Kim Henkel - writer, director
KH Robbie's a big guy, and he's usually a very gentle, soft-spoken character,
KH There were a lot of long, hard, hot nights. And then, when we finally got around to
Not much else was changed in any radical way. Bits and pieces were knocked off the head
although he has his moments. Once he put on that mask and he got that chainsaw in his
hands and we turned him loose, he was transformed. He was truly frightening swinging
that thing around, even though the chain was not engaged, and he was cutting his way
through those woods. It was the first time, I believe, that he had really cut loose
with that thing in close quarters with the crew around. He seemed to be out of control,
honestly. People were just scattering and diving behind trees and into the bushes right
and left.
shooting in the days, I think Austin had been in a drought for god knows how long,
something like 60 days and it was the middle of August, with temperatures in excess of
100 degrees. It was so hot the sand underfoot would burn your feet. It was pretty
miserable out there. We had people falling down right and left from incidences of
heatstroke if they weren't careful.
KH As far as the cuts that Columbia/TriStar made to the film before its release: The
first scene, in which you see the principal character of Jenny[ Zellweger ] in her home
situation, was excised entirely. Why, I don't know. You'd have to ask Columbia/TriStar
about that. Her home life, in that scene, was shown to be pretty unpleasant, and I'd
hoped that would resonate with what was going on later in the film. I've always described
the film as a black comedy about disfunctional families, and we see one side of it with
Jenny's domestic life and the other side of it in the dilemma with the ghouls.
and tail of a scene to shorten them up. There are a couple of scenes in the picture which
I think come out just a little bit choppy as a result of it, but nothing too serious.
really a good showcase for a lot of talent, not only the cast, but I also think we had
some excellent work by some people in our crew. I had hoped it would lead to some recognition
for all of those people involved, myself included. What has resulted, of course, has not
served that purpose at all. And I think that's directly a result of the release being token
at best.
Robert Jacks - Leatherface
RJ My first night on set I had to use a chainsaw for a couple of minutes. [ The crew ]
So I started to do it, I was hacking through these tree limbs, and suddenly everybody
had showed me that it just cuts like butter through these tree limbs. I tried it, and
that was it. So I was up for my scene, I had to cut through these saplings to get
to Renee, and I had to do this sort of viciously, and then run myself out of camera.
in the entire company leaves their posts because they thought I had gone insane.
Absolutely everyone except for Levie Isaacks, the cinematographer, who realized that
I knew what I was doing. To this day, half of them still think I really went crazy
and the other half think, "Wow, this fag can really do this." That was pretty funny
because I hadn't heard of anything like that happening on a movie set before.
a year later and do reshoots. The whole time, it was 17-hour days, out in the woods,
in the dark, with bugs crawling all over you. The chainsaw was heavy, 40 pounds, so
whenever I had to do running scenes, the crew would be off-camera holding a blanket
up to stop me while a stunt man would grab the chainsaw. We were all so emotionally
damaged by the end of the third week or so that Renee and I called a meeting with the
director and the producer because we were so beat up and so bruised up that we just
couldn't take it anymore, you know, mentally or physically, which is unheard of.
What you see in that movie is exactly what we went through. There isn't anything in
there that's fake. It's all real.
RJ Working with the crew was actually pretty fun. Because of my role, I was able to
deflect any kind of bullshit that they'd been given, and so they would beg me to throw
a fit by nine or 10 in the morning so they could do all the shots inside. I'd find an
appropriate time and then just throw a big fit so they'd close down the set. I really
loved the crew. They were troupers.
RJ On the opening weekend in New York, Debbie Harry went with some of her friends,
and she called afterwards and told me that they laughed and screamed and jumped and
had a real good time. Chris Stein thinks it's the best out of all the films. Exene
Cervenka adores it. Viggo Mortensen, Exene's husband who was in the third installment
of the series, thought it was great. As far as people that I know who have seen it,
they weren't just buttering me up about it, they really think it's hysterical. I think
that it lives up to what it is, but, you know, I think it has to be promoted in that
kind of a way.
Click here for interviews with Lisa Newmyer
Click here for an interview with Robert Kuhn [ co-producer ]
