair differently, to get different types of dialogue,“ Sawa says of working on the series. “The elevator scene, it’s like being a kid again. I was up to my eyeballs in blood, and it felt very Kubrick. Everybody there was having such a good time, and we were all doing this cool horror stuff, and it felt amazing. It really was a good day.”
Sawa elaborates on being submerged in so much blood, “It was uncomfortable, cold, and sticky, and it got in my ears and my nose. But it was well worth it. I didn’t complain once. I was like, ‘This is why I do what I do, to do scenes like this,‘ the scenes that I grew up watching on VHS cassette, and now we’re doing it in HD, and it’s all so cool.“
It’s always the characters and the actors behind them that matter most to Mancini, even when he delights in coming up with inventive kills and incorporating horror references. And he’s killed Devon Sawa’s characters often. Could future seasons top the record of on-screen Sawa deaths?
“Well, I guess we did it twice in season one and once in season two,“ Mancini counts. “So yeah, I guess I would have to up the ante next season. I’ll really be juggling a lot of falls. But I think it’s hopefully as much about quality as quantity. I want to give him a good role that he’s going to enjoy sinking his teeth into as an actor. It’s not just about the deaths.”
Sawa adds, “Don’s never really talked about how many times could we kill you. He’s always talking about, ‘How can I make this death better,’ and that’s what I think excites him is how he can top each death. The electricity, to me blowing up to, obviously in this season, the eyes and with the elevator, which was my favorite one to shoot. So if it goes on, we’ll see if he could top the deaths.”
CHUCKY — “Death Becomes Her” Episode 305 — Pictured in this screengrab: Devon Sawa as James Collins — (Photo by: SYFY)
The actor has played a handful of distinctly different characters since the series launch, each one meeting a grisly end thanks to Chucky. And Season 3 gave Sawa his favorite characters yet.
“I would say the second one was a lot of fun to shoot,“ the actor says of Randall Jenkins. “The President was great. I liked playing the President. He was the most grounded, I hope, of all the characters. I did like playing him a lot.” Mancini adds, “He’s grounded, but he’s also really traumatized, and I thought you did that really well, too.”
The series creator also reveals a surprise correlation between President James Collins’ character arc and a ’90s horror favorite.
“I saw Devon’s role as the president in Season 3; he’s very Kennedy-esque,“ Mancini explains. “But then given the supernatural plot turns that happen, to me, the analogy is Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, the character that is seeing these weird little things happening around the house that is starting to screw with his sanity and he starts to insist, ‘I’m seeing a ghost,‘ and his spouse thinks he’s nuts. So I always like that. That’s Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, which is a movie I love.”
The finale of “Chucky” Season 3: Part 2 airs Wednesday, May 1 on USA & SYFY.
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