Interview: Jamie Kennedy Talks TREMORS 5: BLOODLINES and More

This week sees the return of Burt Gummer (Michael Gross) in Tremors 5: Bloodlines which has the survivalist and beloved character fighting Graboids and Assblasters in South Africa with the help of his new cameraman, Travis Welker (Jamie Kennedy). The latest sequel in the Tremors franchise arrives on Blu-ray and DVD on Tuesday and injects the series with some new blood- and monster-fied twists- which should hopefully delight longtime fans and introduce a whole new audience to everyone’s favorite subterranean monsters that first emerged back in 1990.

Daily Dead recently chatted with Tremors 5 co-star Kennedy about his involvement with the latest sequel, his experiences shooting in the wild of South Africa and collaborating with franchise mainstay Gross as well as his thoughts on keeping  up with the horror genre’s rabid fans as well over the last few decades.

Thanks for speaking with me today, Jamie. Tremors 5 was a lot of fun and it was great to see another sequel after so many years. Were you a big fan of Tremors coming into this and did they approach you for the role or was it vice-versa?

Jamie Kennedy: Well, my agent had seen that it was going into production, and she talked to Universal. Then, I met with the director and had a chance to look at the script which I liked. Originally I think it was supposed to be Australia, and then they changed it to South Africa and I just thought it would be really cool, because there's not a person in the world who doesn't know Tremors.

It's like a mini Jurassic Park in a way, you know what I mean? It's it's own thing. I was like this is awesome and I was excited to be a part of it. I haven't done horror movies since Scream and I thought, this is kind of right in the same wheelhouse, it's own way. I was like this could be really cool and Michael was going to be the star of it again; he's the most beloved character in this series so I was excited to work with him.

Had you ever shot in South Africa before?

Jamie Kennedy: I was there before, I did some comedy shows but I've never shot there. It was a very hard; Tremors 5 was probably the top two or three hardest shoots I've ever had. It was very physical and we shot six days a week. We were basically out in what’s called the “Cradle of Humankind.” It was just really in the bush and there were a lot of animals everywhere; I had never experienced anything like it.

And the look of the movie is awesome. They really made it look big; we had an awesome DP. They did coloring, and used a lot of the scope. We had an awesome stunt guy. I think people are going to be surprised at how big it looks, for VOD. It's really put together quite well. It opens up again and if people like it, they could take it in a lot of new ways. You know what I mean? There could be more directions you could go with these stories. I'm not going to tell people what happens in the movie but as you know, there are surprises. I think people will discover that and go, "Oh man."

What I enjoyed about your character Travis is that you think he's sort of this kinda crazy, out of control guy but as you get to know him throughout the movie, he's got all these little surprises to him as well in terms of just how in control of certain situations he can be as well.

Jamie Kennedy: Yeah, I think that he starts out crazy and wild but he really wants to work with Burt so as he gets to know him, Burt starts losing it and Travis becomes the one that starts keeping him under control. And Michael who's our anchor is just really great and a lot of our other cast had just come off of Mad Max too so I’m sure Tremors 5 was a walk in the park compared to that.

Did working in South Africa give you an opportunity to get really immersed in that culture, then?

Jamie Kennedy: Oh yeah. Africa is a beautiful place, but the beautifulness comes with also tension. Everything must coexist. From the different animals that hunt and respect other, to the insects, to the humans. I think it was a great learning experience for me about how to kind of respect things. There's a lot of people that are different down there and a lot of things that are different, but everyone still respects each other.

Another thing I learned about Africa is that everything can be eaten. They'll eat anything down there. I ate all types of shit. It's good. The big thing is though, if you fall asleep too long, you might get eaten too (laughs).

How much fun was it working with Michael? 

Jamie Kennedy: It's funny. Michael is really tough in the movie and he plays this rugged, wild gun owner but in real life Michael is really that tough and physical. God, the guy is like 67 years old and then you see him running through the cow scene; he must of did that at least six times with a helicopter and even though the helicopter came really low, Michael just kept running. I had to try and keep up with him. At that moment, I knew this guy's for real. He's not just our nice, wonderful dad from Family Ties; he's like a rugged dude.

And Michael is really smart, very well read. He taught me a lot about other things in the world and what's going on around us. I remember we were stuck in Paris, and I didn't know where our plane was; Michael speaks French, so he got us on the right plane. He's just like that type of guy. And every night after doing all this crazy stuff, it would just be me and him, and we would just eat dinner by ourselves and look out at the giraffes. Those were nice moments.

I know we're getting close on time, but I wanted to ask how much fun it was for you to come back to the genre, in something so completely different than Scream? You have this legacy now because of your performance as Randy and with Tremors 5, it’s just such a different type of movie than that.

Jamie Kennedy: Yeah. Oh yeah, for sure. It's different but it does have some tongue-in-cheek moments that Scream has, but you're right. This is way more action-y. And it was fun because when you do a horror movie, you have to keep within this fan base, because they're very rabid, and if you're around for a while, then they're like "Well, where'd you go?"

To some of these people, they don't think I've been around since Scream so it's nice to kind of re-immerse myself and hope they enjoy it. Horror genre is just to me a great - it's not even a genre it's just great movies and if something is good, I love making them. I'm very lucky to be part of something that's so well-known and beloved by fans, in either case.