Anthony Michael Hall is a legend when it comes to the world of coming-of-age films. Just looking at his filmography from his years as a child actor, starring in iconic features such as “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club,” and “Weird Science” in a three-year period, there’s no denying Hall has made an indelible mark on films. And now, decades later, he’s doing it again, albeit in a decidedly darker atmosphere in “Halloween Kills.”
In this episode of The Playlist Podcast, Anthony Michael Hall joins us to talk about his role as Tommy Doyle in “Halloween Kills,” the highly-anticipated sequel to David Gordon Green’s massive “Halloween” from 2018. Over the course of the interview, it’s clear Hall is jazzed about joining the beloved “Halloween” franchise and doesn’t take any of it for granted.
“This is a very unique situation for me because I’ve never been part of a franchise or even a movie that people are expecting at this level,” Hall said. “I had a small part in ‘The Dark Knight’ years ago, but that’s the only thing that comes close. With [‘Halloween Kills’], I’m just so pumped about it. I’m just really excited, knowing how beloved the franchise is.”
Of course, one of the most interesting aspects of “Halloween Kills,” which finds the whole town of Haddonfield banding together to take on the deadly Michael Myers, is the social and political messages woven throughout the story. And as Hall explained, no one could have seen just how relevant those situations would be in 2021.
“That’s an amazing thing that just developed, that the [current] world just mirrored the world David was creating a couple of years ago,” he said. “COVID and the societal issues that seemingly divided us as a country, and globally, seeing how the world has changed, it’s an amazing occurrence how [the relevance] kinda happened. No one could have anticipated that.”
Towards the end of the interview, Hall reminisces about his decades-long career and the cringe experienced when seeing your formative teen years play out in front of the entire world, especially in some of director John Hughes’ most famous films.
“I refer to the John Hughes films as the ‘Puberty on Film’ trilogy,” Hall joked.
