One on One with Bill Oberst Jr. (Part II)

This week, we conclude our interview with the very talented Emmy-winning actor, Bill Oberst Jr. Today, he discusses a wide variety of topics, such as how he prepared for a role as a cult leader, playing his hero Abraham Lincoln, and the perils of balloon animals.

 

DB: When you started this whole adventure, was your family supportive?

Bill: I’ve always been the weird kid.  When I was 13 years old, I was doing the monster makeup. I turned a friend of mine into the hunchback of Notre Dame. My dad walked in home for lunch, and I remember him looking and saying, “You’re a weird kid, Billy,” and it’s still true. My family doesn’t like so much me playing the dark roles, but they understand that it’s a business.  My mom was really happy when I did those two Hallmark movies.

DB: Oh, that’s right. You did the Amish-themed movie (The Shunning), right?

Bill: Yeah, she liked that. And she actually liked Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies. I said, “Mom, just ignore all the zombie stuff.” She liked the movie.

DB: I like that movie, too. It was a nice surprise.

Bill: About as good as you can hope for with a title like Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies!

DB: Hey, I loved it…I am a fan of what you would call ‘B-movies’, which is not necessarily always bad movies.  It’s just a fun genre.

Bill:  You gotta approach it with that attitude. I like ones that are…I mean, they are so bad that they are good.  My buddy and I in high school used to get together and rent these really bad old horror movies.  And there’s a charm in it.  You just go into it knowing that you’re going to have fun.  I’ll keep making them, too. And eventually, I’ll make the one that I don’t have to apologize for at all!

DB: Well, I liked the Abraham Lincoln movie, because of the way you and the creative team approached it. It could have had no zombies, and it would still be a good period movie.

Bill: I just knew that a lot of kids were never going to see Lincoln any other way.  I wanted to deliver the Gettysburg Address, and I still wanted Lincoln to have dignity.  I got both of those things, so I was happy.

DB: It thankfully didn’t go into parody territory.

Bill: Lincoln was a great man; I couldn’t make fun of him! I love Lincoln.

DB: Awesome. People kind of give Asylum (the production company that made Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies) a hard time, because of their reputation as a “mock-buster” production company, but at the end of the day, it’s just a business model, right?

Bill: It is a great business model. They’re making something like 24 movies this year.  And the Asylum has a sense of humor about their own product.  I really love that.  You know they’ll say note on their site something like,  “We’re not making art-we’re making movies”.  And they’ll include a compilation of scenes from their movies where lots of things bow up, because all of their movies seem to end with an explosion.  I love Asylum, and they’ve been really good to me.  They pay their actors, their movies get out there, and they get out there really quickly. I’ve made a lot of movies that are still sitting on people’s hard drives, so…the thing is, if you can make a movie, and get it out to market, that is a huge achievement.  I don’t think people realize how hard it is.

DB: I wouldn’t know, but that’s interesting. My only experience in movies involved me doing auditions for like, a year and a half, and got one job as an extra.

Bill: When I audition, it is always a room with the same 25 creepy guys. It’s like, “Hey, did you get that pedophile priest job last week?”…”No, I think Phil got that.” It’s a really small town. For a while there, I was known for doing a movie called Nude Nuns with Big Guns, and they would all rib me about it when they saw me.

DB: (laughing)…uh, what is that about?

Bill: What, Nude Nuns with Big Guns? I thought the title was a good summary, actually.

DB: Ooookay, so the title is not sarcastic or metaphoric for anything…

Bill: No, the title is exactly what the movie is. The thing is, you take work, and get a lot of titles and build up your IMDB, you know? I had just done that movie actually, in which I am beaten to death with a baseball bat, after being pulled off of a nun prostitute.  I play a bad priest.  And I had just done it, when Michael Landon, Jr. hired me to do The Shunning, a Hallmark movie.

I talked to him on the phone, and he said, “I’m going to have to sell you to the network,” and I said, “You’re talking about Nude Nuns with Big Guns?” and he said, “Among others.”  He was really cool. He said he understood an actor has to work, and in acting your ‘type’ is your ‘type’.  And he did push for me, and I got the great part, an Amish father.  I was really appreciative of him. People who are in the industry, they understand, work is work. You get all types of roles. 

With a face like mine, I am going to always, always lean toward doing the creepy guys, the bad guys, the bizarre guys.  So, I’m frequently going to be half-naked, bloody, and mean-that’s just the way the business is.

DB: it sounds like you’ve come to terms with it pretty well.

Bill: I know I’m not going to be a ‘soccer dad’.  It’s not going to happen.  Dark and conflicted are the waters in which I swim. But hey…Take This Lollipop won an Emmy, so…

DB: How does that work? Emmy Awards are for television, right?

Bill: Emmys now cover all of daytime entertainment. Everybody in the business has recognized that the new delivery method is going to be online for all content. There’s a whole generation of kids growing up watching movies mostly on their iPhones. It’s not like it used to be when I was a kid. So, yeah, the category was “New Approaches in Daytime Entertainment”. Our competition was the Ellen Degenerous Show, The Today Show, and The Bold and the Beautiful.  It was great. Nobody ever expected us to win. It was a shock, and made Jason Zada, who created it, and his team really happy.

DB: The concept was pretty amazing, and your performance really sells it. It was the number one downloaded app, right?

Bill: For sure. It set records as Facebook’s fastest growing app, it got over 100 million hits all over the world.

DB: The short should be required viewing for anyone with teens, or anyone who wonders if they have too much information on the internet.

Bill: I ask people, “Have you ever Googled yourself?” I’m hyper, I’ve got a service that alerts me when someone Googles my name, because it’s my business.  I know every time there’s a mention online. People should Google themselves, and see what information is out there. Even Google your phone number, and see the references to your phone number online.

DB: Online information about you is a freaky concept. Hey-maybe there’s a movie in that!

Bill: I’m sure there’s a movie in that. There’s been talk about making a feature out of the Take This Lollipop concept. Also, speaking of Facebook, there’s a movie, and I just talked to the producer this morning, that I’m attached to called Evil’s Toy. It’s about a demon that gets loose on Facebook. The idea is that kids are playing with a Ouija board, and a demon is in the Ouija board. One of them gets zapped on the board, and their hand flies back onto their computer.  The demon transfers, and gets into the world of social networking.  He’s roaming around Facebook pretending to be people, you know, causing all sorts of havoc, and leading to people’s demise.  So I play the demon, whose name is Gadrielle, and he has big wings, and a horn-like beak. It’s a really, really cool part (laughs).

You know, when you hear from somebody on Facebook, you have no way of knowing for sure they’re who they say they are.  I can do it right now, I can set up a fake Google email, set up a fake Facebook profile, and pretend to be anybody I want. It’s funny, you know I have a Twitter account. People will send me a message and say, “Are you really who you say you are?” And I’ll write back, and say, “It’s Bill. It’s really me.” And they’re ok with it. People just accept what’s online as the truth!

DB: That’s true. When I go to a page of an actor or musician on Facebook, there are multiple entries. It can be confusing.

Bill: Sure. I know well-known actors who have tried to set up a Facebook page just as an experiment, you know, to interact with fans, and they find out their name is already taken.  They can’t get their name. Same as on Twitter. Nobody wants my name yet though, so no problem here (laughs).

I’m kind of known as the Nice Guy of Horror. People who know me at all, which are few, just go, “Oh, that’s just Bill. He says and does mean things on screen, but he’s really nice.”

DB: I hear that about horror guys. People like say, Kane Hodder…

Bill: Oh he’s sweet. Nicest guy you would ever want to meet. It’s the same with Bill Mosely, and Michael Berryman, both of those guys came to the first screening of Children of Sorrow. I was just blown away to meet them.  I am such a huge fan, and I was like, “You guys are huge legends!”

DB: So when does Children of Sorrow get distributed?

Bill: It’s going to make the rounds at festivals, and pick up distribution if the response is positive. So far, the reaction has been that people who have seen it have said it made them feel uneasy. That is a really good sign. That is the whole point of a horror movie, to leave an impression on you.  You hear a guy say they couldn’t sleep afterwards…one composer quit because he found it too disturbing to write the music for.

DB: Oh, wow.

Bill: And there is not gore in it, it’s just disturbing. The guy who made this, Jourdan McClure, has said that he thinks we’ve seen so much gore that we are no longer affected by it.  So he said, “Disturbing is the new gore.”

DB: He may be right. Gore for gore’s sake is not that great. Would you agree?

Bill: Oh, I totally agree. I’m not a huge fan of gore. I’m a huge fan of seeing humans do things on screen that make my skin crawl. That can be as simple as lying, which is essentially what I do in Children of Sorrow as a cult leader. I’m getting these young people to get into my cult, and I’m interviewing them. On the screen, you see their young trusting faces. You hear my voice saying, “You’re part of the family now. Trust me.  Trust me with everything.  I love you, and I won’t let you down.” And you as the audience know that I’m lying. I’m going to do bad things to them. But it makes your skin crawl.  I think we all know that we can be liars. It’s very, very disturbing to see someone else take it in. You want to scream at the screen, “NO! NO!”

DB: In preparation for a role such as that, do you study cult leaders, like David Koresh?

Bill: Yeah. I listened to the Jim Jones tapes, which are so chilling, Dax.  You know, those last moments when there’s a mother who doesn’t want her child to drink the poison, and it’s like “Please, mother don’t do this. Please, show some love to that child.” And I’m going, “No, my God! Don’t tell him to drink poison!”

Another thing that helped me when I was doing that film, because it was so dark, I just got off-line, got off the cell phone, and off of the social media for the three weeks we were filming. I just took a break from it; I just needed to be in my own head in that time, living in that role.  I think it helps, not to be distracted.

DB: That must have been hard for you, because you’re a pretty connected guy…

Bill: It was hard.  And it helped. I was continually frustrated, because I was cut off from the outside world.  It made me give a harder edge to the character.  He was isolated, out in the desert with these young people that he was going to do horrible things to.  It helps to completely dive into your role like that.  Then afterwards, you’re really, really glad to let the guy go. You just can’t wait to get back on Facebook and talk about something silly, you know? (Laughs)

DB: Well, I suppose that’s what a good horror movie does, right? If it doesn’t affect you, it didn’t do its job.

Bill: Yeah, it’s like a cathartic shower.

DB: What are some of your favorites?

Bill: The Exorcist is probably my favorite horror movie of all time.  Both of the guys who played the priests were really incredible.  Just incredible; I mean there’s that scene of the old priest, and he’s saying, you know “The love of Christ compels you,” and after he’s spit on, kissing the cross and putting it back around his neck. That impacted me really strongly.

I’m also a fan of the old Universal horror movies.  I love what Boris Karloff did on screen, I love what Vincent Price used to be able to do. That creepiness of Dr. Phibes…any of those. I like dark and creepy more than slasher-type gory horror movies.  I wasn’t really into any of the Halloween movies. But I love the Nightmare on Elm Street films. Freddy was a character; and he had once been a human. For me, it has to have a human element.

DB: Yeah, he brought so much personality to it. Robert Eglund was a funny guy, and scary at the same time.

Bill: We haven’t really had an iconic horror character like that in a while. You know, what Karloff was able to do in the original Frankenstein, which you know, is not a great movie, it’s filmed very cheaply, you can see the back-drops and stuff. But, there are these moments. For example, there’s the scene when the monster sees sunlight for the first time.  He reaches up, and it’s the first time we see him smile.  Then, they take the sunlight away.  This look crosses over his face. He looks like…where did it go?  There’s this look of great sadness.  It’s a beautiful, beautiful moment.

There’s the Wolf-Man, even.  You know, with him struggling…knowing that Larry Talbot is going to turn into a wolf.  You see the moon and the look on Lon Chaney, Jr.’s face.  It’s that human element.  It’s the same with Phantom of the Opera.  All he wanted…was, “Don’t make me show you my face. I’ll give you anything, I’ll train you. I’ll make you a star. Just don’t make me show you my face.” And that was the one thing she couldn’t do.  She rips off the mask, and he looks, and there’s that great moment. Even though it’s silent, when Lon Chaney’s face is filled with both hurt and rage…and then the title card comes on. It says, Feast your eyes! Glut your soul on my accursed ugliness!

That’s so poetic. Today, we would just say, “This what you wanted to see? Well  look at it bitch!” so there’s something else that can be said for the old movies, too.  They actually use language well.  I think it’s much more effective then. Today, language is sort of dumbed down.

I do a tour every Christmas, a one-man Christmas Carol.  When I get to the part about Marley’s ghost, I use this language that Dickens used. It helps it be really scary. He has this beautiful soliloquy that he gives Scrooge. It’s so sad and haunting.  It’s about how he got to be the way he is, and how Scrooge is headed down the same path. It’s frightening, and it wouldn’t be frightening if we spoke the way we speak today.

DB: So do you still do that every Christmas season?

Bill: Yeah.  I’m also putting together a performance based on the works of Ray Bradbury. There’s a Ray Bradbury storytelling festival, and from there I’m going to do a one-man Ray Bradbury show. For young people, before we completely lose the power of language, I want them to understand how wonderful and eloquent English can be. I love reading things to kids, speaking these words and seeing their eyes light up. They’ve never heard anybody speak real English before! You can’t really text this stuff!

DB: It’s interesting you bring that up, because I was going to ask about the dialog in Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies. It is very much in the spirit of 19^th century vernacular, yeah? Did it take a lot of preparation?

Bill: It did. The director, Richard Schenkman, got everybody together and said, “I don’t want you to sound like modern people using colloquialisms, I want you to sound like you’re from the 19^th century.” He worked it into everybody.  And I was glad. He worked in a lot of actual Lincoln quotes, and I wanted Lincoln to sound like Lincoln, or at least what you might imagine he would sound like. 

Actually, what I imagine Lincoln sounded like is the Lincoln at Disney world in the Hall of Presidents.  To me, since I was a kid, that’s always been Lincoln.  I guess that’s who I sounded like a little bit. I figured Lincoln was a poor boy, and he had a lot of disappointment in his life.  He was in a hellish marriage, and he was very ugly, so he probably had a lot of humility. Someone told him he was two-faced.  He said, “If I were two-faced, I wouldn’t be wearing this one,” and I could relate to that, looking like I do (laughs).  When you work on camera, you have to come to terms with who you are, who you’re not. People called him Ugly Abe, but…he took it. 

DB: You are in a business where looks are everything-especially in the United States.

Bill: Do you think Lincoln would have been elected if he ran today? Even without his beard, he’s ugly.  My god, if Chris Christie can’t even eat a Krispy Kreme donut without having his picture splashed across Facebook with captions saying he’s a fat pig, we’d never elect six-foot, bony ass Lincoln! He had huge deformed hands and feet.  We’re too looks-conscious, that’s for sure.

Who was that fat president?

DB: Well, Roosevelt was a large guy, I think…

Bill: It might have been Taft.  Anyway, one of the presidents would go skinny-dipping in the Potomac River. If the press wanted to talk to him, that’s where they would find him. We’ve come a long way (laughs).

DB: One thing I’ve noticed while watching BBC is that in Britain, they don’t expect you to be beautiful to be on TV; you just need to be a good actor. In the U.S. it’s kind of the opposite.

Bill: That’s very true. That’s why I’m glad I have kind of a distinct look.  Otherwise, I wouldn’t be working.  I’d just be a middle-age actor with bad skin.  But because I have such an unusual look on camera, it helps a lot. I don’t like the way I look, and I never have since I was a kid. But since I work a lot in film now, I get up and I look in the mirror.  I say, “Hello, money-maker”. The camera sees what it sees.

DB: Any advice for anybody starting out in the entertainment industry?

Bill:  Don’t.

DB: (Laughing) don’t? Ok…

Bill: What I mean is, it’s like when I asked an old preacher when I was little, I asked him, “Why do you preach?”  He said, “Preaching ran after me.  I ran away. But it caught me, so I preach,” or something to that effect.  He went on to say that unless you can’t live without preaching, unless you feel the call, don’t do it.

I’ve come to believe that acting and entertainment is the same way.  Unless you really feel in your soul this is what you’re born to do, and you’re just going to burst if you don’t do it, don’t mess with it. If you don’t feel that, you’ll never make it.  The business will eat you alive. It’s such a tough business. The only people that last are those that feel they are just born to do it.  They can’t do anything else.

DB: There are horror stories about actors struggling to make ends meet while trying to get noticed; people working as a taxi driver, or waiter or whatever, going to auditions, getting back to work…did you do any of that?

Bill: I had made a living already as a stage actor on the East Coast touring for 14 years.  I had bought a house with that money.  I did really well on the East Coast. So then I got out here (L.A.) to do film. I started to starve the first year. I said ‘I’ve got to have a job in the entertainment industry’. 

The only day job I ever had, it lasted for a week, it was with a company that did kid’s parties.  I did characters for these kids’ parties.  I was supposed to make balloons and entertain the kids. I was supposed to make wiener dogs, but I could never make it right.  One ear’s bigger than the other!  So the first party I was at, the little girl said, “Why is one ear bigger than the other?”

I said, “I think he has an ear infection.  Take him to the vet, he’ll be ok.” I thought it was cute, but she told her mother, and I got fired. And I decided that, well now, I’ve had the humiliation of being fired from a job making balloon animals.  Bill, you are either going to make it as an actor in L.A. or you are leaving.  I’m not going to do the thing where you are a bar tender some time and an actor some time. Hoping I can get off to make it to an audition…no. I’ll either make it or I won’t. So I went on a starvation diet, and I decided I’ll either make it or I won’t. Somehow I ended up making it…enough to eat, anyway.

DB: Awesome. Well, Bill I told you it would be brief; I lied. I’ve kept you for over an hour. I’ve enjoyed it.

Bill: I’ve really enjoyed it.  It’s been terrific. It’s one of the best interviews I’ve had.  It’s kind of nice to be able to talk about all types of things.  And to even get to talk about faith a little bit, it’s important to me. I don’t get to talk about it much.

DB: I appreciate your honesty and candor in that.  It’s refreshing to see someone in your line of work connect with that.

 Bill: I’m comfortable with people of faith, really with people of any faith.  The only ones who scare me are the ones who don’t believe in anything.  There are people who say we are animals. We live, and we die, and we rot. That’s not enough for me!  If that were the truth, I’d don’t know that I’d want to keep on living.

DB: We’re out of time, but I look forward to Children of Sorrow. It sounds compelling and can’t wait. I didn’t mean to take this much time, but thanks for playing along!

Bill: Dude, I enjoyed it. Thank you.

 

For more information, check out Bill’s resume at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2454994/

Also, check out these cool links:

www.billoberstjr.com

www.billoberstjr.blogspot.com

www.twitter.com/billoberstjr

 

The Man From Planet X (1951)

"To think - a fantastic gnome like you had to hurdle out of space to put this power in my hands. Well, now that we've made contact, I'm gonna tear out every secret you've got!" ~Dr. Mears

1951 was an insanely busy year for movie-goers interested in space-themed science fiction. Among the many films to come out that year were such titles as The Thing From Another World, The Day The Earth Stood Still, and When Worlds Collide. Interestingly, all of these movies have been remade since then with varying degrees of success. Adding to the library of sci-fi cheese from 1951 is the subject of today's review; The Man From Planet X.

If you've never seen the movie, most likely by now you've seen the space man referred to in the title. He is an iconic figure that seems to make the collage every time someone shows a collection of old sci-fi and monster movie clips. He is the character in a space suit, complete with a bubble top and a regulator valve on the side. Also, he makes a cameo appearance in 2003's Looney Tunes: Back in Action.

The movie centers around a small group of researchers on a Scottish island studying a planet whose orbit is bringing it dangerously close to Earth. Dubbed Planet X, the alien world is only visible by telescope in the remote laboratory run by the kind Dr. Elliot, played by Raymond Bond. Now, B-Movie convention states that the good professor has to have an attractive and largely useless daughter, in this case Enid, played by Margaret Field.  Enid serves as the love interest of John Lawrence (Robert Clarke). John is our everyman in this story; not a scientist or pilot, just a reporter who has to have everything explained to him in simple terms. That way, the science guys can spill their techno-babble, then break it down to John, and thus, to us the audience.

We also meet Professor Elliot's antithesis, his "partner", Dr. Mears, played with gusto by William Schallert. I use quotation marks because Dr. Mears is really an evil guy. We are clued into this by a couple of things. One, John already knows him from before, and has an uneasy feeling about his presence. We never really get to the bottom of what happened between the two. We only know that our hero doesn't trust him. Therefore, we shouldn't trust him.  The other giveaway is that Dr. Mears is always smoking and has a goatee. Work with me here. See, in older movies, smoking + goatee = evil. Remember that in the future kiddos, there will be a test.

The planet's sudden appearance coincides with the discovery of a small pod. The group studies the object and determines that it must be alien in origin. Immediately, Dr. Mears begins to excitedly explain how he can study the element is is made of, and create building materials worth millions. That is another cinematic clue to someones evil intentions. I'm not really sure I'm on board with bashing him on this one, though. I'm kind of a capitalist by nature, and I don't think it's wrong if some alien drops some of his equipment here and I manage to replicate it, but I digress.

We also finally get to see the titular man from planet X when Enid goes out and has a flat tire at night. She finds his alien ship, and rather than go find a scientist, like say, her father, walks over to investigate. She peers into the pod, and the audience gets the biggest scare in the movie when he pops up in the scene the image above came from.  Later, John and Professor Elliot get the space man to realize that they are not going to hurt him, and they walk him back to the observatory. The space man cannot talk, he can only emit an eerie tone. Dr. Mears comes up with the idea to use geometry, the "universal language", as he puts it, to establish some sort of communication. This is a novel approach, one which would be ripped off -I mean emulated- in the more recent Sphere.

Then Dr. Mears somehow convinces everyone else to leave them alone while he communicates with the space man using geometry. He does have a breakthrough. Having established a baseline of communication, and privacy with the space man, Dr. Mears decides he want more information for his own gain and attacks the space man, going for his regulator valve on the side of his suit. The valve allows the man from Planet X to breath, and cutting it off renders him unconscious. The attack scene is kind of unnerving, with the larger Dr. Mears easily overpowering the alien. All the alien can do is emit that eerie tone sound, which is kind of like him crying out for help. Watching this, I felt sympathy for the creature, which I guess was the point.

Later, Mears lies and tells the other professor he got nothing, despite having made his breakthrough. John comes back and they discover the alien is gone, along with Enid. Apparently, after his attack he decided humans are not worth sharing information with after all, and took the girl. Why the alien always takes the girl, I don't know. I suppose it adds to the suspense. At any rate, it was unfortunate that Mears had to attack the space man, since he was on the verge of learning all kinds of great secrets that could have made him tons of money. His greed and zeal for knowledge possibly doomed humanity.

The rest of the movie involves the heroes bringing in Scotland Yard, because they have the ability to pull in the 'big guns' and defend the island from the space man. Unfortunately, it is never 100% clear that the alien has hostile intentions, even though he demonstrates the ability to render humans into a zombie-like state. Dr. Mears is even rendered a slave zombie, and when John rescues him, Dr. Mears comes out of it and explains that the alien has a plan for domination of Earth. However, we don't know if Mears is telling the truth, or manipulating events again.

I won't tell the rest of the story this time, because there are probably viewers who will want to check out The Man From Planet X. It is a solid movie, one with perfect portions of creepiness, mystery, science fiction, and suspense. The story elements are familiar by now, but this film was original when it first appeared in 1951. It is not bloody, or overly violent in any way, and the alien probably wouldn't really scare young viewers, as most Saturday morning cartoons feature scarier characters now.

The set design is pretty impressive, though I can't really credit director Edgar Ulmer as much as I'd like. Many sets were left over from the bigger-budget Joan of Arc. Re-use of sets and props was pretty common then, and probably is now, too. Still, the movie does boast some amazing sets. The Scottish moors look large and mysterious. Each outdoor scene shows great depth and intrigue, although it was probably made on a small studio lot.

All in all, this movie is an enjoyable romp through classic 50's space sci-fi fare. It appears on cable now and then, making the rounds through late night monster movie shows and classic cinema offerings due to its surprisingly high quality and availability through Public Domain. It is also interesting to note that this is one of the movies chosen for preservation in the Historic Archives in the Library of Congress. I rate this movie 3 out of 4. Check it out!

Didja Know?

• This was filmed in an amazing six days on a reported budget of $41,000

• Robert Clarke was paid way under the SAG minimum of $175 a day only earning about $210

One on One with Bill Oberst, Jr.

Hollywood’s Horror Genre Actor Dishes on Social Media, Faith, and Zombies
(Part 1 of 2)

 

 

 

Right about now, you might wonder who Bill Oberst, Jr. is. Odds are, you already know him, you just don't know it.  He has starred in two Hallmark movies and appeared in the popular 1000 Ways to Die on Spike TV. Perhaps you are one of over 100 million Facebook users who checked out the hugely popular mini-movie app called Take This Lollipop this year.  If so, then this amazing actor has alreaqdy scared the bejesus out of you.  You know he can creep out the hardiest of souls. What you don't know from his movies may surprise you.

 

Recently, I was blessed to catch him on a rare break between projects, and after a recording session he agreed to an interview for Attack of the Killer B's. I promised a brief few questions.

 

I lied.

 

Ever the good sport, Bill went along, and shared some thoughts on spirituality, surviving in Hollywood, and the dangers of balloon animals. Grab some popcorn and get comfortable as I go one on one with Emmy-winning actor Bill Oberst, Jr.

Dax Bradley: I see you’re a pretty “techy” guy, all over the place, with facebook, your web site, youtube…

Bill Oberst, Jr: Yeah that’s pretty much the only way. You gotta be, that’s the only way you get word out, and stay current.

DB: I checked out your web site, and promotional pictures. I have so much to go into, and I wasn’t going to go here, but…good lord your physique is amazing. You’re a workout freak, yeah? I guess your job sort of includes your physicality as a product…

Bill: Yeah, you hit it right when you say ‘product’, because, I was a stage actor by training. I was on stage for 14 years on the East Coast. And on stage, you can be anything. I did comedy; I did historical characters, musical theater. But then, I came out to LA to do film in the middle of my life. I found that here, you have to really strictly brand yourself as to what you are. So, the camera sees my face as being…creepy, so that is sort of the basis for my brand, if you will.  I guess if I was detergent, I’d be Creepy Tide.

Now in addition to that, if you ask yourself, if you view yourself as a product, you say what do I have that could be an asset to me.  In one of the very first horror films that I did, I was wearing a wife-beater shirt. And the guy said, “You have like this really freaky ribcage,” and I thought, “Hmm, I should play that up”. So I constantly do pushups and stuff to stay lean, ripped, and maybe weird-looking.

DB: You crack me up, because I was looking at some of your promotional pics you did on your site, and the set where you have on this gas mask has your comments. In one, you said something like, “I wish I had worked on my biceps before doing this” I had to laugh, because, I wish I had those kinds of bicep ‘problems’!

Bill: Yeah, I guess I have to be kind of picky. I don’t consider myself an attractive guy. I’m never going to be an attractive guy. And part of my screen presence is this sort of creepy-from-head-to-toe kind of thing. For some reason, when you play these sort of odd characters, being lean and ripped, it helps.

DB: Well, you’re in good company. I mean, there are lots of people like Michael Wincott, who is scary-looking and buff, and Jim Caveizel, who interestingly also played Jesus, and now he plays psychotic people.

Bill: Yeah, I also played Jesus at one time.

DB: It seems like a bit of a conundrum, doesn’t it? Why do people who play a religious figure like Jesus, make convincing villains in darker roles?

Bill:  I think it’s because we constantly are portraying the very worst of humanity, and so it begs the question, is this all there is? Are we just animals who are only constrained by societal rules and whatever limitations we put on ourselves? Is that all we are? Or are we actually spiritual beings who can be better than that?

When you constantly play bad people, you think about what makes people behave this way. You become more interested in love than hate, because you constantly portray hate. You sort of live in it.  You live in this dark world of dark characters. It makes you very sensitive to the other side of it, the opposite side of it.  If you play demons a lot, you are very interested in angels.

DB: That’s an interesting metaphor. Now, let’s switch gears a little bit. You mentioned stage acting. The technicality behind stage acting is vastly different from acting on camera, right? Can you talk about that?

Bill: It is two completely different things. Here’s the way I’ll put it, because for some reason, sexual metaphors tend to be easier to understand for me, because I’m a guy (laughs). The stage is like a blind date. You meet a group of people; that’s your date. You’ve never seen them before. You don’t know what they like; they don’t know what you like. Over the course of the performance you find out what buttons they like pushed. They find out how to relate to you. You start to get into a groove, and then just before you’ve consummated, just before you’ve gotten close to them, the curtain comes down. Boom.

 

If you do that right, that’s what gives you the nice applause and the curtain call, because they want more. But they’re kind of glad they didn’t get it, because they might be disappointed. So it’s a really nice blind date that ends at the door.

The camera, on the other hand, is your lover. The camera is a hungry lover who knows exactly what she wants from you, and she will have it. If you don’t give it to her, she’ll look at somebody else. That’s the difference. I got the camera metaphor from Michael Caine. He wrote a book called Acting in Film and it’s genius. And he’s absolutely right, because camera acting is not really acting. It’s just being completely vulnerable and open. Whatever you’re acting like on film, you can’t really act it, you have to be it because the camera’s looking at your eyes. It’s like when we’re with our wives or whoever it is, you can tell by looking in their eyes whether they’re telling the truth. Same thing. The camera knows.

DB: So it’s two different skill sets. Hey, maybe that’s what happened to Shatner. He started out in theater also, where every move and annunciation is so dramatic and over-the-top. Then when he got to TV and movies, he didn’t tone it down, he’s still kind of…well, he’s Shatner.

Bill: Yeah, and he had the perfect role for it, with Captain Kirk. It is a perfect theatrical role. I’m a Star Trek geek, so I love Wrath of Kahn. Kahn seems like the perfect character. (Bill channels Richardo Montelbaun) “From Hell’s heart, I stab at thee, Kirk…”

 

For me, the only reason that I got started in film is because the first role that I got in film, which I didn’t even intend to get, it was Sherman’s March, a docudrama about General Sherman. And Sherman was a really big, theatrical character, which I’ve even done on stage. So I was able to fake it. But I knew absolutely nothing about being on film, so I was waay over-the-top, but Sherman was over-the-top. He’s the guy that said “War is cruelty; and the crueler it is, the sooner it will be over!”

So the role came off well, won awards and so forth. That’s when I thought, “Hmm. I should try film now if I’m ever going to try it.”  What I quickly learned was that if you’re not playing a really big character like that, you’ve got a lot to learn.  So I’ve been learning four and a half years now, doing film.

 

DB: You’ve probably spent a lot of time in the audition room, I take it.

Bill: There are probably tougher businesses in the world.  Maybe politics is tougher. I don’t know a tougher, more insecure business than acting.

DB: An actor told me once that you have to have a really thick skin, because if you go to a hundred auditions, maybe you’ll get one callback.

Bill: It’s like working as a marketer. You send a hundred flyers out in the mail. Maybe you’ll get a 2% response rate, so you know 98% are being thrown away. So you have to have that mindset. As long as you expect 2% to respond, then you’ll be OK.  Of union (Screen Actors Guild) actors, only 2% get to work consistently. There’s a 98% unemployment rate. And of the 2% who work, only 1% can actually make a living. So in the last four years, I’ve been lucky enough to be one of that 1% who is able to make a living acting on camera. So when I’m down, I count my blessings.

DB: So what’s next, can you talk about it?

Bill: My attitude is keep throwing stuff at the wall, and something will stick. I got a lot of projects coming up. Any actor out here who really hustles can find work. I’ve got four features coming up. I’ve just done three in a row.  I’m working on a fourth one now.  The best thing to do is go to my IMDb  (Internet Movie Database) page  and check it out: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2454994/

DB: I did that. Wow, you’re a busy guy. I think I counted 18 projects in 2012 for you. I was wondering…do you ever sleep?

Bill: (Laughs) Not much, no. Opportunity out here comes in weird ways. You met somebody on a set. They know somebody, who knows somebody…and you get a phone call. So the only way to work is to work. If you don’t take the jobs that you might not particularly want, you might not ever get to the jobs that you do want. If you have a reputation as a guy who works a lot, people might be more likely to hire you because you like to work.

Sometimes, it takes a year or two for the film you did to come out. There’s one I did called Children of Sorrow last year. I’m real excited about it. I play this cult leader in the desert. It’s really a hard-edge film. It’s sort of disturbing (see the trailer at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW_FRa5HhNE )   We’re starting to look for distribution, going to festivals. When that starts you realize that was… (Counts to himself)...one, two….seven, eight….nine films ago. So that’s a good thing about working a lot, you’re not sitting around waiting for this one film to come out.

DB: So, you don’t see your movies until they come out, the same time everyone else does? Do you sit in on the dailies?

Bill: The only time you get to see any bits are when you do the ADR, the dialog looping. Sometimes you have to re-record spots where the sound wasn’t right, but that’s all you’ll get is that little tiny piece where it didn’t sound right, that you have to fix.  Usually, you see it with an audience for the first time, at a preview or something. You sit in the back, and hopefully not cringe.

DB: Did you acquire your skills in professional training? The things you convey without uttering a word is pretty amazing. I showed my wife Take This Lollipop (the Facebook interactive short film), and it was tense! The emotions you conveyed, the anger, hurt, and everything…wow.

Bill: I appreciate you saying ‘hurt’, because I try to bring that to all of these bad people that I play. Because I don’t think that evil comes from a purpose of just saying, “Ha haaa! I want to do bad things!” I think a lot of times it does come from hurt that has never been healed. That’s what I was thinking of when I did this character, was that this guy is obviously bent on harm. But, he kind of feels like people don’t…like him. Maybe they deserve what they’re going to get because they don’t like him. It’s not true, it’s sort of twisted logic. But I appreciate you saying that.

DB: I read somewhere that the best villains have a sympathetic backstory. Maybe there’s some truth to that.

Bill: For me, someone who does bad things, but feels conflicted about it; that’s the gold standard. That’s what I really, really like to play. That’s more interesting. Maybe a person who whispers instead of shouts. Someone who says, “I’m really sorry I have to do this.” To me, that’s much more frightening.

That’s much more human. We actually hurt each other all the time. We may not kill each other. Humans are so dichotomous. We say, “We are good, and those people over there are bad,” but the truth is, dozens of times as day, we wound other people with our thoughts. It’s there in all of us.

DB: So you have to draw on pretty dark themes. Is it hard to ‘come out’ of it? Do you consider yourself a method actor?

Bill: Nah, I’m not trained as a method actor. I just make it up. I just try to feel things. I pray a lot before I do these roles. And I don’t mean that I say, “Oooooh Lord, I beseech thee! Wilt thou help me?” I just acknowledge to Him that I am weak, that I am a sinful man by nature. And that there is nothing good in me, outside of Him. And let me, if only on a subconscious level, show people what humanity is like, without God. And yeah, it is a really dark place, and you don’t really want to talk to people before or afterwards.

I’ve had people on sets see that I’m really focused and they say, “Well, he must be a method actor”, but I’m not, I just feel a real responsibility.  Maybe somebody who was thinking of doing something really horrible may watch this movie. They will see the futility of relying just on our own goodness as humans.  I don’t think that humans have inherent goodness. I don’t think that we’re naturally good. We’re naturally pretty cruel to each other.  Even though normally I don’t get to talk about this, and that’s why I appreciate this interview. I sure don’t get to talk about it onscreen, so I try to really put it into the eyes of the character.

DB: Is it difficult to be a witness in your industry? It seems a little taboo almost, in a liberal area. Do people think, “Oh boy, a Jesus Freak”?

Bill: You know, I used to have this ministry where I toured and played Jesus. I recreated His teachings. I did this for 12 years. I met hundreds and hundreds of people.  Frequently, I would go to an area where people would literally flock to church for it. These people would never have come, but they came for this, because it was the teachings of Jesus. Not a preacher.

I had an old man once; he waited around for everything to be over, for me to take off my costume. I came out and he was the only one left. I said, “How do you do, pleasure to meet you,” and he said, “I’m gonna tell you something: I don’t give a good damn about religion. But Jesus is alright.” That’s the way people out here are in the industry. I never meet anybody who dislikes the teachings of Jesus, or disagrees with what he said. What they have a problem with is the hypocrisy of Christianity. I completely understand.

By nature, people who work in this industry are sensitive, and they are emotional. They tend to be open-minded because they deal with a variety of subjects on film. And they are very sensitive to being judged. Of course, Christians are very sensitive to being judged too, so you’ve got these two groups who can’t talk to each other. So in my own way, I try to be a bridge, and hopefully somebody will notice. Maybe they’ll see the cross I wear, and maybe they’ll say they don’t believe in Jesus, but that there is some pretty interesting stuff in the Bible. So absolutely, yeah, I’ll get into a conversation, and it always strikes me, because you know Jesus, he always meets people right where they are at.

DB: It is interesting, isn’t it? People associate Jesus with words like ‘peace’, ‘love’, ‘prophet’; when asked about Christians, you know, followers of Jesus, the word association changes to ‘hypocrite’, or ‘judgmental’.

Bill: You know, I wish the word Jesuit weren’t already taken, because I prefer that to Christian. I’m a follower of Jesus, and I’m into Jesus. As for the word Christian, I don’t know. I’m not even sure what that means. I’m into Jesus, and I love Him. He is my light. He is my Jehova Jireh, the way, the truth, and the light to me. But to call myself a Christian puts me in a group of people that I frequently disagree with. If they follow Jesus, then that’s awesome. But if they say that if I’m part of their group, that I must also follow all of their opinions, no, I don’t.

The thing about Jesus is, it’s about surrender. He surrendered to the will of His father. That’s what it’s about; it’s saying, “I surrender to you. Whatever you have planned for my life, I want that, more than what I want planned.” You know, there are no actions or activities that we can do to earn Grace. You have to surrender in order to get it. You know what I mean?

DB: Yeah, absolutely.

Bill: That’s missed a lot of times. People think it’s about doing service for God, or ‘What can I offer’…you can’t offer anything! Like I can say, “Oh God, I give my talents to you,” but really, where do I think the talents came from? It’s already His! I can’t give Him anything that’s not already His.

DB: I hadn’t thought of it that way.

Bill: So, when I first started doing these dark roles, I was kind of conflicted about it.  I thought about how I don’t want to lead people down dark paths. But, the doors kept opening.  And it’s like; ok…I’m going to play these people on screen.  And then off-screen, I’m going to talk about you (Jesus).  And so that’s what I do. And you know, I’m glad I play sort of the antagonist. You know, all the parables of Jesus have antagonists.

DB: Yes, that’s true. The Bible is replete with lots of scary stuff.

Bill: Yeah, I was just reading yesterday in the first chapter of Mark. I have a devotional I read every morning, Oswalt Chambers. It gives me a good excuse to read whatever chapter it is. Anyway, in the first chapter of Mark, Jesus is teaching in the synagogue.  This guy stands up, and he’s possessed. He says, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? We know who you are, the holy son of God!”

Well, Jesus comes over to him, and lays his hands on him, and the demon leaves the guy and cries out with a loud, piercing shriek - that’s scary stuff! That’s real scary stuff, the demoniac, rushing out of the tombs, naked and in chains, saying, “Our name is Legion-for we are many”.  Yeah, the Bible is absolutely replete with that stuff.

DB: You mentioned before that you’d like to do a spiritual movie. Is it your goal to do something along these lines, like a possession movie?

Bill: Yeah, I’m struck by the fact that when Jesus was baptized by John, He rose up out of the water and what happened? The Spirit of God comes down, and says, “This is my son, in whom I am well pleased.” Now, in the very next verse…the Holy Spirit immediately sends Him out into the wilderness with the wild beasts.  Satan then tempted Him, and the angels ministered to Him. And I’m like…Whoa! He’s saying like…”Here you are, you’re my blessed son. Now I’m sending you out into the freakin’ desert, with wild animals, and the prince of darkness!”

DB: Kind of goes right for the jugular, huh?

Bill: Yeah. I do not think there’s much in our culture that talks about how we have to wrestle with the darkness and demons ourselves.  And I definitely want to do a project about that.  There’s one I’m working on called Lord Bateman. It’s a demon sort of script, and the idea is it’s about a man who has really dark desires, and rather than fight them, he acts them out. He can’t deal with this, and so he comes to believe that he actually is a demon that has been put on the earth as punishment to live as a human.  He can’t deal with the fact that as a human being, he has these urges, and he has to fight the demons.

So I did a photo shoot in character as the demon that he imagines himself to be.  He’s all red and dripping with bile, horns, the way you traditionally imagine a devil in your dreams (some pics are at  http://www.morehorror.com/Horror-Movie-Lord-Bateman-in-Development-at-Dismal-Productions). We’re working out the script for that one right now. But yeah, the whole fact that we’re tempted by the devil and we’re tempted by demons, the fact that there’s spiritual warfare that’s going on all the time…that’s rarely hit on. I want to tell people that it’s natural; that we all have demons, we all fight them.  You can only do it day by day.

DB: Well, it sounds very interesting, like it has more layers than a typical possession horror movie. It sounds like you hope to sort of ‘humanize’ the theme, and make it not so black-and-white.

Bill: There are people interested in it, and they don’t share the faith necessarily that you and I do. All cultures and all religions have demons.  There’s a universal fascination with that. An old preacher told me one time…you know those older signs that you see on churches, the ones with the letters you change around? He said that if he put up that he’s preaching on the word of God, he’ll have 50 people show up. If he puts up that he’s preaching on hell-fire, he’ll have 500.

I believe in a literal devil and I believe in literal demons. I know that I have wrestled myself, with them.  People could say, “Oh, he’s crazy.  He’s played all these insane characters,” but I’m telling you…a man knows if he’s wrestled with Satan.  I know that if Satan is tempting you, he’ll come through the doors he thinks he can get through.  If you manage to close those, he’ll come around the other side, and see if there’s a window cracked. He wants to pound and pound on you, ESPECIALLY…if you are professing your faith in Christ. I believe that if you are publicly professing your faith in Christ, the devil does not want to just dissuade you.  I believe he wants you dead.

DB: That’s true. If you are in God’s army so to speak, and doing right, you’ll definitely have a target on you. If you are not facing Satan sometimes, you must not be a threat. Something’s wrong.

Bill: Jesus himself said, “If people speak ill of you because of me, rejoice and be happy. The time when you should worry is the time when people say good things about you,” so, yeah…now, I’ve officially crossed over into Religious Fanatic Territory. Thank you, Dax (laughing).

Author's note: Stay tuned for the 2nd part of our exclusive 2-part interview with Bill Oberst, Jr in the coming days as he delves deeper into faith, his horror film inspirations, and more!

For more information, check out Bill’s resume at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2454994/

Also, check out these cool links:

www.billoberstjr.com

www.billoberstjr.blogspot.com

www.twitter.com/billoberstjr