Interviews
[Interview] Elden Henson Talks the Most Horrifying Sequence in ‘The Hunger Games!’
With The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 hitting theaters this weekend, Bloody Disgusting had a chance to catch up with actor Elden Henson, who plays the mute Avox Pollux in the film (for the uninitiated, Avoxes are Capitol traitors who have their tongues ripped out as punishment). We discussed his role in the film, the most horrific sequence in the entire Hunger Games franchise and Marvel’s Daredevil!
Bloody Disgusting: Hi!
Elden Henson: Hi!
BD: I got to see the film last night and I really enjoyed it!
EH: Oh good!
BD: So your character Pollux, being an Avox, doesn’t have any dialogue in the film. Is it difficult for you as an actor to play a character that has no lines?
EH: I think I probably had some fears when I first got the job but those fears quickly went away when I started working and talking with Francis [Lawrence] about the character. I was such a big fan of his before we worked together and he totally surpassed my expectations. The great thing about him is that he not only has a great visual style but he’s a great storyteller which is really important. We were having dinner before we started shooting and he said something that really resonated with me and helped me get into the character. He said “Just remember that with all the terrible things Pollux has gone through he still chooses to see the beauty in the world” and that really put me in a place where I thought I could do this. To have a director that you completely trust is a real luxury as an actor, and I trust Francis. And being able to work with someone like Jen, when she’s giving those impassioned speeches it’s like I don’t even have to act. They’re actually moving. So I’m not so much acting as much as I am being present.
BD: I can imagine. There are a lot of characters/actors in the film and I imagine it can be difficult to give everyone a special moment, but Pollux is the centerpiece in, in my opinion, what is one of the most thrilling sequences in the film with the mutt attack in the sewers. How was filming that scene? I guess what I’m asking is: was it fun?
EH: [laughs] It was but it was a little bit challenging, especially for Liam because he’s so tall. You couldn’t really stand up all the way in those tunnels and there was water in all the tunnels so I just remember being wet for a couple of weeks. I was really excited about that sequence because when we were shooting Francis sometimes listens to music when we’re shooting something that doesn’t have any dialogue in it so there’s this shot of us running through the tunnels and he called me to the side to show me some playback while listening to the music he was listening to and I remember thinking “Man, this sequence is going to be awesome!” And then when I saw it in the final product I was totally blown away. I mean I was there shooting it and I was still blown away. The mutts came out great to, because on the day of shooting it was a bunch of stunt people in onesies with green dots all over them. It was hilarious but we all had to try to be scared and it was just a fun sequence to shoot.
BD: Did they have sound effects for them as you were shooting or was it just people in the onesies running around?
EH: You know the funny thing was is that everything sound-wise was so heightened because they built all these tunnels on the soundstage so sound really bounces around in there and even just when you’re walking through with all the water created so much noise that I think all of those things put us in the mindset of the situation. And I’m also pretty claustrophobic in real life so I was really ready to get out of the tunnel. That wasn’t acting!
BD: How long did that sequence take to shoot?
EH: I don’t really remember. I think it was maybe a couple of weeks. I know the main junction where the main fight happens took quite a bit of time but it’s hard to remember because we finished so long ago and it was such a long shoot because we shot both of the movies at the same time. It’s definitely my favorite sequence in the film.
BD: Yeah mine too. I don’t know if you’ve read the books but that’s the one sequence I was looking forward to the most in the series. It’s a great standout moment for your character and to fit so many characters into one movie, they definitely pulled off a standout moment for you.
EH: You know again it’s a credit to Francis. He’s so detail-oriented and I remember him pulling Wes [Chatham] and I aside and you start thinking about how we need to find these moments to connect so that when Wes does die it does feel as devastating as it does for Pollux. Francis is able to layer in a lot of things to help in the end product.
BD: Well I mean you get to do a lot more action in this as opposed to a less action-y role in Daredevil. Is there a big difference between working on something like this for a major studio and working on Daredevil for Netflix?
EH: Yes! There is a huge difference. You know Foggy talks a lot, so there were many days where I was thinking to myself “Hmmm…I wish I was back playing Pollux who’s not having to say anything and not having to get mic’d” and then you know the reverse was that playing the Foggy character it’s like “Man, I’m just so happy not to be running anymore.”
BD: That actually leads into my next question. Do you have more fun doing an action scene or do you prefer dialogue-driven scenes?
EH: It really just depends. I wish I could choose. The truth is I really love getting to do the action stuff. I rarely get to run around with a gun or look cool in black fatigues, you know what I mean? But then there is a part of me that loves getting into dialogue-driven scenes and thinking about how best to phrase something so it’s really telling the story. Dude I’ve been really lucky to play a lot of different types of roles.
BD: You’ve had a very wide variety of roles, going all the way back to The Mighty Ducks when you were younger. I think I first saw you in The Mighty when I was a kid.
EH: Oh cool!
BD: Yeah! It must be rewarding to play so many different characters, and also to have Hollywood want you for those type of roles because I imagine its easy to get typecast.
EH: Yeah honestly I feel lucky with every job that I get. This business is filled with really talented actors and I’m sure there’s a lot of guys out there who could have also brought something really special to the role I have played. I just feel lucky that I get a chance to do them. I just try to not disappoint or get fired. I just try to do justice to the scripts that are written
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2; image via Lionsgate
BD: Can you tell us anything about Season 2 of Daredevil?
EH: The truth is Jeph Loeb, who is the head of Marvel television, is holding my son hostage right now so I don’t say anything, but what I can tell you is that what Jon [Bernthal] is doing with the Punisher is really going to make people happy and we’re really stoked to have Elodie [Yung] playing Elektra. She is a really talented martial artist, and also gorgeous, so I’m really excited for people to get to see Season 2.
BD: Are you done filming the season?
EH: No, not yet.
BD: Do you have anything lined up after that?
EH: I don’t. Honestly as soon as we finish Daredevil I’m just looking to spending some time with my son because you know there’s a lot of days I go to work before he’s up and then I come home after he’s asleep so I’m just looking forward to going back to Los Angeles for Christmas and New Year’s.
BD: Well you’ve been very busy.
EH: Yeah it’s been crazy, man. You know on top of having a son it’s just that the last year or two of my life have been incredible. I’m just so grateful and happy, especially now that I have a kid, to be employed.
BD: I’m sure. So I’m going to backtrack for a second. You mentioned how you try not to get fired on your jobs, but have you ever been fired from an acting gig?
EH: I’ve never been fired from an acting job. I’ve tried to get fired–No I’m totally kidding. But I started acting so young so I know from a very young age how lucky I was, and especially to have a job that I loved. With each job I get I try my hardest to do it in a way that people will like and will also do justice to the script, but no I’ve never gotten fired.
BD: Last question: Is there a certain type of movie or genre that you haven’t done that you would like to try?
EH: I think it would be fun to play a young Ozzy Osbourne in a movie about the formation of Black Sabbath. How awesome would that be? [Henson tells his agent, who is sitting nearby, to write that down and make it happen]. But I would love to do a western!
BD: They’re making a comeback now with Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight and Kurt Russell’s new film Bone Tomahawk.
EH: Dude I can’t wait for The Hateful Eight. I cannot wait. I know people are talking about the things that Quentin said but he’s just that type of a person so I don’t think people should be surprised. In my opinion he’s one of the most talented filmmakers. I would die of happiness if I ever got a chance to work with him. I would be terrified and excited. I have so much respect for him that I would be afraid that I would let him down.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 is in theaters everywhere today!
Interviews
‘Rubberhead’ Director Nick Taylor on FX Maverick Steve Johnson, Practical Effects, and Seven-Year Journey
Horror journalist, producer, and podcast host Nick Taylor moves into the director’s seat for his feature debut with illuminating documentary Rubberhead: The Life & Monsters of Steve Johnson.
It chronicles the wild life and career of SFX maverick Steve Johnson, based on the multi-volume book series Rubberhead: Sex, Drugs and Special FX, and those familiar likely already know Rubberhead isn’t your standard horror documentary.
Johnson is responsible for so many memorable movie monsters, having worked on Fright Night, Poltergeist II, An American Werewolf in London, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master and Night of the Demons, to name a few. He’s also extremely candid in ways that feel atypical in this industry, open about his failures as much as his successes.
“It was a natural progression for sure,” Nick Taylor tells Bloody Disgusting of his transition into filmmaking ahead of Rubberhead‘s world premiere next week at the Fantasia Film Festival on July 23. “I think with my podcast, I got adept at interviewing people and pulling creative lessons out of them, which was the point of my podcast. I wanted this movie to be sort of a creativity pill for artists where if they’re starting a project or feel creatively stuck, they could watch this movie and be inspired and get actual practical creative lessons.”
Taylor’s background in PR and marketing also organically led him down this path.
He charts the course from book promo to documentary director: “But also Bloody Disgusting had a lot to do with this movie because in the very beginning when I first met Steve, I was helping him promote his book and I said, ‘Hey, I got a marketing background and a journalism background. Let me help you promote this book. I’ll just pitch stories from your life to the media, and we’ll see what happens.’ And John Squires wrote an article about Steve making Slimer under the influence of tons and tons of cocaine, and that went fairly viral.”
“For a week, it was story time with Steve,” Taylor continues. “He would tell me a story from his life, and every story was about a major movie, a major director, lots of drugs and alcohol and insanity. I would write them up, and I think John published about three or four of them. So huge shout out to John Squires because that was really great. So yeah, there were definitely a lot of outgrowths of my journalism background that definitely contributed to this movie.”
Rubberhead condenses the multi-book series into a cohesive feature film with a breezy runtime, sparking the obvious question as to how Taylor approached condensing Johnson’s life down to an under 2-hour documentary film.
“That was one of the more difficult parts of all of this, because we had enough for a series or an epically long six-hour fan documentary,” he answers. “But from day one, I did not want to make a fan documentary. I love them. They’re a lot of fun, but I did want the movie to stand on its own two feet as a character-driven portrait of an artist and a time period and a technology, that being practical effects. I did want to be objective. I didn’t want to make this too long. I wanted to make it re-watchable. So I think we just really had to focus on what the narratives were that we wanted to tell. So there were some basically almost cliché archetypical mythic narratives present in Steve’s life. We could have made this way longer, but we wanted to keep it short. But luckily that’s why you have special features.”
Johnson quickly proves to be an engaging subject thanks to his self-effacing wit and frank self-reflections; expect no shortage of stories about how drugs factored into the height of his career or the failures it wrought.
That rare quality was an asset for Rubberhead, Taylor confirms. “He does not shy away from anything about the drugs, the addiction, the bridges burned, the mistakes made, the lessons learned. He just is honest about all of it. He’s had a lot of time for reflection, and he’s done a lot of reflection, so he doesn’t shy away from any of it, which is huge because it’s very refreshing. I don’t think a lot of people are that way, at least in this industry from what I can see. So I think it was hugely beneficial. We wanted to lean into that, and we wanted to make this sort of a gonzo Hunter S. Thompson sort of wild tale through Steve’s overall life.“
Condensing his life into this doc was a slow and steady process for Taylor, too. “It’s been almost seven years. It’s been a labor of love. We’ve been as indie as it gets. We would shoot what we could when we could, and then we would edit when we could. Then after a while it all came together.”
In a way, making Rubberhead brings Taylor’s horror fandom full circle. It turns out that the very film that sparked his interest in the genre and practical effects also comes with an amusing Steve Johnson anecdote.
Taylor explains, “My gateway for sure was Beetlejuice. I saw that at a very young age; I think I was four or five. I felt somebody had shown me, my soul. I get a little emotional thinking about it. There was something about that movie that felt so strange and unusual, but also felt so familiar. It was spooky, but it was fun, and it was lighthearted, and it had humor, but it also had this macabre celebration to it that I just really got into as a kid. I felt somebody had shown me my own soul. And funny story, Steve got fired from Beetlejuice because Tim Burton gave him his hand-drawn designs and Steve’s like, ‘Oh my God, these look like kids did them. This is not what you want. I know what you want. I’m going to redesign these for you.’ And Tim Burton was like, ‘Yeah, no, you’re not.’ So yeah, funny story.”
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