Interviewed By John Delia
With Halloween coming on soon I took the opportunity to interview Kane Hodder the star of the fright filled flick Hatchet II on the eve of the film’s release at the AMC Veterans Theatre in Tampa, Florida. He has been in films since 1983 but most horror fans are familiar with Hodder as Jason in Friday the 13th when he did four consecutive releases as the monster. He has also performed stunts in over 70 film titles.
THE INTERVIEW:
Since director Adam Green is making a name for himself in the horror film genre, I asked Kane what it was like working with the man on Hatchet II.
Hodder: He is a fantastic guy. I said it a million times. He’s probably the most creative and talented young director that I’ve ever worked with. Considering he hasn’t directed all that many films yet, he is unbelievably talented. He’s a writer too, so directing his own material is always a plus. He’s enthusiastic and really knows what he is doing. In addition to Hatchet II, and I, I also worked in his film Frozen.
Did Green let you improvise with your character or did he not allow any deviation from the script?
Hodder: Adam is one of those directors that is secure enough in his ability that he will let you improvise. He’ll let any actor try anything and see if it works. Which is fantastic from an actor’s standpoint because a lot of times you’ll come up against a director that really isn’t that good and feels like he has to control everything.
Did you do all your own stunts in Hatchet II.
Hodder: I have been a stuntman for 33 years and that is what I started doing in this business. So any character I play I do all the action, for example in this movie and when I did the Jason movies it was always me.
How were you as a kid growing up? Were you a daredevil and did you like scaring people?
Hodder: I was pretty crazy, yah. I was pretty adventurous as a kid. I like to try things and I enjoyed entertaining my friends. Even in High School especially. I lived in the South Pacific and there were hardly any cars on the island we lived on. Everybody rode bicycles. So I would always stage bicycle crashes in front of people in order to get their reaction. The one crazy stunt that stands out is the time I went with my high school basketball team to play two high schools in Hawaii, and I went to the 35th floor at a hotel in Waikiki on the observation balcony. I thought this would be a good time to scare my friends. I was on a rail, just like it may be in a hotel room balcony, where it is 350 feet down. I climbed on the outside of the rail so that I am standing holding onto the rail with all the guys looking at me and I said what’s the matter as I took my hands off grabbing on again quickly. It scared the hell out of them and they ran back in the hotel. I was seventeen at the time.
So was this what made you seek out a career in film?
Hodder: You know I thought, I am doing dangerous things for nothing and there’s a business (filmmaking) that pays you to do dangerous things. And pays quite well I might add. So after High School I started investigating it.
Stunt jobs take a lot of nerve, strength and a lot of focus. Were you ever hesitant about doing a particular stunt?
Hodder: That’s part of the stunt business. Things are not always going to go the way they are expected. A long time ago I got burned doing a fire stunt, which I still do a lot of, but that was my first year in the business. I got burned seriously and it almost killed me. In this film I do a long big brutal fight scene with one of the characters. The two of us are slamming each other around on this set. It took seven hours to shoot the fight scene and within first half hour of it I somehow tore my bicep. But I still completed the scene. You can’t stop because that’s a stuntman’s job. If you can still walk and can still perform you got to gut it out in order to get the shot.
In Hatchet II did you feel you are a stuntman or an actor?
Hodder: That’s a tough question because I play two characters, the killer (Victor Crowley) and his father (in flashbacks) when victor was a little boy. So I have real emotional stuff to do in this movie so it is kind of equal as an actor and a stunt artist. I have played a couple of real life serial killers and even did a love scene in Hatchet II.
What were the call times like for you in Hatchet II?
Hodder: For me it was terrible because I had three and half-hours of makeup before I could be ready to work. So if I have to start working at 6 am, I’m in the chair at 2:30 am. Three and half hours to put on the prosthetics and makeup and then you have to work a 12 to 14 hour day. And then it took a legitimate hour and a half to take it off. So it made for some incredibly long days.
So what is in the future for you?
Hodder: I am writing my book. I am writing my life story that will cover my acting and stunt career. We are looking to release it next year on Friday the 13th of May. There are so many stories that are interesting I think people will respond to it. The book will also be about my burn injury. I am a burn survivor and I tell what I went through. It was my first film and couldn’t afford the proper protection at the time.