Thursday 14 Oct 2021 5:41 pm
Halloween Kills actor Anthony Michael Hall had a pretty funny encounter with Jamie Lee Curtis when they met for the first time on set of the new sequel.
Hall, best known for starring in the Breakfast Club, has joined the legendary horror franchise playing the grown-up version of Tommy, the youngster who escaped Michael Myers’ clutches in the original 1978 Halloween.
It sounds like the actor was thrown in at the deep end when he met the franchise’s most iconic stars, Curtis, who was ready to give him a bloody welcome.
Recalling their first meeting, Hall told Metro.co.uk: ‘I met her as a kid in the 80s when I was a little boy, and she was really cool then.
‘When I saw her on-set the first time in Willington, North Carolina, the way it was scheduled she started a week or two into production. I was standing by and she was shooting a scene at the Haddonfield hospital, I was lost in my thoughts between takes and all of a sudden I see these two bloody hands appear before my face, and she was like waving her bloody hands.
‘She was already on a stretcher in the aftermath of the last film where it picks up. So the first image I have of Jamie Lee on-set was these two bloodied hands, fake blood, and I could see between the fingers that it was Jamie Lee.
Praising the scream queen, Hall continued: ‘She was awesome, gave me a big hug and welcomed me to the franchise and I have to say that she’s really a stand-out person.
‘Not just as an actress but as a person, she really cares about people… and has grown as a person in her life over the course of her career. As a wife, a mother and a creative she’s a wonderful lady.
‘I saw that on the set, she was very maternal in spirit with the cast and the crew, very loving and cracking jokes making everybody feel comfortable.
‘She was a real pleasure to work with and to work for. She was a great boss and as an actress, she was very giving and can turn it off and on like a faucet, she’s so experienced as an actress it’s like a second nature thing for her.
‘Great to watch and to work with.’
Hall was ‘honoured’ to join the Halloween family and admitted he didn’t find it too ‘daunting’ playing Tommy, who is one of the series’ most-loved characters despite only appearing in the first movie.
Sharing his thoughts on the popularity of the Halloween franchise, the actor said: ‘I think it’s the opposition of good versus evil, whether you’re watching a Marvel film or an old Western, I think that is tried and true.
‘So you have that staple built into the franchise and also, I think just the fascination with the idea of the boogeyman and the embodiment of evil. He’s a stalker, he’s a stalker, all those things but actually we know very little about him or what his motivations are.
‘So all those things create a confluence of really interesting elements that make the movie and the franchise beloved. The hero’s the villain in this case, just like they love seeing Laurie fight him.’
He added: ‘The performances are amazing, Jamie Lee was fantastic, so was Judy [Greer] and Andi [Matichak], they’re really in sync those ladies and they do a great job supporting each other both on and off camera.
‘It was just one of those experiences where it was a great filmmaker, wonderful crew that was totally right there in the trenches making it happen and then a bunch of really fantastic actors that all had a history with each other.
‘There was such good energy on set because everybody wants to make a good film. I’m just so honoured to be part of it.’
Halloween Kills hits cinemas on Friday.
- 15 October 2021
“Halloween Kills” slashed its way to $4.9 million in Thursday previews.
The Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions horror flick is the latest blood-soaked installment in the long-running “Halloween” franchise, a series that is firmly in its fifth decade. And despite being comfortably middle-aged, “Halloween Kills” is projected to generate $35 million to $40 million in its first three days of release. That’s a big drop from the $77 million bow that its predecessor, 2018’s “Halloween,” generated in its inaugural weekend, but it’s still an impressive figure. That’s because unlike that earlier entry in the Michael Myers chronicles, “Halloween Kills” will premiere on Peacock, the NBCUniversal-owned streaming service, on the same day as its theatrical release. That could curb ticket sales, as it has for Warner Bros. releases like “The Suicide Squad” and “Cry Macho” which have debuted simultaneously on HBO Max. That’s to say nothing of the ongoing COVID pandemic, which is far, far more dangerous, deadly and disruptive than anything John Carpenter, The Godfather of the “Halloween” franchise, could have cooked up.
“Halloween Kills” will have some competition in the form of 20th Century’s period drama “The Last Duel,” which is aiming to collect a muted $10 million in the U.S. That’s a paltry launch for a film starring Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer and Ben Affleck, which only delivered $350K in Thursday night previews.
“Halloween Kills” follows Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) after she learns that Myers did not die in the fiery inferno she cooked up at the end of the last movie. Laurie rallies her daughter Karen (Judy Greer), granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) and the town of Haddonfield to rise up against Michael Myers as he prepares for his umpteenth blood-letting. There’s already a sequel, “Halloween Ends,” scheduled for Oct. 14, 2022, so chances are she won’t be able to land a fatal blow. David Gordon Green returns behind the camera, having previously helmed 2018’s “Halloween.” In another life, he also oversaw small indies like “Undertow” and “George Washington” before making the move into more mainstream fare like “Pineapple Express.”
- Hall spoke to Insider and revealed how The Brat Pack in the 1980s was nothing but a media ploy.
- He also spoke about his role in “Halloween Kills,” out Friday.
- Hall also shared how he regrets not taking the lead in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
When Anthony Michael Hall burst into Hollywood, he quickly became known as the baby-faced sarcastic teen in the John Hughes movies, “Sixteen Candles and “The Breakfast Club.”
It led to instant stardom and an official membership into the beloved 1980s clique, The Brat Pack – the label used in a famous New York Magazine profile in 1985 for the actors who starred in “The Breakfast Club” and “St. Elmo’s Fire.”
But today Hall looks back on all that attention with nothing more than an eye-roll. Don’t get him wrong: He loved the films he starred in, he told Insider, but the idea that he, Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, and Andrew McCarthy ever hung out together is a tabloid-induced dream.
“It didn’t exist,” Hall told Insider of the famous group.
It took decades for Hall to run out The Brat Pack label, but when he did he resurfaced as a respected character actor giving impressive performances in such movies as “The Dark Knight,” “Foxcatcher,” and “War Machine.” Now Hall, 53, has nabbed a meaty role as one of the leads in “Halloween Kills.”
In the sequel to the 2018 “Halloween” release, Hall plays the adult version of Tommy Doyle, the young boy, who in the original 1978 “Halloween,” is terrorized by Michael Myers alongside his babysitter, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). In “Kills,” he leads the town in an uprise against Myers.
Hall chatted with Insider about being part of the beloved franchise, sets the record straight about what The Brat Pack actually was, and explains why he regrets not taking the lead in the 1980s classic “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
Hall said The Brat Pack never existed
In the past decade-plus you have really turned into a reliable character actor compared to your superstardom as a kid. Has that been intentional?
I have always had this workman’s attitude about it. I always knew when I was a kid that I wanted longevity so you don’t often have the luxury of “what part am I playing” or selecting things. So yeah, I just have tried to mix it up.
But even when I was a kid and doing the John Hughes movies and doing one year on “SNL,” I was never in a clique. I never benefited from being in a gang in Hollywood –
Alright, hold on. Hold on. You cannot say you were never in a clique. You were in the clique that started all cliques in modern-day Hollywood. You were a part of the Brat Pack.
Okay, here we go. It didn’t exist. It was a media ploy. Whoever was the editor of New York Magazine at the time, it was a set up. “Let’s get all these guys together and get them talking shit.” The truth is in that time frame, I was at the very young end of that group. I was literally still in high school. When we did “The Breakfast Club,” Emilio and Judd were in their early 20s and they are going out and having beers and I was a teen. So when they did that article I did feel that was a ploy to get all them yapping.
Fellow Brat Packer Andrew McCarthy has said he’s never met you. Is that true?
Yeah. I have never met him.
So my whole childhood has been a lie, thinking all of you were hanging out in the 1980s.
[Laughs.] And I also think audiences want the actors that they watch together in projects to be actually connected in life. They expect that. People will be like, “How are Emilio and Judd?” And I’m like, “I don’t know. I haven’t seen them in 14 years.”
Hall regrets passing on ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day’ off when John Hughes wrote the role for him
Which role do you regret not taking the most: Ferris Bueller or Duckie in “Pretty in Pink?”
Hughes wrote Ferris for me. I was busy with other work so I wasn’t able to do Ferris. It turned out to be the biggest hit he had at that time. And I thought it was a great movie for [Matthew] Broderick and for John [Hughes].
Ducky was also written for me. What happened was when I was a kid, John really wanted me to do both of those projects. To be very frank with you, he was offended and was hurt that I didn’t do the roles and we started to lose touch after that.
It’s one of the saddest things of my life because I loved the guy. He was a big brother to me. I spent a lot of personal time with him. I was his third kid. Back in the day when we did those films, I would hang out with him, and his wife, and two kids, so I was their third son in a way. I had a real close relationship with John.
Did it hurt you that he didn’t understand you wanted to spread your wings beyond him?
You have to remember, he wrote all these movies and there was a high level of sensitivity, almost like he still was a teenager in some regards because he would take things very personal.
If you could have talked to him before he passed away in 2009, which role would you say to him you should have done?
It would be Ferris because what I felt reading “Pretty in Pink” was it felt like a reboot of “Sixteen Candles.” The girl wants the handsome kid and the dorky kid is after her. To me it was replicating “Sixteen Candles.” But I thought there was a real uniqueness to Ferris. I thought that would have been a lot of fun.
If you think back at “Sixteen Candles” – that scene where I’m with the prom queen and I crash the Rolls-Royce and I break the fourth wall and I look into the camera? There’s the basis for Ferris. We discovered on set together. He would see that would work and that led to him creating a character like Ferris, who is always breaking the fourth wall.
Hall said he learned Paul Rudd was excited he was playing Tommy Doyle
So what is your take on Tommy, the repeated survivor in the “Halloween” franchise? Is he a good guy in your eyes?
I totally think so. [“Halloween Kills” director] David Gordon Green gave me this hero’s part, which is incredible. A lot has been said about this mob mentality in the film and the fact that with all the societal issues that have happened in the past few years since this movie was made, it’s almost like life is imitating art.
Is it different watching it now compared to when you made it due to the world being so crazy since then? The riot in the hospital has this feel of the Capitol riots.
Yeah, but it’s all happenstance.
I know the Blumhouse movies are ignoring the “Halloween” sequels that have been made, but did you do a deep dive into how Tommy is portrayed in other Halloween movies?
Honestly, I love what you said. I did none of that. [Laughs.] But I was taken off guard by one thing: A couple of weeks into the shoot, David texted me and said he got a call from Paul Rudd and he was excited I was playing the part. So I did get the blessing from one past Tommy Doyle.
“Minutes after Laurie Strode, her daughter Karen and granddaughter Allyson left masked monster Michael Myers caged and burning in Laurie’s basement, Laurie is rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, believing she finally killed her lifelong tormentor,” reads the official synopsis. “But when Michael manages to free himself from Laurie’s trap, his ritual bloodbath resumes. As Laurie fights her pain and prepares to defend herself against him, she inspires all of Haddonfield to rise up against their unstoppable monster. The Strode women join a group of other survivors of Michael’s first rampage who decide to take matters into their own hands, forming a vigilante mob that sets out to hunt Michael down, once and for all.”
ComingSoon’s Alyse Wax spoke with Halloween Kills star Anthony Michael Hall about stepping into the franchise, his relationship with the series, and what attracted him to the role.
Alyse Wax: So tell me how familiar were you with the original Halloween?
Anthony Michael Hall: Good question. You know, when it came out in theaters, I was born in ’68, so I’m 53 as I sit here, so I missed it in the theaters, but I remember that was at the beginning of sort of cable television. So I saw it in probably 79 or 80. It was either on Cinemax or Showtime. It had a very tangible effect on me. I remember, I think my parents were out that night and I was watching it. I’ve always had a crush on Jamie Lee Curtis. I haven’t even told her this, but I loved her and I remember how compelling those shots were, where you’re kind of from Michael’s POV and he’s kind of stalking her through the town and the kids are making their way across the street. I mean, I really remember that as a very visceral feeling that the film gives you, there’s that kind of voyeuristic thing. Carpenter’s score and direction. Incredible. So, it left a mark on me as a kid. It did.
So then when the opportunity came for you to play Tommy Doyle, how did that come about?
Well, it was a very fortunate occurrence. Basically I met with David Gordon Green at the end of the summer of 2019 before we made the film. It was at my request before I did my screen test and we just really hit it off. I was able to meet him at his hotel and within five minutes he was just such an open, cool guy, very fluid, very easygoing, great personality. We just talked about his vision for the film. Obviously, the last one we all saw was a massive hit. He did a phenomenal job, so I kind of wanted to just speak to him and get a sense of what his objectives were and how he liked to work and et cetera. Then I did my screen tests and I just kinda tried to rev myself up and give it my all and make those circumstances real.
So I felt very blessed, very privileged, and fortunate when I got the part and super excited because I’ve never been a part of a franchise with the exception of The Dark Knight, which I had kind of a small role in, so this is really exciting for me. I’ve never been in a franchise film that people were, that was so hotly anticipated, so I think it’s that combination of those things, knowing we made a great film, and David and the entire team really delivered. There’s also this great buildup and anticipation with audiences that are excited to see it. So it’s wonderful. A combination of things that have come together.
Being part of a franchise, have you kind of gotten the insanity of it yet? Or is that still building?
I think I know what you’re alluding to. Well this last year with the delay, I’m someone that my wife and I were often on YouTube like a lot of people looking for inspiration, looking for things to watch, and it’s almost like it’s replaced the library for people, right? It’s like a visual library. So, what I’ve done is over the last little year and a half at least, I’ve been watching all these fan sites, reaction videos, people that had comments or commentary about the test screenings and just trying to extract as much information from people that had seen the film. So that really plugged me into the whole fan universe. How beloved the franchise is. I really got a clear picture, particularly in this waiting period of how much this franchise excites people, how much they’re looking forward to it. So all of that adds up to it’s a great feeling. Again, on the flip side of that is knowing that the movie really has impacted and that there’s a groundswell of buzz about it is very exciting. Those things coming together make it an exciting time [that] I really feel very privileged and fortunate for.
So was that all of the research that you did for the film was just watching on YouTube or what did you do?
Honestly, I did look at the original film. I’ve seen a bunch of the others in the interim in that period of time, but I just really kind of dug into it. The script was so solid. I think one of the things that David and Danny [McBride] and Scott Teems have done beautifully is to kind of thread those characters from the original through 2018. Now the universe expands, and not only do they reintroduce us to all these beloved characters, but they also make room for other characters and there’s a lot of great cameos and supporting roles. So I think it’s really an amazing thing that they’re able to do, and they do it quite effortlessly. Because they’ve come from comedy into this world and they’re doing such a phenomenal job. So I think that those two things are the most exciting knowing that we have a great film that packs a punch and knowing that there’s an audience waiting for it is really a great combination.
In this film, you organize a mob of vigilantes. Do you think that this would be the kind of thing that you would do if there were a real Michael Myers that you would have to hunt down?
I mean, me personally, I have this sort of Italian Irish background and descent, so I kind of have a fighter’s mentality and I’ve always kind of applied that to my work. Just kind of being in show business this long. So, I kind of liken it to that in a way. It’s very interesting and fascinating, I think for all of us, how the world strangely with all these things going on societal issues and COVID, and the pandemic and everything, it kind of in strange ways kind of mirrored this world we’ve now seen for two years. So that was obviously unintentional and unplanned, but it’s really interesting too, though. Because I think what’s interesting is that the movie opens and everybody’s at the bar and we’re kind of commiserating about having survived all of his violence and the things that Myers has represented to the town.
But then everybody makes a very specific turn, I feel at least, which is ultimately very heroic. Not just Tommy, but all the characters. Kyle, her character of Lindsay, and Nancy, everybody kind of summons the strength to really combat this evil. They unify not only the survivors but as fighters. That’s the kind of mantra that Jamie kicks in when she says in that scene, “We fight now.” So I think this kind of classic theme of good versus evil, but now the inclusion of the town really summoning something deep within themselves to take him on makes it very special. It also gives us a very specific momentum that charges the movie, and it gives it a lot of energy as it opens.
What do you think is the lasting allure of Michael Myers? Why has he remained so popular for the last 40 years?
That’s a great question. I was doing my homework and watching a bunch of interviews that Jamie Lee and David had done, and David said something really interesting about it. There’s actually a very limited mythology of Myers. When you think about it, we don’t really know what makes him tick, but it’s that idea of storytelling is as old as the world. I think the idea of good versus evil, once again, this character that’s a stalker, he’s a predator, he’s the boogeyman. I think that there are some kind of classical things about this kind of evil character, but at the same time, people love it. Just like they love Laurie and Jamie Lee’s character. So I think it’s a fascinating thing that he kind of embodies and personifies human evil. At the same time, he’s something otherworldly as well because he just represents that kind of darkness in the world.
So I love those kinds of stakes. When I was a part of The Dark Knight or other projects, I love that kind of classic good versus evil approach and the storytelling. So for me, that gave me all I needed to really hit the ground running and to be a fighter as Tommy and to play that heroism, which as I said, I really feel like it’s there for all of us, all the townspeople really summoned that, that heroic intent to really combat him and go against makes it interesting.