Terrifier 3: An Interview with David Howard Thornton

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Speaker 2 There's no place to escape to. This is the last time.

Speaker 2 On the left.

Speaker 4 That's when the cannibalism started.

Speaker 4 What was that?

Speaker 2 Eddie, I'm scared today. Why are you scared? Because I'm afraid that we won't live up to the potential of the moment.
I know. You know? I agree with that.
Like, you remember when Tiger

Speaker 2 Woods,

Speaker 2 he got in that car accident? Well, it was late. He, I know.
Yeah, I think he was inebriated, but I don't know for sure.

Speaker 2 He was focusing on his recoup. Yes.
Which is what distracted him from driving. That's what I'm afraid of.
You were driving like a maniac this morning. I was in a, I'm in a cutting phase.

Speaker 2 So I'm actually, the problem is that the creatine makes me aggressive. But today we have something extremely special for you.
Happy Halloween.

Speaker 2 It's a very special, unique. We've never done this before.
It's just a one-off interview with an actor that fascinates. Someone that brings something extra to

Speaker 2 the table, as it were. And we're excited to have this person.
We recently,

Speaker 2 we're not being paid

Speaker 2 to push this. Oh, he's gone.
And we lost him. Well, oh, he got to see him.
Oh,

Speaker 2 all right. Well, that's fine.
We'll keep going. That's fine.
That's fine. Oh, man.
I love just how it's spooky even talking to you over Zoom.

Speaker 2 We can't even really, just to even bring the audience in, we had a little bit of a technical kerfluffle, but it's still frightening because we're watching.

Speaker 2 It's like, it seems like, I don't know why, I don't know what it is about your energy that

Speaker 2 the tubes are afraid of. But we have

Speaker 2 one of our new horror icons. Yes.
We're very excited to have the actor who portrays Art the Clown. Nay is Art the Clown, David Howard Thornton.
Thank you for being here.

Speaker 4 Oh, thank you. I'm glad I'm actually able to be seen now.

Speaker 2 Yeah, we could see you. You look good.

Speaker 2 We've been talking and singing the praises about the terrifier films the last couple of days.

Speaker 2 surprise it's like i feel like the entire country is sort of surprised at how much they've allowed themselves to like the films it's a bit crazy yeah because like when you look at it you're like this is for nobody right like you know like if i showed this to my mother she would puke and die well hey that's what it's for

Speaker 2 like how did you like

Speaker 2 how did it all begin like we if those of you that don't know the art the clown character it did start in All Hallows Eve, correct?

Speaker 2 So that was an anthology film that was like, so, and but he was way more, it was kind of more of like a sketch almost in a way.

Speaker 4 Yeah, that was that's what that was.

Speaker 4 Those were basically almost like proof of concept movies at the time because you know, Damien was just doing that, just you know, having fun with his friends, making movies. And

Speaker 2 that was the only big shop, and that wasn't you, that's not you, that's some other guy.

Speaker 4 That was Mike Gianneli, yeah.

Speaker 2 Now, is he angry?

Speaker 4 Not that I know of. I mean, we met last year finally, got to do some cons together and everything like that.
So he seems to be happy. He's a dad now.
So he's got two little ones. So

Speaker 4 he's got his hands full. So I think he's, you know, well distracted.

Speaker 2 That's actually, do you think him being Art the Clown was actually making him infertile?

Speaker 2 Oh, no.

Speaker 4 That's not the case with me.

Speaker 2 Now, I, so did you audition to be in Terrifier?

Speaker 4 I did, yes, yes. They put a notice up on actors access when I was living in New York, and I just went in and did that.
My, my agent even fought me on it.

Speaker 4 She, she saw no value in it because she's like, oh, it's an independent, low-budget horror film. It'll never get you anywhere.

Speaker 4 And I was like, well, I wanted experience doing work on film because I had always just done stage work and voiceover work.

Speaker 4 And I kept on at, you know, know just bugging her and bugging her and bugging her to submit me and then i i'm no longer with that agent yeah man see they're always wrong

Speaker 2 they're always every story is like this they're all like they always said the simpsons would never work you know like they never did all that though so when you before you an issue because it's like it says here that you were also in a you were in the grinch musical I was, yes.

Speaker 4 I understudied the Grinch, who was Stefan Carl. He was Robbie Rotten from Lazy Town.
And I also played Grandpa Who.

Speaker 2 Oh, wow. It was that with the full face, but was that also like, have you always been doing prosthetics?

Speaker 4 Yeah, pretty much. Ever since I was like a teenager doing children's theater, I was doing prosthetic work and like crazy makeup and stuff like that.
So I'm pretty used to it.

Speaker 4 They actually asked me that when I was auditioning for Terrifier, if I was used to prosthetics or a lot of makeup, I'm like, oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 Are you trained as a clown?

Speaker 4 No, no, I didn't even go to school for acting. I just, my, my classroom was always the stage and just watching like better actors and just learning from them and adapting.

Speaker 2 Amen. Now,

Speaker 2 so you get into the terrifier films. Like, I

Speaker 2 personally, I feel like some people call them,

Speaker 2 the first one is probably the closest to a straight up torture porn versus any of the rest of them.

Speaker 2 Now, like, when you are preparing for something like this, like in terms of the amount of like what the grisly stuff that you have to do like i i know that like on a set it's not that emotional because everybody's having a blast everybody's laughing and having a good time so like what do you do to prepare to essentially do wanton violence

Speaker 4 Nothing.

Speaker 4 I don't know what that says about me. I just go in there and just do my thing.

Speaker 4 I mean, they have given me some like instruction on set, you know, how to do certain things with certain weapons and stuff like that so you know like on on part three i got on the set training on the proper way to actually swing an axe at uh

Speaker 2 an object i guess you could say yes well you because you could tell you really and this is not you progress in the fleshing out of the character of art the clown so successfully through two and three

Speaker 2 which is like i actually thought it was it was very interesting you can kind of see you get more comfortable as you go like is it because of damien Leone or like on yourself?

Speaker 2 Like, do you feel like when you are that style of character? I played a, I was, I did a full thing on Adult Swim where I was fully body painted for many years. And on some level,

Speaker 2 when you're in that amount of makeup, sometimes I feel that a director, as much as I love Dave Willis, he's like a friend of mine. You know what I mean? Like, we're close.

Speaker 2 At one point, I was like, am I a prop? Like, am I just, am I like literally a piece of costuming or is there a man in here? Like, the

Speaker 2 God. Yes.

Speaker 4 I've had directors like that before, especially in my stage days.

Speaker 4 There's this one director who would micro-direct everything I would do on stage down to like, okay, I want you to turn your head at this angle on this line. I'm like, oh my God, is any of this mine?

Speaker 4 It's like, or am I just a puppet here for you? But I mean, Damien is completely opposite. He's very actor-friendly director.
He's willing to hear ideas.

Speaker 4 And like, I would say more, he directs me more on like the killing and the horror aspects everything when it comes to like more the comedic bits he'll give me some ideas sometimes but most of the time he's just like just go play we'll see what we come up with it's like the the entire like um bar scene he basically let like howard brad stryker and danny roebuck and i just play for like two or three days on set and that was that was just fun It was crazy because in Terrifier 3, it's like each scene is a different genre of horror movie.

Speaker 2 And that one was

Speaker 2 like a fun, like, kind of like campy scene. But then the next scene, it's just

Speaker 2 terrifying. Yeah, it's great.
That's the best part about the movie.

Speaker 2 And it really blew my mind, man. Now, one of the things I love about Ark the Clown over like, you know, say like Jason Voorhees or something is that no weapon is off limits to art.

Speaker 2 We love that he shoots people. Yeah, yeah, I think.
That's like one of our favorite bits is that he also, uses a gun. He uses the fact that, again, spoilers across the board.

Speaker 2 But that's in the first one. Yes, but in Terrifier 3,

Speaker 2 Terrifier 3, the bombing is like, when that happens,

Speaker 2 I think I was the only person in the theater that was like, awesome. I was like, yeah, yeah, good work.

Speaker 4 We saw the kids. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Fuck them kids.

Speaker 2 But is there any weapon that would be off limits for art?

Speaker 4 Or is that a, would you know like if i asked you about the lorel the lore of art would uh you know is that even like something that you have control over or no i i think everything's totally within bounds for him to use as a weapon he he he likes to play he likes toys so it's like yeah it's like i i i love that idea with the bomb too that was like that was a brilliant idea that damien had and he actually you actually see me um the bomb being assembled during that one little bit there and you do people don't see that and i'm like oh, yeah, it was like

Speaker 2 there was like a thing, there's that, that little moment where it's like, oh shit, where's that bomb going to go? Like, that was like the first thought I have.

Speaker 2 And I think that what you guys do good, which is like, it's a, I know that technically it's like a film trick, but I love the little pieces in the beginning, the seeds, and then you're going to see each one of these pop off.

Speaker 2 Like each, the beginning is so good in a terrifier movie because it's setting the tone of this person's going to be dead and that person's going to be dead and that person's going to be dead.

Speaker 2 You love all this. You love all these people.
They're all dead. And that's my favorite.

Speaker 4 Oh, yeah. Damien's great at that.
He is so good at like, you know, planning everything out and just dropping little hints and everything there.

Speaker 4 I mean, he's been doing that from the get-go with the first film. He's been dropping little seeds and stuff like that that people still are starting now to pick up on.

Speaker 4 That's why I get so irritated when people are like, oh, there's no plot to these movies. Like, oh, no, there most certainly is a plot.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah. They're very much.

Speaker 4 Most certainly.

Speaker 4 There was a that some um i think tick tocker or something like that recently posted a video going over the plot of two and three especially and all these things i was like wow this guy totally gets it he totally understands what we're doing even damien commented on him and said the dude you you've you nailed it my first thought when i saw two and three was like that's elm street three and four Yep.

Speaker 2 And then we're careening into, you're going to go straight into the lore. Like in four, Terrifier four, when it does, does, it probably will happen.
Is that it's going to go deep into the lore?

Speaker 2 We're now going to go into Art the Clown's full world, which excites me a great deal.

Speaker 4 Oh, yeah, it excites me too.

Speaker 4 I mean, I know a few things that you know he's got planned for part four or part five or whatever he's going because he's still trying to, I think, decide if it's going to be four movies or five movies because he's got so many ideas.

Speaker 4 I'm thinking he's probably going to have five movies at least.

Speaker 2 Should be. Well, this is my question, though.
Is that do you get afraid of yourself? Like, it's hard as an actor.

Speaker 2 I feel like

Speaker 2 as a person, you're like, I'll come back for nine of these, right? Like, I can do Art the Clown forever.

Speaker 2 But you ever feel like that you maybe yourself could end up jumping the shark with Art the Clown if you go too far?

Speaker 2 Like, is it a thing that, like, if he's doing eight, nine, ten, and you're going to be like, maybe you could get, maybe it should be a lady.

Speaker 2 Maybe it should be like, you know, somebody, some other version of the clown. Like, well, there was a lady.
Yes, who's great. She's got to come back, right?

Speaker 2 Who knows? I have no idea.

Speaker 4 He's keeping so many things close to his vest right now. So I'm just like, he, he likes to surprise us as well.
So he doesn't tell us things until we read the script and we're like, oh, shit.

Speaker 4 Are you kidding me? So I have no idea. But to answer the question,

Speaker 4 yeah, I totally get afraid of that. I'm totally afraid of going too campy with things.
And because I don't want him just to be just, you know.

Speaker 4 you know, how Freddy became later on after Wes Craven lost control of the character.

Speaker 2 We literally were talking about this right before you came on. Yeah, it's the touch.

Speaker 2 The key is the touch. I've always loved, again, Freddy Krueger is probably my favorite icon because

Speaker 2 he's funny,

Speaker 2 but you know that the movies aren't as good. It's like this double-edged sword where you know the movie is not as good.
You know that the later Elm Streets are not as good.

Speaker 2 But I'm like, just put Robert Engel into my veins. It doesn't even really matter.
Yep.

Speaker 4 But that's, and that's definitely something we've been very conscientious of since the very first Terrifier film.

Speaker 4 We were always trying to walk that line of going too campy with the comedy in this and we we do film some scenes where i do a lot more comedic takes on it and then we're like okay that's just too far but like we have it there just in case because you never know you might find something from it you can use and but yeah that's we got i'm like i i look at like the the torture scene in the first film where i've got um terror tied up to the chair i did a whole bunch of takes with different um weapons coming out and i was doing comedic routines with them.

Speaker 4 There was like this one thing that I had at a club with a big huge spike on it. And I did the whole like, you know, fake golfing bit from like Johnny Carson or something.

Speaker 2 But he is a clown. He's supposed to.
This is his act. You know, he is, they is an, there's an audience of one and it's all you're a clown.
Yeah, he is the, he is obviously having a very good time.

Speaker 4 Exactly. And that's, that's the thing.
We, we have to still acknowledge that he is a clown, so he is having fun, but we don't want to go too cartoonish campy with it all.

Speaker 4 We don't want to totally jump back kind of shark. We still need to keep it in that realm of believability and horror as well.

Speaker 2 Can I also ask, becoming now

Speaker 2 getting this much attention as a scary person? Like, do you think that you're...

Speaker 2 Like your, the people that follow you, your fans, do you think that that quality has also changed? Because it's like, do you find that there are people

Speaker 2 that like when you're in a

Speaker 2 darker aspect of entertainment, that there are people that sort of maybe connect with the wrong thing a little bit about what it is that you're doing and you have to deal with like

Speaker 2 scary people?

Speaker 4 Yeah, there might be a few of those people out there and stuff like that, but it's few and far between.

Speaker 4 I've found like horror fans in general are by the vast majority are just the coolest, sweetest, kindest people to ever meet.

Speaker 4 It's actually, I think, some of the other people that kind of scare me more.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah, like comedy fans? Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Are there any clowns that you would like study to get mannerisms or is this all just like you?

Speaker 4 Oh, yeah, definitely so. I mean, I grew up watching a lot of the great silent comedians and clowns.

Speaker 4 I mean, I was watching like, you know, Marks Brothers and Charlie Chaplin and even like Emma Kelly Jr. and Emma Kelly.
and

Speaker 4 gosh, Mr. Bean was a huge influence on me as well.

Speaker 4 Marcel Marceau, Peter Sellers, you know, Don Knotts. I can just go on and on, list all these Jim Carrey,

Speaker 4 just on and on and on. Actually, Stefan, who I understood for Grinch, he was professionally trained in clowning and mime work.
So I took a lot of what I learned from Stefan and put it into art.

Speaker 4 You can actually watch videos of Robbie Rotten and compare them to Art the Clown, and you'll see probably a lot of similarities with mannerisms.

Speaker 2 That's really interesting. Now, is there any music that like you would listen to to kind of like get in the mood?

Speaker 2 You know, just like, do you like play circus music or something before you get out there?

Speaker 4 No, not really.

Speaker 4 I mean, not for myself, but like I, a lot of the times in the chair when Damien, especially in parts one and two, when Damien was doing my makeup, he was listening to a lot of yacht rock.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 4 that's what I think is so funny. People probably think Damien's like this hardcore badass listening to heavy metal all the time.
No, man, he grooves to yacht rock.

Speaker 2 He loves yacht rock and 80s music.

Speaker 4 We will drive, like when we're going to set something, like two hour, three hour drive sometimes upstate, we would just be sitting there listening to like yacht rock and 80s music the whole entire time, just grooving out.

Speaker 4 That's just how we are. But like for myself, though, I will sometimes just.

Speaker 4 for shits and giggles put on something like i i sometimes would like to put on like the uh the song danny elfman song from uh the first batman movie with the the jokers like um waltz to the death oh yeah i think that's just always that always just puts me that little wacky little mischievous evil clown type of mode so sometimes i will just think that in my head if i have to go a little bit a little bit nuts i guess you could say yeah

Speaker 2 do you feel like now that the movie got like terrifier 3 probably got the biggest like budget the most legit budget. How is it going from

Speaker 2 being driven by the director to set who would do the makeup and then you'd shoot obviously probably like five how much

Speaker 2 the most shoestring crew possible to like an actual like movie set? Like how like is there anything you miss or is there anything what's better?

Speaker 4 Oh, we still had a lot of the old school feel to it all because we weren't a full on like traditional movie set where we didn't have the honey wagons or anything like that.

Speaker 4 So it wasn't a big huge leap, leap, but it was, we did have, you know, a makeup team that came in this time.

Speaker 4 And so that was definitely a nice thing to have there because it allowed Damien more freedom too, because he wasn't having to stop my makeup and go on the set and do stuff and come back and do my makeup more.

Speaker 4 So that was nicer in that way. But yeah, we're still not like what you traditionally see here in Hollywood on a set.
So we still had that, that. you know, independent feel to a lot of things.

Speaker 2 Because they changed the makeup too, right? Didn't they do a thing? Because it used to be sort of disparate, different, separate pieces, and then they just made it a whole mask for you, essentially.

Speaker 4 No, it was always one whole mask, but the original mask wasn't even molded to my face. It was Mike Giannelli's original mold.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 4 And so it didn't fully fit my face. Damien always had to manipulate it so it would fit my face.

Speaker 4 But this time, Christian Tinsley, who his team that did our makeup for this one on part three, they actually did a new sculpt and mold of my face.

Speaker 4 So it's a little bit more more gaunt than the last one was because damien wanted art to be more gaunt in this one and then i also oh hey i love i love the look and and they also gave me uh scrut uh scral lenses for for my eyes this time so i i my eyes were different and like part two i had my natural green eyes and part one i had context for a little bit And then like we had one night where I had a rip in my lenses.

Speaker 4 And so I couldn't wear them for that night. And we had to film.
So we decided from that point on, I would just be wearing my

Speaker 4 regular eyes. And if anybody noticed, what the hell?

Speaker 2 Yeah, why you're not paying attention to the right thing.

Speaker 4 Yeah, exactly. And I kind of just say in my head, like the eye color changed after he got knocked out by the Exterminator.
So it's like, oh, yeah, the contacts popped out. And so now that's

Speaker 2 the same thing you notice.

Speaker 4 You know, he's rebirthed. So now he's become more demonic in part three.
So he has different eyes going forward.

Speaker 2 This is a question that we were talking about before. Is he a human in the first one?

Speaker 4 Yes.

Speaker 2 Okay. And when does he, like, when does it become supernatural?

Speaker 4 At the very end of part one, where he's brought back from the dead.

Speaker 2 Yes. And then, like, so he was just a man.

Speaker 4 Yes.

Speaker 2 And so the face underneath the makeup, you would assume, would have just been like Art the Clown. So what's Art the Clown? What was his day like? Yeah, what did he do during the day?

Speaker 2 What did he, what's his like job? Did he, what, what was that? Oh, you can't say yet?

Speaker 4 Can't say yet.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 2 Yes. All right.
I'm glad there is an answer. Yes.
That's one of those things, too, where, God, that'll be great. Everyone will be very excited to see that jump in.

Speaker 4 Yeah. I will say this, that I know for one thing, for his origin, we don't want to make him a sympathetic character.
No.

Speaker 4 We don't want him to have one of those tragic backstories where he was abused and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 4 Basically, how I view him in my head is he came out of his mother's womb and strangled her with his own umbilical cord. He's just evil incarnate.
He is just, that's why hell lashed onto this guy.

Speaker 4 He's like, this is our avatar on earth.

Speaker 2 We love this guy. He's super evil.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. We love this guy.
Yeah. It's like it's the same variant of he's from the seed of a thousand maniacs.

Speaker 4 Yeah, exactly. He was just born evil.
And I, that's the thing. It's like, I do genuinely believe there are some people that are that way.

Speaker 4 They just came out of the womb and they are just fucked up in the head. I knew a kid like that when growing up where he was this kid that lived across the street from one of my best friends.

Speaker 4 And I saw him flat out just take glee in killing, you know, squirrels. Yes.
Right. He would like shoot them with his BB gum and watch them bleed out or he would just strangle them himself.

Speaker 4 And I was like, this kid's just evil. And my mom was like, do not play with that kid ever again.
He's evil.

Speaker 4 So that's how I view art. He was just born that way.
He just had that tendency from the very get-go where he just loved to kill things. It brought him joy.

Speaker 2 I also find that people that have the happiest existence play

Speaker 2 unrepentant maniacs really well. And I can tell from the Lego on your shelf behind you that you seem like a very happy, go-lucky man.

Speaker 4 That comes from, you know, years of struggling.

Speaker 2 I am painting with.

Speaker 4 Yeah, that's, you know,

Speaker 4 I was bullied relentlessly growing up, but it's like, I, I always, how I escaped all that was finding the things that brought me joy and brought me happiness.

Speaker 4 And so it's like, I am a child of heart in a lot of ways. I guess some people would say

Speaker 4 I'm like a, um, have a, um, what is that? Um, arrested development in some ways.

Speaker 2 People have said that about me too. And it's like, whatever, whatever you idiot, whatever you fucking butthead, fuck you.
Your stupid face.

Speaker 2 Shut up. Shut up.
Oh, I'm a child. Well, you're fucking, you got big ass and stupid feet

Speaker 2 and i hate you yeah so save that in your pocket if you ever need that oh

Speaker 4 yeah i i think it's just all that bullying i went through is that's it's like i i think i've been able to channel a lot of that on on set i mean there are even times on set where like you know i'm just not fully giving them what they need for a an attack or something like that and they'll just go hey dave just pretend it's this um certain person and go and i'm like

Speaker 4 yeah they're like oh dave where'd that come from It's like, repressed rage.

Speaker 2 Do you remember how much you hate Rachel Ray?

Speaker 2 Imagine this is Rachel Ray.

Speaker 2 Exactly.

Speaker 2 Earlier, you were saying how sometimes you like to put on the song from the first Batman movie where Joker. Now, I've heard a rumor that you are gunning to play the Joker at some point.
Is this true?

Speaker 2 I am.

Speaker 2 You know, unintended, totally gunning James Gunning for it.

Speaker 4 I want that role so badly. I'm like, that's my dream role.
That is a character I have wanted to play fully. I played him on a YouTube series like nine, ten years ago.

Speaker 4 And, you know, that was, that was, that was a lot of fun. And I got a good taste of playing the character.
And I really want to play him in a more official capacity.

Speaker 4 And because I love the character so much. And I'm so freaking tired of seeing Hollywood bastardizing this character.

Speaker 2 Yeah. I miss Caesar Romero joker.
Yes. Like

Speaker 2 over-the-top, ridiculous Joker. Well, I can't.

Speaker 4 And so you can do that and be sadistic and evil and scary at the same time. And I don't know.

Speaker 2 Mark Hamill revolutionized that angle of Joker.

Speaker 4 Exactly. Exactly.

Speaker 4 That's why Mark is my favorite version of Joker because he... truly understands that character.

Speaker 4 You could tell he did his research. And especially you look at the

Speaker 4 especially the 80s, 90s version of Joker. That's when he got a lot darker.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 4 And actually, the very first version of Joker was very dark too. He was, you know, a homicidal maniac then, too.
And it was, it was because, you know, back in the mid

Speaker 4 1900s, that's when they were like, oh, we got to be a lot more, you know, wholesome and friendly. So they were campy then.
But it's like, I want to return more to like that, that Alan Moore era of,

Speaker 4 you know, or like, you know,

Speaker 4 that, that, that, that kind of dark joker, you know, killing joke.

Speaker 2 Have you ever thought about it? Let me pitch this to you. All right.
You do a thing where your movie is, everybody's calling you the Joker, but

Speaker 2 it's revealed that it's a musical in a courtroom. Listen,

Speaker 2 it's a musical in a courtroom.

Speaker 2 And you've never been the Joker at all.

Speaker 2 And the only time that you ever even admit to not being Joker is after you've been group sexually assaulted by a bunch of jailers. So, what do you think?

Speaker 2 Is that something you'd like to be interested in?

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 2 Man, isn't it crazy that you, as Art the Clown, defeated the Joker? Yes, sir. It is crazy.
That's the only thing I want to remind you, dude.

Speaker 2 Technically, you won.

Speaker 2 Technically, you beat the Joker.

Speaker 4 That's insane when you think about it. And what's even crazier about it, it was Art the Clown versus Arthur the Clown.

Speaker 2 Yes. Wow.
Yeah. I didn't even think about it.
Yeah, it was Arthur too.

Speaker 4 Yeah. Which was insane.
It's just like.

Speaker 2 But he was never a clown.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Well, kind of.
He was a street clown. He was sort of.
He was a street clown. Yeah, I guess it does.
Yeah. I guess.
And if you call yourself one, then you are one.

Speaker 2 You know?

Speaker 2 So. How else has your life kind of changed? Or is it just like, I guess people say shit like this, is I know that I'm certain that the the money's rolling in

Speaker 2 but it's not really rolling it's starting to is this yeah it's going to

Speaker 4 trickle which i i'm okay with because like i i spent like 13 years of my life basically struggling to make ends meet waiting tables in new york city so i was like man i hear you village poorhouse over here where'd you uh where'd you work Ah, God, so many different restaurants.

Speaker 4 I started off working at Baba Gun Shrimp Company in Times Square.

Speaker 2 Oh, you poor bastard. The one thing you forethring in hell.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jesus Christ.
That place is awful.

Speaker 4 Oh, the stories I could tell you about that place.

Speaker 2 You could probably base Art the Clowns off of like five people you could meet at that bubble.

Speaker 4 Oh, yeah. Just doing a shift there one night.

Speaker 2 As Art would be amazing. Oh, look at that.

Speaker 2 It was horrible. Can I also ask you, like, this is like one of those very...

Speaker 2 kind of practical SETI things. What do you do? Like, Kate Corcoran, a friend of ours, in her

Speaker 2 now very famous scene in Terrifier, in terms of the horrifier films, she's hung upside down completely naked, and you cut her from the fucking, you cut her through her cooter, through her snooter.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 she knows that that is in there. That's Lex.

Speaker 4 See, I call that the up of the crack of dawn scene.

Speaker 2 Yes, yes, of course.

Speaker 2 Like, when you're hanging out on set, like, I did it. I've done a couple of movies with nudity, but it's like, what do you do between sets?

Speaker 2 Like, Like, is it one of those where like, obviously, you're trying to get this wrapped? Right. Right.
Like, as well. Because she is physically hanging upside down.
Correct. She's a wonderful lady.

Speaker 2 Oh, she's the middle.

Speaker 2 She's only doing it because she's so nice. She's only doing it because she's so happy.
Yes. And she's so down for it.
But like, what's the mid, like, how, like, do you feel like...

Speaker 2 Was that Damien's kind of role to comfort her, make sure things were moving along?

Speaker 2 Do you feel like in those functions, like, are you kind of like just trying to stay out of it and get it done as quickly as possible? Or like, are you joking around? Like, how do you handle that?

Speaker 4 That night, I was not joking around at all because that was very dangerous, what we were doing with her, too. And I, and it was freezing cold and it was like 20 degrees.
That was.

Speaker 2 And so that was miserable for her.

Speaker 4 So I was more concerned about just trying to make her feel as comfortable as possible.

Speaker 4 I'm like that all the time. I'm like, especially any of the fight scenes, I'm always trying to check in with my co-stars, making sure they're okay and everything.

Speaker 4 I think they probably get annoyed with me because I'm always saying, oh, my dad, are you okay? I didn't hurt you or anything like that.

Speaker 4 But like, especially when it has to do with nudity or anything like that, I try to be as respectful as possible.

Speaker 4 I'm like, it's just, because that's, that's something that's, it's, it's a very personal thing. It's very invasive to be exposed in such a manner.
And I try to,

Speaker 4 I was raised to be a gentleman in that way by my father, especially. And so I'm like, I try not even to look at what's going on.

Speaker 4 I'm just kind of like, okay, I'm going to like look over here because it just feels wrong.

Speaker 2 Well, you're also, the best part is that, you know, as a bashful, as a fellow bashful man, when you're in a character,

Speaker 2 it's better because then it's like, I'm Art the Clown. I can sit here.
I can, like, I'm much scarier. Because, like, that's what's interesting too.

Speaker 2 You think, like, oh, I don't want to look at these naked ladies. Everybody's staring at you.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 You know, like, they're looking at the evil clown.

Speaker 2 I think. You not wanting to look is also terrifying.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Art the clown acting bashful is almost even scary.

Speaker 4 I am really, I become like that that vulture from Looney Tunes. Nolt, null, null, null.

Speaker 4 Because that's just how I was raised. I'm like, okay, someone's in a state of, because I'm, that's also how I was just doing community theater.

Speaker 4 You know, sometimes people would have to make a costume change right on the side of the stage because it's a quick turnaround. And you just had to like, okay, that's going on.

Speaker 4 I'm just, I'm going to be respectful and look down or something like that.

Speaker 2 And oh, yeah, I'll always remember in junior high school when I had to choose between drama and hockey.

Speaker 2 And I was, I remember talking to the dudes in the hockey team being like, you know, that there's naked women over in drama. Yes.
Like here, I'm just surrounded by all these

Speaker 4 balls. It's a sausage fest.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah. I was like, I want to go there.
And they all thought I was crazy. They thought I was homosexual.
But I said, no.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And I was just like, no, sirs.
I am more than, I am more than just one.

Speaker 2 I am all.

Speaker 2 Oh, man. So you were obviously, this is Halloween.
You're in your busy season. The movie just came out.
Are you,

Speaker 2 this is also a straight up Christmas movie. Yes.
And you're going to have to promo this again. You're going to have to go through all of this again.

Speaker 2 And then it's going to be, but the thing is, you know, we were talking about, you know,

Speaker 2 with the budget and all this or whatever. Forever, people are going to be watching Terrifier 3 over Christmas.
I can't wait. It's going to be great.
I once interviewed Macaulay Culkin.

Speaker 2 He says he gets a million dollars every year from home alone. Every Christmas.
Oh, God.

Speaker 4 I wish that would happen with me. That would be amazing.

Speaker 2 I'd say probably like $60,000. You know,

Speaker 4 Lego sets.

Speaker 2 Absolutely. They get more expensive each time.

Speaker 2 Do you have like a family?

Speaker 4 I have a dad and a sister back on the house.

Speaker 2 I know you come from humans, but I didn't know if you have kids.

Speaker 4 No, I haven't gotten lucky enough to find a lady to settle down with yet. It's just like

Speaker 2 come on. Come on down.
Arthur Clown is single.

Speaker 2 He doesn't know yet how to make sweet love. Someone's going to have to teach him.

Speaker 4 I definitely do want to get married and have kids.

Speaker 4 I'm actually at that phase of my life now where I definitely do want to settle down and do that because like for years i was working just so i could live comfortably so i could have a family because like waiting tables in new york city there's no way i was going to be able to support a family and kids with you know

Speaker 2 just bring them to work

Speaker 2 and you're you're getting ready for it because

Speaker 2 you're making a children's movie you're playing mickey mouse exactly okay i want to know

Speaker 2 can i ask about so now for those of you who don't know there was a little teaser trailer before terror fire 3 for the new, like, I guess it was as soon as Steamboat Willie, the copyright ran out, because I got a shirt that says, fuck you, asshole, with Steamboat Willie on it, immediately from our Buddies Met Syndicate.

Speaker 2 But my question is, is that when you... Like, so how did that all happen? How quickly did that go down? So the movie's called Screamboat, and you're playing a horror version of Steamboat Willie.
Yes.

Speaker 2 That's all I know.

Speaker 2 And that's all you've got to tell us, but more just like, how the fuck, like, when did all that kind of happen?

Speaker 4 This all started happening like last year because the director from that is also my director from the mean one. And he went to school with the Fuzz on the Lens guys from Terrifier.

Speaker 4 So they kind of partnered up for this film because he's like, he knew this, this property was coming out in the public domain in

Speaker 4 this year. And he's like, well, I want to snap it up before anybody else does because I have a great idea for this.
And why not? So he approached me last year. I was like, hey, I have this script

Speaker 4 playing Willie. Will you do it? I'm like, oh my God, yes, of course, because it's a full circle moment for me too, because my first big real leading role was back in eighth grade at my middle school.

Speaker 4 Was I played Mickey Mouse and Mickey's Christmas Carol?

Speaker 4 And that was the show that made me decide that I wanted to do theater more because I liked making people laugh and everything like that. So it's a full circle moment.
So I'm like, I have to do this.

Speaker 4 There's no way I'm not doing this. So

Speaker 4 that's what we did. And we're like, okay, let's start filming it.
Let's do it. And yeah, it's a lot of fun.
I just did ADR for it last week. So that was a lot of fun for me.
A lot of whistling.

Speaker 2 I can't wait. I can't wait to see it.
It'll be like anything. Oh, it's insane.
Anything that fucks with Mickey, I'm happy with.

Speaker 4 It is such a horror comedy. We're really leaning into the campy horror, like comedy type of vibe for this.
We're not trying to go full terrified, just trying to be dark and scary.

Speaker 4 We're like, oh, no, no, let's, we know what we are. We're having fun with it.
And there's so many Disney jokes in there. It's like, it's, it's a big, huge love letter to Disney and Disney fans.

Speaker 4 So I think the Disney fans will have so much fun with this movie. Exactly.
And it also has one of my terrifier co-stars in it, Kaylee Hyman.

Speaker 2 Oh, great. Oh, nice.

Speaker 4 She's in it too. She's hysterical.

Speaker 2 I can't wait for this.

Speaker 2 You know, now with that work, we're going to be wrapping up here. I just want to leave the audience with, are you like, so were you a horror movie guy really before all this?

Speaker 4 I was a little bit. I was more of a comedy guy though.
I was late to horror.

Speaker 4 I didn't start watching horror until my senior year of high school because my mom was afraid of horror movies and stuff like that. So we just didn't watch them in my family.

Speaker 4 But I saw Scream 2 in theaters because I couldn't chicken out in front of this girl I had a crush on in a show. And they all wanted to go see it.
So I'm like, okay, I'm going to go.

Speaker 4 And I had a blast and was like, I love horror, but I never thought I would be doing this though. I was like, I was always a comedy guy.

Speaker 4 I wanted to do comedy and, you know, Broadway and like voiceovers for cartoons. And that's why I was doing a lot of that before I took on terror.

Speaker 4 I was doing a lot, a lot of voiceover work for children's shows.

Speaker 2 Dude, it's kind of funny what doors open and what leads you. This business is very strange.

Speaker 2 And I do think it's like, I wish that in college someone had taught me more about like, you know, that like, it's not just be a movie star. Yeah.
is necessarily make it in show business.

Speaker 2 You know what I mean? Like you never know where the fuck it is this thing's going to take you.

Speaker 4 No, you just got to, I learned a long time ago, you just got to go with the flow. Wherever it leads you, just go with it.
And I'm glad I did that because I, I wouldn't be here.

Speaker 4 I would still probably be waiting tables in New York City right now, struggling to get by.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Think about the things you didn't get that you were angry about, right? Like set or sad about.
Now you're really.

Speaker 4 I was up for five or six different Broadway tours right before I got terrified and they all fell through for me. And it was, I was very frustrated.

Speaker 4 I was in like final, final callbacks for like Susan Strowman and Roger Reeves and all these people. And I was like, oh my God, I'm so close to getting something.

Speaker 4 And so I won't, why won't something stick? And there's a reason for that because if I had gotten any of those, I wouldn't have been able to do Terrifier. And who knows?

Speaker 2 Is that weird? Thank you. You are one of the all-time horror icons now.
Yeah, it's in there. Three really solutions.
Terrifying crazy. Isn't that ridiculous? Yeah.
That's weird.

Speaker 4 It is very, I mean, I was just walking down the street here in Burbank the other night, just getting dinner. I had my glasses on, everything.

Speaker 4 I was a little bit disheveled because I had just gotten off the airplane.

Speaker 4 And this one woman just recognized me right there on the street and like ran up to me and was like, oh my God, I have to say something to you. And I'm like, I'm amazed.
You know who I am.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And so eventually you're going to get a lot of like, kill me.
Not coming. Kill me.

Speaker 2 Pretend to choke me. Pretend to choke me.

Speaker 2 And Burbank is a horror town. Oh, it is.
Very much so.

Speaker 2 Well, so, Kenny, is there any like, what's your favorite horror movie?

Speaker 4 I really love just West Craven in general. I'm a big Nightmare and Else Street fan and also a big Scream fan.
I love Slashers. That's always been my favorite genre of horror movies, the Slashers.

Speaker 4 I think they're just fun.

Speaker 2 So for tonight for Halloween, what are you doing? What's your plan?

Speaker 4 I actually, I don't have any plans because I'm going out of town. So

Speaker 2 you're traveling on Arctic Craig.

Speaker 4 I am traveling on Halloween.

Speaker 2 It makes me up so

Speaker 2 that's a true spooky professional.

Speaker 2 It's a true spooky professional. It's called a workday.
It's a work day.

Speaker 2 It's the busy season, we call it over here.

Speaker 4 It's crazy because everybody's like, what are you dressing up as? I'm like, I'm going as myself because I dress up all year long as other characters. I was like, I'm going as myself.

Speaker 2 You'll have other years where you'll celebrate. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And then you'll celebrate.

Speaker 2 Eventually, you're going to be the point when you're doing Terrifier 15, just being like, when you're in a full scuba suit and on the water set, you're just going to be like, this is the last one.

Speaker 2 All right. I'm not.
You're like screaming over a tender green salad being like I'm not doing this again you know like just cut to that just no send out my stunt double

Speaker 2 what the hell I gotta do goddamn Sidney you tell Sidney Sweeney I'm busy all right my dick is empty

Speaker 2 thank you I can't I must work

Speaker 2 Thank you so much to Uggy. Yeah, I told her.
No, it's disgusting. And you didn't say it.
I said it.

Speaker 2 Thank you so much, David Howard Thornton. Heart the clown.
This was lovely, man. Is there anything else you want people to go look for?

Speaker 2 Well, my

Speaker 4 film, Stream, just came out on streaming platforms. It was in theaters a few months ago.

Speaker 2 It's called Stream?

Speaker 4 Stream. Stream.
And it is now streaming.

Speaker 2 Is it on, do you know which one? Just anything to get put on Prime?

Speaker 4 Or at least on Amazon Prime right off the top of my head.

Speaker 2 Nice. Nice.
And go see Screamboat when that comes out. I'm so excited for that.
And more importantly, go see Terrifier 3.

Speaker 2 Take your family. And then watch it again.

Speaker 2 Sneak in your kids. I actually think that this is the one to really sneak in the kids to...

Speaker 2 You can don't, but no infants. Someone brought an infant.
Someone brought an infant to Terrifier 3. Wow.
And they were just like, I guess it's because they can't. They know that the baby won't.

Speaker 2 They can't afford a babysitter and they have to see you kill people. They have to see you kill people.
So isn't that great?

Speaker 2 That's kind of sticky on it.

Speaker 4 We did a screening this past weekend up in Detroit to a huge giant Emacs theater.

Speaker 4 And there were children in the audience. And I even called them out.
I'm like, oh, wait, how old are you? And they're like, I'm six.

Speaker 2 And like, it's your parents.

Speaker 2 Hi.

Speaker 2 I'm like, okay, parents are here.

Speaker 4 It's fine. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Terrifier is hard to take. Yeah.
But hey, I see, hey, I leave it up to the parents to decide because, you know,

Speaker 2 kids can handle things.

Speaker 4 I mean, I'll look at like Chrissy Fox, you know, who's in part three, her daughter Elle, who I would go to war for. She's five years old and she loves horror films.
She loves horror films.

Speaker 2 That's how I was. Yeah.
And look at me.

Speaker 4 She's great. She's totally fine.
She's the cutest little thing. She travels like we were on an airplane together.
I pass her going to the restroom. Elle just looks up and goes, I'm watching Abigail.

Speaker 2 And she's holding an art and found in her hand. that's amazing.

Speaker 4 It's the cutest thing.

Speaker 2 I saw it. Yeah, that's perfect.
That's perfect. Oh, man.
Dude, thank you so much, man. Happy Halloween.
Congratulations, buddy. This is fucking amazing.
You're really taking the world by storm.

Speaker 2 That's so cool to talk to you.

Speaker 4 It's a wild ride. I'm just very grateful for it.

Speaker 2 And we'll definitely have you back for four.

Speaker 4 Oh, definitely, definitely.

Speaker 4 We're definitely coming back for four, too.

Speaker 2 Hell yeah, man. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 All right. Well, Hail Satan.
And happy Halloween. Hail Art.

Speaker 2 The clown and the

Speaker 2 genre of stuff. Hold up.
Hold up.

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