At the inaugural MTV Movie Awards, the producers of the show decided to parody the Academy Awards’ Honorary Oscars by granting Jason Voorhees a “lifetime achievement” statue. The phony award, however, wasn’t handed out to any of the actors who actually portrayed Jason. In fact, the person who “accepted” the award was Jon Lovitz wearing a comically oversized hockey mask, while the bulk of his speech was dedicated to mocking the cinematic quality of the Friday the 13th franchise.
The intent was clear. MTV wanted to poke fun at the Oscars’ highfalutin, inflated sense of self-importance and I suppose giving the anchor of one of the most critically-maligned series in film history a “lifetime achievement” recognition was a pretty good way to give those stuffy Academy Awards snobs the old what-for.
But as far-fetched as the idea of Jason Voorhees winning a lifetime achievement Oscar may sound, there actually is a pretty solid argument that one of the many men who depicted him onscreen is indeed worthy of such an honor.
Now, does Kane Hodder objectively deserve an honorary Oscar simply for portraying Jason Voorhees in four motion pictures? No, but that’s why it’s called a career achievement award. While horror fans like us immediately equate Kane’s name with Friday the 13th, his overall resume in front of and behind the camera is certainly impressive enough to merit recognition from the Academy.
For starters, Hodder has had an amazingly prolific career. Over the last 40 years he’s racked up more than 100 acting jobs, and with the exception of his Friday the 13th appearances, pretty much all of them have been in independent, non-big-studio productions. Now in his 60s, the veteran actor is actually ramping up his workload; according to IMDb, he’s currently filming or preparing to film about a dozen movies.
Hodder is the anti-primadonna. He’s not some shiftless, huge-headed egomaniac who demands millions of dollars for passion projects. He’s a workhorse willing to apply his trade for just about any filmmaker out there. The Academy Awards, by and large, have forgotten that filmmaking exists outside of the big studio system. By honoring Hodder – whose expertise and name value has allowed scores of unknown filmmakers to get their indie projects off the ground and into the post-multiplex, post-Netflix movie market – the Academy could make a huge symbolic statement; that “B-movies” certainly have their place in the modern film industry (both financially and artistically) and that supporting truly independent filmmaking – where the budgets are in the thousands instead of the millions – still matters. The film industry isn’t just $100 million superhero movies or pretentious, star-studded Oscar bait, after all. It’s also straight-to-DVD and straight-to-streaming stuff like Hatchet and B.T.K.
In a way, Hodder is something of a modern-day Boris Karloff, a character actor whose greatest strength is his mere stage presence. For most of his career, he has had to perform more like Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton than Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks. Nobody’s going to look at Hodder’s performances in fare like Wishmaster, Prison, and Project: Metalbeast and think the guy’s Sir Laurence Olivier. Then again, I’d have a hard time imagining Sir Alec Guinness or Morgan Freeman being able to convincingly play a makeup covered monster who can’t express emotion through dialogue as well as Kane does, either.
But Hodder’s acting career isn’t the biggest reason he deserves recognition from the Academy.
When we think about the most important people involved in filmmaking, we usually think about producers and directors. However, the very lives of the cast and crew are entrusted to the hands of stunt performers and stunt coordinators, whose jobs is to keep actors and actresses alive. Not only is that a major responsibility, it might just be the biggest responsibility in the movie industry. Scenes can always be reshot and budgets can always be increased; lifelong injuries and tragic deaths can’t be undone.
More than 100 people have received the Academy’s Honorary Oscar. Yet of them, a grand total of just two (Hal Needham and Yakima Canutt) received recognition explicitly for their careers in stunt work. Needless to say, the Academy has really slacked off on giving stunt performers their fair share of accolades (the fact there isn’t even a category for “Best Stunt Work” at the Oscars seems to indicate just how much they value the profession.) And with so many people being injured and sometimes killed filming the latest Maze Runner, Resident Evil and The Fast and the Furious movies, isn’t it about time the Academy celebrated someone who has spent nearly half a century keeping actors and actresses safe on the set?
Not even counting his TV gigs, Hodder’s performed stunts for more than 70 movies, including big-budget Hollywood flicks like Batman Forever, Daredevil and Gone In 60 Seconds. And on top of that, he’s served as stunt coordinator for more than 30 motion pictures, including The Devil’s Rejects and Monster. His track record is immaculate, and several directors – including Adam Green and John Carl Buechler – have spoken at length about his unparalleled professionalism. With a career that’s included stunt work and stunt oversight on productions as varied as Hollywood hits like Demolition Man, Se7en, and A Night at the Roxbury and indie cult fodder a’la House, Waxwork and the Hatchet series, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone still active in the industry who has had as much diverse set experience as Hodder.
And you’re unlikely to find anyone out there as passionate about set safety. Hodder knows all too well the damage accrued by stunts gone awry. A fire stunt early in his career almost claimed his life, and today he still has severe scarring over half his body. If absolutely nothing else, his perseverance in the industry – coupled with his efforts to raise awareness for burn victims, including his charitable support of California’s Bothin Burn Center – makes him a rarity in today’s movie-making cosmos; a selfless, good-hearted movie star more than willing to help out just as much behind the camera as he is in front of it.
In an industry known for elitists and multimillionaire moguls and conceited snobs, Kane Hodder represents the inverse of the Hollywood “ideal.” He’s a hard-working family man who embodies the ethics and values of all the blue collar laborers of the film industry – the carpenters, the special effects people, the gaffers and, of course, the sadly unsung stunt performers.
While Hodder’s impact on the film industry may seem superficial at first glance, once you take a look at his resume, there’s no denying his monumental influence on the medium – not just as Jason Voorhees and Victor Crowley, but as the man entrusted to protect the lives of Hollywood A-listers and indie unknowns alike in more than 100 movies and TV shows.
For almost 50 years, Kane Hodder’s extensive work as an actor and stuntman has been all but ignored by Hollywood’s big wigs. Giving Hodder an Honorary Oscar would be a symbolic token of appreciation not only for the man himself but all of the uncelebrated stunt workers in Hollywood and the indie scene alike.
Jason already took Manhattan. And it’s long past time he took Hollywood’s most prestigious honor, too.
