Exclusive Interview: Robert Englund Talks Freddy’s Nightmares, Fear Clinic Movie, Upcoming Projects

He’s most widely known as Freddy Krueger, the sadistic bladed glove-wearing killer of those Elm Street teenagers unlucky enough to find him lurking in their dreams. In real life, though, actor/director Robert Englund is one of the nicest guys around. His fans saw that for themselves at Wizard World’s recent Minneapolis Comic Con, as Robert signed autographs, posed for pictures, and talked genuinely with each person he came in contact with.

In-between steady streams of fan interactions, I had an exclusive interview with Robert at Wizard World, where he talked about playing Dr. Andover once again in the upcoming Fear Clinic feature film, working in front of and behind the camera on the Freddy’s Nightmares TV series, upcoming projects, his ultimate dream role, and more.

How did it feel to step back into the shoes of Dr. Andover and reunite with director Robert Hall for the feature film version of Fear Clinic? Can you give our readers a tease of what to expect?

Robert Englund: This time Andover’s really damaged goods. He’s lost a patient and it’s really sort of made him snap. Time has passed. We go back and forth in time a little bit. It’s as if I was sitting with her sad little body for maybe a week before I even let the coroner know. I close the clinic and I’ve been sitting in my isolation tank trying to figure out what’s gone wrong and my hair’s grown out all long and I’m pretty twitchy.

Then some of my patients begin to come back to me—successful patients—and they’re beginning to have their phobia flashbacks. Something’s gone wrong and we begin to solve the mystery of what has happened, what has caused this. And I can give you a hint, certain words like, ‘Perhaps there was a leak.’ If the chamber in fact was a repository of fear, oh, that fear must go somewhere when the chamber’s empty or if the chamber’s sprung a leak.

So that’s part of the gist of it, the other part of it is that there was also a terrible Columbine kind of situation and some of the people that come back were affected by that. There’s a great character played by Thomas Dekker, the wonderful actor from Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and this is how his character figures into the story. We really got it right. Corey from Slipknot’s helping with the music. And he does a great, great part in it. Thomas Dekker’s contributing some music. Robert Hall and all the kids at Almost Human are working around the clock right now on post. I’m really pleased with it.

The TV show Freddy’s Nightmares featured a lot of directors, writers, and actors in the enthusiastic early stages of their careers. What was the atmosphere like working in front of and behind the camera on the set of Freddy’s Nightmares?

Robert Englund: I did that show because they gave me my directing guild card. I directed several episodes, so that’s how they lured me onto it. Plus, I was able to bring a lot of the young crewmembers from Nightmare on Elm Street Part 4 with me. I’d been with a lot of those kids since Nightmare 1, and a lot of them, by going onto the television show, they had such a good year that year, they were all able to buy new cars and have babies and buy their first house. It was non-stop work for them, and I really was happy that they could be rewarded for that transition.

We were told we were going to be a late night TV series, but in fact we were syndicated early evening in many markets. We got in a lot of trouble because our show is really nasty and violent, so that hurt us a little bit, and we only made it to 44 shows. But we had old friends—I had done a TV series in the ’80’s with Blair Underwood and Mariska Hargitay [Downtown]—I was able to get Mariska on the show, Brad Pitt did an episode and so did Lori Petty. A lot of those directors were terrific directors.

The crew and our producers went on to save Tales from the Crypt. The show was way over budget and it was going to be canceled, but by taking my crack crew and our crack producers over to Tales from the Crypt, it bought more time. I’m real happy that that happened, too.

In addition to directing episodes of Freddy’s Nightmares, you also directed two feature films, 976-Evil and Killer Pad. Looking back on your directorial debut, 976-Evil, what do you remember most fondly from that experience? Do you have any plans to step behind the camera any time soon?

Robert Englund: I may direct theater again. I don’t know. The problem with film is it takes a year of your life. There’s financing and pre-production, which I don’t like. There’s casting, which I don’t enjoy, because I empathize too much. Sometimes somebody comes in, you know immediately whether they’ve got the role or not, and it’s just not fair to put them through that experience. Sometimes someone reads better, but doesn’t look right for the role. And that’s always uncomfortable, because you can’t help but bring them back a couple of times. They’re making it live better than anybody else, but they just don’t quite look right for the role. And then once you’re shooting, you’re on the clock. I thought I would enjoy casting and I thought I would enjoy shooting a movie more, but you’re under pressure every day and it’s just about getting the day’s shot list done.

I like scouting locations, I like working with the art department, and I like post-production. I like editing, working with music and sound effects, and working with a lab. But I’m not ready to give up a year of my life anymore for that. It’s just exhausting and my body clock is sort of set by now as an actor, but I’m always acting. So my body clock works as an actor and I can always see the light at the end of the tunnel. When you’re directing, boy, that can change and get further away, that light. You gotta pace yourself and I’m not a kid anymore.

Each Nightmare movie seems to have its own theme—children suffering from the sins of their parents in the original, finding a sexual identity in Freddy’s Revenge, teen suicide and depression in Dream Warriors, the abortion subtext of The Dream Child, to name a few. What Nightmare theme did you most enjoy exploring?

Robert Englund: I love the idea, throughout all of them, that there’s a survivor girl: a woman warrior that gets the best of me. I love that sort of protofeminist woman warrior, which goes back to Japanese mythology and fairy tales and Wes sort of combined that with a Brothers Grimm kind of fairy tale and also the sort of suburban myth that is A Nightmare on Elm Street. The kind of contemporary American suburban myth. So I think all those things together are what really appeal to me.

It’s also fun to work with just some good old-fashioned Hollywood surrealism in the dream sequences. It’s always fun just to be on set with that stuff, because you’re allowed to act bigger, a little more operatic, a little more melodramatic because you have to live up to the scenery around you.

What types of scripts and roles grab your attention these days? Are there any types of characters you prefer to play to others? Is there a role you haven’t played yet but would really like to?

Robert Englund: I wish I would have gone back to the theater and done Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello. I’m a little too old now for that. Not quite sure I have the chops any longer. It’s a big role. But I understudied it once and I was really good. I even used a couple of the monologues to get a lot of roles in the theater.

But now I’m playing mostly scientists, professors, and stepfathers. Occasionally, I’m playing sort of evil royalty. It’s interesting. My face has turned into a kind of George C. Scott, Trevor Howard, Klaus Kinski—I’m kind of doing those roles now, Vincent Price stuff. Which is great because, had I not done horror or science fiction, I probably wouldn’t be offered those roles. I was in comedy a lot when I was younger and I was playing nice guys and best friends and Southerners. The only thing I would have probably been left with now would have been rednecks. And if I was a redneck, that would have probably been one of the first victims on The Walking Dead.

With Fear Clinic set for release later this year, what upcoming projects do you have that you're excited about?

Robert Englund: You can hear my voice on the new Ninja Turtles [on Nickelodeon]. I’m a spokesperson now on the Chiller channel, so I want my fans to watch the Chiller channel. They’re doing some great work within the genre. And I’ve been dabbling in some kind of fun, offbeat reality. I just did the Next Great Baker, which was fun because I’m a bit of a foodie. I think I’m going to have more involvement with Face Off; I know the fans like that. And I’m doing more cartoon voiceovers in the future, so look for that.

I’m off to England, I think, this summer to do another horror comedy in the vein of Shaun of the Dead. I’ve got a lot of interesting stuff. My people are in talks with me to do a kind of a—I don’t know if it’s reality-based or whether it’s fantasy-based—but I’ve heard rumors that I’m going to be working in a huge underground cave later this year, so we’ll see what that’s about. My agent’s calling it Die Hard in a cave. We’ll have to see.