- Thrilling.
- Substantial.
- Surprising.
- Rewarding.
- Original.
- Fun.
- Fortunate.
- Amazing.
- Fantastical.
- F-U-N, fun.
- Unexpected.
- Unique.
- Um, bonkers.
- Titillating.
- Wow.
- Joyful.
- Deadly.
- Terror.
As an artist, as a creative
person, a filmmaker,
I'm interested
in this intersection
between horror and humor,
and I think Chucky
has turned out to be
an ideal mouthpiece for that.
Chucky is a monster.
All horror is based
on being preyed upon
by something with which
you cannot negotiate.
Chucky had to be
that first and foremost.
You're dealing with
really high stakes.
You're dealing
with life and death,
and people are being k*lled,
and this doll
is causing all this terror.
The idea of an animated doll,
a sentient doll
that can keep you company,
is a very strong idea.
I'm sure it goes back through
every culture into the cave.
And there's something
so delicious
about the... about the concept
of your plaything coming alive,
especially if it's
a murderous doll.
He makes real the fantasy that
we all have when we're children,
that the things that we play
with will come alive.
We tapped into
an inherent fear of people
for a doll coming to life
and trying to k*ll you.
In some way
that's very captivating.
So Chucky is always the bad guy,
but we... we also relate to him.
And he secretly acting out
our mischievous,
darkest, mischievous
bad boyness.
He has that sassy,
you know, f*ck you.
The fact that Chucky is
such a full-fledged personality
who has a girlfriend
and a child,
and none of that
domesticates him.
He still goes on
to wanting to turn people
into meat, um, is scary.
The whole idea was to make it
so lovable and so cute
with the dimples
and all that stuff.
I'm your friend to the end.
Hidey, hidey, h*,
ha, ha, ha.
Hey, wanna play?
No one would ever think
it would be a horrible thing.
You know, like I'm just all
Mayberry, but deep down,
I'm, you know, Dexter.
No, it's just
a momentary mix up.
Chucky still scares me,
to be honest.
You're never going to forget
being scared
by this innocent little thing.
People have nightmares
about Chucky.
You know, we've
all got to see him evolve,
go through every type
of circumstance and situation
life can throw at you.
People around
the world love this,
this little iconic b*stard.
He is considered
an iconic horror star.
I wasn't aware of the impact
of the Chucky films
and the fan base,
but when I started to travel,
I began to realize that it was
this universal thing.
There's a lot of doll movies,
a doll monster movies,
but Chucky is the best one.
Chucky is the king of them all.
It's because Chucky is part of
our primal fear of being prey,
which we all have.
It's universal.
My mother always taught me
love would set me free.
Am I going
to be a k*ller?
By the mid 1980s,
the horror genre had
successfully attacked moviegoers
with monsters and villains
of every kind.
Sensing an opportunity
for something different
to make audiences scream,
a young writer
crafted a screenplay
with a slightly different bent,
a fable-like tale
about a mother, her son,
and the k*ller doll
that comes between them.
It would prove to
a new generation
that big terror can come
in small packages.
My original impetus
for this idea,
it goes back to my childhood.
My dad worked in advertising,
so I became very aware
at a very young age
how cynical
the advertising business is.
I wanted to write something,
a dark satire about
how marketing and advertising
affected children.
- More games, more toys.
- Oh, boy.
I want to be
a Toys "R" Us kid
And this was in the '80s
when I was in school at UCLA
and Cabbage Patch Dolls
were hugely popular.
But the notion that these dolls,
these goofy dolls,
would cause literal riots in the
stores when they would sell out.
A full-grown woman taking a
doll out of a child's hand?
Being a life-long horror fan,
I, of course, had seen
Talky Tina and "Magic"
and "Dead of Night"
and "Trilogy of Terror,"
and I realized that using
the k*ller doll trope
would be a great way into
talking about the dark side
of marketing to children.
Don wanted Madison Avenue
to be the bad guy here.
Madison Avenue
meaning ad agencies.
When I was a kid,
I remember my sisters had,
you know, dolls that would pee
or they would cry or whatever.
And I just thought, well,
for a horror movie,
what about a doll that bleeds
and you'd have to go out
and buy buddy Band-A*DS?
It was a dark,
twisted marketing conceit
to get kids to buy more sh*t.
Each sold separately.
- Each sold separately.
- Each sold separately.
In my original script,
the doll didn't come to life
in the same way.
In my script, the doll was not
possessed by a serial k*ller.
The doll was sort of
a manifestation
of Andy's unconscious,
his ID, his anger,
and I thought
it was very interesting,
the notion that the doll, Buddy,
would go
after the kids
perceived enemies.
Trying to figure out who's
responsible for these murders,
never thinking for a moment
that it could even be possible
that it's a doll,
which is Don's original concept.
The original title
was "Batteries Not Included,"
and around that time
it was announced
that Spielberg's production
of "Batteries Not Included"
was in the works.
So we knew we needed
another title.
I wrote that script, and it
landed on David Kirschner's desk
in the summer of '85.
The other projects
that I had worked
on were completely
child friendly.
"Rose Petal Place,"
"An American Tail."
I really wanted to prove
that I could do something scary.
So my wife and I
were in London
and I came upon a book
called "The Dollhouse Murders."
And then I remember seeing
Talking Tina on "Twilight Zone."
My name is Talky Tina,
and I think I could
even hate you.
The idea of a doll coming to
life was something that I...
- I really wanted to play with.
- You know, I think my agent
at the time
sent the script out.
I don't think I ever knew, like,
who did it go to and who passed
or anything like that.
And I said, well,
I'd like to read it.
And there was so much
that was so good.
David Kirschner
was a great collaborator.
He was very inventive
and a great storyteller.
He had experience
in other areas of film,
but this was a new experience
for him as well.
I was intrigued,
I thought the writing was great.
All these studios
had passed on it,
but back then I think I was
just so naive that I liked it.
So why wouldn't
other people like it?
I thought it
was creepy and exciting.
And David was actually
the first meeting
I ever had with any Hollywood
connection at all.
Yeah, I mean, John was
incredibly young.
Even then, I mean,
he had a vision.
He was excited that
there was a potential,
especially after all the studios
passed on it.
When I first met with Don,
he brought a My Buddy doll
that was popular in the '80s,
My buddy, my buddy
My buddy and me
He was a cute little fellow.
And in Don's script,
Don describes Chucky...
Red hair, blue eyes,
freckles,
stripy shirt, red shoes.
All of that was in my script.
So I took that notion,
and then I drew the nightmare
version of what he looks like
when he's not that sweet toy.
=And I think
that was a crucial step.
What happened was I did
not go out with Don's script.
I took 18 pages
that I had written up
with changes
that I had made
and my drawings of what
this monster would look like,
and that's what I used in
in my meetings
when I went to all these
different studios.
Paramount,
Warner Brothers, Universal
and then United Artists.
I think there's a fifth.
I... I don't remember
if it's Fox or not.
The head of United Artists,
a wonderful man
named Tony Thomopoulos,
came to my office and said,
"Look, I want to give you a home
where you can not
only be successful,
but you can also fail.
And we'll do this together."
But the studio wanted someone
else to come in and write.
They brought in other people
instantly,
and I knew enough about
the movie business that, like,
okay,
this is just the way it goes.
I remember a meeting
at my house
and I invited Don to it,
and Tom Holland was there.
We were sitting around
my my breakfast table
just discussing all of this
and what it's going to be like.
I was very excited
to be meeting Tom Holland.
You know, he was, you know,
someone I admired.
I loved the script
for "Psycho II."
I also had loved his movie
"Cloak & Dagger"
that he wrote.
And "Fright Night"
I thought was great.
What happened was I finished
"Fright Night" and I took
"Blood Buddy," as it was called
at the time,
and tried to get a script
out of it, and I couldn't do it.
And that's because I didn't want
to disturb the original script.
But there was no bad guy.
And he was just
sort of talking about
some of the changes
that they were going to make.
And the first one
was the notion
that they were
going to make the doll
possessed by a serial k*ller.
You know, I felt that
it was less interesting,
but I think it was deliberate
and probably correct
and smart of them
to make it simpler in that way,
to make Andy the clear hero
and Chucky the clear villain.
So Tom came in initially
and he was going to do
a draft of the script,
but for some reason
he fell out.
I couldn't build a story
with a rising suspense line,
which I wanted, so I gave up
because I was going crazy trying
to get it and couldn't do it.
And I left and I made...
And while I was gone,
it went to somebody else.
They went to John Lafia
to do the rewrite.
And he hit a home
run with that script.
I mean, there were notes
that the studio had,
but they moved forward
immediately.
I mean,
it was pretty darn quick.
With the script
in active development,
the next step
was finding a director,
someone who not only understood
the horror genre
but the kind of terror,
action and drama
the movie could create.
I met with a lot
of directors, William Friedkin.
I had so much respect for him.
Irvin Kershner, who directed
the second "Star Wars,"
Robert Wise, who directed
"The Sound of Music,"
which was shocking
that he was even interested.
- But he really was.
- In this period,
there were a couple
of other directors
that Kirschner
was flirting with.
One of them was Joseph Rubin,
who had just done
"The Stepfather."
Another director possibility
was the duo of Rocky Morton
and Annabel Jankel,
who had done "Max Headroom."
They offered it to everybody
in town countless times,
and everybody in town
turned it down countless times.
And then it came back to Tom,
and Tom came back onto it.
I saw that
he did "Fright Night"
and several other films
in the genre,
and I was impressed
with his work,
so I felt
pretty confident in him.
I think I loved
"Fright Night" so much.
I mean, it really spoke to me
and it just really felt like
this guy knew how to do horror.
I was also extremely hot
in Hollywood at that moment.
"Fright Night" had come out
and it was a solid success.
They were desperate
for a director.
They probably would have
taken anybody at that point.
Tom had a vision
for the film.
I mean, there was Don's script,
there was John's script,
and then his rewrite.
I was talking to Dean Riesner.
Dean Riesner was
a great Hollywood writer,
and Dean said something about,
"well, did you ever think
about doing it from the point
of view of the k*ller?"
And then I had more of a story
and it started to come.
I totally get
why David Kirschner
and John Lafia and Tom Holland,
why they would change it
in the way they did.
And I, you know, can certainly
see the upside.
I went into "Child's Play,"
which is my title.
With a director on board,
it was time to search
for the film's cast.
In the role of skeptical
detective Mike Norris,
Tom Holland landed on someone
who understood
the often surprising worlds
of drama, fantasy and horror.
As far as the character
of Mike Norris is concerned,
in a way, he's a prototype.
I was excited by that casting,
and I thought he did
a great performance
and he had
a hard part as well.
He is the sort of mythical
figure, the doubter,
the person
who has to be convinced
of this bizarre reality
that's occurring in this movie.
I got The Strangler,
Wabash and Van Buren.
I've worked with Chris
whenever I can
because he's a brilliant actor
and he's also
a wonderful human being.
There was a period where,
you know, it was teetering
whether I was going
to do it or not.
I don't remember
the pushback particularly,
but I know
that Tom and I had did have
a very specific conversation.
And I said to him, go with the
guy you feel comfortable with.
As I understood it,
the enthusiasm was not
mutual from the studio.
It was just Tom saying
I want him, them saying,
"Well, what about so and so?
What about so and so?"
And Tom saying,
"No, it's Chris Sarandon."
I just remember there being
a great deal of excitement
that we got Chris Sarandon
for this little movie.
Being a huge fan of
"The Princess Bride,"
I was like a fanboy.
I thought, this movie's
going to be really
quite an experience,
just a no brainer in terms
of whether
this was going to touch
some sort of a nerve or not.
To play single mother
Karen Barclay, an actress
was chosen who had already
proven her on screen mettle
by surviving in the desert,
making it through
a high school reunion
and even helping
the Federation.
I like the script because I
like the role of Karen Barclay.
I thought she was complicated.
I knew there was
a lot of drama to play.
Catherine came in.
I think she'd done that movie
about the whale.
What's going to happen
when you release the whales?
They're going to have
to take their chances.
She just seemed like a mom
and she came in with that vibe.
I mean, she clearly had given
this a good deal of thought.
She rose to the top
because she was attractive,
and she had
a kind of homespun-Midwest-mom
quality
that we really liked.
She was likable, seemed like
a kind and decent person.
I think that that warmth that
she naturally has I imagine
is what attracted Tom
and David to casting her.
She had a lot to her.
It was a big role, complicated.
There was a lot of backstory,
very great emotional scenes.
I think that she sells
everything in that movie.
There was a lot
to sink my teeth into.
That's why I liked the project.
I knew it would be a challenge,
so I was pretty happy.
With mother and detective
roles filled,
the film faced the challenge
of an arduous audition process
to find Andy Barclay,
the little boy object of
Chucky's soul swapping desires.
I don't remember
the first Chucky audition,
but I do remember
being flown out to L.A.
to audition against
just a couple kids
that were left in the running
for the part.
There was something,
a sweetness about him,
but there was also something
a little bit depressed.
There was something
a little bit guarded
- or unhappy in him.
- The kids who seemed
most natural were
the ones that we picked up on.
Alex pretty much rose
to the top.
I thought Alex Vincent
was very, very good.
Alex did not have
that Disney kid kind of vibe
to him of just, you know,
constant smiles and whatever,
and he stood out.
We did the scene
where I say the line...
He said that Maggie was a real
b*tch and got what she deserved.
And I didn't want to say
b*tch in front of my mother
at five and a half,
six years old.
So when I got to that line,
I froze up
and I said
that I don't remember the lines.
There was no artifice
about him.
There was no cuteness about him.
He was real.
More than that,
I think it showed the innocence
that they needed
from Andy in me.
How can you say
something so horrible?
I think that line helped me
get the part at some level.
I thought hands down it was
the kid that I wanted.
With the watchful detective,
loving mother and innocent child
ready to play,
it was time to get scary
with the film's antagonist,
the despicable Charles Lee Ray.
Brad came on board
because of Tom.
That was Tom's relationship,
Tom's idea,
and it's clearly been
a great idea
since he's the star
of this franchise.
Brad had been the heavy
in "Fatal Beauty" for me,
so I knew what
he was capable of.
Kevlar, b*tch!
I read the script and, you know,
I talked with Tom about it.
It was a good script,
and he asked me
if I wanted
to do it, and I said sure.
That's my memory of it.
We didn't really go
through other people.
Pretty much
it was Brad all along.
I also loved Brad Dourif,
and I think he's a good actor.
And I think he enjoyed it.
I did "One Flew Over
the Cuckoo's Nest"
and I played a crazy person,
and that's sort of
the way people saw me.
When Brad is playing
Charles Lee Ray,
he is such the epitome
of an eccentric, bizarre
and also maniacal individual.
He was generally a sleaze
and, you know, a serial k*ller
who k*lled women before
he became sort of a general,
you know,
all sex liberal m*rder*r.
And Brad slips
into that quite easily.
He's an extraordinary
human being I think.
A smart, funny
and also highly imaginative.
And it was a blast.
It was really a blast.
Brad's on his own
kind of planet,
which makes him perfect
for the character.
And Chris Sarandon is great.
You know,
he's a wonderful actor.
It's very fortunate
that we had two weeks in Chicago
to rehearse this movie.
You think
you can f*ck with me?
When he came out to Chicago
and he and I and Catherine Hicks
acting out parts from the film
where he got down on the ground,
was crawling around
like Chucky.
Andy, stop her.
I'm your friend to the end,
remember?
This is the end, friend.
And I would
just squat down low
so that they would
get used to...
and I played Chucky,
which was actually a lot of fun.
It was like doing a play.
It was drama, drama, drama.
Either it was impactful
and the movie worked,
or it wasn't,
and then the movie
wouldn't work.
Then they would say,
when you get to L.A.
you'll... you'll meet the doll.
And I was like,
oh, that's right.
It's, yeah, it's got...
it's got a doll.
It's a little bit
of a horror film.
Whatever. Let's go back
to working with Brad Dourif.
All I had to do
was be charming.
It's impossible at this point
to imagine anyone
but Brad Dourif voicing Chucky.
There was a phase where Tom
tried using another voice
for the doll,
and it was Jessica Walter.
- That is true.
- I didn't even know that.
The only Chucky voice I ever
worked with was Brad Dourif's.
I had no idea
that Jessica Walter
was initially cast
as Chucky's voice.
Her voice was going
to be separate
than Brad Dourif's voice.
Brad would be the k*ller,
and she would become the doll.
The logic being that because
a woman, Mercedes McCambridge,
had voiced the devil
in "The Exorcist"...
Now kindly undo
these straps.
I think Tom's logic was he just
thought it might be interesting
to hear a woman do this.
I reached out
to Brad Dourif to voice Chucky,
and Brad was not available.
I tried all these
voiceover artists,
and none of them seemed
to have the bloodthirsty glee
that I wanted.
And then I thought
of Jessica Walter,
who's a brilliant actress
and who scared the sh*t
out of me
in the Clint Eastwood movie.
So I had her come in
and I had her do Chucky.
And it didn't
really work.
It was just
a little distracting.
You know, it was
probably really funny
and a great deal of fun,
but just wrong.
It just didn't seem to have
enough gravel to it,
for lack of a better word.
I believe a female voice
for Chucky
would have been
very counterproductive.
It's not a girl doll,
it's a boy doll.
I'm a g*y guy, so I think
I'm allowed to say it.
Chucky sounded g*y.
I tried putting filters
on... on Chucky's voice,
and I was just about
ready to sh**t myself.
So thankfully Brad came back
when he was available
and voiced Chucky
and it worked perfectly.
It wasn't that he was
so frightening,
but he also captured the humor,
the glee.
His inflection, the rhythm
of the way he speaks,
Brad Dourif just nails
the voice.
And Chucky became his.
With the human cast locked
down, designing, constructing
and operating
the film's murderous doll
was a major undertaking.
The responsibility fell to an up
and coming monster maker
who had already worked
with two titans of terror.
It would ultimately fall
on his shoulders
to make this movie's
mechanical maniac his third.
Studio said to me,
it's obviously going to have
to be some kind of animatronic
that makes this work,
but they didn't seem
to trip over it.
And I knew that he had
to start out
being cloyingly cute and sweet,
and I need to have him
turn into the devil from hell.
Something out
of your worst nightmare.
Animatronics had progressed
to the point
that the doll could do anything
that I could write.
They could like, articulate
and have emotion.
It was a very, very difficult
to make
because nobody had ever done
a puppet movie
asking that puppet to do
what I was asking him to do.
I had met
with a host of people,
and Kevin, even his studio
was so impressive.
I grew up on watching
all the classic films.
So it was "Frankenstein,"
"The Mummy," you know,
"Creature Lagoon
from the Black Lagoon,"
all those things,
And that's what kind of
got my interest in horror.
And I was just so taken
by him and his passion.
I got a call from the producer,
David Kirschner,
who had been talking to makeup
effects man named Rick Baker,
who I was a huge fan of.
I got to work on "Thriller"
and all that stuff
and got to know Rick.
I had just finished "A Nightmare
on Elm Street 3,"
and I turned on
the big Freddy snake head,
and it was animatronic,
and that impressed him enough.
I went in and when I met
with Kevin,
he felt very strongly
that this could work.
I think he right
then just said,
I really want you
to do this film.
I'm like, yeah.
I was working for
Kevin Yagher,
and, uh, Kevin came
in one day and said,
hey guys, we're going
to do this movie
called "Child's Play,"
and we're going to
create Chucky.
And I was like,
this is going to be cool.
Howard was like my main
right hand man at the shop.
He just had a great
bedside manner.
He's a wonderful,
funny human being.
It wasn't a lot of us,
like Kevin had a very,
very small crew.
None of us had ever done
anything like this before.
So Kevin assembled
a great mechanical crew
and a great art crew.
David sent me the script
after we had a first meeting.
He showed me a picture
of this doll
that looked very much
like the "Magic" doll.
I felt like, okay,
that's kind of the flavor
of it, you know,
we get.
His design
of the look of the doll,
based on my description,
was obviously a very important
part of the ultimate
look of Chucky.
Kevin Yagher made contributions
to that as well.
But then you know,
Tom Holland, the director,
would come in
and David Kirschner,
the producer, would come in
and there'd be some changes.
And then Kevin wanted changes
and you would see it evolve.
So we just started saying,
make it cuter, make it cuter.
There was a doll
out called Corky,
and it was an animatronic doll
you could actually talk to.
Gee, Corky,
when you talk about
something, it's almost real.
I know some great songs, too.
It was just like it make it
as cute as Corky.
I got tired of that phrase.
I never, ever once thought
that the cuteness
of the original doll
was going to be a problem.
I give a dimples
and bigger cheeks, you know?
You know, cheeks that,
you know, were fuller faced.
And then we changed
the eyes blue.
I went to Dave
and I said, "Listen.
As he becomes more human,
be really great
to make the eyes colder.
Can we go ice cold?"
He said,
"We just hired this actor
named Brad Dourif.
And the funny thing is,
he's got ice cold blue eyes,
so that would work out perfect.
The movie defines
the character.
What happens defines
the character.
I thought it was going
to be an asset.
So we changed Chucky's eyes
to like, sky blue.
But as he becomes
more human in the film,
those eyes go icier cold.
Kevin gave me a
call and told me
me that he was going to be
building the doll
for this... this film.
I started working with him
on "Cocoon"
and also Weird Al Yankovic's
"Fat" video.
They contacted me
originally to make the costumes
for the... the dolls.
It was going to be maybe 15, 20.
It turned out to be 72.
And I knew that I wanted
to go with happy Colors.
It had to feel like
it was being done
by a marketing campaign
from a major advertising agency
pitching to seven-year-olds.
I worked closely also with
Ron Pipes, who did the hair.
One day I showed up
in the morning
and that's what we did.
We sat in a little room
making Chucky hair pieces.
And I believe we made
six hero toy versions.
And then I made 50 vacuform ones
that had hair and stick-on eyes
and everything,
and they had full wardrobe
for the boxes,
you know,
that were in the toy store.
In the first film
he transforms,
he becomes more human
because his hairline
started to recede.
We started punching eyebrows
into the heads as well.
And I worked closely
with the mechanics
and the puppeteers,
because you really have to be
able to accommodate the motors,
the batteries.
The mechanical aspect
was massive
because there was so much
- that this puppet needed to do.
- Because he had
to go from the toy
version all the way
to the Jack Nicholson
or the Brad Dourif type
with the receding hairline,
the darker skin.
Then his eyes became to change,
so we had to make those look
as realistic
as possible at the end.
So there's five stages
of heads.
We had, like, the yelling head
and like the surprise head,
and then the kind face
and the good guy doll face.
And so in each head
had to have three puppeteers.
There was one working the cheeks
and the brows,
one working the mouth
and he had a headgear.
It was like a football chinstrap
that we hooked up
to potentiometers
that would then signal
the servos inside Chucky's head.
He had 25 to 28 servos
inside of his head.
The first time we finally
got the walking hero puppet
up and running.
There was no skin on it,
and they turned it on
and that thing
just started moving.
I was like, Holy sh*t,
this is amazing.
I was blown away by what goes
in to this creature
moving and talking.
It was the coolest thing
in the world.
Any opportunity I got to fiddle
with some of the puppetry stuff
was the coolest thing for me.
It was so amazing.
That word spread kind of quick
that Stan Winston,
multi-Academy Award
winner of "Jurassic Park,"
"Aliens," "Predator"
called Kevin was like,
I want to come over and I want
to see what you're working on.
Kevin Yagher and the doll
actually performed
extremely well.
He's the guy
whose imagination
and whose expertise
created the various iterations
of the doll.
It was, you know,
incredibly exciting to see.
This looks super cool and a lot
like what I had imagined.
Kevin brought the character
to life.
He's Dr. Frankenstein
and was able to just take
a graphite pencil drawing
- and bring that to life.
- It's alive!
I look at Chucky
as you know, my baby.
I'm sure Don does the same thing
and so does David,
and I'm so proud of it.
And it really worked.
People really, really liked it.
So that was cool.
You knew that a star was born
and it wasn't human.
It was the doll, Chucky.
With a director,
main cast and murderous villain,
Tom Holland's
"Child's Play"
began filming
on January 7th, 1988.
The $13 million film
saw its start
by sh**ting on
the streets of Chicago.
We went into Chicago
in a record-breaking
cold winter.
It was one of their
coldest winters in years.
It was 30 below.
My voice froze
in my throat.
I literally lay in agony
because of the cold
burning my esophagus.
UA brought that up
as a reason
we shouldn't go to Chicago,
and the weather is going to be
a character in the story,
which I do
truly believe it was.
The original scene that I wrote
at the start of the movie
was a helpless woman
walking down the street
and she was a female decoy,
and it was Chris Sarandon
in drag.
Wow.
No, I have
no recollection of this.
I think someone
made that story up.
You know what?
I had forgotten all about that.
And I just now only vaguely
see him doing that.
The first shot of the movie,
as we know it,
is running down Wabash Avenue in
Chicago outside the toy store.
That was one of the scenes
that I think,
you know, really created
that sort of sense of,
oh, we're in
for an exciting ride.
For the toy store,
which is one of the first scenes
in the film,
um, I knew it was going
to be like 10,000 square ft,
and that's a lot of space
to fill.
You couldn't just waltz
into a toy store
and, you know, rearrange it.
So I contacted Toys "R" Us,
and I said,
"Give me all of your returns
and I'll give you $14,000."
And so nine semis rolled up
and we dressed that set
I think in four days.
We did the vacuum forms.
We painted the forms back
in the shop.
We had little stickers
for the eyes.
We made little wigs
and put those on.
And then we got from wardrobe
all the Chucky outfits,
so we'd have stacks of them
on one side,
and the camera
would change angles,
and we'd put the same 50
on the other side.
We had to have a lot of boxes
that had to be
a big popular thing.
I do remember being
in my hotel room,
you know, I wonder
what the maid would say
when she came in
with all these Chucky dolls.
I'm gonna get you,
and I'm gonna get Eddie
no matter what!
The scene in the toy store is
what really remains with me,
where he puts himself
into the doll.
I had come up with the notion
that he transmogrifies his soul
into the doll.
Tom felt that was not enough
and created the voodoo element.
They partied more.
I never liked the voodoo.
I just found it
to be a kind of corny device.
I was looking for,
for some way to justify
the insanity
of the serial k*ller
putting a soul
into that of a doll.
The only thing I could think
of was voodoo.
It was a brilliant idea.
It gave a spooky spirituality
to the film.
And all of this was
so integral
to the plot of the film.
You know, I think it served
its purpose
in terms of
explaining Chucky's life energy.
The audience wasn't
going to go anywhere
until they saw
what happened with that doll.
Great idea, that voodoo,
even though I resisted it
for a long time.
The expl*si*n of toy store
went really, really well.
That expl*si*n really was the
hook that started the film.
And also the fact that it
creates a tempo that remains
all the way through.
The audience was sitting,
waiting for the characters
in the movie,
especially Karen Barclay,
to realize that the doll
was possessed.
I'm a good guy.
I've just come from
the good guy clubhouse.
I was so excited by the idea
of creating an animated version
of what Chucky would be like,
which was a very big deal
with the studio,
just for them to spend money
on a piece of animation
in the middle of a horror film.
I was working at Ruby-Spears
Productions at the time,
and I know that David Kirschner
had been
working with Hanna-Barbera,
so I ended up doing the drawings
on the actual animation,
and others did the animation.
And it was really fun to take
kind of the dark elements
of what Don had created
for this big trend for kids
that was sweeping the nation.
The "Good Guys" show that
we saw
was very, very typical
of the kind of
toy-driven shows that were
being done at that time.
As well as we did a live action
piece in the treehouse
and had a whole costume
made of Chucky.
Good guys say
three different sentences.
We even turn our heads and blink
our eyes when you talk to us.
And so they contacted me
originally to make the large
walk-around version,
which would have
a full size person in it.
I know that Carol Siegel,
my assistant,
played Chucky in the doll
costume in the commercial.
- Oh, happy birthday, pumpkin.
- Thanks.
I think you really
believed their bond.
We kind of attack
relationships and concepts
from a lot of different
angles... humor, horror, drama.
We did so many scenes
between me and my son
about my husband, his dad.
There was a lot
of backstory.
So my father in
"Child's Play,"
who was never really seen
on screen,
there is a picture frame
which was one of Tom Holland's
cameos in the film.
There was some expansion
on the idea
that Andy's father had died.
That idea that Chucky
was sent down from heaven
by daddy to play with me
I think really helped
draw Andy in.
I think the relationship
between Karen and Andy
was built on a place
of relatability for people.
Catherine was
a complete professional
and she really had
to bring that stuff to life.
She had to be a sweet mom
that's on her own,
you know, raising this kid.
The horror fact was really
secondary for me as an actor.
It corresponds more to the way
I originally saw this world
in the home,
familiar surroundings
and things
turning against you.
Chill out, would you,
Walter, huh?
Well, I was living in New York
at the time,
and I had two auditions.
One was for a movie called
"Bloodhounds of Broadway,"
but they don't pay any money.
And then I had
this other audition
for this horror movie
called "Child's Play"
about this k*ller doll,
but they were paying.
I had been in
the Actor's Studio
with her mother, Lee Grant.
Lee Grant is a brilliant
actress, just brilliant.
And Dinah came in
and she was really talented
and gave a great reading.
In my original script,
she was a teenager
rather than being a friend
of the family.
I wasn't aware that Maggie
was originally meant
just to be the babysitter.
I still would have
taken the role.
But it probably would have gone
to someone a lot younger.
When we worked with Dinah,
she was incredibly sweet
and we were very excited
to get her
because of "Grease"
and "Ordinary People."
I love Dinah Manoff.
We're kindred spirits.
We didn't have to do anything
to come off believable
as friends.
She is the nicest, prettiest
girl in the whole world
and you would want to be
her best friend instantly.
I think the funnest part
of making the movie
was having a friend
in the department store.
Our opposite natures,
Catherine's being gentler
and sweet and mine being,
you know, bossy,
- I think you really see that.
- I can't just leave my account.
You want the damn doll
or don't you?
- Of course I do.
- Well, then, come on.
- Come on.
- Alright!
The scene in the alley,
I remember that it was fun.
Okay, show her.
I don't remember
the audition a lot,
but I do remember
looking at
who was going to be
a part of the whole thing.
I couldn't wait
to meet Brad Dourif.
I knew about Chris,
and Catherine
was really wonderful
too, but working
with Dinah Manoff
was an absolute joy.
Juan was really good,
and I remember thinking,
that was a really fun
scene to sh**t.
Take it or leave it.
Somebody else will buy it.
- I'll take it.
- Karen, it's too much money.
No, it isn't. You have no idea
how much Andy wants this doll.
We have struggled, the dad died.
It's too expensive.
But I want my child
to be happy.
The challenges that came
for Catherine were different
because a lot of her stuff
she had to internalize.
Here you go, lady.
May it bring you
and your kid a lot of joy.
My role fit into starting
this trajectory of the doll.
People blame me
sometimes.
They see me and say,
"No, no, man,
you started this,
you're the troublemaker.
You're the one who sold it
to that poor lady."
How do we know the damn thing
isn't stolen, huh?
Ah, steal this.
The character of the peddler
found this in the aftermath
of this expl*si*n.
And then this
terrible event happens.
She buys the kid a possessed
doll and all hell breaks loose.
A Good Guy.
I know it.
I know you would get me one.
Hi, I'm Chucky,
and I'm your friend to the end.
I am actually
the original Chucky, you know,
because the first time
Chucky's introduced
he's a Good Guy doll.
As a child actor,
I voiced many cartoons,
movies, things like that.
I actually voiced
Corky back in the day.
Hi, pal. My name's Corky.
Come on and be my best friend.
- Okay.
- Everybody has their favorite
doll growing up,
and Chucky
has probably become
so many people's favorite doll.
It's a new friendship
in my life
- that means a lot to me.
- I'll take care
- of Andy for you.
- Becky, you can't do it again.
Don't be silly.
It'll be the hottest date
I've had in months.
My favorite chill
is probably Aunt Maggie's death.
It's mysterious and domestic,
and the whole lead up to that
where he keeps the doll
off screen, just like in jaws.
We're seeing the villain's
Steadicam point of view.
And in that scene where I'm
reading the book and the doll...
No, everything's okay.
Wait, what was that?
Alex Vincent's sister, Ashley,
was in a few shots.
His sister actually
dressed up as the doll,
- played Chucky.
- She was about four years old,
and the little girl out of focus
ran behind the babysitter.
And it is one of the best shots
in the movie.
This was the part of the role
that I was really
looking forward to,
because this was the
Hitchcockian chance to do the,
you know,
wait, I hear something.
Andy, is that you?
What is wrong with me?
And then Chucky comes out
and whacks me with the hammer.
Bam!
You know, it's really fun.
And if you look at that,
that's a shot moving
with her, that's inserts
in the hands,
that's inserts on the feet
and she's going back
and hitting the thing.
Tom had wanted me to do
the stunt
of falling through the window,
and I said,
can the stunt woman do it first?
And in my recollection, she got
cut doing it and I said, nope.
And I pulled her out
and I put the stunt woman in.
And then the stunt woman went
out of the window in Chicago.
And then I probably just went
over to the craft service table
and got, you know,
an apple, some chips.
Her death scene
is so fantastic.
It was very shocking
and well done.
And that was
a huge fall into a bag,
and I had a car down there.
I had a crane above the car and
the concrete body hit the car
and crushed the surface
which sold the impact.
I have never seen
this movie past where I die.
I never knew that Dinah
never saw the rest of the film
after her death scene.
That is funny.
I just, you know,
it's scary.
Where's Maggie?
She had an accident.
Accident?
What kind of an accident?
I don't believe
I had much time on screen
to deal with her death.
I hope I did it well
because it's a
really hard
moment to play.
I just remember talking
to the detective and, like,
it's just beginning
to get weird.
When Maggie dies, the attention
turns to Andy as the k*ller.
Andy may have been
the one responsible.
Certainly, it's what
Detective Norris thinks.
It looked like footprints,
don't they?
Very small footprints.
- What are you implying?
- I don't know.
There's no question that
Mike Norris is looking at it
very skeptically and thinking,
oh, come on,
I know what happened.
I'm an evidence guy,
and this just doesn't...
this doesn't make sense.
Mommy, I know who was on
the kitchen counter.
- Andy, I thought I...
- Who, Andy? Who?
- Chucky.
- Your doll?
Tom Holland understood
the inherent juxtaposition
between creepiness
and innocence.
This feeds into
every childhood nightmare.
Oof.
Ouch. A spirited lady.
- No kidding.
- I went up for Chris' role,
and Tom dug me, man,
you know?
Tom just got a kick out of me,
but he was like, you know,
I want to give you
this other part.
You know, it was all based
on Tom getting a kick out of me.
I always found Tommy Swerdlow
was not afraid to express
himself as who he is
as the character.
Jack Santos is a good time,
man.
Let me just say that
to everybody.
It helped kind of cement
the relationship
between the two cops.
Chris is kind of great, man.
Chris is great doing
that earnest cop thing.
What is this?
Possible m*rder weapon?
- No.
- I think it's common that cops
and detectives might not believe
someone right away
or suspect maybe
that they're lying.
But Andy was faced with
that very early on, for sure.
Chucky directs Andy
to leave school secretly,
and he gets on the L.
And the juxtaposition of this
innocent little boy put into,
you know, this really
seedy area of Chicago
where a m*rder*r is hiding.
Is that Eddie's?
So, k*lling Eddie Caputo was,
for Chucky, an act of revenge.
And that's another
common Chucky thing.
Anybody messes with Chucky,
he cannot allow them
- to get away with it.
- I remember we went
there, uh, to that location.
I stood there and I thought,
Jesus Christ,
this is like a k*ll zone.
During that scout,
I went to Barry Osborn
and I said,
"We can't sh**t here."
He said, "Well,
I take your point,
but there's no other vacant lot
where the house we can blow up
around here
unless you can find one."
There were sn*pers in the top
of the projects
sh**ting at our furniture,
so we called the police
and they said,
this is the day
after New Year's.
They won't come down
from their high for five days.
They finally stopped,
but it was really scary.
The first time I actually
worked on set
with any Chucky parts
was the Eddie Caputo scene.
I was doing the first hand
that actually comes
around the corner
and reaches around the door
and kind of opens the door
a little bit,
and then my other puppeteer,
Lauren, would turn the dial,
turn the gas on.
That was all staged stuff.
We probably spent like,
you know,
five hours
of a Chucky hand turning.
I don't think we care so much
about what's going to happen
to Eddie Caputo.
He hears something in the
kitchen,
and goes and throws open
the door and fires.
Because of Andy's presence
there and his proximity
to this imminent expl*si*n,
I think it's very suspenseful.
Chucky.
The expl*si*n was fantastic.
I mean, we, you know,
we shot with Alex outside.
It was pretty scary because
the expl*si*n almost threw Andy
into a trench we had built,
but thank God he wasn't hurt.
It was fun to film and it was
really fun to watch.
I knew they were going
to blow it up,
but I was like,
wow.
You know, I had just graduated,
uh, film school.
And I ended up getting a job
on, uh, "Child's Play"
As a production assistant.
Yes, we blew up an actual
building that existed,
which, you know,
how amazing was that?
The expl*si*n was
so much bigger
than anything we ever intended.
So that was
a very memorable moment,
and I'm glad
I was alive after it.
Nobody believes you
about Chucky.
Unless you start telling
the truth
right now, they're going
to take you away from me.
So Catherine comes home
from the police station.
The cops are keeping
her little boy,
thinking that somehow
he k*lled somebody.
And she comes home
and sees the Good Guy box there.
There's a brilliant
reveal when
the batteries that power
the doll fall out of the box,
and then you're left
with only one
possible conclusion.
It's great, and I do
like to take credit for that.
That was in my script.
But the doll has been
talking this whole time.
What?
I think it's just being
in the character.
You're like, oh my, what?
And then you play
ignorance, confusion.
She picks up the doll
and she slowly puts her finger
underneath the case for
the battery and pulls it open.
And the audience is on the edge
of their seat.
And it's empty.
That's shocking moment
always got a big gasp
from everybody in the audience.
In that brief second,
the doll swings its head around.
Hi, I'm Chucky.
Want to play?
I didn't know
how to do that shot
because I tried
to put monofilament on the doll
so when it when it dropped
I could have the gaffer
or somebody yank it
under the couch,
but it never looked right.
We tried and it
just wasn't working.
It was really kind
of goofy looking.
And we just couldn't figure out
a way to do it.
And Bill Butler,
the cinematographer,
said, I know how to do it,
and he put the floor
on a 30 degree angle like that.
I, of course, lost my mind
because I'm like
Bill Butler shot "Jaws,"
the greatest movie ever made.
They were able to take
the couch
and put it on a rug platform
and just tilt it up enough.
So when she dropped it,
you couldn't tell
that it was tilted
but it would roll under
and it works great.
Karen leans down to look
for him under the couch,
leading with your face
to look for Chucky down low.
Bad idea, but it's great.
It's really suspense inducing.
The audience went wild.
It was really, really exciting
to see that.
I would personally pretend
it's a snake
because I'm terrified of snakes.
She pulls the doll out
and the doll
doesn't do anything,
and she lifts it up.
I said talk to me, damn it,
or else I'm gonna throw
- you in the fire.
- And then, of course,
just the torrent of filth that
pours out of this doll's mouth.
You stupid b*tch!
You filthy sl*t!
I'll teach you to f*ck with me!
And that's one
of those moments.
You have to hit that
with everything you have.
That had to be big.
That really had to be.
You just get angry
and you're just sort of fight
to get him off you,
as you would in a scene
with a bad guy.
That's a very important
part of storytelling.
It gets a big wow
from the audience.
And we knew that was going
to be an iconic moment.
Your job is to make it work.
You have to block
out the cables
when you got him up there,
you just you do your job
and deal with the terror
of those icy blue eyes.
She was always up
for the task.
She had to work really,
really hard.
We really went at it.
"Punch me in the face
with the Chucky."
You become part
of the Chucky team.
We have to make this a live doll
believable to the audience.
I think my favorite moments
in the film are right there.
I didn't, in my script,
reveal the doll fully alive
until that was like the curtain
opener for the third act,
and Tom probably smartly
brought that earlier.
That's the beginning
of the end.
It's sort of the end
of innocence.
Karen is really vulnerable
and isn't going to find any help
because there's something
so ridiculous about it.
One of the difficulties
with playing
a character like Mike Norris
is that the audience knows
what the real deal is.
Working with Chris Sarandon
was so easy,
and he has this ability
to be very comforting,
and he's just calm
and he's really cool.
Chucky is alive
and he k*lled Eddie Caputo.
- What?
- You just play it straight
because it is serious.
It is about a little boy
getting k*lled
and me getting k*lled.
And I think Chris did
a really good job.
My job as an actor
in moments like that
is to remain the skeptic.
If he doesn't, then the belief
in the situation
goes out the window.
Good night, Mrs. Barclay.
One of the things that I
disagreed with about the script
is that the audience
is ahead of Karen Barclay.
She's forced to do scenes
where she, like,
goes to Chris Sarandon
and goes...
He's been moving and
talking for days.
- Without any batteries in him.
- What are you talking about?
In retrospect,
when I see that,
I wished I tapped
into a more specific,
real personal thing in my life
to make it deeper and more real.
So I confess
that wasn't my best moment.
It's not enough.
What else you got?
- That's all I've got.
- All you got?
- What?
- The thing about sh**ting
the scene where I attempt
to as*ault Catherine
is that it is on my turf.
I'm feeling sorry
for the homeless here
all around this freezing night
in the fires,
and then I just don't
expect that from him.
And, I mean, that's just,
oh, God.
Another horrible thing
that's happened in our lives.
It was scary.
I mean, it's like, you know,
you really feel the danger
in that scene
because it does go
beyond me assaulting her.
It goes beyond whether or not
she's going to be making it
out of there alive.
It's incomprehensible,
and I'm powerless
and there's no one around.
Help!
Hey.
- Christ, he's a cop.
- Alright.
What about the rest of you?
You want a party, too?!
The detective saves the day.
So I definitely think Karen
will marry him after the movie.
I remember Juan Ramirez
very well.
I can actually see his face.
He had such a kind of, you know,
physical "corpability."
I mean, he was really
quite extraordinary.
I am telling you the truth.
Why won't you believe me?
I find scenes like that
to be tricky.
You know, where responsible
adults are like
talking nonsense.
Because I'm saying,
Mrs. Barclay, sane and rational.
One of the difficulties
with playing a character
like Mike Norris is that,
in a way, he's the person
who has to be convinced.
It's just so frustrating
to convince
someone that something happened.
For the last time,
Mrs. Barclay, good night.
Oh, my. Damn!
And I think Catherine and Chris
totally sold that stuff.
I think that the scene
when Chucky attacks Mike Norris
in the car is exciting.
I have a very vivid memory
of Chucky in the car.
And all of a sudden,
Chucky comes up behind him
and tries to strangle him with
the wires while he's driving.
Good night, as*h*le.
We used about everything
that we had in that car sequence
and it turned out fantastic.
I think that was probably
the best sequence in the movie.
It was really scary.
Aah!
That blade comes up
between his legs.
Every male
in that audience went, "Aah!"
I still get men coming up to me
and saying, "Man,
you know that scene
with the knife
is coming up between your nuts?
Jesus!"
What was going on visually
influenced my vocal performance
in that case.
The puppeteers did really well,
I thought, in that.
Aah!
Geez! Look out!
There's a lot of action-movie
DNA...
car chases and explosions
and cops.
Aaaah!
So the sequence
where Chris Sarandon
gets into the car accident,
the car flips over,
all that wide stuff
was shot in Chicago.
We actually took out
a Panasonic camera in that scene
because the car skidded
on its roof further
than any of us thought,
and we had a camera
there sh**ting the scene
and it wiped out the camera.
Hi, Mikey!
There were so many
sort of vivid, iconic, in a way,
moments that occurred
in that scene.
We built a little, you know,
street, lit it,
wet down the pavement
like you do in movies.
And Chris was fantastic.
He's upside down.
He never complained
about any of that stuff.
Yeah, well, it wasn't fun.
We had an elevated platform
that had the street
and all the surroundings,
and we did a combination
of using the half puppet
and then a little person actor,
and we built a suit.
I also made the costumes
for the human stand-in
little person.
And then we used
a Bunraku method,
where we put one of our stuffed
dolls in front on rods
that hooked to
a puppeteer's legs.
They thought maybe this
wouldn't cut together
because inside, outside,
upside down car,
how's this going to work, but it
all cut together beautifully.
Almost every scene was
a composite of different shots
to fool the eye.
And that's all piecemeal,
put together
piece by piece by piece by Tom
and his team.
Aaaaaah!
After Chucky attacks Detective
Mike Norris in his car,
the very fabric of reality as he
knows it has been torn asunder.
Walking in that set with all
the voodoo, that is so creepy.
It's so pagan, and, you know,
like a devil church.
And Chris appears and taps
her shoulder
and scares
the hell out of her.
Karen.
He has this, you would think,
very memorable interaction
with this k*ller doll,
and one would presume
would probably be experiencing
some kind of
existential crisis.
And yet, when he meets Karen,
he doesn't say it.
She's in
Charles Lee Ray's apartment
and the walls are covered
with voodoo signs.
It was in there
and the dialog was trimmed.
You know, that's
a very interesting point,
that he now knows Chucky
'cause he attacked him,
and he doesn't tell me that.
These are called
"don't ask" moments.
And as an actor, you just
have to go with the flow.
I'm surprised more people
haven't noticed that.
Why wouldn't he say,
"I believe you now"?
That would have been
a great moment.
Hi.
It's me. Chucky.
What do you think?
I have to get myself
out of that,
or I'm stuck in the doll.
The more time you spend
in that body,
the more human you become.
That's what he is scared of,
by making him terrified
of oblivion.
That was where all of his anger
came from.
And that's why you can't
negotiate with him. He means it.
You got me into this.
You get me out.
I can't do that, Chucky.
I built Dr. Death's
kitchen oversized,
and I put a little person
in the Chucky suit.
And I had him play a scene
with Dr. Death
because he could move up
and down the counter.
The production designer
built us... built sets
that were 30% larger.
And I had him throwing dishes,
and it was a terrific scene.
And they ended up, you know,
cutting all of that.
You know, I thought something
like this might happen.
That's why I prepared for it.
What are you talking about?
So the sequence where we k*ll
Dr. Death,
that was a long sh**t.
Today you'd probably do it
all CG.
But there was something magical
about the puppet.
There was real specifics,
and we utilized all the puppets.
And there was a lot of rigging,
a lot of trickery
that we had to do.
We also had to build
a Dr. Death voodoo doll,
which my older brother Jeff,
who's a sculptor,
sculpted the head
to match the actor.
Your own personal mojo, Doc.
Give me that.
He has the voodoo doll there,
and it's in his hands.
I think that is one
of the first iconic moments
of the franchise,
is Chucky causing this horrible,
torturous death to someone.
Yeah.
It's been fun.
Why he's able to k*ll
Dr. Death is because he can
and he f*cking well
feels like it.
Oh, my God.
I had to leave him alive
so Dr. Death
could tell Catherine and Chris.
It's the only way...
through the heart.
It's very creepy, and it's
a bit of a spooky scene.
And that propels you
into your third act.
There is a scene when Alex is
in a mental facility.
I found an insane asylum
that had been abandoned
outside of Chicago.
It was built in the 1800s,
which is one of the scariest
places I have ever been into.
The building was very imposing
I remember.
It looked
very kind of institutional.
I was looking at the set of
where Andy was
and I was like, "Jesus,
this looks like Frankenstein's
dungeon."
The first time all the
puppeteers came together
as one was a shot
where Chucky is walking outside,
which was literally wired
to this ledge,
and Andy looks down
and he sees, here comes Chucky.
He calls out for help.
Help me, help me!
Dr. Ardmore, Chucky's here!
It's the scene
where he has to cry.
I was really worried about
how is this kid
going to show deep emotions?
I was concerned because we have
a six year old
that we're dealing with,
and my job
is to teach him during the day,
and also to make sure that
his welfare is taken care of.
The hardest part of making
the first film
was probably the anxiety
leading up to that crying scene.
Please don't leave me.
Please.
I think everybody else's memory
was that Tom was being
a little harsh with me.
There was a certain
controversy about that.
We were talking about things
like my parents
getting divorced
and things like that.
Well, in order to get
that heartbreaking truth,
it had to be made real to
the young actor and it was.
We spoke with him about
what was going to happen
and... and the sadness
that he would feel.
Alex has a very soft voice,
you know,
and he couldn't get
the volume up.
And I hear Tom on the other side
of the stage,
"I can't hear you, damn it,
I can't hear you, Alex!
Louder!"
And he would get louder
and louder and louder.
So I kept having him do it,
and I had him do it again
and again and again.
"You got to do this.
We need this.
I got to have you go to tears.
You got to cry. Again.
No, you didn't go to tears.
Again."
He got so upset
that he went to tears.
And you really feel for him.
Part of me says, do what
you need to get the moment.
But the director knew
information
and was screaming out about
this little boy's home life
and got him to cry.
It was kind of the anxiety,
the moment that really helped me
start crying.
And I turned to his mother
and said,
"We can stop this if you're
uncomfortable with this,
because he's crying."
And she said, "No, no,
it's... it's fine, it's fine.
This is what he needs
to get to that point."
The cry was real.
I mean, it was just he started
slipping down that door
and broke into... into tears.
And it was a, you know,
wonderful moment.
And I remember saying,
"It's okay, Tom,
I'll keep crying,"
and my memory of it
was that he was just
a very intense kind of on set.
And... And then afterwards, you
know, when we weren't on set,
he was much more gentle
and sweet.
But I think it was maybe
a lot of pressure.
Alex is great in the scene
and doesn't seem to have
suffered from it.
Ultimately, it didn't go
on that long.
It was a small moment.
I think it's fine.
We were concerned that Alex
might turn
into a serial k*ller later
in life after this experience,
but obviously he hasn't,
so that's great.
That's absolutely true. There's
no... There's no, uh... Yeah.
Chucky comes around and he
sees one of the attendants,
you know, at his desk.
At the kickoff party,
Tom, the director, turned
and was like,
okay, I'm going to give you
a chance to act
and you can be the orderly.
I went from PA to the part
of the orderly
for one night of non-PA abuse.
And I had my big scene
and it was like my Ralph Kramden
moment where I was like.
Humina, humina, humina,
humina, humina, I mean...
I get residual checks
from that movie for $7
every two years from cable
for my elbow.
Andy stop!
- Wait a minute.
- Stop him!
I also loved the
electrocution of Doctor Ardmore.
It corresponded to the scene
in my "Blood Buddy" script
when buddy kills the dentist.
And it's also Chucky
using a doctor's tools
of the trade against him.
He's the doctor who thinks
the little boy is mad,
and he wants to give him
electric shocks,
and instead he gets it.
There's something
very funny to me
about the way it's shot.
Chucky slashes the doctor
when he goes down,
and Chucky runs by him,
and he just pops
this little hat on it.
It's almost like,
"Here, wear this."
Unless you see Chucky
with your own eyes,
you'll never believe
that he's alive.
And by the time you see
that he's alive,
it's probably too late
to ever tell anyone about it.
Yeah, there's like
three guys on the face.
There's two guys on the arms.
There's a guy doing the body.
There's a guy doing the head.
When I put the electric
shock things on the doctor,
I put blood in his eyes so that
when he started to go to shock,
the eyes would look like
they were bleeding.
There were things they
didn't want me to see.
Doctor Ardmore's death
when they
were electrocuting him.
Even though it goes back to me.
And just the fact
that Andy is witnessing it.
Alex Vincent was great
the way he's going.
Stop! Stop!
If I'm not sharing the screen
with anything,
I probably wasn't there.
So if it switched
to my reaction,
they were able
to keep me shielded
from some of
the more gruesome things.
We had an excellent
social worker
on the set
with a little boy,
and I'm sure
she took him away
and protected him
from all that.
That's my important job,
and making sure
that he goes to school
and that he is not impacted
by this horror movie.
There's a great scene
when Chucky's going up
in a cage elevator,
and a woman comes in
and she looks
at Chucky
and she says...
"Ugly doll."
Brad Dourif ad-libbed lines.
I think he said,
"f*ck you."
That was my ad lib.
I just said, wait a minute.
I think we need
to do something here.
That was brilliant
because it fit
and it was appropriate.
It was really great.
He's such a great actor.
You know, I can't predict
if it's going to get
a laugh or not,
but I know if it's timed well.
To me, that was the moment
Chucky's personality was born,
a really important moment
in the history of this film.
m*rder, mayhem
and ad-libbed humor aside,
many on the production felt they
had at last found their footing
just in time for the film's
ultimate showdown.
The U8 group
wanted us to just end it.
Tom got the
entire crew together
and was asking us
for ideas
because he was
just kind of burnt.
I was under such pressure
about how to end it.
I originally wanted to end it
with Andy using his toys
to fight Chucky,
and there were
all the toys around,
including al
the battery-powered cars
and trucks
and everything.
Even though the details
in my script
were somewhat different
from what ended up
in Tom's version
in the movie,
it's still the basically
the same idea.
We're using
childhood toys and games
as weapons and strategy.
I got real tired of the house.
I thought, is the audience
going to get tired
of all we do is in the house?
It was towards the end
of the sh**ting,
and Chucky was going to end up
on the roof
at the end of the movie.
Financially,
that became impossible,
so he needed to come up
with a new ending.
I wanted the final showdown
to be in the home,
you know, recognizable milieu.
Give me the power.
I beg of you.
Andy!
No!
I think Karen,
by being a mother,
is by nature strong
and protective
and not a girly victim.
And he stabs Mike in the leg
and then Catherine Hicks
has to take over.
It was sort of fun.
Karen gets to be,
you know, a badass a bit.
One of my favorite scenes
is when Chucky
is thrown into the fireplace
and Chucky says,
We're friends to the end,
remember?
I deliver a line which
is one of the iconic lines
of the entire franchise.
This isthe end, friend.
When I shot that scene
with Tom Holland
and he really wanted
that emphasis on
"This isthe end, friend,"
And he grabbed me and picked me
up and threw me up in the air
with excitement
after I nailed it.
We had a rod puppet in there
that we could light on fire,
and we had rods coming out
the back of the fireplace.
The only thing that I didn't
want to see on set
was them set
Ed Gayle on fire.
I was afraid
of something going wrong.
That's Ed Gale
in a Chucky costume.
And now, go.
Action! One!
That was terrifying to me
because he was on fire.
We ended up lighting
the Makita Chucky
on fire at the end,
and it was
a self-contained Chucky
that kicked its hands
and kicked its legs,
and the guys had taken
a Makita drill apart
and the thing would spin.
It was super loud,
so all that stuff
had to be ADRed later.
ADR was a lot of screaming
and yelling
and that kind of thing.
No! Ah!
It was one of those things
where before I did it,
the mic over there,
I walked around the room
and I breathed for I don't know
how long in that scene,
but it was forever
that I was screaming in agony
at the top of my lungs.
Oh, my baby.
The ending is relentless.
There's no k*lling him.
And that is the horror
of the movie.
I think it was a really well
orchestrated finale.
This was the beginning
of showing
Chucky's indestructible side.
Back in the 80s, you know,
they never just k*lled anything.
So this followed suit.
I'll be back.
Chucky is very much
the Terminator,
and nothing is stopping him.
It's like
the Terminator bunny.
Very Terminator inspired.
Well, Chucky is a little
mini Terminator.
You can't k*ll him.
Hello, Andy.
I poured up a black foam
latex skin of Chucky,
and I had to put it
on the mechanism.
And then I physically took
a torch and burned the parts
while they were
on this mechanism.
It's like, okay, well,
we should stay tonight
and build all this stuff.
We were on set. By the way.
Kevin and I worked
through the night
to get all those skins ready,
all the melted stuff.
We added some silicone
and different things
to make it look like
it was half fleshy, half burnt.
It reminded me of
"American Werewolf in London,"
the Jack character at the end,
he's rotting and falling apart.
He dies like 16 times,
I think, in the end.
Oh, be serious, would you?
A lot happens to Chucky,
you know.
He gets burned, he gets shot,
he gets everything.
Then, as scripted,
Mike picks up a baseball bat
and knocks Chucky's head off.
Chris Sarandon was meant
to show up
from the side bedroom
with a bat
and knock the head off.
So that's how we
actually shot it.
I did get the baseball bat
out of that moment,
but then I was being forced
to cut it.
You can't see it,
I've tried to slow it down
and see it,
the head just is gone.
And it's Chris hitting the head
so hard that it just removed it
and it bounced down
the hallway perfectly.
I blew his head off
with a g*n.
I blew off an arm.
I shot off a leg.
And then the thing was crawling.
And then finally it seemed
like he was dead.
And Karen's helping Chris
up in the bedroom,
and her son is traumatized.
The kid was right.
The doll's alive.
He almost got the three of us.
Come on.
What are you talking about?
Ironically,
his partner is the skeptic,
and Mike is now the believer.
So I was going,
what's the most relaxed,
kind of,
"This doll?
Give me a break."
Like I was above it,
you know.
- And then it gets me.
- And bang!
So I don't know how Chucky
got through the air vent.
That, to me, didn't make sense
when we were sh**ting it.
The way that thing moved.
I can hear it.
That was an interesting device.
I'm sure it would work
very differently now, you know.
I'll k*ll him now.
I'll strangle him!
Oh! Let go!
You know, there was a lot
of screaming and yelling.
I mean, I said, okay,
don't hold back.
You got to threaten this guy
with everything you have.
And I screamed.
I don't know,
The folks from the studio
thought that maybe
that was a little much.
And everybody's in shock.
Karen is the only one
who has the presence of mind.
Because I was told
by the dying voodoo guy...
sh**t him in the heart!
That's what puts him away.
And we had a yank line.
And it's great because
you see the body react
in a wonderful way,
where it almost looks like
he pushes,
kicks himself off the floor.
Hi, I'm Chucky, wanna
plaaaaay?
And finally Chucky dies.
I do remember having to do
a lot of takes of,
"Hi, I'm Chucky,
wanna play?"
And at the end the "play"
had to get kind of crazy.
And so they wanted me to do
all sorts of different weird,
wacky sounds and sound
kind of creepy and evil.
It takes you to a completely
different place as an audience.
Hi, I'm Chucky, wanna
plaaaay?
I think any movie that ends
with a freeze frame
in the horror genre,
it says cliffhanger.
My script
didn't end with that.
I think that freeze frame
definitely jettisons you back
to the horror films of the '70s.
It's one of my favorite shots
of the entire first film.
Then you think,
"Okay, we're fine."
And well, we don't know.
Is he dead?
I think that freeze frame
at the end of the movie
is certainly Tom's attempt
to give you a sense of,
wait a minute, what's behind me?
What's over my shoulder?
That was to let the audience
know that that experience
will probably be
with that little boy forever.
As I say pretty often,
Chucky told me in 1988
that we were going to be
friends to the end,
and that has certainly
proved to be true.
"Child's Play" wrapped
at 66 days of sh**ting
on April 5th, 1988.
Now it was time to put
the k*ller-doll-movie puzzle
together,
something that ultimately
had moments more dramatic
than what ended up
on the screen.
I think the best part
of making the movie
was probably the first day,
because
there was no anticipation
as to what
the difficulties might be,
and the last day,
knowing that it was done.
It was a tough sh**t.
Every movie has its own
challenges and its own nature.
It was really a team effort.
It really took a village.
One of the funnest parts
of doing "Child's Play"
was flirting with Kevin Yeager.
So, Catherine, how do you
like working on this show?
All right?
I don't want to talk right now,
Kevin.
- I gotta crap.
- Okay.
- See you.
- Bye.
I would come on set
for scenes I wasn't even in,
in a short, short skirt.
You know,
he was just so focused.
But I thought that
was really sexy.
He was like,
"What are you doing?"
We were dating other people.
So the flirtation that happened
between us on set
was very, very calm, peaceful.
Nothing ever happened.
Well, there was a wrap party
and I got Tiffany pens
for all the puppeteers,
but not Kevin.
And I just went up and said,
"Was there anything between us?"
And I had nothing to say.
I was dumbfounded.
So I just took her by the hand
and I pulled her back behind
one of the movie flats
and I kissed her,
and that was it.
Just one kiss.
And it was like, okay.
Chucky's a big part of my life.
I mean, it bought my house.
I got to meet my wife on it.
I lost my heart.
And we've been married 32 years.
The hardest part for me
was just the fear of failure.
You're wondering
when it's going to break,
because inherently,
every puppet will break.
I would say working
with Chucky
and his technical problems
was the hardest part.
One of the things
I certainly thought
all through the sh**t was,
how are they
going to piece all of this
together?
Because there were
so many different
iterations of the doll.
David showed me the first
cut of the movie,
Tom's first cut, which ran
like a half an hour longer.
We had a wonderful,
wonderful editor
named Ed Warschilka
that did such a great job.
But when we test-screened
the film,
probably the worst moment
for me was towards the end.
The head is burned
at this point
and someone from
the audience screamed,
"Don't touch it,
there'll be a sequel!"
And the audience just roared.
And had it not been my movie,
I would have roared too.
It's funny, but it wasn't funny
when it's your movie.
So I think that they were
getting scared
and so their feeling was,
let's cut this to the bone.
I was under terrific pressure
from the studio.
And they made my life hell
because they had no belief
or anything invested
in the movie,
and all they wanted me to do
was cut, cut, cut.
I felt really strongly that
there was too much of the doll
in here
by like almost 30 minutes.
And I kept saying,
"No Chucky,
no third act."
And when we went back
in and edited,
Tom was let go that night,
at the screening.
He walked up to us
and it was a bad screening.
That was the end of it,
and he just walked away.
That was the last time
I ever saw Tom.
There was this tension
between us,
and every suggestion he made
was about Fl*ttening
the movie out.
Tom can be difficult.
He's incredibly charming.
He's this movie star
looking guy.
But, you know,
he could be difficult.
- He can be a hothead.
- Yeah.
I was aware that...
that there was friction.
I was very aware of that.
It's just really not my problem.
And if somebody
made it my problem
or tried to make it my problem,
then I would make
that their problem.
You don't f*ck
with my performance
and I don't f*ck
with anybody else's.
There were times
when the tension
was very palpable on the set.
It was a really difficult sh**t
in a lot of ways.
Tom is a director
who probably gets used
to getting his way
and getting what he wants,
and David is very friendly,
very compromising.
But also, you know,
he has a vision, too,
and he puts his all into it.
I know he wouldn't back down
from something
if it was important to him.
Tom did the best he could.
The pressure was on
Tom Holland,
I think 24/7.
You never know if you're
going to get it on the screen.
I figure if you
get 80, 85%
of what's in your head
on the screen, it's a miracle.
Tom was off the movie.
And so at that point,
David invited me in.
It's an unusual thing, frankly,
for that to happen,
and it was extremely
nice of him.
We sat with Ed Warschilka
and proceeded
to cut out about 27 minutes.
So when he finally comes alive,
I mean, in...
in a terrifying form,
it really makes
the audience jump.
Hi, I'm Chucky.
No!
Ah!
There was a lot of stuff
that came out of the movie.
Chris Sarandon as the cop
character in drag,
and they ended up, you know,
cutting all of that.
Ed Gale, you know,
getting up
off the pavement
in the background.
And we did one
where Ed flips off Chris.
And I was there when
they actually filmed the scene,
which starts off before
it goes in the kitchen
and makes this cup of tea.
He's holding a baby
and he's doing incantations.
And I just wonder
what happened to that child
all these years later.
In addition to trimming
the film's runtime,
a new composer was brought
onto the production,
replacing the original hire
who disappeared
before writing a single note.
This change brought forth
the musical sound of the film
and the shine
of previous accolades.
I love the score
of "Child's Play" one
by Joe Renzetti,
who was actually an Oscar winner
for "The Buddy Holly Story."
Scoring was a bit rushed.
because the film
had been completed.
It had been tested
not very well.
They thought it was too funny.
So they said,
"Joe, whatever you do,
we gotta scare people."
What I did come up with
was a sound theme,
if you will,
which was this.
That was Chucky.
It's not until you put
the music in,
really that... that a film
starts to come to life.
We recorded "Child's Play"
at CBS on Ventura Boulevard.
We had a pretty big orchestra,
I'm going to say maybe
60 pieces, complete strings,
horns, winds.
And credits sounds like
"Pachelbel's Canon,"
only minor
and horror division.
Loved that.
It was still the days of
where orchestras were preferred,
but it was also the days,
we're talking about '87,
where the Synclavier,
which was one of the first
great sequencers,
synthesizers, digital,
and it was just a mere...
$175,000.
Joe did a great job
on the score.
I mean, it's fantastic.
My dear friend Simon Stokes
and I on our own
wrote a very funny song
called the "Chucky" song,
and we played it for the
producers and they laughed,
but they said, Joe,
we can't use it
because it's funny
and we don't want laughing.
It kind of took you
out of the experience
that you just had.
That song just didn't do it.
He said, "Hi there.
Ain't I lucky?"
"Pleased to meet you.
Call me Chucky."
That was it.
It's not really
the theme song.
But I'm not
going to complain.
With the film
finally locked, scored,
and leaning into its scares,
there was one final hurdle
before audiences
would see all of Chucky's terror
fill the big screen.
A fairly contentious
writing credit arbitration.
I got co-screenplay credit,
but I did not get
co-story credit,
which I always felt
was really unfair to me.
There would definitely be
a WGA arbitration
when there's more
than one writer.
So I, you know, eternally
grateful to the Writers Guild
for protecting me in that way.
As the creator
of this character
and the creator
of the franchise.
The rules were stacked
against me.
For a director to get
co-screenplay credit,
he had to write more
than 50% of the script.
What was more frustrating
for me
was Tom's statements
in the press
concurrent with
the movie coming out,
where he would say,
This is my original script,
even though the credits
say it isn't.
I felt like I deserved it.
When the film was completed,
I asked Tony Thomopoulos
if we could have a screening
for friends and family.
And he said, "No."
And I did something that
is so not like me even today.
Um, I did not listen to him.
And with my wife, we went
and rented the Academy Theater,
and we invited
about 1,100 people,
and I got all the boxes
that we had from "Chucky,"
and I made a tunnel that the
audience had to walk through.
I mean, Tony almost
k*lled me the next day,
but it was the talk of the town.
Some of us were allowed to
take a Chucky doll box with us,
and I kept it for many,
many years.
Steven Spielberg was there
because David had worked
with him
on the "American Tail,"
and he was congratulating David,
you know, great job, David.
Really, really nice and very
scary and all that stuff.
I think it's Tom's best film.
I was proud
to have worked on it.
You know, it wasn't
one of those ones.
That one likes
to kind of hide away.
It was a it was a good movie.
I was always pretty confident
with what we were making.
But when I saw the final film
finished, you know,
with the benefit of having
a great sound effects job
and a great score,
the movie shined.
I thought it
was really good.
And I thought Chucky
was just so intricate.
It was great to see
the effect
that had on the people
who were affected by Chucky
and what that did to them.
I remember seeing it
at a premiere in my hometown.
My grandfather rented out
one of the theaters
for all of my friends
and family to come,
and I was in a tuxedo signing my
first autographs for everybody.
And it was thrilling.
Obviously, it was thrilling
to see this come together.
I had no sense whatsoever
as to what the reaction
to the movie
was going to be,
but I knew that it was going
to touch a nerve when.
When I saw it
for the first time,
the audience cringed sometime
at this guy, or they gasped.
And so I walked away
really, really satisfied.
When you're working on a film,
you just hope it comes together.
I was quite pleased with the way
that it turned out.
I was so lucky.
It was super thrilling.
Although the film was a hit
with its cast and crew,
the true measure of success
would come
with a paying audience.
But first, the studio
had to find a way
to sell this cinematic
amalgamation of horror,
action and mystery
to the public
while dealing with
their own private problems.
The studio was
in freefall at that point.
By the time the film came out,
it was a one-man show.
Everyone had been fired.
The studio was having
major problems,
there had been a writers strike,
and then there was
talk of it being sold.
It just became a mess
and there really wasn't a staff
to sell this movie.
David would start sharing
with me the initial advertising,
one sheet concepts.
They had come up
with something I loved.
It almost looked like
a Broadway Playbill cover.
It was just completely black
and in white, a stick figure
and a single drop
of red blood.
They went with
this other thing.
I wasn't crazy
about that key art.
I thought it wasn't very strong.
The most glaring thing
about it to me
was that they don't show a doll.
You don't know
it's about a k*ller doll.
When I went into the movie,
I had never seen Chucky.
I had no idea
what he looked like.
In a way, I think that
was smart,
because I think you didn't
necessarily
go in with the same
prejudices you might have
thinking of it as just
a k*ller doll movie.
So it was all about
was the movie
going to be
successful financially?
"Child's Play"
opened at number one
on November 11, 1988,
eventually taking in 44 million
at the box office,
quickly proving there was
a new horror kid on the block.
And while the road
to bringing the film to life
may have been filled with
physical bumps and ego bruises,
"Child's Play" cemented itself
in the lives and minds
of critics, moviegoers,
cast, and crew forever.
The success of the first film
was a bit surprising.
"Child's Play" got pretty good
reviews for a horror movie.
Roger Ebert
liked "Child's Play."
The movie is well made,
with convincing performances by
Catherine Hicks
and little Alex Vincent.
Kevin Thomas from the LA Times
liked "Child's Play."
The New York Times
like "Child's Play."
A lot of the big publications
and big TV shows recognized
that it was something special.
And I think when the studio
released it,
they were shocked
that it did as well as it did.
The success of the movie,
it happened very fast.
It won the weekend, and it
was completely thrilling.
Timing wise, while on
the one hand
it would seem like it
was a crowded marketplace.
On the other hand,
they're doing something
different
and new enough here.
It obviously hit a nerve
with audiences around the world.
Chucky is now part
of the iconic
horror figures,
you know, characters.
He's right up there
with Freddy Krueger
and Jason Voorhees
and Pinhead
and Leatherface and,
you know, it goes on and on.
You make a movie
for many different reasons,
but primarily you make it
to make a good film
that's going to make money
and it's going to be enjoyed
by your audience.
And so when a film
that you've done works well,
you always are happy.
Being part of the original
franchise starter
was wonderful
because it's probably
going to be my legacy.
And it was a delight to work on.
There were a lot
of innovations
that took place in the creation
of Chucky and in...
in filming Chucky
that I had never seen before.
Bringing Chucky to life
was unforgettable.
It was such a great
experience for me
all the way around, you know,
it put me on a different map.
You know, it took me
from makeup artist to suddenly,
you know, creator
of a thing that didn't exist.
And when you finally put those
elements together and he moves
and then you add
a voice to that, it's magic.
I went to an audition,
one of many.
I was chosen to do a role,
a small role,
and it stuck with me
all of this time.
It's always shocking to see
what has lasting power
and ignites the public
imagination.
Being a part
of "Child's Play" was,
you know, really wonderful
and surprising.
I kind of wish
I didn't die so early
so I could have come back in
one of the thousands of sequels.
I'm really shocked that
it's had the kind of life
that it has,
and that Chucky has become
an iconic character.
I would have loved
to have played the definitive
Saint Francis of Assisi.
I never played that,
so Chucky will just have to do.
Being in "Child's Play"
was a thrilling experience,
but one that I was
just instantly thankful for.
So to be given a part,
let alone a good part in a movie
that people love was something
that I just
appreciated intensely
from the very beginning.
I'm thrilled to have been
a part of making
the original "Child's Play."
Uh, always have been,
and I always will be.
I never realized that
I was both the final girl
and the protector,
so I sort of felt a dignity
to this project
and a dignity to my character.
I thought all the actors
involved had dignity,
and so I thought it was
a unique kind of horror film.
It was the beginning
of a 35-year relationship
and partnership
with Don Mancini.
It was extremely
thrilling experience for me,
even though I was rewritten,
even though I had to fight
for my credit
as creator of the character,
it was still really thrilling
and a wonderful experience,
largely due
to David's generosity.
"Child's Play" was a film
with puppeteers, cranes,
little people, animatronics,
children, effects, etc.
It was a tough sh**t,
difficult beyond belief,
but it all came together
because of the efforts of a lot
of very talented people,
and I'll always be thankful.
It's so nice to think that
I'm leaving Chucky behind
for the rest of the world.
"Child's Play," a movie
that defied expectations,
slayed audiences
and played its way
to the top of the box office,
quickly seemed destined
to follow in the footsteps
of its horror film
predecessors.
It was clear the time
had come to bring Chucky
back from the dead.
So David and I were talking
about the potential
for a sequel.
And it was a thing in Hollywood
at that time, like horror movies
becoming franchises.
They said they wanted to do
a sequel pretty quickly.
The reviews were really good.
LA Times was fantastic.
I had a desire to bring back
some of the elements
from my original
"Blood Buddy" script
that had fallen
by the wayside.
The screenplay was written by
Don Mancini, only Don.
The studio strategically
neglected to tell me
that they
were simultaneously
developing another script
for "Child's Play II,"
written by
Mark Patrick Carducci,
who had written
"Pumpkinhead,"
and the idea was that
the best one would go forward.
I won.
John and I and David
were all on the same page
that one of the things we wanted
to get into the sequel
was that fairy tale vibe that
had been lost along the way.
John Lafia I was so impressed
by how he had shaped everything.
And I said, "Would you like
to direct the second film?"
In the beginning, Tom Holland,
uh, showed some interest.
"Child's Play" is so much mine
and is so much,
you know, it's not like
any of the others.
You can feel the electricity,
you can feel it working.
There's not a chance in hell
that would have happened.
That was never even discussed,
No if, ands or buts.
So we were all
just kind of united.
And of course John and I
being a little bit snot nosed,
we were like, we can do
this better than Tom Holland.
Unlike the experience
with the first movie,
John allowed me to be
around him and learn.
I just shadowed him
through everything
and he didn't have to do that.
I remember David
called and said,
"Hey, we're going to do a two,
and if we do a sequel,
we're trying to do better
than the first one."
We've certainly learned a lot.
If Chucky couldn't walk,
we made him walk
in the second one.
Chucky was more expensive
in "Child's Play II."
He was about $1 million,
I think, at that point.
And we were doing
new silicone molds
and running the foam skins
with the new formulas.
You're always trying
to invent new things
and not just do
the same old thing,
not just pull Chucky out of
the bag and start sh**ting him,
but to do something new
and different.
David and John Lafia
and I had talked about it.
We knew we wanted
to bring Andy back.
When I found out that
there was going to be a sequel,
that I was going to be
a very big part of it.
I knew that Andy had
a lot of good stuff to do.
I enjoyed the fact
that he was traumatized.
And now,
it's time to play.
There was never a thought
of of getting rid of Brad.
I mean, he's so cemented
that character and made it his.
I was already
contractually required to do it.
I had a three picture deal
with them, I was all in.
Hi, I'm Tommy and I'm
your friend to the end.
I didn't obviously know
that I would be a part of it,
so it was wonderful
to be cast again
as all the good guy dolls
and as good Chucky.
I probably was looking forward
to saying some bad words
and again,
didn't get the opportunity.
The mother's
a different matter.
She backed up
her boy's story in court,
so now she's under
psychiatric observation.
I knew Catherine would not
be returning
as soon as I got the script,
and I was bummed out about that.
Of course, I'm sure she was
bummed out about that as well.
There was a decision made
that Andy
would be on his own,
and so the foster system
felt like the most logical way
into the story.
John Mancini's thought
was that he really wanted
to explore the fact
that Catherine Hicks
had been put into
a mental institution
because of everything
that she went through.
I had no respect
for that decision.
I don't have to be in it,
but make her be doing
something better.
She wasn't crazy.
Yeah, what are you saying?
She's crazy?
I think even Don
came and apologized to me.
Like, I couldn't think
of a story with her in it.
So he thought of this.
It came to him,
and that's how things happened.
I remember Kevin saying
in a very kind fashion,
Chucky will probably
go on longer
in this franchise than you will.
The police were smart.
They denied everything.
Which is fine,
because now they can't hurt us.
I'm not sure how I would feel
about coming back
to battle Chucky.
First of all,
he was a relentless adversary.
And also the making of the
movie, which was very difficult.
And I'm very proud of the fact
that Mike still kind of alive
and around.
Without his mother,
Detective Norris,
Andy needed someone new to
help in his battle for survival.
A younger character
who proved to be smart,
strong, and sympathetic.
I got the audition
for "Child's Play II,"
the standard way.
My agent submitted me
and they brought me in.
I was 24 years old.
The character was 17.
I played teenagers
for a very long time.
There was a toughness to her,
but inside she had
this wonderful big sister,
maternal element to her.
I had attitude
because I had a job
and I had some power
and I was like,
let's get this show on the road.
I need to...
I have somewhere to be.
And I think
the added confidence
and the sort of attitude
that I had
was why I stood out.
The way I wrote Kyle.
You know, she would had
to have a toughness.
Christine had that in spades.
She just had that edge.
But she also had the crucial
warmth that you needed.
The sort of misunderstood
tough girl with a heart of gold.
It's... It's my stock and trade.
So Kyle was very much
in that sweet spot for me.
This is exactly how I wanted
to spend my day off.
Thanks a lot.
But I didn't break
the statue, really.
Alex Vincent was really easy
to work opposite,
and the bond
between us was very real.
He's a super cute kid,
really precocious, really smart.
She was so happy to be there.
She just had a great energy
that I really loved.
So forming that
brotherly sister bond
between the two of us
was very, very natural.
He seems normal enough,
but how has all
this affected him?
I was given a few roles
from time to time.
but "Child's Play II"
was not one of them.
I had to audition like
every other mother's son.
I was thrilled to work
with him
because he had been in a couple
of early DePalma films,
including
"Phantom of the Paradise,"
which I loved,
so just meeting him
was a real thrill for me.
"I'm alive, I'm alive.
Then the talking cricket said."
What did he say?
I had just done "Rain Man,"
and it had changed my life.
And one of the first auditions
that I was called for
was "Child's Play II."
So I called my friend
Dinah Manoff,
and I said, "I'm thinking
about doing a horror movie.
I read this script
and it's so good."
And she said, "Well,
what's it called?"
I said, "Child's Play II."
What do you think?
And she said, "Well..."
I suggest that you rent
"Child's Play" the original
and you will find
that I am in it.
I totally forgot about that.
That's true.
I did go to the audition
because I loved the character,
I knew her.
I was so happy
that it worked out.
With the film well,
on its way to production,
the filmmakers were given
a surprising
behind the scenes jolt
that would alter the course
of this potential new franchise.
So we developed the script
for "Child's Play II" at UA,
but it was
a different administration
than "Child's Play" one.
The studio got sold
to an Australian company
called Qintex,
sort of family-friendly brand.
My office called and said,
"I have some really bad news.
The gentleman that is going
to be buying United Artists
does not want to make a film
like this, and I was furious.
Here we deliver a film
that is the second
highest grossing film
of the year for you.
I was really angry and hurt.
They gave David the rights
to it free and clear,
because they had
an overall deal with David,
and they wanted
to keep him happy.
I turned to my attorney,
and he said,
"Everybody is going
to be calling about this film."
And it landed at Universal.
Within 24 hours, I get a call
from Steven Spielberg
saying, "Listen,
you made your first film
with me at Universal.
Can you do me the favor of just
bringing it to them first
and giving them your wish list?"
And I said, "Okay, okay."
You know, I mean,
anything for Steven Spielberg.
I didn't go anywhere else.
I just went to Universal.
And John and I were thrilled.
It's just Universal
and "Jaws"
and all the history
of Universal monsters,
that was the place
we wanted to end up.
Thanks to Steven Spielberg,
which is such an amazing thing
to even say.
The surprise shift
in film studios complete,
principal photography
on Chucky's sophomore outing
at last began
on November 6, 1989,
with a 55-day sh**ting schedule
and a $12 million budget.
The "Child's Play II" set
was a really friendly,
happy set.
I think that that tone
was mostly due
to John Lafia's kindness.
My memories of John were
polite again, trusting director.
I don't remember him yelling
or anything like that.
It was certainly
a very smooth set.
It looked like
he was having fun.
This was my first experience
being on set and I
was there all the time.
John was of course very busy
as the director,
but Don really pays attention.
He just like a kid
in a candy store.
He was just so excited
to be around his baby, really.
And to be accepted. too,
you know,
not to be an outcast.
I think all of
that contributed
to a really safe environment.
There's a lot of laughing
in that behind the scenes stuff.
The opening sequence,
I got to storyboard.
Which was fun,
and those are my hands
putting the doll together
and everything.
We all shared
this love of like,
the dark side of fairy tales.
I believe we made
the aluminum device
that held his eyes,
and that we had
to build a special head
just for the insert of the eyes.
The actor playing one of
the technicians was funny.
It was a fun set.
It was great.
I think it was one of
the first things we did do.
My stomach hurts, Mattson.
Is this what
you call good news?
I had an interesting
connection to Peter Haskell.
I worked on a soap opera
called "Search for Tomorrow,"
an NBC soap opera,
and I worked on the tech crew.
But Peter Haskell was on
"Search for Tomorrow,"
and he was really nice to me.
You smother this and you're out
of here in 24 hours.
- you got that?
- His favorite line in the movie.
- Stick it up your a*s.
- I don't know why he loved it.
He just thought
that was hilarious.
Andy's fine now.
He just wants to get on
with his life.
Grace Zabriskie,
one of my heroes,
one of my role models
as a character actress
was in the movie.
The character's name,
Grace Poole,
who is a character
from Jane Eyre.
The figure was like someone
who is like assigning
foster families and such grace.
She's the greatest.
We hung with the same crowd.
We did and said things
that wouldn't bear repeating
on a nice family documentary
like this.
One of the things I thought
was really interesting
about the script
for "Child's Play II"
was that it explored
further the issue of family.
In the first one,
we had a single mom,
and now we had Andy being
taken in by foster parents.
I think they didn't really
care that much about Andy,
and I don't think Andy really
cared that much about them.
Andy, rule number two
no running in the house.
I took him as pissed off
about the fact
that they didn't have
a child yet.
So this notion of his anger
lent itself to a certain
impatience.
You could tell that there's
something going on with Phil
that is unspoken.
Bang!
You're dead.
The second film,
Mattson's death
was reminiscent of
the Chris Sarandon car scene.
I think it was a little bit
of a tip of the hat
or homage to that first film.
In those days, the genre
was a little bit camp
and still under the influence
of the earlier camp stuff.
"Dr. Phibes"
kind of started that,
where it was a little bit campy,
and the murders are, you know...
...have to be fun and gory.
I was concerned
about the bag, you know,
choking the actor because we had
to tie Chucky's hands into it.
And so we had to quickly
make sure
he could breathe
in between takes
because he was sucking that
plastic down into his throat.
I didn't want to k*ll the actor
with the plastic bag.
Hi! I'm Tommy.
Shut up, you idiot.
I heard that the naming was
a direct link to Tom Holland,
but I can't deny
or confirm for sure.
Yeah, it's Tom Holland.
Definitely. Yeah.
John and I both had
a bit of an axe to grind.
"Eat dirt, Tommy."
Eat dirt, Tommy.
The whole bait and switch,
the idea of, like,
there being another doll
and Chucky taking his place
and burying the other one
in the backyard,
again, there's something
very fairytale-ish
about all of that.
I'm innocent.
Andy?
I didn't do it.
In that home,
Andy definitely needed
more help and support
from his foster parents
than Christine.
She was practiced already
at taking care of herself.
The scenes that I had
with Alex were really fun,
and he had
the entire script memorized.
He was difficult to ad lib with.
I'm naturally a little ad-libby.
I remember that line
that I said to her, you know...
Want to hear me
say your name backwards?
Kyle.
He added that to the script.
At least that's what Alex says.
That's his story.
He's sticking to it.
That was stolen from
Mr. Volpi, my music teacher.
I had a good scene or two
with Miss Kettlewell.
This teacher was kind of a b*tch
to Andy right from the start.
She's a control freak,
and she won't listen.
Andy does everything he can
to try to save the day,
but she doesn't listen.
Sit down and get comfy.
You're going to be here
for a while.
Miss Kettlewell
was the personification
of the obtuse adult...
Head down!
...who just won't
listen to the kid.
And, of course,
she pays dearly for it.
She was a lot like
a P.E. teacher
that I had had and other people
that I knew, very rigid.
We have all had
that horrible person
whose way of controlling you
is through humiliation.
And we have all been
humiliated by teachers.
To get to play that character
who's not listening,
and if she had listened,
she would have lived,
just thrilled me.
Aah!
That whole sequence
of Miss Kettlewell's death,
it's shocking.
They did have a stuntwoman
do the actual fall.
I wanted to do it,
but they insisted.
They got her little bun
and her same outfit.
And John Lafia really wanted
a pretty violent fall.
I mean, she hit 3 or 4 desks
at once and then fell over,
and then she had to have
the wherewithal
to cover her face with her arm.
Chucky's gonna
k*ll Beth Grant,
and he emerges from the closet
with the ruler and says...
You've been very naughty,
Miss Kettlewell.
He's got that ruler.
It was tough to kind of get him
to smack at the right speed
and then also catch it.
We tried a walking rig
that worked really well.
All the cables ran
behind the puppet's back,
and the boom
and all the paraphernalia
that went with it
was actually a hole
in the wall of the closet.
I remember John spending
pretty much a day
doing like a couple
of shots there,
and I think that there was
a lot of pressure
from above to like,
"Dude, you got to move on."
Aah!
Again, a great
Don Mancini death.
Whoever thinks of being
beaten to death
with a ruler?
Don Mancini does.
That was kind of for all those
Catholic school kids.
Miss Kettlewell's death
I was not on set for it,
but I wish I had been.
It was definitely my favorite
k*ll of the franchise.
Well, it starts off
being played for laughs,
and then that, too,
gets pretty dismal.
For me, it was hilarious.
When I'm lying on the ground,
screaming, screaming,
but it's the seven guys plus
Chucky that are coming at you.
It's quite easy
to get into the moment.
When we had
to loop the screams
on the looping stage later,
I was such a nut.
I mean, I took my acting way
too seriously back then,
and I would go over
in the corner,
and I would re-create my death,
and I would, "Ohh! Ohh!",
and then I would go
to the microphone and go,
"Ahh! Ahh!"
I mean, ridiculous.
There was a lot of things
to figure out.
We had to do a lot
of things with camera speed,
walk slower, talk slower
and then speed it up.
So we did a lot
of those kind of tricks.
I got to go on set
and puppeteer,
and I was his brows,
his snarls, and his tongue.
And we also had a joke on that,
that I was his liver,
because we would all go on
Friday nights and go drinking.
Joanne, the child
needs professional help!
Oh, stop pretending
you're worried about Andy.
You never wanted him here
in the first place.
Jenny's character,
she was gonna do her damnedest
to be a good mom,
whereas Phil,
the redoubtable Phil,
was not that keen
on being a foster dad.
Phil's death scene
is my favorite k*ll.
It's one of the best moments
for Chucky.
It's one of my favorite
one-liners of the film.
How's it hanging, Phil?
I wanted Brad
whispering that in my ear.
"How's it hanging, Phil?"
That character was a jerk,
so he deserved it.
So I was rooting for Chucky
in that one.
That basement set needed
6 feet above the stage floor
for all the puppeteers to go.
When Phil lands and,
pbt!, snaps his neck,
that was shot in reverse.
It started with me
on the floor,
and a rope around my foot...
action!
and they pulled me up
out of the shot
as fast as they could.
And when they printed it,
they ran it in reverse,
obviously.
But I never felt...
I mean,
I've done some stunts.
I should have listened to that
nagging voice on my shoulder
saying,
"Are you f*cking crazy?
These people are
gonna k*ll you!"
Phil didn't listen,
and now he's dead.
It's one of the best moments
for Chucky.
And Jenny Agutter's screams
are gut-wrenching.
It's a really great
performance from her.
Oh, God! No!
Jenny Agutter was
very unhappy on this movie.
She hated her experience.
I think the role
embarrassed her.
I think her relationship with
John was a little contentious,
'cause I think she felt
that John's attention
was too on effects.
Actors understandably
get frustrated
that Chucky's the star,
and the puppet
is going to get more takes
than the human actors.
The doll had to get it right.
So you might do 19 takes
to have the doll get it right,
and if he gets it right,
they're gonna use that take
even if you sucked in it.
My favorite sequence is,
Kyle realizes
that Chucky is...
actually might be real.
I had just worked with
Johnny Depp on "21 Jump Street,"
and I learned a lot
from watching him
just commit to things
that might have
seemed embarrassing,
but they're only embarrassing
if you don't commit.
My favorite scene in that film
is when Christine Elise
is moving up the stairs,
and you're just hearing
the sound of a sewing machine.
John Lafia's approach
to making the movie
was extremely dynamic.
You come into the room,
and she turns the chair around,
and you see what she looks like.
Production-wise, it means
moving the camera a lot,
which is time-consuming.
John did a great job
directing it. It's really scary.
Aah!
That was the hardest
for me, physically.
They strapped the doll on you,
and it's one of the dolls
that just kicks.
So his legs just
do this constantly,
and then you've got to sell
all the rest of the action.
Throw myself against the walls,
throw yourself against the bed.
You know, you feel like a fool.
And because Don
is such a cinephile
and prone to homages,
that was my Catherine Hicks
moment in the film.
What are you looking at?
People don't realize the doll
isn't inherently mean-looking,
and the puppeteers can make him
do anything they want.
So in between takes in the car,
they would have Chucky reaching
over and caressing my thigh
and batting his eyelashes at me
and being super cute.
And at one point,
I turned over,
and I went in for the kiss,
and they caught that still.
It's one of my favorite photos
from the entire franchise.
I got to direct Chucky.
I heard that John kind of said,
"Okay,
that's enough
of Kevin's directing Chucky."
Knowing that he was the star,
he was like,
"He's having all the fun.
I'm having to direct actors,
and he gets to direct this."
So I noticed my job
went from directing Chucky
now to directing cars
driving down the street.
The cop stuff was shot first,
and it was shot at like 4:30
in the morning,
and we couldn't get around
to my stuff on the night.
That got pushed to the end
of the schedule,
and I did all my side of
that dialogue with the...
You seen dolls that pee?
This one bleeds.
It's on stage, weeks later.
Get into my office.
Grace Zabriskie was an edgy
non-ally to Alex.
The most important thing
for the franchise
is that nobody believes
that Chucky is real,
and I think she pulled
that off very well.
Is this your idea of a joke?
I had only had a couple scenes
with Grace Zabriskie.
The one scene that I remember
is right before her death
at the copy machine.
In that room,
when we were filming,
a massive stage light fell
and landed right on my head.
Amazing isn't it?
Grace's death.
It's the photocopier
that makes it memorable.
She was also
an amazing screamer,
and I just thought the idea
of someone getting their face
photocopied as they're dying
was interesting.
I think the deaths, on a whole,
had a t*rture aspect to them.
My initial thought when
I was watching that scene was,
God, I wish I had one of
those Xeroxes and frame it
and put it up on the wall.
you know, of Grace going...
I don't think there's any
particular reason
why Chucky needs
to take Andy to the toy factory.
Unless he was maybe
trying out a new voodoo spell
that he hadn't really
figured out.
It's a good thing to assume
if you need
some clarification there.
The factory
was really exciting,
and I was so thrilled
that we were actually
gonna be able
to put that on screen,
since it had been cut
from number one.
All the stuff
in the warehouse
was super fun to sh**t.
You know, all these really dark,
sinister things are happening
in this incredibly
colorful setting.
Just, like, seeing the various
machines and doing the gags,
and, you know, John and I
were big "Shining" fans.
I'm coming!
And so we did that maze
with the boxes.
There were 80 million
of those boxes
that they had manufactured
to be all stacked up.
Like a jackass, I never got one.
I don't know what the f*ck
I was thinking.
I didn't take one.
There were two different
types of boxes for background,
in which there was only
a photograph of the doll,
and it made it look like
it was underneath cellophane,
and it was about 500,
in which we had cellophane front
and an actual doll
in the box itself.
I was just amazed at how
imaginative Ivo Cristante was
in coming up with that set.
John Lafia, the director,
gave me an awful lot of freedom,
and he says, "What I want
is an insidious-looking
Disneyland."
Hiding us was an issue,
you know,
because in that one set,
it's kind of open.
But Kevin was really good
at helping the director
figure out
how to get those angles
without too much trouble.
- And strike, go!
- Cut it.
The set was built
at Thatcher Glass,
this enormous warehouse
in Valencia, California,
too big to fit into any of
the soundstages at Universal.
That's why we went up there.
The factory
is like a Vegas casino.
It seems much easier
to get in
than to find your way
back out of it again.
Let's go!
I'll go first.
Stay right behind me.
The warehouse was like a maze,
so maybe we thought we had
to go up to get out.
The cl*max of that film,
in the toy factory,
with all of the mechanics
that are going on
and the building of a doll,
is staggering.
Things are coming in
from all sides.
That was very time-consuming
to sh**t.
The sh**t was like 55 days.
But, you know, I think
there were probably 15 days,
maybe, or more out there.
I had already
started KNB EFX Group
with Greg Nicotero.
Kevin threw us some effects,
which were great.
He's like, "Hey,
I gotta do these dummies.
You know, these guys
that, you know, are k*lled
and, like, the Chucky eyes
are shoved into their heads.
You know,
are you up for the task?
Do you feel like
you want to do them?"
So it gave me a reason
to go visit them,
which was tons of fun
and see all my friends.
Chucky proves to be
exceptionally relentless
in that factory sequence.
Action!
And dummy!
He gets his hand cut off
and shoves a knife down his arm,
which, even though
you know it's a doll,
is really gruesome to watch.
He gets stuck in that machine
that puts all arms
and legs in him,
and he gets stapled
to this thing.
And that's the nature
of villains.
They just don't stay down.
The differences between
the first and second
was the amount of t*rture.
And that all required
me screaming
and feeling all that pain.
So that was like a nightmare.
And when I melt him
with that hot wax,
that was super fun to sh**t.
It wasn't really hot
in real life,
but it did sh**t out of there
with an intense velocity.
It was a Methylcellulose, which
is, like, this food thickener.
The special effects guys
added smoke to the liquid
as it came out
to make it look like it was hot,
but it was actually cold.
And then we cut to a brand-new
art piece that was Chucky,
molded onto a floor
with all this silicone
and everything that came
into a brand-new puppet
that had a brand-new head to it.
Any time that I get to hurt
the doll is my favorite.
While I sometimes
find it frustrating
that horror movie final girls
don't get themselves away
from the allegedly dead villain
that they've been fighting...
Aah!
...Kyle does the same thing.
Kyle hovers over the melted wax
and invites the attack
that inevitably comes.
Action!
You never really
get to k*ll Chucky.
I've k*lled him several times,
and none of them take, it seems.
"Was this it?
Have we k*lled him?"
Not yet.
Try again.
Eat this, you son of a b*tch!
Christine shoves the tube
into Chucky's mouth,
and we use the first
melted puppet for that.
And then, through cuts,
it would cut away and cut back,
and we had an expandable head
that had bladders in it
that we began to stretch it out,
and then we cut to another head
that was fully out to like
the size of a basketball.
And again, this is
the John Lafia kind of humor.
He would just... "Heh heh!"...
laugh at it the whole time
in the background
because he just loved
this kind of stuff.
Chucky blowing up
was an homage
to De Palma's "The Fury,"
with John Cassavetes blowing up,
and we, you know, showed it
from the different angles.
Chucky, at this point,
is Wile E. Coyote.
We burn him, we rip him apart,
we poke his eyes out,
and he deserves
every bit of it,
and you're happy
that it's happening.
k*ll him before he can say it.
But how?
How?
- sh**t him through the heart.
- Heart.
It would be over.
It's the only way...
through the heart.
Didn't we learn something
from the first film?
The ending of the movie
cracks me up
because we walk out of
the factory into broad daylight.
My hair looks better than it
ever did in the whole movie.
I have perfect hair,
which I wish I had
that hair the whole time,
and we've just
gone through hell,
and people we know are dead.
Two people, our foster parents,
are both dead,
and we walk out,
and he's like...
- Where are we going?
- Home.
Where's home?
"I have no idea!"
Like nothing bad
happened at all.
It's hilarious.
Well, there was,
as originally filmed,
we go back in,
and we see blood dripping
from Chucky's exploded remains
into that vat of plastic.
And then John did this kind of
graceful, cool camera movement
up to show this new head
coming out of the assembly line,
and it smiles.
And that, again,
was something from the end
of my original script for
"Blood Buddy."
John just wanted to leave it
on them walking out.
They had defeated the beast,
and yet again,
here we were lucky enough
to get a second film.
I don't think
we were thinking of,
"Oh, we're going to leave
a cliffhanger of any kind."
That very well could have been
the ending of Andy's story.
It could have been
the ending of Chucky's story.
I think we're both
very thankful it wasn't.
With production
on the sequel wrapped,
all eyes turned
to putting together
what the cast
and crew had created,
hoping to take Chucky
from fright favorite
to outright icon.
I have strong memories
of going to dailies
with John Lafia
and Ed Warschilka Sr.,
our editor,
and it was fascinating for me
to see them working
together in dailies,
because I could hear
what they talked about
and figure out what they thought
made the scene better.
I was aware that some
of our stuff was cut.
- I'm happy if you're happy.
- I am.
You'll see.
Everything's gonna be just fine.
And it's not
the Jenny Agutter
and Gerritt Graham story, is it?
- This is it.
- It's the Alex and Chucky story.
Graeme Revell... that was...
it was very exciting.
So, John Lafia and I had gone
to see the movie "Dead Calm,"
and the score was amazing.
And it's interesting
because we talked about
Joe Renzetti's score
for "Child's Play 1."
The score for "Dead Calm" had
something in common with that.
It was very percussive.
It wasn't a score
about melody or strings.
You know,
it was just a percussion.
And so I just remember John
was very hot to meet this guy.
We just kind of went with him.
His work was good.
Don was very impressed by him,
and he felt Graeme
would be great,
and Graeme delivered for us
in a wonderful way.
I was honestly shocked that
the reviews were not great.
I really thought
we'd delivered something,
and I thought what John Lafia
did with his directing
and what Don had written
were really great.
Sequels are always
a tricky one to pull off.
You have to sort of
recapture that magic
that makes the first one
so special
in a way that makes audiences
feel like
they're getting
another taste of that.
It feels like it lacks
the seriousness of intent
that "Child's Play" had for me.
And so, as a result,
it's just a body-count movie.
He's k*lling random people
for no real reason.
It doesn't even necessarily
serve his purposes,
and I feel like
that takes a little bit
of the intensity out of it.
I don't know that critics
are that important
to horror films.
Our true critics
that we want to please
are the audience, the fans.
"Child's Play 2" was released
on November 9, 1990.
Though not a critical darling,
the film topped the box office,
ultimately pulled
in $34 million,
and proved that you really
can't keep a Good Guy down.
It turned out we were so lucky.
Once again, the movie came out,
and it won the weekend.
And the audience seemed
to respond in kind,
as far as showing up
and telling their friends
and their friends showing up.
I am so proud of that work.
It's sort of one of the epitomes
of my career
in being part of that team
with John,
Kevin, and magnificent
art department.
I feel very privileged
to have been part of that.
I am super proud of being
part of "Child's Play 2"
because I feel like
I was part of horror history.
It really was a good bunch,
and I had a lot of people
there who I trusted
and knew I could rely on,
and who did great work.
The finished product
was pretty exciting
'cause I spent, again,
most of the time in isolation,
so it's fun to be able to see
how they put
all the work together.
I did exactly
what I set out to do,
and that doesn't always happen
that you sh**t a movie
and you get what you thought
in your mind it would be,
and it was exactly
what I wanted.
I knew it was going
to get a gigantic audience.
Everybody and his brother was
gonna go see the damn thing.
And it was a good sh**t,
a smooth, happy, fun sh**t.
That Universal logo
was like a hug, you know,
acknowledging that I was part
of this unbelievably cool club,
and that was really fun for me.
I was very happy with it
but at an age
where you begin to feel
and know what insecurity is,
so I was a little more critical
of my performance
than I was ever watching
the first film.
In all fairness,
I don't normally like
to watch movies that I'm in.
I find that
a horrifying experience.
So I didn't see the movie.
I enjoyed it.
You know, I'm...
You know,
I was looking at my own work
to being
the second unit director,
so I was kind of looking to see
how that was cutting in,
you know, and I was happy to see
the new parts work out.
But with Chucky,
it's always nail-biting.
It was, you know,
pinch-yourself moments
that you made a movie,
and now you get
to make a sequel to that movie.
And, you know, to be able to
work with Don was exciting.
And John, you know,
they were part of the team.
It felt like, for me
and John and David,
that we had righted the ship
or at least stayed the course.
I will say that there
were shackles off of me.
The fact that Tom was
no longer a part of this,
that felt really good.
And so there was just
a lightness to it
and a frivolity
that everybody had on this
that was not possible
on the first film.
We felt like
we did Chucky proud.
With "Chucky" topping the
box-office charts twice before,
Universal hoped a third time
would also charm.
The catch?
Delivery of the film
for a summer 1991 release,
a mere nine months
after the first sequel's debut.
They'd greenlit
"Child's Play 3"
before "Child's Play 2"
came out.
I know that the movie
had tested well,
well enough to hire me to start
to get writing on the sequel.
It was Universal.
They wanted
to immediately capitalize.
I guess they felt they had
some momentum going.
But I'm not sure why they wanted
to rush it so quickly.
There was a clock ticking.
I had to write
that script really fast.
We had to go into production
really fast.
I made a mistake
by agreeing to that.
The green light was too quick
and I've never made
that mistake again.
We knew we needed to change
things up in some fashion
because we didn't want
to get too repetitive.
The domestic thing
had happened twice.
It has to change.
It can't be the same thing.
So there you have Don Mancini
coming up with
a really good idea.
I think I was inspired
by the "Omen" franchise.
"Omen II" partly takes place
with Damien at military school.
I'm not sure if I love
the whole concept
of the... story-wise,
of the soldier thing.
It just didn't feel like
a "Child's Play" film,
to me, for some reason.
I do remember
being disappointed
that John didn't want
to direct it.
He wanted to move on
to something else.
Jack Bender came available,
and we were lucky to get him.
He had been directing
television,
but he was very talented.
I had written a story
with Richard Matheson
called "The Dreamer of Oz,"
about the life of L. Frank Baum,
and Jack directed that,
and I offered him a feature,
and the studio, at that point,
was willing to go
with whoever
I felt strongly about.
I had a relationship
with Jack Bender.
I had never done
a horror film before.
I was intrigued about
giving me the challenge to
take the genre and see
what I can do with it.
I didn't know anything
about Chucky before or since.
The most complicated thing
was making the doll work,
not making our day
'cause the doll would break.
I think I was hesitating
working on "Child's Play 3"
because, okay, now it's
a franchise, now it's something
that's just going
to keep going on.
I felt that by part 2,
I'd done it all.
So what else can I bring
to this character?
And I was also... it was
a great year, work-wise, for me.
I had "Bogus Journey" going on.
I had all these other movies
that I was working on,
so I was trying to give it
as much as I could,
but I know I didn't give it
as much as I did
in the first two films.
Though some things changed,
others felt the same,
as this third trip
around the Chucky sun proved
when it was time to say hello
to new recruits
and bid farewell
to old friends.
I discovered that
my voice had changed
and I could no longer be a part
of the "Child's Play" movies,
but I think it was very cool
for them in "Child's Play 3"
to take that jump
into boarding school.
So that was
a cool story twist, right?
And, of course,
both Alex and I assumed
we would be in "Child's Play 3,"
which didn't happen.
I thought that I was
coming back for part 3, though.
There was a time
when I definitely thought I was.
I remember being in a restaurant
and finding out
that I was not going to be
in part 3,
and I was devastated.
I was incredibly devastated.
But I was
super disappointed, though.
I really wanted to come back
because it was
such a positive experience.
I felt like this
was something
that I was a big part of,
and now I wasn't a part of it.
And, yeah, that was... it was
difficult for me at the time.
We felt we had run dry
on the story of Chucky
chasing Andy Barclay.
Don thought he had
really explored Chucky,
you know, assaulting a child.
He kind of done everything
with that that he could,
and he wanted to move the story
into somebody
maybe more sophisticated
in fighting back against Chucky.
Andy.
Teenage Andy...
that's a whole other story.
I never felt comfortable
with those people.
They weren't family,
they were strangers.
You know, Andy grown up,
who wasn't our little kid.
It was this different actor.
That's always hard,
you know,
to accept that as a character.
I think it was
more interesting
instead of just repeating the
same thing over and over again.
It really brought
a new aspect to it.
Andy, how you've grown.
Justin was a great find.
Credit to that goes
to our casting director.
Glenn Daniels found him
and was super excited about it
because I remember him
calling me and saying,
"Not only have I found
a great kid actor,
he looks exactly
like Alex Vincent."
He seemed to care a great deal.
He seemed to, in our minds,
be a version of grown-up Andy.
And I thought Justin was great.
You think you're pretty funny,
don't you, De Silva?
Yes, I do, sir.
I had just really started
acting a couple of years
before I got the role
of Kristin De Silva
in "Child's Play 3,"
and I loved the part
because she was sort of
a badass, ahead of her time.
That was the absolute intent,
to have a strong female
central character.
I don't know that she
necessarily seemed like a girl
you'd meet in military school,
but I believed her
as having a tough edge.
How you doing, Tyler?
My audition process
was lengthy.
I had a lead starring role.
I didn't even realize how
significant it was going to be.
My name's Jeremy.
And even though,
I'm only 9 years old,
I have the voice...
The character of Tyler,
that Jeremy Sylvers
did such a wonderful job at,
he had home-life damage.
As a young Black
African-American male
latchkey kid
growing up in the '90s,
being scared wasn't too hard.
Do you know who I am?!
Shelton.
At the time,
I was working on a TV series
called "The Young Riders,"
and we were on hiatus
for the summer,
and I got a call from my agent.
He said, "There's this movie
you're gonna be
auditioning for, 'Child's Play, '
and I knew of
the "Child's Play" movies.
When I first read the script,
the thing that I...
immediately jumped at
is how much
I loved this character.
There was a complexity
to it that I saw.
He had such a range
with his acting.
Travis was awesome.
We just had a blast.
You must be new.
Otherwise, you'd know
they don't tolerate
any form of individuality here.
I showed them a picture of me
from this movie
I had done,
that Joe Roth had directed,
called "Coupe de Ville."
My hair had been, you know,
cut down
for, like, a military cut,
so I was like,
"This is what I look like
with a military cut."
Anyway, like,
at the end of my audition,
I stuck my head back in the door
and did that silly thing
where you reach your arm back in
and pull your head out.
I think that's why
they liked me.
Dean was great.
We were going for rehearsal,
and he said,
"Oh, I spent the night
at the academy."
I wanted to do my homework,
do the research,
find out what it's actually like
to be a new student
at a military academy.
I said, "Why?" and he said,
"'Cause I told them
to kind of bully me
so I could experience that."
This is my r*fle,
this is my g*n,
this is for sh**ting,
and this is for fun.
So I came in to read
for the part of Colonel Shelton,
and I thought,
"Hey, this is in the bag."
And they told me, "Well,
there's this other guy we like,
and we're gonna
give him a shot."
"Uh, uh, all right."
And they came back and said,
"But they really liked you,
and they want to write
a part for you.
So we're going to put
Major Ellis in the script,"
and I was like, "Awesome."
Apparently, Matthew was
considered for my role,
and to his credit,
he put that aside.
I think he's a phenomenal actor,
an interesting, intelligent guy,
and I loved working with him.
I really did.
It's time to forget
these fantasies of k*ller dolls.
Well, I was pretty new
to film and television.
I had only come down to L.A.
in the very late '80s
and early '90s
after a 25-year career
exclusively on stage.
Jack was a friend of mine,
and he had given me my first
lead in a movie of the week.
Dakin Matthews was the dad
on the set.
Super accomplished,
knew the drill.
If you needed to know anything
about working on a set,
you just kind of
looked at Dakin.
So this was my real
first motion-picture audition.
I moved from Chattanooga,
Tennessee, to New York to L.A.
because everything
was casting here.
Perrey and Donna had
the unfortunate distinction
of being really
the only two females
in this military school
with hundreds of other guys.
The chance of that
being intimidating
was certainly there,
and I don't think they let it
bother them one bit.
So super pumped, ready to head
to everybody's favorite,
I think, Mecca of filming,
Boonville, Missouri, in winter.
It was freezing.
We were out.
You had to pretend
it wasn't cold.
We had these
heat packs that we
put in our shoes so that
our toes wouldn't
just completely freeze off.
So what could go wrong?
With Chucky boot camp
in full freezing swing,
"Child's Play 3" began filming
on February 4, 1991,
with a budget of $13 million.
The bottom line
is the bottom line.
Peter Haskell as Sullivan
was a personification
of the worst of Madison Avenue,
and he loved doing that.
He is k*lled on top
of his desk
in front of these pictures
of these two cute
little blond kids,
which were my kids.
You know, I said,
"Oh, we're gonna bring you back
for 'Child's Play 3'
and k*ll you."
You know, 'cause he was like,
"I want to...
I want to get k*lled by Chucky."
So I was able
to accommodate him.
It's the first k*ll
of the movie.
And you're kind
of expecting it,
but when it does happen,
it really is a delicious payoff.
Nothing like a strangulation
to get the circulation going.
Brad is great at delivering
darkly funny lines as Chucky.
I actually do remember
doing that line,
and Chucky is becoming
aware of himself.
Because the character
was getting more popular,
our operating principle was,
"Let's show him more."
Where are you,
you little sh*t?
The young man was sent
to a military academy
because he's been causing
so much trouble.
Adjustment problems.
I can read, Barclay.
Justin's character
was very internal.
I always thought he did
such a wonderful job.
I thought he did bring
all that history to the role.
He's a lovely actor, and we had
a pretty good relationship.
Grow up.
You're not a kid anymore.
That character on the page
was R. Lee Ermey.
You are pukes.
You are the lowest
form of life on Earth.
I was never going to
approach it like a jerk.
I was going to approach it
a bit more humanistic.
Dakin brought, I think,
some humanity to it.
I think Dakin Matthews
is precious.
Andy Robinson
playing the barber.
Next.
He's capable of playing
the most psychopathic,
psychotic serial K*llers.
Andy Robinson is, you know,
Dirty Harry's nemesis.
How awesome is that?
To me,
he was really intimidating.
He's actually an
extraordinarily nice guy.
Andy and his performance,
definitely one of the most
memorable aspects
of the whole movie.
"Presto!"
You're bald.
"You're bald."
What we see is these
shiny boots
step into frame and do
a snap turn and walk down.
I can't remember
how I was supposed to enter,
but I walked up to Jack,
and I said,
"Hey, Jack, you know,
what would be great?
If the camera was really low
and you saw my shoes,
these shiny shoes,"
and I did the snap turn.
And to Jack's credit,
he let some 22-year-old actor
call his own entry shot.
You're a new boy, huh?
Travis was, you know,
doing the work of a good actor
and finding a way
to play a figure
that was relatively thin
on the page.
Shelton's anger and his
aggression came from a fear
and a refusal to sort of
confront his own stuff.
God damn majorette over here.
And on paper, this was
not a bisexual character.
I don't think Don ever intended
to write it that way,
and that's how
I chose to play it.
I was aware, and we did
talk about it briefly.
As an openly bisexual man,
that was one of the earliest
moments with that character
that I was able
to play around with something.
Travis has to find a way into
the psychology of that character
so that it'll be interesting
and watchable, and he did it.
I'm proud that I got
to play that character
the way I wanted to.
You as*h*le.
One of the most fun
parts of the movie for me
was all of my scenes
with Travis.
I mean, number one,
they were just head-to-head.
There's that moment
where I walk up to her
and I say, "You think you're
pretty smart, don't you?"
So it's a very sort
of intimate moment.
And, again,
we talk about secrets
and things that actors
bring and subtext,
and I always believed that
Shelton and De Silva
had had a thing.
Why don't you drop
and give me 25 right now.
And they had actually flown in
a stunt double.
She was the one who would do
all the one-armed push-ups.
And when I found that out,
I was so upset.
I was like,
"I can do my own stunts."
I loved what Perrey
brought to the character.
She's got such a strength.
So I did.
I did a one-armed push-up.
I think I could do two of them,
and then actually
did fall in the mud.
But we laughed
and laughed and laughed.
Jack asked me to ad-lib a line
because Perrey
was doing push-ups,
and it just came out.
I said...
Once a month, we're just
gonna get on out of your way.
It came out, and Jack's like,
"What was that?"
and I said, "I don't know,"
and it ended up
staying in the movie.
Her and Travis
really set the tone
for the rest of us
that they were going to
take the work seriously.
The ensemble was wonderful.
We all really bonded
because we were on location
right off the bat.
We all got to hang out
and have fun.
That was nice.
Why don't you give this
to the new kid for me?
Barclay.
Yes, sir.
Tyler took the Good Guy
in the first place
because he was a lonely kid.
You know, he kind of took
the place of the next Andy.
The most amazing part
of the film
was actually interacting
with this real-life doll.
"Hey, kid."
Fun's over.
Where the hell's Andy?
It was hard to stay
in character because I'm like...
You have to believe
that voice
is coming out of that doll.
Brad Dourif is one of
the most amazing actors
on the face of the planet.
I remember one
of the first questions
I think I asked my reps
at the time was,
"Did Brad Dourif sign on again?"
There's a freedom
and a wildness and a passion
and an intensity to Brad.
The one thing that I love
about Chucky
is that he loves his job.
That's really part of who he is.
He had the sauce, man.
He had the sauce.
A Good Guy.
Tyler was very meaningful
for me
because we shared a lot
of similar life circumstances.
I always thought that maybe
Tyler's role
had a past history
of really serious abuse.
Tyler wanted some friendship.
He wanted a companion,
and he was torn between Chucky
and Andy Barclay.
And Andy was the real friend.
Chucky was the pretend friend.
He was the wolf
in sheep's clothing.
Ade due Damballa.
During those
"hide the soul" moments,
I'm sitting there, like,
silently mouthing
the exact same lines,
and Jack is like,
"No, don't do that."
"He says the voodoo thing.
You don't say it."
I can't believe I let you
talk me into this.
I was all excited
because prior to that,
I had seen the promo
for "Child's Play 1"
with my brother Chucky.
How weird is that?
De Silva, when she was going
through the commandant's office,
was trying to
get information on Andy.
But when she finds Tyler
with that doll...
...she doesn't want him to be,
you know, damaged or be
sought out to be picked on.
Oh, he is so cute!
Ivers, give him back!
I wanted to humiliate him
and shame him and go,
"Hey, I'm bigger than you,
buddy."
Donna, um,
was sort of the one
that you kind of think
she's probably going to be dead
by page 30.
Right? But just to have
that female energy
in such a male-centric film,
I think, was able to bring
a different kind of emotion
and playfulness to it.
Chucky has such a incongruous,
macho sensibility
coming out of this adorable
little child's doll.
- Give me your lipstick.
- What for?
Just give it to me.
And so the notion...
it just seemed like something
that, like, would really
make Chucky livid.
And you knew that this was
a coiled spring
with a b*mb attached,
and they were risking
their lives.
Uh, he ain't gonna like it
too much
that you putting, uh,
lipstick all over him.
I don't know
that I was doing it
so deliberately at the time,
thinking, "I'm going to start
to q*eer my franchise."
But I was.
You know,
I was starting to do that.
Chucky has evolved.
His own experience
of his own sexuality
expands over the course
of the franchise,
and that's something
that I'm probably
a little
ridiculously proud of.
This means w*r.
When I hear a noise,
I turn around,
and Chucky walks out
from behind the file cabinet
and raises his dagger.
And I simply saw him
and reacted.
Colonel Cochran
dies by heart attack.
One always likes
to have something
about one's role be unique.
He's not a tough guy,
so you lose the humor
of this strutting martinet
who takes one look
at a doll and drops dead.
That was the joke.
We went right up to the fall,
and then the stunt double
jumps in and crashed
through the display case.
It pays off really well
when he falls into it.
Then he got up, and I laid
down in the broken glass
and did one last expiration.
The camera is going past
all these kids
who are looking
at the commander of the academy,
who is dead,
and his body being taken out.
We did 39 takes of that.
I just stood
in the background,
and I watched take 29
and take 30.
I thought 28 was
a pretty good take.
The death of that character,
the barber, I love.
I think that's probably
my favorite sequence
from that movie.
Presto.
In the barbershop,
you have a big mirror.
And how do you sh**t
in a mirror?
How do you sh**t the scene
in a very tight space?
It was a little bit of a nod
to "Sweeney Todd."
I'll not meet again,
my little darling
We created
the barbershop on stage,
and that gave me the ability
to create multi images
in the shop of mirror
reflected on mirror
reflected on mirror.
We were always there,
off camera,
watching Andy perform his
scenes, which was amazing.
When he was getting the
prosthetic neck put on,
you know,
so that when Chucky slashed it,
the blood would pour out...
We got giggling fits
and had to run away.
And I also love the line
when he's dying,
and he looks at himself
in the mirror,
and Chucky's saying...
It's definitely you.
I mean, with "Child's Play,"
I guess some people
just need k*lling.
We were actually out
in the woods
when we first
started filming it.
We had some exteriors,
real live forest,
and then we were on a soundstage
where they built stuff.
I mean, we'd shot there
for a couple days.
And then, it started raining,
and the fields
were getting very wet,
and the trucks
were starting to sink.
So I talked to
the production designer
about building a forest
on one of the smaller stages
at Universal.
Come on, Andy.
I want to show you something.
Our first view of
the amusement park is from afar,
this sort of romantic moment
between Andy and De Silva.
Pretty cool, huh?
I think the vulnerability
that he was able to portray
made her feel close to him
and safe with him.
There is something magical
and fairytale-ish about that.
His mom was there
for the kissing scene,
and I remember saying,
"When we reshoot this,
the mom's gotta go."
I mean, we can't have
a first kiss on screen
with the mother watching.
It's just too awkward.
It just seemed like
a darkly clever,
Chucky-esque thing
to do for him
to replace the paint pellets
with actual a*mo.
Hold your fire!
The death scene
was a fun moment.
Chucky gives me the finger,
and he says...
Hi, soldier.
That character's final line
before he dies is...
f*ck me.
And he was asking me,
"Is there
a metaphorical piece of this?
and I went, "Maybe."
"Ooh, f*ck me."
And Jack said, "Cut!
Travis, what was that?"
De Silva never liked Shelton.
I mean, obviously,
they were in conflict
the whole time
she was at that academy.
But when he got shot,
I think there was a guilt
because in the back of her mind,
at one point or another,
she's like,
"Oh, my God, I wish he'd die."
Yeah, it kind of breaks
my heart that Shelton dies.
Even though he's the bad guy,
you sort of still care
about him, in a way.
Matthew's character responds
so heavily to my death.
Oh, God, he's not breathing.
Clearly, these two guys
had a deep, deep bond,
and this death affected him
in a big way,
and it was a beautiful
performance by Matthew.
Whitehurst's death is
so dramatic and heartfelt.
I blowed up real good.
There was a platform over a pit,
and the pit had a lot of what
I think it's called Fuller's
earth that blew out.
Dean was perfect in that role.
Dean did such a great job
of building
that character along the way.
I love that his character
got to be
a bit of a hero in the end.
And I said to myself,
"This is my moment of truth,"
and I jumped
on the hand grenade.
I did the best I could
to find a way to motivate that.
I don't know if I succeeded.
I hope I did.
Carnivals are creepy, right?
I mean, isn't that a perfect
opportunity to let Chucky loose?
We brought in a real
carnival,
set it up in a field,
which was mind-blowing to me.
They basically rented
a carnival
and we just, like, set it up.
There's a moment that my wife
and I and daughters
are walking through.
- There's your prize!
- There you go.
Thank you, Daddy!
There are carnivals
that you can rent.
So we were able
to just call up and say,
"Can you erect your carnival
at such-and-such a place?"
Say, give that thing a rest, or
you're out of here, both of you?
I was doing a play called
"Tony n' Tina's Wedding."
I know Don came
but also Jack Bender.
I do not recall auditioning,
so I think it was
just say, "Would you do it?"
and I said, "Yes!"
Mister, Mister,
you gotta help me!
Throughout all
the "Child's Play" movies,
there's always the adult
that does not listen to the kid.
Adults look at children
oftentimes like,
"Well, you're just a kid.
What do you know?"
Have a seat.
How about some gum, Private?
I love the foreshadowing,
when I open up the drawer
to get the gum,
and there happens to be a p*stol
right there.
So we know something
might happen with that g*n.
Now, I thought I would have
a wonderful death like my wife,
Beth Grant...
Aah!
...but I did not.
Justin and my character
arrive and discover
the body of the security guard.
I'm a dead body.
lying on this sawdust
while they're having
a bunch of dialogue.
That was the toughest job
I've ever done...
just being dead.
Perfect.
There was a set piece
that we ended up
not being able to do
because it was too expensive,
but it was in various
drafts of the script
where Chucky is on a more
traditional roller coaster.
But they didn't feel that
they had the budget.
We just couldn't afford it.
So I came up with the idea
of a house of horror,
and I'll never forget looking...
they're looking at me
like I was nuts.
Jack came to me that evening
and said,
"Rich, I like your idea.
Let's do it."
So we built the roller
coaster on the stage.
We all had so much fun
with these sets,
and those designers
did such a good job.
That was one of my favorite sets
that was built.
Oh, hello!
I'm so glad you could come by.
Come on over here.
We're making a movie. Come on.
How do I create, on stage,
a roller coaster?
And that was the first thing
that Jack asked me.
So I said, "To be honest
with you, I don't know,"
'cause I had
a very tight budget
and a very short period of time.
So I found, through research,
someone who had
a roller-coaster track,
but he didn't have the car.
I said, "Well, that's great."
'Cause I wanted to build
the car as a piece of horror.
The roller-coaster ride
was done on the Phantom stage
at Universal,
where they shot the original
"Phantom of the Opera."
And the Grim Reaper
scythes off Chucky's face.
Aah!
Made him sort of "Phantom
of the Opera" Chucky there.
They go into that wonderful
mountain of skulls.
I shot my own stunts.
I was hanging from an invisible
metal protection wire,
and it went through my clothes,
and it went down,
and there was a harness.
I was really hanging.
And there was, like,
huge industrial fans below us.
Chucky falls into that
and just gets ripped to shreds.
Aah!
Him falling into
this gigantic,
industrial-sized fan
and being torn into pieces
is really cool.
As she's getting carted off
in the ambulance,
it's all wrapped up nicely.
Chucky's been blown up.
There is no obvious
cliffhanger.
I always felt that she would
be back for more
because she and Chucky
were not done.
I think that that last scene,
where Andy's being taken away
in the car,
it's not great.
It's not great.
And I think it's just
symptomatic of my fatigue.
I poked at the trash
as the credits
that nobody reads go up.
He's stabbing the trash
and putting it in a bag,
and there is a piece of Chucky's
face lying there on the ground.
He stabs it and then
stuffs it into the bag.
That was the way
that Chucky would come back,
but I understand that was cut.
Was I cut from the film?
Those b*stards!
Where's my agent?
Chucky's training now complete,
it was time to prepare
for a tour of terror.
The film's first stop
before storming theaters,
post-production editing,
scoring, and ADR.
I was super excited to get
a call to come back again,
this time
as an assistant editor.
I did write the score
with my partner at the time,
John D'Andrea.
We just knew that Jack Bender
wanted something
really different
than the past scores.
They were known at the time
for "Baywatch."
I was used to, you know,
young, beautiful women
running down the beach
in slow-motion.
So to go over to Chucky
was a whole other thing.
There was definitely
a sense of deadlines.
Constant deadlines.
Tell you, we worked
tirelessly on that thing.
I mean, hundreds and hundreds
of hours went into that score.
I feel like we still
delivered a great movie.
The movie itself, altogether,
in the theater was awesome.
The first time I saw the movie
was at
the cast and crew screening,
and that was just awesome.
I thought it was
incredibly exciting.
I think I brought my mom.
There was so much to love
about the film,
so many surprises.
I've seen the movie
a couple times,
and I have fun,
and I laugh out loud.
I'm just watching, you know,
just like everybody else
in the audience,
not knowing what
to expect next.
"Child's Play 3" was
deployed to theaters
on August 30, 1991.
While critics and audiences
conferred a less
than friendly homecoming,
the cast and crew
believed their time
in the trenches
would forever be memorable.
"Child's Play 3"
was not viewed successfully.
The film just
didn't seem to work.
Box office-wise,
2 didn't do as well as 1,
and 3 didn't do as well as 2.
The movie did not do well.
The reviews certainly hurt.
The last line, Andy says,
"I've been here before."
I think it was
the L.A. Timesreview,
something like, "We sure have."
Went, "Eh."
I thought it was
probably over at that point.
The failure of that movie
was my first experience
with failure in Hollywood.
The studio, at that point,
wondered if maybe
we should change writers.
That was something
that I was dead set against.
You know, I think
I was amazed that it did three,
and I wasn't surprised
when people were tired of it.
The first one, we were
discovering a brand-new animal.
Second one, we were improving
that and making it even better.
By the time
we got to the third one,
I think it was just
same old, same old, in a sense.
I really thought,
"Okay. That's the end."
And it was the end
for quite a while.
It was the first
negative impact
on my career and livelihood.
So, you know,
it was very existential for me.
So I think it kind of
skews my...
my whole feeling about the film.
And I go back and applaud Don
because he took what was
this sort of silly
little horror franchise,
and he's really turned it
into something
that is speaking on
a much deeper level.
I would say the making
of "Child's Play 3"
was an adventure.
I have to say that
I'm very, very proud.
The effect that it has
had on many,
many people has been
a tremendous success,
and being part of that success,
I feel I've been...
I've contributed a great deal.
For me, it was very satisfying
to be invited back
to do the third movie,
having been a big fan
of the first one
and being part of the success
of the second one.
So, for me,
it gave my early career
a sense of completion already
that I got to be part
of this huge, fun horror
franchise of the Chucky world.
I think learning
about Chucky was fun.
I think arguing with the crew
that they weren't
going fast enough wasn't fun.
Well, I definitely
enjoyed the process.
That was very exciting.
Especially when I see it,
you know, these days, I think,
"Those are some
pretty cool cues."
It was a good experience
because we
did enjoy ourselves.
And when, you know,
"Cut!" happened,
we'd often laugh,
you know,
so we wouldn't take it
so seriously on the set.
I want to say thank you.
Thank you for Jack Bender,
and thank you
for Don Mancini to write it.
I've played opposite
Helen Mirren
and Denzel Washington,
but to play opposite Chucky,
this is a...
this is an honor.
It was just so cool
to be a part of this thing
that is loved by so many.
Being a part
of the Chucky-verse,
it's just one
of the coolest things.
The most fun part of
making "Child's Play 3"
would have to have been,
for me,
playing that great character
that I got to play.
Being able to bark lines to
people like R. Lee Ermey
from "Full Metal Jacket"!
And just being involved
in such an iconic franchise,
you just felt giddy
every day going to work.
Making that movie
was so exciting
because it was
my first feature film.
It was my first studio project.
It was a great time.
Everyone was great.
Like, you know, it was just
beautiful to start my career
in a very high
professional atmosphere,
with quality top professionals.
Being a part of a franchise
with a character like Chucky
was one of the most fun
and wonderful
and exciting opportunities
that I've had.
For me, to get to play
and have so much fun
in an early part of my career
with such a wonderful
group of people,
I feel incredibly lucky
that that was in my life.
Bringing "Child's Play 3"
to life
is probably one of
the easiest moments of my life,
of bringing a production
to production,
and that was that
the studio said to me,
"Start working on
'Child's Play 3.'"
Whoa!
That was incredible.
I look at a lot of sequels,
and I think, you know,
"This is a really,
really bad idea."
It rarely, rarely ever works.
A sequel has to be something
that is so good,
it's not even a sequel,
and that's a tall order.
It was an admirable attempt
to do something different,
to put a little bit
of a spin on it.
It was just getting tired.
My main feeling about
that movie is, like,
"I f*cked up."
Let's move on to "Bride."
After the disappointing
reception
of 1991's "Child's Play 3,"
Chucky was placed back
in his box for years
after several failed starts
to stoke the flames
of Charles Lee Ray's bloodlust,
a fourth film was finally
given the greenlight...
for love.
David and I were always
in constant communication
about like, you know,
what could we do next
and when would be
the right time.
My wife and I were in
Rocket Video on La Brea Avenue,
and there was
"The Bride of Frankenstein."
And it's just like this silly
light bulb went off in my head.
"What if we did a bride
for Chucky?"
We just thought
it would be so much fun
to add a new character
to the mix.
I was a development executive
for David Kirschner,
the producer.
Don went away
and did the wonderful concocting
of imagination that he does.
I felt like, "I don't want
to repeat the mistake
of 'Child's Play 3.'
We've got to do something new.
We're gonna make Chucky
the lead."
I was, indeed, surprised
to get the call
that we were going
to do another movie,
and then delighted
when I read it.
I thought it's
a beautifully conceived script.
You got that right.
When we pitched it,
David had constructed,
like, a little chuppah.
It was like a wedding scene.
We were calling it
a haunted chuppah,
and we had a doll that was
representative of Tiffany
because that hadn't
actually been built yet,
and then
an older Chucky doll.
We presented it to Marc Platt.
And Marc was sort of
on the bubble.
No. It was no.
And a bunch of months went by.
Marc had a renewed interest
in Chucky
because his daughter
had had a slumber party.
And she and all of her friends
had rented
all the Chucky movies
and loved them.
It's the honest to God truth.
That's what got it made.
It was a teenage girl
that got "Bride of Chucky"
the greenlight.
With classic inspiration,
a knowing wink,
and Chucky's impending
nuptials on the horizon,
it was time
to send out invitations
for cast and crew
to join the ceremony.
We pursued Ronny Yu
for the director
of "Bride of Chucky"
really hard.
When they first
asked me to do it,
I said, "I have to be
very frank."
You know, I knew nothing.
I knew nothing about Chucky.
sh*t!
We really didn't think
he would entertain it.
And we thought, "Oh, my gosh.
We'll be so lucky if he does."
I said, "No, thank you."
To be very, very honest,
I don't like horror movies.
They scare the hell out of me.
But then my agent said,
"The producers are great fans
of your "Bride with White Hair."
I remember watching
"The Bride with White Hair"
with Don, and for me, I had
never seen anything like that.
It blew my mind.
- Hmm!
- Ha!
It's just stunning.
So I have a phone call
with Don and David and Corey,
and they sort of,
like, convinced me.
It was also a thing, though,
to convince the studio
because he wasn't doing
American movies.
And I think one of the major
reasons that I said yes
is because the studio allowed me
to bring my own team.
The cinematographer was
an exceptional human being
by the name of Peter Pau.
We hired Ronny and Peter
because they had this brilliant,
stylized aesthetic.
The script came to me
through Grace Gilroy.
There were just so many
opportunities for design,
and I thought, "Oh, my God.
This is incredibly scary."
I read the script,
and suddenly Tiffany comes up...
"Oh, my God.
A woman doll?"
Boom! Out of the Don mind
came Tiffany.
I loved writing the character
of Tiffany because
I was really able
to let my q*eer freak flag fly.
And it was all about contrast.
Chucky loves his job,
and he makes a connection,
a deep connection with her
in spite of himself.
They are
the Bonnie and Clyde of horror.
They're Sid and Nancy.
I went right to work.
And I think I started designing
before I had any money,
I was so excited
about working on it again.
I started to draw
what would be this bride.
and Kevin Yagher yet again
hit it out of the park.
Ronny came by the shop to look
at the Chucky parts I had,
to meet me
for the first time.
We had a great relationship,
and he was very trusting.
He was saying, "You know,
you're the person who knows
the most about the doll.
You know,
I have to rely on you."
Casting Jennifer Tilly
and the way the script
was written
were just acts of genius.
I was just a fan,
and I knew that she was
the absolute perfect person
to play that role.
I had just come off
my Oscar nomination,
and I had this idea
that I was going to be
the next Helen Mirren,
the next Dame Judi Dench.
And my agent called up,
and he goes,
"Jennifer, I got you
an offer for a movie,"
and I said,
"Well, what's it about?"
and he said,
"Well...
it's about a little doll."
And I went, "A Chucky movie?!
I'm not doing a Chucky movie!"
I wrote it for Jennifer Tilly,
even though I didn't know her.
I had never met her
at this point.
I heard that Don Mancini,
when he was writing
the voice of Tiffany,
he kept hearing my voice,
so he was really obsessed
with me.
I wanted Jennifer, too.
Don wanted Jennifer,
David wanted Jennifer.
Corey wanted Jennifer.
I got the script,
and I thought,
"Wow, this script
is very clever."
I love camp, and I thought
it's sort of haunting, too.
And I really liked
the character.
I liked that she was just,
you know,
a white-trash girl
looking for love.
And somehow,
there's some people
in the studio didn't like it.
The studio just thought
that maybe she would be
too cartoony for the film.
The studio really wanted
Tiffani Amber Thiessen
because she would
fit our budget.
Because the normal thing
at that point
for a teen horror movie
would be to cast
a kind of a teen regular icon.
And it's just like, "Here's an
Academy Award nominated actress
from Woody Allen's
"b*ll*ts Over Broadway"...
I am sick and tired of getting
bumped into and stepped on.
...that she is so great in.
So it was three weeks of work,
and Jennifer's rate
was $100,000 a week.
So David and I had to chip
in a lot of our own money.
Don Mancini and David Kirschner
took a pay cut
because I wanted more money...
to "ruin my career."
I was a brat.
It was money well spent.
Jennifer Tilly's
got that great...
just such a great voice.
It's so iconic, you know.
She flies by the seat
of her pants and ad libs.
Jennifer is really
extraordinary
at making up dialogue.
That aspect of it
was crucial for Brad.
I think he was very excited
about getting to work
with another actor.
Brad is a brilliant actor,
and I really do feel like
they love each other so much.
It was really a blast.
She brought me out
in a really cool way.
Suddenly, the whole franchise
came to life for me.
Critical elements of
the film now in place,
"Bride of Chucky's"
courtship ended,
and the time had come
to put a ring on it.
With that, production on
the $25 million film
began on April 15, 1998.
It was the longest sh**ting
schedule that we had had.
Making movies
with the studio.
You know, the entire system
is different from Hong Kong.
I loved Ronny Yu.
He's Chinese, I'm half Chinese.
I don't know if that
had anything to do with it.
But he was a really
spiritual guy.
He would burn sage
or do a little prayer.
At the start of each day
of sh**ting,
they would do this ritual
to dispel spirits.
The evidence depository
was a bit of a holdover
from "Child's Play 2."
We had a court case with
the Catherine Hicks character
where she is deemed
an unfit mother.
There's usually
a police station involved,
and there's locker rooms.
The challenge
is making all of that stuff
visually accessible
so it's not boring.
In the wake of "Scream,"
this meta moment
of seeing Michael Myers' mask
and the chainsaw from
"Texas Chainsaw m*ssacre,"
that was fun to do.
Cool.
The scene at the beginning,
where the cop is in a warehouse,
where he's going
to meet Jennifer,
and the light
coming in at night,
the moon, it's delicious.
We found this place.
It was so beautiful,
the shafts of light.
Jennifer with the blond hair
and the black latex mini skirt.
And then
when I k*lled the cop,
and then I put the Chucky
doll in the bag,
and I'm walking away.
And this is very much
the Hong Kong
film sensibility, also.
That was just really
the greatest introduction
to Tiffany ever.
I remember Ronny saying,
"It's like a commercial
for m*rder."
Well, hello, dolly.
I love the scene
where Tiffany is stitching
the doll back together because
it's truly a labor of love.
And I said,
"Oh, how about if
I put the eyeball in my mouth?"
And he's like, "Why?"
And I said, "Oh,
I'm just f*cking with him."
And he loved the idea.
Hello.
I'm Chief Kincaid, Jade's uncle.
David Kirschner
had a relationship
and a friendship
with John Ritter
because they had done
a TV movie together
about L. Frank Baum.
John Ritter and I had done
"The Dreamer of Oz" together.
Which Jack Bender directed.
David and the producers
and Don and Corey
somehow got hold of John Ritter.
You know, "Oh, great!"
He would play a complete a*s
and a really bad guy.
Just everything
that John wasn't.
He said, "Yes!
Yes, make me awful.
Make the audience
want to see me die."
God bless his memory
because he just added
so much to that film.
Yuck.
Not my type.
I'm so over
that whole uniform thing.
It was very unusual to have
a casually g*y teenage character
in a studio horror movie.
Jade is going off to prom,
supposedly, with David,
her friend who was g*y.
David Collins.
Nice to meet you, sir.
I really wanted this part.
And I literally read
that script in an hour,
like I just,
I rifled through it
and I was laughing out loud,
and I was loving it.
He just kind of encapsulated
it by saying like,
"Oh, so he's like
the handmaiden.
He's like the handmaiden
to the main characters,"
and we're like,
"Yes! That's right."
So he's kind of a genius.
I had made the choice
not to play the character g*y,
but Don had given
this character a rhythm,
like the way
the character speaks.
It just...
it was in the writing.
So all I did was do what I
thought was intended by Don.
Phew! Something
really stinks in here!
It was something I found
in the writing, actually.
I didn't initially plan
on that character being g*y.
Don and David and Corey
thought
it's the right thing to do,
even though it's ahead
of its time, you know?
So, for me,
I totally agree with that.
This movie is different,
you know?
It's not just a slasher movie,
you know?
You look beautiful.
Nick was great, too.
His handsomeness was
a crucial part of the story.
In a movie that was consciously
going for a g*y vibe,
which I was,
you needed some beefcake,
and Nick was not
at all shy about that.
James Van Der Beek
came in to talk to us
for "Bride of Chucky,"
and the first thing he said is,
"I don't want to do this movie."
And he said his agent
really made him come in for it.
"Thank you very much,"
and that was the end of that.
I wasn't a huge horror fan,
to be honest.
"The Exorcist" F'ed me up so bad
as a child.
So when I got the job,
of course I went back,
I started looking at them
and started studying,
like, what it meant
to be in a horror movie.
He's a guy that really
wanted to learn,
so he always hang out on set,
even though he's not,
you know, his turn.
You know, I started
trying to research,
like, what does it mean when
these dolls are coming to life?
And there's a whole history
of dolls that come to life.
and stories that are about dolls
that come to life.
Come here!
I appreciate that enthusiasm
and the passion
that he has for movies,
you know?
So I think he's
a very good young actor.
Jade!
Katherine was very young.
She was 19 when we made
that movie,
so she wasn't really
Katherine Heigl yet.
Katie was a pro, very serious.
She had more experience
than I had doing a big picture.
So I learned a lot from her.
Working with Katie was great.
I mean, she was really
a serious actress
and she remains
a serious actress,
and I think that
that really sells it.
It was very obvious
that this is someone
who was gonna go far.
The "Voodoo for Dummies"
was a way for me
to incorporate
the voodoo element
without hanging
my head in shame.
Just corny and dumb.
Let's embrace that.
I mean, just seeing that book.
And, also, just hearing
Jennifer Tilly
intone that nonsense.
Ade due Damballa!
Awake!
I'm like, "It's a f*cking movie
about a supernatural doll!"
Hey, Tiffany!
What are you doing here?
An important element of
the movie was Alexis Arquette.
I mean, we definitely made
a deliberate choice to,
whenever possible,
cast g*y icons.
You know, Jennifer, of course,
Alexis, even John Ritter,
because of his role
in "Three's Company,"
he had a connection
to g*y culture.
I loved Alexis so much,
and I had a giant crush on him,
and he had, like,
this kind of secret life.
Like, I always wanted
to hang out with him
because I really felt like
he was the coolest guy.
He was always nabbing the wigs
from the wig department
because, you know,
he would dress up
like a drag queen.
His alter ego
was Eva Destruction.
Thank you so much.
We wanted this character
to be a little interesting
in a gender-bending way.
I didn't know
that she was trans.
We were going to dinner
one night,
and I'm waiting,
and the elevator opens,
and this very pretty woman
steps out,
and Don says hello,
and then realized
that it was Alexis.
One of the highlights,
I would say,
of my career was working
with Alexis Arquette.
It was really exciting.
And it was almost like a stamp
of the q*eer world's approval.
It just gave us
kind of bona fides, in a way.
He had to lay on the floor
for like eight hours
to get all this tattoos on
like every few days.
There were scenes where
he's chained up to the bed.
Never complained.
Just funny.
We loved him so much.
We had to build a rig where
Chucky could spin around on him.
So it was like this little
bracket that went...
that he slid into, you know,
and then we had to pull his
lip ring out.
Ohh!
And I had just quit
being in a band
that was touring
for about eight years.
Gotcha.
My first four auditions,
I booked three of the gigs,
and the first one
was "Bride of Chucky."
Michael Louis Johnson
was so good as Needle Nose,
that kind of conniving...
"Yeah, too bad.
The money. But the money."
I knew the tone
that they were going for.
I'm not some sympathetic
character in a horror movie
who's being k*lled.
- Can I wait in the car, please?
- No.
It's like,
"No, I'm the as*h*le cop."
And I made more money
in 14 days of work
than I did doing 250 shows
on the road the year
before as a musician.
He's actually
a very accomplished musician,
and he played the trumpet
at my... at my wedding.
Let me die.
She's alive.
Alive!
Just seemed right
for this character
and this actress
to meet her death
in a luxuriant bubble bath.
John had written that
in his first script.
I raided past scripts.
That was Don's idea.
I mean, in the beginning,
always use
"Bride of Frankenstein,"
you know, as this homage.
Even though you're just acting,
it's always sort of traumatic
to have the life go out of you.
I don't know why.
It's just sad.
And, um, they wanted me
to go under the water
with my eyes open.
And, of course,
everybody loved me
because I would do whatever.
I was like, "Okay.
You know, there's soap
in that water,
but I'll try.
I'll try to do it."
What a great attitude Jennifer
had of just being dunked
constantly in this water
as she's being electrocuted.
And her face, and the way
that that is cut together
with back and forth
between the
"Bride of Frankenstein."
Then the bubbles going up,
and the little Chucky doll
loves the bubbles.
And it's just a very
beautiful, beautiful sequence.
I just consider that genius.
That's really how
you're supposed to do it.
It's truly one of my
favorite moments
in any film that I've ever,
ever been a part of.
You son of a b*tch!
What have you done to me?
A key moment in the movie.
She becomes a doll.
I just look at it
as a fantasy love story.
A tragedy love story.
There was the bride, and then
she gets the whole makeover
and goes from a brunette
to a blond.
Barbie, eat your heart out.
It's actually a very technical,
demanding sh**t.
Every character
has at least 10 puppeteers.
It's a very complicated thing.
He would always ask me,
"What would you do here?
What should I do here?"
you know?
And we worked together,
and it was really nice
to have that... that trust.
And I said, "Listen, watch me.
Watch my movement,
watch my facial.
See my eyebrows, see my teeth,
all that.
Try to imitate that."
So they say, "Okay. Is that...
that's what you want?
We'll give you that."
Look, there were moments.
There were difficult moments.
There's no doubt,
with animatronics
and all those people
and an A.D. saying,
"Move, move, move!"
But it really worked.
The heart of Damballa.
What's that?
You know, it was
a new element in the mythology.
And it's like, "Wait.
We didn't need this before. Eh."
It was buried withmy corpse.
You know,
there needed to be a reason
for them to get from A to B.
Initially, it was a character,
actually.
It was like another...
a voodoo practitioner.
But somewhere along the way,
we decided to make it an object.
Who the hell is this bozo?
What's he doing?
John Ritter was fantastic.
David Kirschner brought him
and his wife
by my shop to see the puppet.
They were very interested
in all that stuff.
He said, "Give me a good
death," which I think we did.
I think he has
one of the best ones.
Now!
Aah!
The nails coming out
of the glove compartment box
I thought was super creative.
I remember when...
when I first read the script,
I talked to Don.
I said, "Wow,
that reminds me of that movie,
the pin head thing."
We'll tear your soul apart.
He let us put rubber nails
all in his face.
It took forever.
Never complained.
Was so, so patient.
I remember, he asked me,
"Why do you want a comedian
in a slasher movie?"
I said, "Well, it's different,
it's different.
It will make it different,
and you will bring something
different, you know?
So when you die, people laugh."
I am not exaggerating.
I think I sat in my trailer,
I swear to God, 18 hours,
waiting for that shot.
Smoking a joint, yes,
it's difficult,
very time-consuming,
and scratching your head
all the time, you know,
"How do you make it look right?"
It was a huge, huge undertaking
for the animatronic team,
but they got it.
It was funny. Funny moment.
Norton?
Are you still there?
When the camera is gonna
zoom in on me for the scream
right before the expl*si*n,
I was like,
"Yeah, it's total
Hitchcock, right?"
Aah!
That's it.
You know, one shot.
Then we have maybe six cameras
set up to do that.
It took all night to get.
That was one of the most...
probably the most
complicated shots.
Excuse me.
The door was open.
I didn't realize
there was anybody in here.
Margot Kidder, my aunt,
who I refer to as Margie,
or Aunt Margie, such
an inspiration all the time
with her horror genre life.
I would like to be able
to follow in her footsteps
a little bit.
Well...
who's this?
Well, my agent called me
and said, "Sweetie,
do you want to go in
for something
called "Bride of Chucky"?
I just laughed and said, "I have
to have that on my rsum."
James and I met in the
audition, and we just clicked.
'Cause I felt like I had just
instantly made a new pal
in Janet Kidder.
We've been friends ever since.
That honeymoon k*ll scene,
I said,
"What if the mirror comes down,
right, like a rainfall?
And nowhere you can run."
It was, I think,
even more impressive
than I had imagined in my head.
It was also important to us
that it be beautiful
in a weird way,
you know, that it just
visually cool and interesting.
Possibly one of my best death
scenes, and I've had a few.
That was a great m*rder.
And it was fireworks,
you know?
The hours and hours
that Janet and I
had to spend in makeup,
getting all those shards
of mirror
put all over our arms and legs.
I had to lie on a makeup
table for 5 or 6 hours,
and then I couldn't go
to the bathroom without help
because I had all these...
you know,
these huge, uh, plastic shards
all over my body.
So that was quite a process.
I just think of the romance
of it
and, you know,
the beautiful cinematography
and the lilting rhythm that
Tiffany and Chucky
have together.
He's just, like,
beside himself with awe of
how beautifully
she orchestrated that.
I love you.
Which is all about romance.
That's all about new romance.
That was so gratifying
when I read in the script
that Chucky and Tiffany
were gonna do it,
because they're two dolls
doing it.
It's just so out there.
I think that some of my energy
maybe wore off on them.
You know, he wanted the ring
to go onto her ring finger,
and we just couldn't get it on.
It wasn't staying.
It was spinning, falling off.
We're sh**ting and sh**ting
and said, "You know,
it'll fit the thumb."
Part of the fun
was to utilize the clichs
of the Hollywood
romantic-comedy sex scene.
We talked a lot
about making naked puppets,
and it's super hard
to get everything built
the way you want
and hide it all within the skin.
The camera dips down,
and we see just a hint
of buttcrack in Tiffany.
Chucky is French kissing me,
and it was so funny because
his tongue goes out like this
and starts rotating around
in my mouth.
So when I was doing the looping,
I made a sound like, "Ahh!"
like a gargling sound.
Ahh!
My wife loves that scene.
I mean, she howls with laughter
at that scene.
When we were doing the doll
sex scene, we were ad-libbing.
I came up with this idea where
I go... he's about to enter me,
and she hasn't been a doll
for very long.
And I go, "Wait, Chucky,
do you have a rubber?"
- Tiff!
- What?
Look at me!
"I'm all rubber."
"I thought you were plastic."
That was them.
They improvised that.
When we previewed that,
the audience was laughing
so hard and so loud
that you couldn't even hear
the next lines.
It's just so out there.
It's so funny.
This is a first.
I just thought
it was wonderful.
So two puppets having sex
means 14 puppeteers
pretending to have sex.
So, uh, I don't know,
vinyl orgy... what is that like?
How are we gonna have them...
For one, you know,
they're skin to about here,
and then they turn
into mechanical parts.
So I'm gonna just use shadow
because they have
a fireplace going,
and who wants to see
two dolls having sex?
It was hilarious.
And that was almost
a problem sh**ting,
we were all laughing so hard.
Oh, you're using shadow!
You're not actually seeing it!
I said, "Of course!
You think I'm crazy?"
And I've concluded
that what we have here
is a terrible misunderstanding.
Then I got to have this arc
where I get to then
start to suspect them, as well.
And then the Mack truck
comes out of nowhere, and...
I don't know what they used,
but, man, whatever it was,
it exploded
in a million pieces.
His death was
so shocking even to us.
People have mentioned it
to me
sometimes over the years
about, like,
"Did you ever have
any misgivings
about k*lling
the g*y character?"
My feeling was,
cute, straight teenagers
have been
getting slaughtered
in slasher movies
for years now.
Why can't that happen
to a cute g*y boy?"
Chucky doesn't even k*ll me.
Chucky inadvertently kills me.
That works, too.
And that was a relatively
early use of CGI
that, you know,
the body exploding.
I mean, there was
some practical stuff,
but we augmented it with CGI.
- Tiff?
- Mm-hmm?
Those, uh, dishes aren't gonna
wash themselves, you know.
Because horror
is now self-referential,
that's a perfect thing
to have happen.
Horror becomes about,
you know, domestic chores.
When Tiffany is screaming
about Martha Stewart
and throwing
plates of cookies,
Martha Stewart's life
is so perfect
and so clean and no problems
and no bodies lying around,
and no husband that comes home
and insults her
and, you know, tries
to k*ll her and everything.
Chucky gets confronted
with that.
It was "The Honeymooners"
on steroids.
Bang, zoom!
I see the love story
in "Bride of Chucky,"
and I think that
that's what anchors it,
and it's that sort of
weirdly doomed love story
between Chucky and Tiffany.
When Tiffany gets burned
in the oven,
that was an homage
to "Trilogy of Terror,"
because we talked about
that a lot.
Don was a big fan of that.
Everyone's always asking,
"How do we...
How can we do it differently?
What can we do
that we haven't done before?"
Why can't I ever get it on
with the real good guys?
The graveyard scene
and the final love thing
between them was
my favorite moment of the film.
The graveyard scene
was supposed to happen
in a real graveyard.
I go to the location.
Ronny and Peter
look at each other,
and they walk away
from the group a little bit,
and they start talking
to each other,
and then Ronny comes back,
and he says,
"But there are ancestors here."
And I remember
Universal Pictures
scrambling to change
the location
and actually create a graveyard.
We built in the studio
all the stuff around
where the grave is.
If you look at it on camera,
it looks fantastic.
But, I mean, it's all styrofoam
and fans and fake dirt
and smelled like mildew.
It was Ronny's idea
to put the plastic...
There was like all these, like,
plastic around,
like, blowing in the wind.
All these black rags...
this is very Hong Kong film...
hanging from the trees.
Everything's blowing in the
trees and they're in silhouette.
It needed to be epic
in a kind of...
in a stylized way.
It feels like
Technicolor Hollywood.
I love you, Chucky.
I'm always amazed
at Jennifer's line readings.
I love that she makes
the word "Chucky"
a seven-syllable word.
"Chuck-y-y-y-y."
I'll see you in hell.
I think she was probably
supposed to say,
"I'll see you in hell!"
you know?
But, uh,
I didn't deliver it that way.
That's part
of Jennifer's brilliance
is unexpected readings.
I suspect occasionally
it might have something to do
with not knowing her lines.
I just got really sad.
Tiffany didn't want
to k*ll Chucky...
Aaah!
...but she felt like
they did belong dead.
And the awfulness had to end.
I think, in the end,
when she decides to k*ll Chucky
and the whole movie
suddenly comes together,
that everything that has been
put into it has a real meaning.
I think that's my favorite,
but I'm a sap.
Aah!
Aah!
When Chucky and Tiffany
are fighting
in the cemetery,
those are actors.
They step in in the costumes.
Like any other fight scene,
it's choreographed to the beat.
They can hit each other
with shovels and fly through...
you know, jump on each other.
If you compress it all
by being on top...
and I pitched that to Ronny,
he was like, "Great idea,"
and went with it.
We try every trick in the book.
Sometimes, I'll sh**t
22 frames per second
rather than the normal
24 frames per second,
so when we project it later on,
it would become
a little bit faster.
I remember I went in
to do looping, and they said,
"Oh, can you make
some effort noises?"
I was like... Tiffany's,
"Ow. Ow."
"Unh! Ow! Ow!"
We did end up
reshooting the ending.
And so the actual birth
of what would become
"Seed of Chucky,"
that was reshot.
And that was to give it,
like, a big, punchier ending.
We did an edit of the movie
and then decided we were going
to do some extra things.
And one of those was the birth
of the Seed of Chucky
at the end of the movie.
What John created there
was the idea of,
"We're keeping
this thing alive."
I got to direct
that whole last scene.
Working with Lawrence Dane
was awesome
because I was such a fan of his,
because he was a horror icon.
Well, first of all,
we couldn't show the vag*na,
obviously,
because it was, "What are we
gonna do with that?
Is she, you know,
anatomically correct?"
"What's going on?"
That's a lesson
for the kiddies.
Unprotected sex leads
to unplanned pregnancy.
'Cause Chucky's
just like every man.
He just tells her
what she wants to know.
And then suddenly, this
almost full-sized baby...
...comes exploding
out of her loins
at the end of the movie
in a very terrifying way.
And I don't know how that
happened, but we did it.
Huge choice to have a child
on camera. Very ballsy.
This franchise just keeps
pushing down the doors
for puppet-kind.
When the baby comes sh**ting
out of Tiffany's loins
and is screaming, Don said they
used the voice of a baby pig.
La la la
As soon as you see
that demon baby thing
coming out of Tiffany, you know,
"Okay."
Dum, dum dum, dum
New movie
Once the film wrapped,
the crew ventured
into post-production,
where the relationship
between Chucky, Tiffany,
and how it would
all come together
wasn't exactly the honeymoon
anyone had planned.
Ronny and David Wu...
you know, David had been
his Hong Kong editor.
Probably had two days or
something to deliver their cut.
It just wasn't cut the way
Don and I specifically wanted.
He and Don were looking
for somebody to come in
and kind of help out on
"Bride of Chucky"
and kind of focus it
a little more.
We had the good fortune
to work with Randy Bricker,
who came in to do
another pass at the film
and really just made it
a lot, um, punchier.
Universal wasn't quite
as enthusiastic about that.
Marc Platt was out
and Stacey Snyder was in,
and Stacey was not a fan
of the project particularly.
I remember at our first
screening of "Bride of Chucky,"
that was not great,
Stacey Snider,
who is a superb executive
and really bright woman,
came up to Don,
very unfairly, and said,
"What were you thinking?"
Stacey Snider just
fundamentally
didn't like the movie.
By the way, Stacey,
you read the script
and gave it a greenlight,
but I think she wanted
Academy Awards, and who doesn't?
That's not what Chucky was.
Our next test screening was
crazy, and everybody loved it.
Sitting with the audience
and seeing their reaction,
they're enthusiastic,
for me, that is...
that is the best.
That is the best.
"Bride of Chucky" officially
tied the knot with audiences
on October 16, 1998.
While critics seemed harder
to please, fans were smitten.
Cast and crew believed
in their job well done,
and few could argue that Chucky
found not only his soul mate
but a true reinvention.
The film comes out
and does great business.
There was huge
audience reaction,
so I knew
it was going to be good.
Mission accomplished!
Oprah famously said
it sent her
into a downward spiral.
She made "Beloved,"
and she thought it was
going to be number one,
and then they're like,
"You were beat by Chucky."
And I remember,
Saturday morning,
hearing that we got beat
by something called Chucky.
She's like, "Chucky?
Who's Chucky?"
She didn't even know
who Chucky was.
"Bride" made like $50 million.
And, you know, on a budget
of like 20-something million.
And it was really successful.
Critics missed the boat
a little bit
on "Bride of Chucky."
You can look at reviews
from practically every
now-classic horror film,
and virtually none of them
were universally beloved
in their day.
I mean, audiences really liked
"Bride of Chucky."
It reversed the trend
that had been going on
with the previous three
at the box office.
By the late '90s,
you're seeing more and more
where film critics from major
outlets are talking about genre
in a way that isn't
condescending or dismissive,
that sort of understands
there can be
different levels
of self-awareness, of humor.
Chucky was wildly successful
before "Bride of Chucky,"
but "Bride of Chucky"
did come at a time
where it was this kind of
new-age resurgence of horror...
"Scream," "I Know What
You Did Last Summer."
I didn't realize that this film
was taking the franchise
in a different direction
because I hadn't seen
any of the other three movies,
So I always refer to
"Bride of Chucky"
as the first one.
As a g*y guy,
one of the things that I loved
that Jennifer
and the character of Tiffany
brought to the franchise
was glamour.
It's the "Showgirls"
of the franchise.
It's excess, it's strobe lights.
it's wind, it's flying,
it's... it's camp, it's goth.
I mean, it's Jennifer Tilly.
It is perfection.
The presence of that movie
went on for a long time.
One of the proudest
achievements I have is...
is working on
the Chucky franchise.
And, you know, "Bride"
is probably the favorite movie
that I've ever worked on.
Don was such
a generous person to me.
It was his idea that our credits
would be staggered,
like "Laverne & Shirley."
"Bride of Chucky"
made me a producer.
I owe a big thanks
to David Kirschner
because I got an opportunity
that changed my life.
I think "Bride of Chucky"
comes in as the proudest moment,
just being able to do
two characters at once.
I mean, I've never had
that challenge before.
Even now, to this day,
people say,
"Oh, my God, you worked
with the 'Bride of Chucky'?"
I'm like, "Yeah, I got k*lled
by the Bride of Chucky, man."
Making the "Bride of Chucky,"
for me, was pretty exhilarating,
and to have such a memorable,
fun role in it,
even if it is just, like,
the standout death.
Chucky and I spent time
together,
so that's what I'm left with.
Thank you to David Kirschner
and Don Mancini
for making me feel like
an immediate member of the team
from the second
I walked into the audition.
I am really proud
to have been part
of the "Bride of Chucky."
It is probably one of the
biggest highlights of my career.
It was just such
a great experience.
It's what moviemaking
is supposed to be.
I'm just honored to have had
the opportunity
and the good fortune
and, quite frankly,
the luck of being cast
and having an opportunity
to be a part of it.
I'm forever grateful.
It's a fabulous ride,
and I'm super happy to be famous
for being a homicidal doll.
Who would've thought?
I can't tell you
how much I love that movie.
And it's so rare for me
to like anything I'm in.
"Bride of Chucky" is probably
my favorite
production experience
that I've ever had
in my life.
It represented, ultimately,
a successful reinvention
of the franchise,
which was a bit of a gamble,
and it worked, and it paid off,
so that was very satisfying.
Working with Ronny Yu
and Peter Pau was amazing.
To work with filmmakers
of that class,
that kind of world-class stature
was really thrilling.
Don's script,
Ronny's direction,
Peter Pau, Jennifer, Alexis.
For our world,
it was visionary
and taking it
to another whole planet,
another whole universe
of this franchise
and really set the course
for this relationship
between Tiffany and Chucky.
How I felt, like,
after all these years
about "Bride of Chucky,"
I felt I'm so blessed.
I believe in my own vision,
and I trust my own instinct.
I think it's great, that payoff.
I'm not saying it's an easy job.
No.
Absolutely very, very
challenging, very difficult.
But at the end of the day,
I had a lot of fun making it.
And the audience think
that it's fun watching it.
After "Bride of Chucky"
successfully reinvented
and reinvigorated
the k*ller-doll franchise,
a sequel was not only in order
but put on the fast track
in the fall of 1998.
"Bride of Chucky"
was very successful,
so Universal actually put
"Seed of Chucky"
into development immediately,
and I wanted to experiment.
Whereas "Bride of Chucky"
was a riff on romantic comedies,
I wanted "Seed of Chucky"
to be a riff
on family melodramas,
like "Ordinary People."
"Ordinary People,"
I think, is...
Yeah, maybe "The Godfather."
I think I remember Don and I
talking about
"Kramer vs. Kramer."
I mean, the references
are wide and varied,
But, also, there's this whole
John Waters strain
that I wanted
to put in the movie.
We were all very aware
that it was a real swing.
You know, the fact
that Universal was doing it,
my hat's off to them.
Being a g*y man in Los Angeles,
I had trans friends.
I saw it as an opportunity
to do something new
in this kind of movie.
It was very important to
explore Don's vision on that.
It was ahead of its time.
It was trying
to do something else.
I pitched it,
everybody loved the idea.
I went off and wrote it,
and the first response was,
"It's too g*y, and there's
too much Jennifer Tilly."
And when I heard that,
I was like,
"How can there be
too much Jennifer Tilly?"
The other thing
that was really happening
was Columbine.
There was this reticence
at the studio now about
getting into violent material
with kids.
You know,
and a couple of years passed,
and Ronny Yu
was gonna be in town
for the premiere
of "Freddy vs. Jason."
So I called Jennifer,
and I said, like,
"Okay,
you got to go to this with me
because we have to, like, be on
the red carpet and be seen."
And sure enough,
"Freddy vs. Jason" made
30, $40 million that weekend.
And literally, on that Monday,
we got the call.
And, you know, we had the script
from several years before.
I thought
the script was hysterical.
I'd never read
anything quite like it.
I thought it was a...
I just thought it was
very, very funny.
I thought it would be a cool
source of comedic conflict
for Chucky's child
to be a pacifist.
The Glen/Glenda character
is informed
by those family melodramas.
He even references James Dean
at one point.
- You're tearing me apart!
- You're tearing me apart!
Trash cinema is a thing
that has value,
so having a character
who was a cross-dresser,
it just made sense to go to
the ultimate trash classic,
"Glen or Glenda,"
as a metaphor for a q*eer kid's
tense relationship
with his macho dad,
who expects the kid
to follow in his footsteps
and be a real man
and k*ll people.
That's my boy!
As far as the direction
of the film,
I had said to Don that,
after "Bride of Chucky,"
I was so impressed
by his contributions
as a producer
that I felt now he was ready.
I had wanted to direct.
That was always my goal.
Making that transition,
it was incredibly exciting.
He had had that goal
for a long time,
so he was ready, and I loved
being there with him.
It was a delight
to see him finally in control.
It had been his baby all along.
He has everything planned out
so meticulously
and such a strong idea
of what he wants
with every little thing.
He is without doubt
the best-prepared director
that I've ever worked with.
He storyboards, and there isn't
a frame of a film
that Don has not thought about
in 27 different directions.
"Seed of Chucky" so then
was taken in by Focus Features.
It was a smaller division,
and there was a great guy
there named David Linde.
David Linde said, "Let's go,
and let's make the movie."
We were told that Romania
would be the best place.
We ended up scouting Romania
pretty quickly.
We were up and running, looking
forward to making the movie.
Kevin Yagher
was very much involved,
but, ultimately,
the studio, Focus,
was not able
to make a deal with him.
Losing Kevin was terrifying,
but it was a financial decision
with the studio.
I started doing design,
so I, you know,
designed the kid
and brought back,
you know,
the two other characters
and began to work on it.
But just sometimes things
fall apart in negotiations.
Oh, dear.
The studio said,
"Well, you know,
why don't you
just move to CGI?"
And Don said,
"The fans will go crazy.
They do not want that.
They want the puppet."
So that was a real blow.
But David Kirschner had a
relationship with Tony Gardner,
also someone who has his own
amazing bona fides
in this world.
My relationship with
David Kirschner
started with "Hocus Pocus,"
and I recall getting calls
from David's office
at one point.
They had a project
with a talking baby in it,
and it was just
this gradual sort of thing
where, all of a sudden,
it turned into,
"Well, we've been having
conversations with Universal
about 'Seed of Chucky'
and Kevin Yagher,
and we don't think
it's going to happen."
It certainly wasn't
greed on my part.
They wanted me to be able
to go over to Romania
or whatever,
wherever they shot it,
and bring one puppeteer.
Me and one other person,
and I said, "I need to bring
a group of people
who can repair these things
if they break down."
And they just
didn't want that done.
I was crestfallen
because Kevin was the guy
who first engineered
and built Chucky
and has been puppeteering him
and leading the puppeteers
over the course of
the four movies and 10 years.
I don't think I necessarily
grew out of
doing "Child's Play,"
but you do go on
to do other things,
and so you kind of go,
"I'm kind of done with that,
you know,
and I'll leave it as it is.
You know, I'm proud
of what I did."
I mean, we were terrified.
We just didn't know
what we were going to do.
David Kirschner's words were,
"Well, if you don't do it,
someone else is going to."
And I was like, "Okay."
I met with Tony and saw,
you know,
the amazing things
that he's done in his career.
We contacted archives,
and they had just the saddest
two stunt dolls.
But there was really
nothing for us to start with.
He also brought in
all the puppeteers...
13 puppeteers per puppet.
I got the unlucky reward
of going to Romania.
for four months to be
one of the puppeteers.
At the time,
the only reference we had
was watching it on TV,
freeze framing the VHS,
taking photos off of the TV,
and then developing those.
We started from scratch,
so we rebuilt Chucky and Tiffany
and then created
a new Glen puppet.
It was important that Glen
have an androgynous look,
based on
where the story was going.
Tim Burton meets Ziggy Stardust.
Pointy teeth and a more
angular, narrower face.
Jutting high cheekbones
and giant dark eyes
that look like death.
We went through a bunch
of iterations,
and everybody
had a lot to say about it.
But we went for it.
We had three months
to build three characters
and do duplicates of them,
so really six puppets,
and throw it all in a box
and fly off to Romania
and figure it out there.
As the film
continued gestating,
everyone's attention
turned to casting.
That meant the surprising return
of Chucky's one true love,
the reveal of
a genuine Hollywood diva,
and finding the perfect voice
for Chucky and Tiffany's
captivating and sympathetic
offspring.
When Don called me up
and he said,
"Oh, we want to bring you back
for 'Seed of Chucky, '"
I was confused 'cause I said,
"Didn't Tiffany die
at the end
of 'Bride of Chucky'?"
And he laughed, and he goes,
nobody ever really dies
in these movies.
It's voodoo. I mean,
we can always bring them back."
It was great
having Jennifer there.
I deliberately planned it
that way.
He basically took
all the worst aspects of me
and made
the Jennifer Tilly creation,
like, this
really insecure,
narcissistic, self-involved
actress, which we loved.
Everything we did was
with Jennifer's
enthusiastic endorsement.
And I said to Don,
"You have to make me
the horrible diva
movie star from hell."
You know, I should have
played Erin Brockovich.
I could have done it
without the WonderBra.
Going back to work
and walking in a booth
where Jennifer is there is,
like, really exciting.
And then I had to find
the new Brad Dourif,
the new Jennifer Tilly,
the new great actor
who was going to be able
to sell all of this
and play both characters,
Glen and Glenda.
We heard a host of voices.
Don really sparked
to Billy Boyd.
The way he voiced
that character was adorable,
and the character
was very vulnerable.
It's because of the way
I look, isn't it?
There's just this
sweet quality that he had.
And intelligence.
Yeah, Dad, it'll be fun.
He just really did
a great job
of bringing the pathos and
the sweetness of that character,
and I think that's why
Glen/Glenda is so beloved.
We were going
to distinguish the voices.
We knew that we wanted Glen
to basically be Pip
from "Great Expectations."
Tell us your name... quick!
Pip. Pip, sir.
But for Glen's female side,
what about, like,
a c*ck streetwalker?
I'm a real "lady k*ller,"
if you catch my drift.
And that's really
what Glenda is.
You know, just that kind of,
like, "Freshen your drink,
guvnor?"
With cast, crew, and brand-new
animatronic creations
ready to play... and slay...
"Seed of Chucky" went before
the cameras on March 15, 2004.
So, the title sequence
I actually wrote
into the script,
even seeing Jennifer Tilly's
name on screen
as Chucky's seed comes slowly.
I wanted it to be
an icky, pervy version
of the Bond g*n-barrel thing.
Like anything Don does,
there's an extraordinary
amount of work
that goes on behind the scenes.
Richard Morrison had
done "Batman" for Tim Burton
and a couple of his other films,
so this seemed like a marriage
made in heaven.
The opening scene is
at once an homage
to "Halloween,"
then we move into "Psycho,"
where he kills the woman
in the bathtub.
Glen is this poor,
tortured soul in this cage
and treated as a performing rat,
essentially.
Glen is meant to be
a Dickensian orphan type,
much abused.
It seemed like a ventriloquist
would be the best ab*ser.
You were sh*t last night.
Psychs is a reference
to Dickens.
And then he sees on TV
the behind-the-scenes
of the Chucky film being made.
f*ck with your mind!
Chucky's broke again!
We needed this actor
to do this one scene
in the film within the film.
A guy said, "What about
my friend Jason Flemyng?"
And I said, like,
"f*ck! Awesome."
So, Jason Flemyng
agreed to do it,
and he flew in, um...
complained a lot.
Jason Flemyng had
to play Santa
and schlep all these packages
through the snow,
and he gets k*lled by Tiffany
with a slinky around his neck.
And it was totally goofy,
stupid stuff.
I'd be interested
to know more why
this was such an unpleasant
experience for him.
This is unprofessional,
and I can't work like this!
I don't...
Like, I don't know.
We're here in Hollywood,
where production is underway
on the new horror flick
"Chucky Goes Psycho."
I had another thought...
"Chucky, Actually"...
because "Love, Actually"
was right around that time.
Nobody found that funny.
So everybody's sort of,
like, either themselves
or a variation
of somebody else in the room,
which was pretty
hilarious at times.
I think "Seed of Chucky"
is really interesting
for being a commentary
on Hollywood.
It was so incredibly meta.
I see it in terms
of how Don was adapting
to where the genre was.
It's self-referential.
I played Don Mancini being
directed by Don Mancini.
Tony, what was that?
And here's Tony Gardner
as Tony Gardner.
There you go.
I need to take a meeting
with this Redman right away.
When Redman was cast
for the film,
the studio really wanted
someone kind of cool, edgy.
My dream casting
was Quentin Tarantino.
I didn't know Quentin Tarantino.
I still don't know
Quentin Tarantino.
He wanted an actual
indie director to direct it.
I was considering
Vincent Gallo,
and Jennifer goes,
"Oh, no, no."
'Cause she had worked with him,
and she just said,
"No, he will eat you alive."
The studio was like,
"Oh, Redman would be
a great indie director."
Universal suggested Redman.
Yo, Redman here.
I'm on the scene
at "Seed of Chucky."
I liked him,
and he's charismatic.
Don thought it was funny
the way I said Redman.
- Is it "Red man," "Red man"?
- "Red man."
"Red man," okay.
I would always say "Red-muhn."
Oh, that's so sweet, Redman.
He was an absolute gentleman,
a pro.
I had no idea
if this guy could even act.
Man, this was meant
to be, baby, for real.
But he did,
and he was great in the film.
Action.
And cut.
They're puppets.
They don't walk and talk
by themselves.
So I always had this concept
of the puppeteer
getting k*lled by the puppet.
Originally, it
was going to be Kevin.
I remember having to do
an audition at Don's house
on Don's kitchen table,
strapped down, and the dolls
performing "Operation!" on me.
"Is Tony gonna
be able to do this?"
But we realized he could.
The day of the sh**t,
I remember it was
super schizophrenic for me
because I'm acting as this guy,
wearing specific wardrobe.
The guy's name is Tony Gardner.
So you're playing this part,
and then when they say cut,
and then you're Tony Gardner,
the effects guy,
setting up the puppet version
of yourself
for how you're gonna die.
And it's just, again,
Don Mancini, meta.
And that, to this day, remains
one of my favorite kills
in the whole franchise.
It just goes off like a cork.
When they did the scene of it
rolling up in the air
towards camera,
they actually had it on a spit,
and we were rolling it
like this,
and the camera was pushing in
towards it and pulling out.
And then they actually filmed me
in a green suit,
and they comped my eyes
right before it starts
to fall back down,
so that they could have
more realistic eyes in there.
Pete Peters,
"Celebrities Revealed."
And I thought like,
"Oh, it'd be great
to have John in the movie.
So the way I was able
to communicate with him
was through Tony Gardner.
I was super thrilled
that that Don wanted
to hire John Waters
to be in it.
I had heard
from Justin Whalin, actually,
years before,
that John Waters was a fan
'cause Justin worked
with John in "Serial Mom."
John Waters
was a big Chucky fan,
and he said
that he really wanted
- to get k*lled by Chucky.
- You know,
he was insistent on coming on
and playing a role,
so that he could be k*lled
by Chucky.
Well, I loved
all the "Chucky" movies,
and I jumped at the chance,
you know,
because, uh,
I like to be in movies
that maybe people
won't expect to see me in.
Don was able
to get John to come on board.
He said, "Yes,
I'm completely on board.
- This is going to be great."
- Plus, I got to go to Romania
for the only time in my
whole life I ever went there.
I was so surprised
and thrilled
that John Waters said yes,
I think that Don had that dream,
like in his pocket
the whole time.
He improvised a couple of
his best, most memorable lines.
I'm confronted by reporters,
and one of them is John Waters,
and he's screaming
questions at me.
And I remember
I was kind of annoyed,
because he was ad-libbing.
Jennifer, how old
are you really?
I'm like,
"That wasn't in the script."
Like, "Hey, stop it.
Stop bringing attention
to my age."
Did I? I'm usually
against ad-libbing.
I'm... If... If I did,
they asked me to.
I would never butt in
and do that,
because I respect the writers.
Jennifer, I love you.
I...
Jennifer, I love you.
I was between boyfriends
at the time,
and I remember Don was like,
"I'm gonna get you a really
attractive straight guy
to be the chauffeur."
And then, I showed up on the
set, I was kind of like,
thinking like,
"Oh, hello, here I am.
Where's my set romance?"
And it was Steve,
and I was like,
"Oh, he's not my type.
He's more Don's type."
Jennifer, I have
something important I...
Hold on a second, sweetheart.
Considering the context
that Jennifer Tilly
was playing Jennifer Tilly,
and I was this London actor
pretending to be,
you know, an American chauffeur,
uh, in love with Jennifer Tilly.
That wasn't that difficult.
So, it was actually
very touching,
like, how devoted
he was towards me
and how she sort of saw him
as sort of an extension
of the steering wheel
that drove her home.
Aren't you gonna give me
a hand here?
Chucky is masturbating
to Fangoria, of course.
- Ah.
- I think he was looking
at a picture of Don Mancini.
I do remember, though,
for legal reasons,
we had to mock up
our own cover,
but we have
the actual Fangorialogo.
They definitely
endorsed the moment.
It's like "Seed of Chucky,"
brought to you by Fangoria.
Come to Papa.
You know what?
I don't remember that.
It was often...
uh, almost unbelievable
what we were doing.
I... I... Was I masturbating?
Tony and the puppeteers
were very on board
with going for
this kind of John Waters,
you know, trash, you know,
obscenity vibe.
While we were laughing,
we were all so amazed that, uh,
somebody would be bold enough
to make something this crazy.
You know, and to actually
see Chucky's d*ck,
which you can
in the unrated version.
It was scripted and we did it
and we shot it.
But from the powers that be,
there was some squeamishness.
I... I love the idea
of the exploration of...
of Glen/Glenda.
I just thought, personally,
we got a bit base with,
um, masturbation
and... and seeing,
um, semen in a cup.
What am I supposed
to do with this?
You know, so what?
It's fine.
- I like that.
- Good for Don.
Good for the movie.
Get it, mini meat.
Well, Chucky's
kind of beyond taste.
I mean, Chucky masturbating is,
at first, you get nervous,
but he must be 18 by now.
John Waters is there
watching it,
which was a great running
commentary in and of itself.
I love the idea, because you
never see monsters having sex
or masturbating
or especially masturbating.
And you have to really over
exaggerate your moves
for it to translate down into
this puppet that's down,
you know, 15 feet of cable.
One of our British puppeteers,
Andy Garner, drew the straw
of having to puppeteer
Chucky's arms for that scene.
So, when you have
all those people trying to tap
into kind of what they know
about what Chucky is doing, uh,
it just became
extremely hilarious.
- Where are we going?
- Hunting.
The story is set in Hollywood.
I thought it would be fun
for Chucky
to sort of casually run
some celebrity off the road.
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne
were being considered,
but at some point, our casting
director had an actress
who was the spitting image
of Britney Spears.
It's the height
of Britney Spears fame.
The double is so convincing.
That's why it was
Britney Spears
specifically that Chucky k*lled.
Not because I have anything
against Britney Spears.
Oops, I did it again.
So, anyway, Britney,
you're awesome.
Jesus Christ.
Who wouldn't want
to k*ll John Waters?
I mean, it was just great.
No, I'm kidding.
- He was amazing.
- The very first take,
Glen is coming over to me,
and they say "Cut!"
And of course,
the puppet goes blank.
And then, he looked up at me
and said, "f*ck you" like that,
because the puppeteers
were under there
just trying to f*ck with me.
John loved Glen,
so it made it even more special.
The melting of his face,
it's "Raiders"
when the n*zi looks into
the Ark of the Covenant.
k*lling him was really fun,
but we did a prosthetic makeup
on him with some goo tubing
and slime
and stuff like that in it.
Making the mask
was much scarier
than having Glen or Chucky
come after me.
John was super graceful
and super witty as always,
never at a loss for words.
And he was also really
beneficial to me.
He was just like
very calming, you know?
And he was like saying, "Yeah,
you just gotta, you know,
take a step back
and think of it...
Look at the big picture.
It's brick
by m*therf*cking brick."
So, yeah, it was a lot of fun
to work with such a legend.
I'm thrilled to be in "Chucky."
Bring me back.
I want to be in another one.
Tiffany doesn't like
how Redman has been treating
Jennifer Tilly,
and so she disemboweled him.
The rig on him for that
was a big fake stomach
on a vest that literally
opened up in the center
along the cut line
of Tiffany's knife.
And I remember
there were so many guts,
there were so many intestines,
I was like,
"Do people really have
that many intestines in them?"
Don got a great shot
when he dies.
It's very, very Hitchcock.
I feel like he and...
and John Waters
both really enjoyed
dying by the hands
of these... these puppets.
Tiff.
Glen/Glenda turns out to be,
uh, homicidal,
just like his parents.
Glen has split and...
and manifested as Glenda,
and their parents are very
confused about what to do.
- Glen?
- Guess again, Daddy.
Glenda?
The idea of trying to... to
bring a transgender character
to life was a great challenge,
and it was taken very seriously.
To take Glen to Glenda.
It was really all about, um,
a makeup makeover
on the actual puppet.
It kind of struck me
how forward it was
and how forward Don
was putting that in
- back then.
- I didn't think of it, like,
we were doing anything out
of the box or ahead of its time.
I was focused on trying
to be true to the character.
People are very touchy
about the subject.
Um, I think it treats it
with great respect.
That sort of nod
to someone, like,
Ed Wood and to trans
people and to,
you know, all of us
q*eer freaks and weirdos.
You know, that's who
that moment was for.
We got that that was being
presented in a loving,
respectful, uh, gracious way.
And I felt empathy
towards the character.
And I wanted everything to be
real, because without that,
there's... there's no story.
To me, there's no heart.
Wake up right now!
Tiffany slaps Glenda and...
and then, Glen comes back,
and there's that moment where...
where they look in the mirror.
It says, "What am I?"
That like, again, maybe,
because I'm g*y
and my, you know,
like, I played
a version of that scene
as all or most g*y men do
when they're growing up.
So, it hit home, I think,
for me and for, you know,
g*y audiences, as it turned out.
Push, Miss Tilly, push!
I am pushing
you little star f*ck!
Then, I had to have
a baby birthing scene.
I'd never birthed a baby
before in... in real life,
so that was a lot of screaming.
I just screamed
like it was a horror film.
Tiffany is attending,
and Chucky is like the nervous
father waiting in the wings.
All the bed scene stuff
we didn't think was fair,
because all the human actors
basically had to do
is lay there with gags
in their mouths.
I do remember Don apologizing
a lot for the fact
that I had a sock in my mouth.
So, it wasn't like I was
attractive, tied to the bed.
I was like this big beached
whale, and a lot of times,
like, my feet
would be in the foreground,
tied to the bed stand.
So, I was like, "I have looked
more attractive in the past."
I'm trying to seduce you.
I think I do remember asking
Jennifer how she keeps going,
and she... she just said,
she just does.
And it was kind of relaxing,
because I didn't really
have to do anything,
just acting
with my eyes, mostly.
If that's what she does, then
that's what I'm going to do.
The action of throwing
with a mechanical arm,
and then, the whip hand
to the... to the impact
of the knife, I thought,
were great.
The knife...
I think the knife is CGI.
He takes the knife
in his chest to save her.
So, then, I could throw myself
back onto Jennifer's lap
into frame,
splurt the blood everywhere,
and then, have the... I...
I love... I love it up,
which was not difficult,
because I was choking
on ketchup blood.
In the first draft,
he finally gets out,
"I love you."
Jennifer Tilly's response
was "Thanks!"
And then, he dies,
and we had to pull that back.
Stan, tell me, tell me.
And yeah, I love the fact
I didn't get to say I love you.
I still think that's great.
To the very end,
he's still trying to get it out,
and he dies
before he can, uh, say it.
No!
I honestly don't know
how many times Jennifer Tilly
has died in this franchise
at this point,
because whether it's me
or someone else,
there's so many different
versions of everybody.
I love the scene
where Glen/Glenda
is k*lling their dad.
He chops Chucky up,
and Chucky finally
is proud of him.
Weirdly, he seems
to really care about his son.
Atta boy, kid.
He goes, "Atta boy,"
and then dies.
It's so beautiful.
The rage comes from love.
Like, why don't you
love me enough?
And, you know,
I have to do this to you,
because you are evil,
and you need to be obliterated.
This m*rder was committed
by Glen, not Glenda.
You know, Glenda is gleeful
about k*lling.
Glen does not enjoy it.
And so, he's traumatized,
and he breaks down in tears.
This little kid
had endured so much.
And I remember
when we shot that scene
where she's comforting
the sobbing puppet,
we were all kind of, like,
"Oh, God, that... that's sad."
It's a birthday party
with 60 Romanian children
running around as extras.
That was a lot.
You have an homage
to Mommie Dearest,
where she's having
that children's birthday party.
Tiffany has taken
over Jennifer's life,
but now she's looking
like Joan Crawford.
And then, she takes
the Tiffany doll,
and she pummels
that sweet nanny to death.
And I loved how deranged
Tiffany became
once she got into
Jennifer Tilly's body.
I thought there was so much
greatness in this film,
but the audience
did not take to it.
It wasn't what they expected,
especially Universal.
After "Seed of Chucky,"
they're like, "Okay,
now, you guys
have had your fun.
Can we go back to Chucky
being scary again?"
There was a lot of eye rolling.
They trusted Don and I, and in
their minds, we let them down.
"Seed of Chucky"
blasted onto movie screens
on November 11th, 2004,
opening at #5
with a final global
tally of less than $25 million.
Audiences and critics
alike were divided.
Still, those who lent
their talents to the project
will always remember
the pleasure,
pain, and possibilities
of bringing the out of the
Good Guy box idea to life.
"Seed of Chucky"
didn't get many great reviews,
but it did get some.
Pulitzer Prize-winner
Wesley Morris did like it.
By the time
"Seed of Chucky" came out,
you'd had years of these
scream-influenced,
self-reflexive horror movies.
And I just think critics
were like, "I've heard this.
I've seen this kind of
thing before."
And it kind of blinded them
to the strengths of the movie,
and some of the very weird ways
in which the movie's
really interesting.
A horror movie is supposed
to fit within a specific box,
and this sticks its hands out
in... in a couple of
different directions.
That's something that horror
does really well
is it makes things scary,
but it also creates
an opportunity
for discussion and conversation.
And I think that the best thing
to help with fear
and bigotry is honest,
open conversation.
We're doing something that
was like a little bit risky.
I think, something that people
perhaps didn't think we were
going to be able to do as well
as we were able to do it,
and it was just
a fun experience all around.
It was literally 7 days
a week, every day.
The learning curve was massive,
and the work required
was intense,
- but I loved every minute of it.
- It seemed so
rich, colorful, and so alive
that I forgot about the weeks
and weeks of filming.
It was kind of surreal
to see what I'd been in
and been doing on the screen.
It was a lot more out there than
I realized for a horror movie.
You know? I was thrilled.
You know,
I loved the "Chucky" thing.
That's what I get recognized
for being in the "Chucky" movie,
not my film careers
or not other stuff.
It was just great to be in it,
and I was honored.
I still am honored.
You know, when I saw
"Seed," I thought...
I thought it worked,
I really had fun.
Like, now, when people are
ranking the "Chucky" movies,
and they...
they refer to it
as the film that
almost k*lled the franchise.
I'm like, "Oh, my God,
that was like one of
my very favorite films."
But I think people
weren't ready for it.
Just being a few years
ahead of your time
is still significant,
and may have been
part of the reason
why the movie
didn't do as well.
I'm so glad that over
the years
that it seems to be finding
a bigger audience.
It's made an impact on,
you know,
the LGBTQ+ community
in a way that
I hadn't really anticipated.
I'm very proud of...
of what Don created
with the idea of...
of this trans child,
and very proud
to have my name on that.
I am proud of that movie.
I stick a big middle finger
in the faces of the people
who to this day,
will contact me on social media
and call me a f*gg*t,
and, um, you know, tell me
I ruined my own franchise.
Up yours, as*h*le!
I feel like if people
were offended by the queerness
and... and how the queerness
was received,
I think that was the point.
I often devolve
into defensiveness
when talking about
"Seed of Chucky,"
although, it's getting better
as the years go on,
because it really does
help to hear people
say that they like the movie.
And I didn't waste
those years of my life.
Great art sometimes
takes time for people
to appreciate it.
After 2004,
"Seed of Chucky"
failed to bear Universal
its hoped for box office fruit.
8 years would pass
before the studio
finally showed interest
in another dance
with their diminutive devil.
So, after "Seed of Chucky,"
you know the movie
didn't do well.
So the... the franchise
kind of went fallow for a while.
I was approached by Glenn Ross,
who heads up a division
at Universal
for streaming called 1440.
And Glenn said to me, "I'd
like to do a 'Chucky' movie."
They were interested
in doing it
as a direct to video film.
Glenn did not want Don
to direct,
but there was no way that
that was going to happen.
It wouldn't have happened
if David Kirschner
hadn't supported it.
He either was going to
make it with Don and I,
or we weren't going to make it,
and they acquiesced.
There were a lot
of remakes happening,
"Nightmare On Elm Street,"
"Friday The 13th."
So, we did briefly discuss
doing that sort of thing,
but I think both David and I
were more interested
in a tonal reboot
rather than a strict remake.
To me, this was kind of like
the... the series starting over.
You know, we're going
back to the basics.
One doll, one environment.
It's a horror movie.
And it was going back
to roots of...
of just trying to do
a scary movie.
The idea was, is that we had
to go back to the first movie.
And again, Don went about that
- in a brilliant way.
- You know, we just said
"Well, let's...
let's do it scary again."
I took a lot of inspiration
from Hitchcock's
one set films, you know,
movies like "Rear Window"
and "Dial M for m*rder"
and "Rope"
and "Lifeboat"
and "Lady in a Cage."
Hello!
So, I came up with this story,
and I thought of like,
"Who could be
a new protagonist?"
Someone imprisoned
in their home.
Over the years, people who
don't like the franchise,
like Dee Snider, for example.
Yeah, I remember
"Child's Play."
It was a freaking joke
and an embarrassment
to horror movies everywhere.
Over the years, he would say,
like, he hated "Chucky,"
and one of the reasons was like,
he could just kick him.
And I thought, like,
"What if you can't kick him?"
I think that that's where
he did have the idea
that, uh, this would be
a disabled woman
that's being terrified
by some unseen force
that is coming from
within the house.
A disabled young woman
without the use of her legs.
She is in a unique position
of vulnerability to Chucky.
It was like an old
Hammer movie.
This is great. This is a haunted
house movie with Chucky in it.
As the franchise looked
to explore a new story
and new direction,
the question remained,
"Who would bring the wheelchair
bound heroine to life?"
The answer, someone with Chucky
already in their blood.
Casting Nica was, you know,
one of the first challenges,
one of the first things
that was important to do.
So, I spent 6 years at MGM.
And when I left
to start my own company,
I made a lot of friends,
Lisa Gooding in particular.
She entrusted me with quite a
few of the Universal franchises,
and then she introduced me
to Don Mancini,
and it was like love
at first sight.
I saw a lot of actresses,
because what I hadn't found yet
in the actresses
that I had seen,
I wasn't believing any of them
in the wheelchair.
The character of Nica
is so powerful,
because usually, um,
you don't see an...
an alternatively-abled,
um, person in a lead role.
And, you know, as it happens,
I'm talking to Brad a lot,
because he's one of my main
collaborators in all of this.
Don called me up and asked
if I knew of an edgy actress.
And I said, "You know what?
I kind of do."
My daughter's actually is in...
is really good,
and she's kind of edgy.
- He said, you should see Fiona.
- Okay.
The "Child's Play" franchise
growing up
was just this thing that made
me cooler to kids in school.
I've never been
scared of Chucky.
Chucky just sounds like my dad.
We were so excited when we...
when we put Fiona
- into the mix.
- I had been in "True Blood,"
and I had done
some independent movies.
She initially had been
submitted by her agent
to read for the role of Barb.
I auditioned for it, and then
I got a, um, call back saying,
"Actually, we'd like you
to read for Nica."
Don knew it was
really important
who he would cast as Nica.
And I remember one day,
he was really excited,
and he sent me some footage
of Fiona Dourif in his scene
and he goes, "This is the person
I'm thinking of casting."
And I said, "Oh, my God,
she's amazing. She's brilliant."
And Don called me up
and said, "You know, um,
there's something about her
that, um, I think
she should play the lead."
She also reminded me
a little bit of Amy Irving,
who I always loved
in those De Palma movies,
"Carrie" and "The Fury."
Amy just has, like,
this vivid portrayal
of emotional trauma.
Fiona had that as well.
I was excited by it.
I was terrified to be in it.
But yeah, I was excited
to make it.
I was like, "This is very cool."
With Chucky now poised
to rise from the ashes
and raise hell once again,
writer and director
Don Mancini
worked to summon a team
to bring his vision
and villain to life.
We went and checked out
Winnipeg,
and one of the first people
I met there was Mike Marshall,
- who was our DP.
- We hit it off.
Don liked Winnipeg,
because it was kind of laid
back, casual, and arty.
One of the things I said was,
"Let's secretly make
an art film here."
I wanted to do
the Victorian house
that was kind of crumbling.
The house was actually built
for one of
the "Home Alone" sequels,
and then, they gutted part of it
and added the elevator,
and then, made the whole thing
look old and rotten.
This cage elevator
that we had to have a forklift
on the other side
with a winch on it,
just pulled this thing.
So, that's what would
bring it up and down,
because we couldn't afford
to create a real elevator.
A couple of things
happened after "Seed."
We were told by archives, no one
wants to do another Chucky film,
and everything
has been thrown away.
All the puppets,
all the animatronics.
All the fabric to make the doll
clothes and all of that stuff,
um, had been gotten rid of.
Literally everything,
we had to start over.
It was sort of a chance to prove
that rod puppetry would work.
We could transform
the puppets from these,
you know,
remotely-controlled dolls
to much more direct
hand puppets.
We did the whole
business with guys
with sticks dressed in black
behind them
that we're going to paint
out of the shots later.
Shots are done
with a puppeteer standing right
next to Chucky with a rod
out the top of his head,
and that was a major departure
from all of
the previous "Chucky" movies.
When Brad does
the line recording,
we would ask them
to film him,
because we really focused
on the body language.
You can't call this living.
And tried to match his
gesturing and stuff like that.
You can see my...
my dad's gesticulations
or whatever,
in like a 3 ft,
you know, plastic doll,
which is really interesting.
I had never seen the doll
work with puppeteers
and my voice.
And it was delightful.
With a new lead
pushing the boundaries
of what had come before, and
crew contracts inked in blood,
the old dark house was ready
to welcome its guests
as "Curse of Chucky" began
filming on September 5, 2012.
The discovery
of my mother dead.
It was horrifying. I remember
I lost my voice a couple times.
- Oh, my God!
- Don called me
and actually asked me
if I wanted
to play Nica's mother,
and I was like, "Yeah."
Count me in, I'll do that.
This is exciting.
I'm really happy to come back
to the franchise,
even if it's not as Kyle,
and then, they couldn't do it,
because they had to hire
a Canadian actress.
Well, I think one of my
favorite bits as the DP
is the first time
the family comes to the house
and they come inside.
From the moment
Danielle Bisutti
came in to read
for the role of Barb,
I thought, "Oh, my God.
We have our Barb."
She is an amazing
mixture of bougie,
decisive, alpha, and sexy.
My uncle Tony Thomopoulos
worked for United Artists.
I do remember as a little girl
walking down the stairs
into their theater room,
and there was that iconic
poster of "Child's Play,"
and that poster
would haunt me.
- Danielle Bisutti, loved her.
- She's an excellent actress.
We're gonna have to send Alice
to public school.
And she's so had her heart
set on Saint Bridget's.
And I don't want
to deprive my child.
Barb has one thing.
It's an agenda. Okay?
And fabulous hair.
I loved working
with Danielle Bisutti.
She uses Father Frank
as a prop.
It was interesting
that Don Mancini decided
to bring Father Frank
into the... the story
and have him function from that
point of view, the appetites,
the needs,
the agenda of the church.
I had been a particular fan
of A Martinez's performance
in "She-Devil."
He's really hilarious
in that movie,
and he has this
really funny line.
I may be the butler.
But I'm not the maid.
He would sometimes
even do it to me,
because he knew
I would laugh at it.
A Martinez is such a pro.
He's so calm.
I was so excited when the
studio said yes to A Martinez.
My mom watched soaps
my whole life
and was like obsessed with him,
and I told her,
I said, "I'm working
with A Martinez today."
And she felt I had...
I had arrived.
Is that a new chair?
- Uh, yeah.
- It's cool.
Brennan has an
amazing strength,
and he's a wonderful mixture
of soulfulness and virility.
Barb does wear the pants
in the family.
Ian was always the shrinking
violet in the relationship.
So, I was doing my thing,
getting to that place
of feeling kind of broken down
- as a father.
- Brennan was like
another incredibly
experienced TV actor.
There was nothing
he couldn't do.
Come here you.
Summer Howell was
just this sweet, angelic,
professional,
uh, little actress.
- I think she was probably 6 or 7.
- It was actually
my second audition ever,
so, I was very new to it.
And honestly, I was so young
and didn't know anything
about horror to begin with.
Never mind "Chucky."
So, I had no idea
what I was getting myself into.
Summer did
a really wonderful job.
She is an amazing little girl
that had so much depth
and maturity.
I just got to be myself and
a young kid excited to explore,
meet my new friend Chucky.
Great, let's get cooking.
Oh, dear God in heaven.
The chili scene.
Everybody's having dinner
and Don has a camera above
that is slowly moving
around the table.
That was a concept that I had
actually put into a script
I had written for this movie,
"Cellar Dweller."
It didn't make it
into "Cellar Dweller,"
so, I put it into
"Curse of Chucky."
The rotating, of course,
was the hardest part,
because we had barely
enough room to get
all the equipment
and lenses and all the stuff
up there.
And it visually evokes
the feeling of a g*n barrel.
It's like Russian roulette
with chili.
We spent a lot of time
sh**ting all that stuff.
I think that scene took
2 days to sh**t.
And that had lots of footage.
And lots of choices.
He creates this
agonizing slow burn of... of...
- "Where is the poison?"
- He, you know,
put all those false flags
in there
to make you think
it was the girl
- or it was... it was Brennan.
- Yeah.
I felt like I was in a Hitchcock
movie for a moment there.
That's the stuff that...
that gives the kills
more of a payoff.
Though, in the first second,
you're going,
"Well, who gets this?"
Then, you realize, "Okay,
obviously,
A Martinez's character."
We're waiting for the bead
of sweat to appear
on Father Frank's forehead.
I've died many times,
and this was my favorite,
because I think it's just
the most, um, indelible.
He's my sponsor.
Stanton, you're gonna need
a drink after you see this.
When I first started working
with A Martinez, there's this...
The star power that
kind of radiates off of him.
I think for Officer Stanton, he
was a lot like I was, actually.
Uh, he wasn't really sure
what he was doing.
This was the film
where I learned the lesson
that you do not
do makeup effects
and animatronic effects
on the same show,
or else your head will explode.
First time, the blood
squirted too intensely.
It was comic, you know,
once my head came off,
there was a geyser of blood
coming out
that was inappropriate.
It was a little
over pressurized,
and so, the jet of blood
went way up in the air,
and it took out
the B camera crew,
who were not prepared for a jet
of blood, like 40 ft away.
Just erupted on everything
and everyone.
The camera was soaked.
We were soaked.
Luckily, the second
take worked fine,
and that's the one we used.
- His death was great.
- And you're like,
"Is that how they do that?
That's incredible."
Need a hand?
Now, let's talk
about Barb and Jill.
You introduce the hot
young nanny in the mix.
I thought it was really cool
that you assumed,
based on stereotypes,
that it's Ian and the nanny.
Actually, no. The mom's
having an affair with her.
The red herring that is my
secret love affair with Jill.
The nanny.
The twist with the nanny
was one of my favorite things
about reading the script.
I was like, "Oh, how is this?
Whoa! They made out."
Whoa! It's Barb!
And I remember
Danielle and Maitland
were, uh, were...
were laughing about it,
and we're really excited
to sh**t it.
I mean, you see
how juicy her lips look.
We made sure we had
our little...
our little breath mint
beforehand.
What were Don's words, at
one point, he... he tries to put
a little bit more g*y
in every... in every movie.
Like, at this point,
I felt like, "Okay,
we're the... we're the
g*y horror franchise,
so we've got to do it somehow."
Coming.
I had initially even, I think,
toyed with the idea of maybe...
maybe making Nica g*y.
One thing I love
about "Child's Play"
is that it... it... it has this
LGBT theme throughout it
and doesn't shy away from it
and has fun with it.
And then, Chucky
takes both of them out.
He just dumps over the water,
and that's it.
I knew she was a hot number,
but I didn't know, like,
that she was electric.
Too soon. Is it too soon?
Oh.
When Danielle goes
into the attic,
and she sees
the Chucky doll there,
and she looks at it,
she's staring at it,
and you're so scared
he's going to jump out
- and do something.
- But then, of course,
I find the butcher knife.
It was like half of Chucky
and half of me and the blade.
It's so iconic and so beautiful.
She is peeling, you know,
his little makeup appliances
that he's put on
to hide his stitches,
so that he can present
as adorable.
Scar Chucky is disguised
as the Good Guy.
He's got a... a sort of
a prosthetic face on,
how Chucky learned prosthetics,
I don't know.
This is the iconic Chucky
coming back
to wreak havoc once more.
His need to dominate,
his need to get revenge,
or his need to m*rder somebody
is actually so entrenched
in himself
that... that he...
that he will go
to the lengths that he goes to.
We sort of took that story
point and had some fun with it,
and did sort of like
a plastic surgery
sort of vibe to the mouth,
and the fans hated it.
They were just like, "Chucky
doesn't look like Chucky."
And it's like, he's got
a skin over his skin.
And here's a little hint
that something's wrong.
But, uh, in hindsight,
I think we went too far with it.
I think we had too much fun.
And out of nowhere,
Chucky just comes up and...
Even though, I've seen it
a million times, I still jump.
I may have wet my pants
just a little bit.
And then, her payoff
was she got stabbed in the head.
Enucleation is what
that's called.
You know, removing of an eye.
It's very disturbing, a little,
I guess, a little homage
to "Eyes of Laura Mars,"
and if not boon, well.
It was literally just
a dummy head
with a knife and an alignment,
so, it would go into the eye
in the right place.
And then,
popped out of my skull,
and then,
tumbling down the stairs.
And more time was spent
trying to get
- that eyeball...
- Action.
...to bounce down the stairs.
In the perfect place
for Chucky to squash.
It was a process,
uh, that was disgusting.
Oh, my God.
- Nica, what have you done?
- My big death scene.
On paper, it didn't give it
justice to the day I was there.
I was like, "You're serious?
This is the way
we're going to do it."
We did it.
You know, old school.
It was really fun to plan.
Say hi to the little woman
for me.
No, not the face!
- That's his moneymaker!
- How could you do it?
He's so pretty.
It was going to involve
the very simple reversal
of the camera thing.
Then, we cut to a dummy head
of Brennan
with a jaw that was removable.
We did the head cast,
which was awesome.
I wanted his mouth open wide
and see his tongue.
When the ax came down,
the jaw could be pulled away,
and then, all the blood tubing
would start to spurt.
It just went flawless, and I
think we got it the first time.
- It worked like a charm.
- I've had people stop me
in airports being like,
"That's like the best Chucky
death scene."
Like, because it...
it really looks really real.
I personally thought it was
cool that Nica
was in a wheelchair,
it was actually sort of a weapon
- in her hands.
- At different points,
it ended up being an advantage.
Especially, seeing people
in wheelchairs,
and the way that that device
has been used, uh, in horror.
Um, we can think of characters
like Franklin
in "The Texas
Chainsaw m*ssacre,"
even "Dream Warriors."
We have a character
who is in a wheelchair,
and... and it's also that thing
where they are designed
to be weaker
and to be victims.
And this movie very smartly
decides, no, no, no, this...
this character can more
than fend for herself.
It's fun to see a final girl
who is other.
It's important, especially
for people who feel other
in any way, shape, or form.
I would imagine,
much like myself,
seeing q*eer characters
in Don's films
that aren't portrayed
as victims or as weak
or, you know, freaks.
I would imagine
that for... for people,
especially people
who use wheelchairs,
that was really special.
I'm not saying that that had
never been done before.
But it still was fairly rare
at that point.
And I think it kind of
speaks to both
Mancini's originality
and kind of social
consciousness as a filmmaker.
She's faced such hardships.
Chucky can't destroy that.
You know?
You can put a hatchet
in my leg,
and it's not going to
take the fight out of me.
Fiona's near death
in the wheelchair over the edge.
That was a big moment.
It took a lot of planning.
So complicated,
but so amazing.
Charles. Come over here.
I want to introduce you
to someone.
The thing about, uh,
Charles Lee Ray,
he was different in the sense
that he became...
He became fascinated
with the family.
Hi, Daniel. Nice to meet you.
And this is Barbara.
It was very cool that my dad
got to be in person,
and also the studio
was very kind to fly him up
and let him stay an extra week,
so that he could see me work.
So, it was this,
like, really wonderful thing
for just the Dourifs
to get to finally work together.
You like 'em?
It was really cool for me
to be able to see
Charles Lee Ray
come back on set.
I think I found this
in the process of writing,
because, you know, any kind of
pressure cooker story like that
where you're dealing with
just a duration of a few hours,
you know, you want
to reveal secrets similar
to the Russian nesting
doll metaphor.
It's like an onion that you keep
peeling, or unpeeling rather.
I've always had a thing...
...for family.
It was cool to see him work
in it. He was so creepy.
I think it was fun for him
to... to...
to come back to a character
that he hasn't played
in a long time.
I didn't pay
that much attention
to really who he was
as a person.
I didn't make him specific.
I didn't worry about that,
I didn't even think about that,
which normally, I'm way
over the top on... on doing.
And now, you're
the last one standing.
It really is something
that, uh, is... is
a family legacy at this point.
There's this moment that I
wonder how many people clock
where I move my legs,
where I'm, like, crawling
as fast as I possibly can.
And then, I have to... I have
to make it into this elevator
and, like, move my legs
at the last minute.
I actually have to
for the scene to work
or we do it like
30 more times.
This is the 27th time we did it,
I... Every time I see it,
I'm like,
"Ah, does anybody...
Did anybody catch that
I moved my legs?"
You want to play,
m*therf*cker?
Let's play.
The moment that I love
the most
is when they're facing off
against each other.
And he's got his chin down,
and he's looking through
his brows at her.
Just such great lighting,
and it's so moody,
and it's so confrontational,
and... and, like,
really personal
and feels very emotional.
For that particular scene,
because I was screaming
the lines live,
I was able to look Fiona
right in the eye,
and she was looking at me
right in the eye
as I was attacking her
to k*ll her.
Frightening scene.
And it was one of my favorite
moments in the whole franchise.
We shot the courtroom scene
at the very end of the movie.
I think it was like
the last 2 days,
and Winnipeg had
just become freezing.
It was so cold.
Filming the courtroom
for "Curse"
was actually a lot of fun.
I think, we only had half a day
in a real courtroom.
We got, like, 150 background
actors to come and do it,
and everyone was really excited
to be around the doll.
Well, the first time
that I met Fiona,
I was incredibly intimidated.
She's the lead of this movie,
and she's also
incredibly beautiful.
So, I just sat there in silence,
and just pretended I was
in my own process as well.
But I was just sitting there
super intimidated.
I mean, he did
such a good job as the cop.
I thought he was, like,
so committed and... and real.
I really didn't even think
that Tiffany
was going to be in it.
So, I was very surprised
when he said,
"Hey, Jennifer,
we wrote a part for Tiffany
to come in at the end and you
want to come in and do it?"
And, of course, I was happy to.
I feel like I'm kind
of the mascot of the film.
The tag with Jennifer Tilly
made the movie.
She's indispensable
to this franchise.
When I got my throat slit
by, uh, by Jennifer Tilly there.
She was, uh, remarkably
calm about everything.
And I was like,
"I'm back. I'm back."
I made all these jokes, and
then Don's like, "Okay, yes,
but didn't anybody tell you
this is the scary 'Chucky' now?"
So, after I made all the crew
laugh and everything,
he's like, "Okay,
now can you just say the lines?"
That was like my first
inaugural kind of death
on screen, really,
that... that amounted
to any kind of blood.
And it was at the hands
of Jennifer and a nail file.
You know, when you have
the fancy dish at the restaurant
and the food
is in the middle,
and then there's little happy
dribbles of color around it.
That's what Tiffany
is in "Curse of Chucky."
Chucky, you found me.
Chucky, going into the child
opens up a whole new world
about what Chucky can do.
I hadn't seen the doll
with the scars
and moving and his mouth open.
So, that combination,
I was not having it.
She was scared of that doll.
She was very frightened
of Chucky and his face.
I mean, she was very young.
And this doll obviously,
it can... it can be traumatic
- when you first meet it.
- Don, of course,
was very sensitive of Summer
being afraid of the doll.
We did hide his face, uh,
for her to get through
those scenes.
I was embarrassed that
I couldn't, like, do the scene,
but they put a paper towel
roll on his stick head,
and they drew
a smiley face on it.
We put a wig on it, and that
was Chucky for something
that she had to interact with,
so that she didn't have to deal
with the actual puppet.
- Package for you.
- Really?
Don was very keen
to bring Alex Vincent back.
He really thought that
it would be a great idea.
And the studio was like,
"Who should we cast
as Andy Barclay?"
And Don was like,
"Well, Andy Barclay, of course."
He wanted to cast Alex Vincent.
And the studio said, "Well,
hasn't... he hasn't really acted
in 30 years," Don insisted.
It must be my lucky day.
So, when I got
the call from him
that he basically got
the green light from the studio
to go ahead with his idea
to bring me back,
uh, it was thrilling for me.
And when he came out
on the screen
when I was in the theater,
the fans went wild.
They loved, loved,
loved that it was
the original Andy Barclay.
It made it more real.
I got to work with Don
directing me
for the first time ever.
Oh. Hi, mom. How you doing?
Don had a couple of things
that he wanted me to say
in that, you know, which,
like, uh, "How's Mike doing?"
I had no idea that Mike
makes a, uh,
referral appearance.
And I'm very proud of the fact
that he's still kind of
alive and around.
God, it's great.
I hope they're together.
Also, I kept it a secret
and lied to fans
for an entire year for that.
- Play with this.
- Andy.
Filming on "Curse of Chucky"
wrapped and seemed
to work like a charm.
Post-production began
immediately with a conversation
between Don Mancini
and a composer with
some serious horror pedigree.
Working with Joe LoDuca
is a dream come true.
I love the first
three "Evil Dead" films.
I was introduced to
Don Mancini, um, by my agent.
Now, impresario, Richard Kraft.
Richard, uh, suggested Joe,
because he represented him,
and he knew that I would go,
"Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Yes."
When I saw the film,
I remembered
from Saturday morning
television a B-movie
called "Lady in a Cage,"
and I brought that reference
up to Don, and he said,
"That's where I got the idea
for the elevator."
For the "Curse of Chucky"
score,
it had to be
an all-electronic score,
because we couldn't afford
an orchestra on this movie.
The first thing that came
to mind for me
was to have sort of
a demented jingle,
because Chucky's a toy,
it's a toy doll.
Um, and I wrote it on
a toy piano.
I, uh, adorned it
with a "Chucky" sticker.
I loved the "Chucky" theme
that he composed.
I love him to death,
and I love working with him.
Something like that.
Originally, "Curse of Chucky"
had the little girl
k*lled right off the bat
In the script,
and my director's cut,
Alice gets k*lled.
It was the first on screen
k*ll that you saw.
It was one of the more
creepy, uh, scenes for me,
because, well, in horror,
they go all out,
so, they have like thunder
outside the window
and fake rain and lightning.
- That's where she says...
- Chucky. I'm scared.
For the first time, he comes
to life, and he says,
"You f*cking should be,"
originally,
what happens is then you cut to
outside what we call, the tent,
and you just see the silhouette
of, you know, going,
and then, blood go,.
So, it's all very stylized
and abstract.
I blocked it out as a kid
and I just did it and it...
it looked great.
But while we were in
post-production, um,
there was another sh**ting.
There was some m*ssacre
where kids had gotten k*lled.
So, Universal became
concerned about that.
So, we just needed
to revamp things,
so that that character survived.
We had to, uh,
recut to get the girl
not k*lled and, you know,
put her in a closet
and come back later
or whatever.
In the end,
they settled on me being locked
in a closet by Chucky.
That's what I was told
that he just hid me away
until the end of the movie.
So, yeah,
I was just chilling in a closet.
"Curse of Chucky" was
the first film in the franchise
to be released straight
to video, store shelves,
home televisions,
and even the cast and crew
were put under Chucky's
latest spell
on August 2nd, 2013.
The studio was
incredibly pleased.
I don't think they realized
quite what they had
till they released it,
and then just the response
was enormous.
It came out really,
really well.
The "Curse of Chucky"
got the best reviews
of the franchise
really, since the first one,
I think,
and to a certain degree,
rightfully so.
Because it's a really,
really good movie.
The reviews were really good,
and the movie was successful.
Given the big swings that...
that you...
are... are happening
in "Bride" and "Seed,"
there is something
about taking it all back
to basics
that feels refreshing.
"Curse of Chucky"
is a strangely beautiful movie
in a way.
Even though, it's... it's
horror, and there are shocks
and twists and turns
and crazies all over the place.
I think that that
sort of haunted beauty
of the music sticks with me.
I got to do
a classic horror movie
and do it with a classic,
iconic character.
I'm very proud and proud
in all the things
that it can possibly mean.
It was an artistic achievement,
because you got asked
to do something,
to be part
of the cultural references.
You get to be part
of the modern culture,
and that's the ultimate reward.
I had a lot of fun.
I met a lot of good people.
It was just, all in all,
a really wonderful experience.
I'm proud to be a part of it,
but it was well received,
because it's a really
well-made movie.
Everything about it
is up to snuff.
I got to say, I'm really glad
that I got asked.
It was an honor to be
a part of that project
and be a part
of the "Chucky" universe,
and just really honored and
proud to have been a part of it.
It is a little bit like being
in a time capsule,
because I'm the sixth
in the tapestry
of this beautiful
horror franchise,
and the moment
where it returned to its roots
and such an iconic moment
that the fans loved.
And so, I felt really lucky
to be a part
of that particular story.
It was so fun,
and I'm so grateful
that it was my first role,
and the people were so amazing,
and I got to work
with such amazing actors
and learn from them, and learned
that I really loved acting
and I wanted to pursue it.
So, thank you "Curse of Chucky."
I love being a part of
"Curse of Chucky,"
because that's the moment
where I realized
that Don was never going to
relegate me to the dustbin,
and I felt like I was sort of
his good luck charm,
and that he was going to put me
in everything from then on.
"Curse" really worked,
a really brilliant way
of reinventing the franchise.
"Curse of Chucky"
was a wild ride
I got to make with somebody
who ended up being
one of my closest friends.
I feel really lucky to have been
accepted into the franchise.
It's, I think, probably
my second favorite movie
of all of them,
"Bride" being first.
Both movies were successful
reinventions of the franchise,
and I also think that "Curse"
looks very beautiful.
And so, I felt redeemed
as a director
in that way after "Seed."
My word would be pride
to be involved in...
in a film
that looks like this film
does in every sense of the word,
from Don's direction
to production design
to Tony Gardner's work,
the actors, and again,
Don subverted... subverting
an audience's expectations.
I wonder if Dee Snider
liked it.
It's a doll.
Step on it. It's over.
After six films
over four decades,
Chucky's reign of terror
didn't just continue.
It thrived,
the next logical step
in the evolution
of the franchise, start a cult.
"Curse" landed, you know,
pretty successfully,
pretty quickly.
So, the studio certainly wanted
to do it immediately.
It was one of their
biggest successes
that division has ever had.
And Glenn Ross wanted to do
another "Chucky" film,
which was exciting.
I was not surprised to get
the call for "Cult of Chucky,"
because at that point,
Fiona and Don Mancini
were fast, fast friends.
Don wants you to explore
another universe of taking Nica
into the world
of a mental facility.
Let's dive into
the psycho ward subgenre
and have Chucky interact
with people who... who...
Their own relationship
to reality is not necessarily
well-tethered.
I mean, what a great place
for people to say
"A doll is talking to me,"
I mean, of course,
who's going to believe them?
I wanted to aesthetically
do something
- very different.
- Before it would
have been Gothic
and... and Victorian.
This, he wanted clean,
modern lines.
Let's make everything
bright and make it almost,
like, black and white in color
and very about angularity.
And you have all of
these characters
with lots of different
issues and personalities.
And... And Don is the conductor
of this choir of bizarre people.
And throw a k*ller doll
into that mix.
And there's just the havoc that
is... that is created from that.
A new story cemented in
the halls of a mental hospital
signaled it was time
to get committed
to a fantastic
cast and crew.
I wasn't surprised
to hear "Cult"
was going to happen.
Don had been talking about it
during the sh**ting of "Curse."
I was very pleased to hear
he was going to come back.
I was super excited,
and then when they said,
it was going to take place
in an insane asylum,
- I was like, count me in.
- Don and I had talked
about his approach
to the script
and what we were going to do.
Don was talking about
everything being against white,
very pale,
washed-out palette.
I think of it more as the
"THX 1138" of the "Chucky's,"
where everything's been
stripped away a lot.
Other references,
"The Shining" is an obvious one.
- "The Snake Pit."
- Virginia.
Virginia,
where'd you get that doll?
I really felt like we had
the team together,
and the machine
was already going.
We had a foundation to build
from some preexisting stuff.
It was far less of a...
of a zoo or of a circus.
It was much more
of a bunch of people
who knew what they were doing
and were all on the same page.
Tony Gardner contacted me,
and he was
wanting a very specific look,
how it looked,
you know, in the original.
And he knew that I had
a lot of knowledge,
and I had made some dolls
that were...
that were very accurate,
and he wanted to get
that look for "Cult."
When I first read that
there were multiple Chuckys,
I was more concerned
about the sh**ting
schedule than anything else,
because there was only going
to be one at a time,
and we'd have to figure out
how to make things modular
and put a melted hand on one
or a different wig on them.
It was really important
to Don
to create multiple Chuckys,
that there are other dolls out
there with the same essence,
something that I...
I was really concerned about.
I wanted to give Brad
different things to do,
because I have this
amazing actor at my disposal.
Dividing the dolls.
That was going to be
a problem for me.
And I... And I thought,
I-I need to figure out a way,
how to keep him
different and the same,
because they never stop
being Chucky.
I was frightened to take away
from the monster
that...
that for 30 something years
we'd worked so hard to create,
and were we taking away
from the personality
- of this character?
- You know,
having different variations
on the Chucky persona
for Brad to play with
was something
I wanted to do in that movie.
It was really,
"How are we going to make this
happen in the time
that we have?"
So, I just thought,
let's expand our mythology
a little bit, like...
like, let's give Chucky
the opportunity
to jump into new bodies.
Let's play.
When Don gave me the call
and said that he wrote me
into "Cult"
in a supporting way
with some really great stuff,
I was thrilled
and filled with gratitude
and appreciation and excitement.
Who is this?
Tiffany.
With "Cult of Chucky,"
I thought it was going
to be another cameo,
and I was pleasantly surprised
when I got the script,
because Tiffany is
more of the storyline.
Miss Valentine,
I wish you had told me.
- Oh, didn't I?
- Like every actor in the city,
you get auditions,
and they're always,
very often,
under different names.
So, it didn't say
I was auditioning for "Chucky."
It was some fake name.
But as I was reading it,
it seems familiar.
And I started to guess
it could be "Chucky."
Michael Therriault
is a really fun person to cast,
because he is
the nicest Canadian
will ever meet in your life.
Love, Michael Therriault.
He presents initially
as someone very nice and caring,
which is what he is
in real life,
but I knew that he would be able
to sell that twist,
that he's actually so horrible
that even Chucky
is a bit appalled and impressed.
I don't know whether
to k*ll him or just take notes.
I think he really truly
does want to help people.
He's complicated.
Don't misunderstand.
I'm not a fan.
We're not going to be friends.
So, my character,
Carlos, the nurse,
which I'm very, um,
honored to have played,
is based on someone
that Don knows.
I have a friend who lives
in San Francisco
whose name is Carlos,
and he's g*y and he's a nurse.
It kind of helped
steer me a bit.
And then, I was just like,
you know what?
I'm going to be me doing
what I think is Carlos.
And that's either going
to work for what they're...
what... what they're
going for or not.
We wanted to like him so that
when he gets horribly k*lled
by three Chuckys
simultaneously...
...that, like, we would
care a bit about that.
You think this is funny?
No. I don't.
I think I found out
I got the role
when I was at a film festival.
I was so excited.
I was like losing my mind.
Grace and I had known
each other before,
so, that was fun to see her,
the way she was playing that,
which was so different
than her own personality.
Claire's pretty with it,
she's a bit like a black widow.
So, she's a little unstable,
but you don't see, as much,
her instability as much
as some of
the other characters.
I'm a schizophrenic.
I see things.
I love Marina, I was lucky
enough to meet her in Winnipeg
during the production
of "Channel Zero."
sh**ting in the middle
of the night in the dark
at about 4 a.m.,
and I went
right up and said, "Hi,
I'm Marina,"
"I'm Don Mancini," he said.
And he was charming
and friendly and sweet.
Then, I went off to make
"Cult," and I thought of her
for that role as this woman
who, you know,
has this funny encounter
with Chucky where, like,
because of her own delusions,
it ends up driving Chucky crazy.
Aren't you the crazy b*tch
I talked to last night
on the phone?
She had a sweet,
uh, innocence.
But behind that innocence,
this intensity of
someone who's...
who's really in another zone.
Oh. She's harmless.
So, Adam Hurtig, I had
worked with on "Curse."
Multiple Malcolm...
Mark, Michael, Charles,
whatever you want to call him,
he's Malcolm to me.
He, um, he's a guy who feels
inadequate with his own life.
So, he has to take
on these personas of these,
uh, these greater
than average people.
And he... he nailed
all of these personas.
Fiona, I-I don't think that she
actually remembered who I was,
but it was this moment of,
uh, "Hey, I'm Adam,"
uh, "Lovely to meet you."
Uh, and then having her go,
"Oh. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Okay, I remember you.
You're the... the cop.
- That's cool."
- It was great to see him,
like, flex his muscles like this
and get to do
so many different things.
And then also,
I got to have sex with him.
It's been really
wonderful hearing
from the disabled community
about it.
They're like, "Oh, my God,
finally, we get to see,
you know, a... a paraplegic
woman, like, have sex."
Because by the way,
we have sex.
It's too hot for him.
Elisabeth Rosen
played Madeleine,
and I thought she was great.
Madeleine is a strange character
and has a strange,
interesting relationship
with Chucky.
I like to be hugged.
I can't believe
he's talking already.
You know, like that
in itself is creepy.
I literally, I called
my agent and I said,
"I want to do something
really unusual."
And she literally said, "Would
you do a cool 'Chucky' film?"
Elizabeth Rosen was,
like, the perfect example
of just the, like, maternal,
but maybe a little
Mommie Dearest.
And you don't care.
Mommy!
When we got there,
I said, "You know,
I want to dye my hair black."
'Cause she's a blond.
And that kind of also
gave a really interesting,
unspoken darkness to her.
She was maybe
my favorite character.
I loved watching her.
With cast and crew locked in.
It was time to head
to the asylum.
"Cult of Chucky" began filming
on January 9th, 2017,
in a chilly Winnipeg winter.
It's like, you know,
at times, -45 degrees outside.
It was insanely cold.
Oh, my God,
I've never been so cold.
Cold, freezing cold.
Much like Chicago in 1987,
I was freezing my a*s off
on a "Chucky" set,
once again.
It is bloody freezing.
That's our real breath.
When you're filming,
and you're outside,
sometimes, in those conditions,
it can be tough.
The sets were beautiful.
It was all on a soundstage
in Manitoba.
Our production designer
was unbelievable.
You get the sense
that the hallway
goes on forever and ever.
It's such a subtle design
but so beautiful.
This hospital set was like
a little maze,
and it was mind-f*cking me
in real life.
I don't think I ever totally
figured out
where everything was.
It was a bit like living
in a... a nightmare.
And they'd go, "Okay,
now, we're ready for you."
And I'd go down a hallway
that I thought was taking
me to my doorway,
and I was lost.
What I love about the script,
and that how it throws to that
sort of mental hospital thing,
you know, "One Flew Over
the Cuckoo's Nest."
That's great, and so,
there's that line in there.
Jesus f*cking Cuckoo's Nest.
"The Cuckoo's Nest" vibe was...
was very much intentional,
but it was also, uh,
it was a challenge.
It did have that, uh, "One Flew
Over the Cuckoo's Nest" vibe.
Don loves skyscrapers.
Don has a skyscraper fetish.
He, uh, he loves them.
Some people love
Lamborghinis.
Some people love,
you know, hot dogs.
Uh, he loves skyscrapers.
I just want to be able
to protect myself.
It opens with Andy
trying to find that love.
He's been so scarred his
whole life from this experience.
"Chucky" has been in my life
since I was a child.
It affected my whole life
since I was a kid.
So, I have that parallel
with... with Andy.
This experience has clearly
had an effect on this guy.
In a way, he's kind of
a vigilante of making sure
that no one else is affected
the way that he was by it.
Who's the only person
in his world
who he comes home to
...to talk to?
It's not a healthy relationship.
He's got all these tools
and t*rture devices in trays,
in cabinets,
you're just like super a**l,
super organized, super
efficient, and super messed up.
The hunted did become
the hunter.
We had to basically sh**t
the whole scene first,
except for the blowtorch thing,
because we wanted to push it
as much as we could.
And because the skin is silicone
and heat resistant,
none of the mechanics fried
while we were sh**ting it,
he was able to emote
and stay controlled,
it looked great.
Chucky had smell
when you burn them.
It's really quite stinky.
Nica isn't a danger
to anyone anymore.
And let's not forget,
she isn't the only one here
to benefit from
an insanity plea.
That was one of the fun
things to do with this movie is,
you know, for... to have people
with mental health issues
respond to Chucky
in different ways.
As soon as Chucky is revealed,
we see everybody's
kind of reaction.
Angela just rises up
and lets them all know
he's back.
He said to tell you
he's coming for you.
Grace's character immediately
doesn't understand
what's going on.
I love Claire, because
she is trying to do right.
She jumps up
and she's going to come over
and comfort Angela.
Elisabeth sees the...
the actual Chucky doll
as her... as her daughter.
- He's my baby.
- When she finds the doll,
it literally, it fills
this huge hole in her.
And Fiona is just, like,
there's part of her that's,
you know, we can see that
it's stirring below the surface,
but she is just stonewalling.
Claire, why don't you
come with us?
- Come on.
- No.
Carlos, in a way,
took Grace's character
to her death.
But that's a "Chucky" movie,
man.
It's like, you know,
a really creepy "Sesame Street."
So, it's like
they've got puppeteers
doing all of the different
things, it was like acting
with a human being, that was
pretty amazing and surreal.
She, by far,
gets the nicest death
that I have seen in the...
in the "Chucky" franchise.
Claire. Yes, who gets
decapitated spectacularly.
It's not only the falling glass,
but the snow,
because it's snowing outside.
It's so horrifically gorgeous.
My death scene was,
I think, operatic.
The whole death scene
on the operating table,
there's like every version
of puppeteering
performance possible.
There's people literally
on every side of the camera
- for so many of those shots.
- I think, the scene
where Grace gets k*lled
was sort of the hardest
to make feel real
with the oxygen bottle
and the way
that was going to fly.
It was heavily story boarded.
In her death scene,
like, take after take,
she was able to produce,
like, a perfect tear
that rolled down her left eye.
I was, like,
"How does this person do this?"
And then the end of it,
you're pulled right back
out of the, almost
the poetry of that moment
by the head bouncing
and landing at Chucky's feet.
It's like a really
terrible death poem,
but really, um, really,
really beautiful.
And I think Don
did an amazing job.
Alice?
We've been waiting for you.
I honestly hadn't even
thought about my line,
like, being
a foreshadowing moment.
So, like, seeing it now,
I'm like, "Oh, that's cool."
I was like, this is surreal
and stylized and scary,
but also a little bit
foreshadowing, for sure.
Me, like, I was just this
figure of Nica's imagination,
because she hadn't
seen me for years.
And then, you see somebody
who was like 6 to 7 to 8 to 9,
you're like, "Oh, my God."
But yeah, it... it was great
to reconnect with her.
Seeing Fiona again was great.
Uh, she's an amazing actor.
She's an amazing person.
So, getting to talk to her
again, even for only a day,
it was really nice to see her.
- Oh, God.
- Elisabeth was down for it.
She knew that
that was like a piece
of the disturbing picture
that we were painting here.
The way I approached
Madeleine was,
a lot of women have
postpartum depression as well.
I had the... the shot
as a bit of her...
uh, an homage slash rip off
of "Snake Eyes."
You're looking down
at a honeycomb of rooms,
but we glide from Nica,
and we pass right over the top
and without a cut,
now, we're looking down
at Madeline in her room
as she's breastfeeding Chucky.
I've had people stop me
on the street
and say, "You're the girl,"
but I think they're afraid
to ask me
about that moment, it's okay.
Elisabeth playing
the role of... of Madeleine,
what you kind of see
is really her.
There's this haunting
kind of presence.
Then, when we find out later
that Madeleine
was driven insane
by infanticide,
Chucky uses that
to manipulate her.
Wanna play?
And the reenactment of what
she did with the child,
it's like, oh, all right,
now you got it coming.
Here we go.
She can't live
with herself anymore.
She says, "Will it hurt?"
And he says, "I'll do my best."
She has this masochistic
need to be punished
for what she did to her baby.
And here is her baby
come back to give her
that ending.
He's just supposed to play
with his fingers on my lips.
And that's supposed to be
the whole scene.
But we kept going.
And then all of a sudden,
literally, he pushed...
'cause the puppeteer was like,
"Oh, no one yelled cut."
We literally... the whole fist
went all the way down my throat.
Aaah!
I remember just thinking
in my mind like,
don't freak out.
It's all good.
Chucky sticks his arm
into her throat
and pulls out her guts.
Then ripped his own arm off
and then stuffed it back
in her mouth.
Tony Gardner literally
came and poured
three big jugs
of sticky, minty blood,
and then they set the arm
all the way down my throat.
And she sits there
and she takes it.
I think she really makes
that scene so much more
than it could be.
Madeleine's dead.
- Chucky did it.
- No.
Oh, God.
The foot scenes.
He's bought her this pair
of bright red Chanel pumps,
and he's putting them
on her feet.
And I was struggling,
and I was struggling,
and I kept, you know...
I didn't want to, like,
lose eye contact with her, but
I just kept trying and trying.
And it went on forever.
And we can see
behind the monitor
that he's put the wrong shoe
on the wrong foot.
He's, like, doing it wrong
and bo... and me...
I'm trying not to break.
You know, I'm trying not
to, like, break the scene
so we don't have to
sh**t it 300 times.
And then, you know,
we all burst out laughing
and then, you know,
for the next 5 minutes
or 10 minutes,
every time we'd kind of start,
we'd burst out laughing again.
It was just so funny.
And so that's still one
of my favorite scenes to watch.
It was just f*cking hilarious.
Oh, my God.
Scene 74 is the scene
where the three Chuckys finally,
you know, come together
and have a conversation.
The scene and its purpose...
it worked.
For Don and for
his creative process,
I think it opened the door
for lots of places to go.
Chucky can be
in several places.
- What the hell happened to you?
- Oh.
That begins to evolve
into all kinds of things.
I remember walking into a room
and just seeing all these...
all these little Chuckys, like,
in different positions,
and it just feeling
like a playground or something.
Things would be mapped out
with just three posable dolls
to start with
so we knew where everybody was
and where our lighting
needed to be.
It was doing a lot of
comping in
where we would do
one performance
and then another performance.
Each one was performed
one at a time,
and then they were
all stitched together digitally.
We were doing a lot of things
with rod puppets
and bunraku puppets,
where he's being walked with
a puppeteer directly behind him.
So to see it now, to me,
is kind of a triumph.
- Hello? Look at my hair.
- Oh, sh*t. You win.
Absolutely. Sorry, pal.
You go f*ck him up real good.
They were vocally
a little different,
and they did have
some points of view
that were slightly different.
But they were Chucky.
They were essentially Chucky.
They're not at
each other's throat.
I mean, they may bicker about
who gets to k*ll Andy,
but basically they are
the Cult of Chucky.
Welcome to the cult, pal.
When I did it vocally
the first time,
I would do one character and
take them all the way through...
Yeah, well, you've been
alive for like two minutes.
And then go to
the next character
and take that
all the way through.
- Now I can be me.
- And me. - And me.
We had a lot of fun doing it
and particular fun with Buzzcut,
the one with the bad hair,
because he was the innocent,
you know.
We tried to give them each
slightly different
personalities.
Yeah, we all named them.
We would give them nicknames
to, like, how they looked
or how they were acting.
You have three Chuckys
at once on screen,
but you only have the budget
to sh**t one of them at a time
because there's
only one of them.
So that was the challenge
with Carlos's death.
I was really honored
that I was gonna be
the first character
to be k*lled by three Chuckys.
That was a gruesome death.
Ah!
It was like kitchen sink
on Carlos, and he loved it.
It's true that that scene
with those Chucky dolls,
it's kind of like "Gremlins,"
but hard-core, R-rated
"Gremlins."
It's one of the bloodiest,
darkest moments
in our entire
30-something-year franchise.
It's the most torment
and horror
that this person's
ever experienced.
He was super patient because
not only did he have to die,
he had to die multiple times
because we had to sh**t it over
and over again with each version
of the puppet.
Drill.
And he took it like a champ.
And the deal with Chucky
is he just, like,
loves it so much, you're kind
of rooting for him, too,
even though Carlos was...
Carlos was a good guy.
He was a good guy, but good
guys finish last, you know?
There's definitely perks to
being supernaturally possessed.
And then I get to be a man,
which was also really fun,
and play my dad's
iconic character,
which was a fun space
to occupy psychologically
with somebody
who's just doing exactly
what they want to do
and doing it well.
Fiona is a great actress,
and to be able to tap
into a character
like her father,
to emulate that...
that laugh, that smile,
the look, the intensity
that he brings...
that's no small feat.
Fiona's Brad impression,
I think, is remarkably good.
When I first realized that I
was actually going to play him,
I definitely called my dad
and asked him, like,
"All right, so what... like,
what's the clue into Chucky?"
And he always says
the same thing.
He's like, "Listen, kid,
there's basically two things.
Chucky... he's terrified of
oblivion and he loves his job."
I love my job.
And I was like, okay, okay,
I could do that.
This is for Nica.
- Ah!
- Aah!
There's something about
Dr. Foley's death by high heel
that's, again, very de Palma.
Dr. Foley had it coming,
absolutely.
And that was a fun death
to plan and sh**t.
Michael Therriault himself
was quite disturbed
to see his likeness
stomped to pulp.
And I'm also amazed by
the artistry of it.
You know, the people
who make these heads,
you know, each hair
is sewn in individually,
you know, like every
little blood vessel and pore.
They built a really nice head
packed full of stuff,
and they could really
pound on it
very violently and repeatedly.
Oh, my God. f*cking awesome.
Chucky takes things
much more personally,
and he's much more interested
in who people are
than... than he used to be.
Yeah, I'd k*ll Dr. Foley
any day.
You're sick.
And not in the fun way, like me.
Malcolm's brain has
all these characters
starting to,
like, fall out of him.
And he just regressed
back to Malcolm.
As deaths go,
Adam really got a good one.
And I think he's very proud
of that.
Now he's kind of gone
off the deep end again
and thinks he's Chucky.
I'm Charles.
In your dreams, as*h*le.
And he has this moment
of realization
and you actually
have pity for this guy.
I think the death
is all that more affecting,
that he becomes
kind of vulnerable
and somebody
that you're sort of rooting for.
- Who am I now?
- You're a f*cking poser.
Finally, he's facing
the truth
that for years, you know,
someone like Dr. Foley
was trying to get out of him,
but it took a special k*ller
doll to pull it out of him.
It's incredible to have a dummy
that looks exactly like you
getting a drill
through the back of the head
and you just standing there
like this, going,
"Oh, I should really...
I don't know...
I should really be thinking
about my life right now.
What am I doing here?"
I also wanted
to take advantage of Fiona.
Her real-life laugh
sounds like Chucky.
And at first I thought, like,
are you deliberately
doing Chucky?
It's my actual laugh.
You could walk into a party
of 50 people and be like,
"Oh, Fiona's here."
I think the cackle's genetic.
This is the end, f*ck!
To also be able to see
Andy exact his revenge
so personally
is also really cool.
It was my favorite day
on set.
I get to stomp
a Chucky's face in.
Any time the doll gets
nailed by some horrible death,
people seem to really be into
that, too, for whatever reason.
At this point,
you know, she's not really Nica.
She's possessed by Chucky.
It's an interesting
little moment.
And, of course, she traps him
in the asylum and scoots
away scot-free.
Tag, you're it, pal.
Hey, sweet face.
Good to see you back
on your feet.
I think Nica
never wanted to meet Tiffany.
I think Charles Lee Ray
was stoked to meet Tiffany again
in some whatever twisted
romantic thing they have.
The end of this movie,
myself and Nica kiss,
get into a truck,
and drive off together.
It, you know... just fun
to have these two actors
from disparate parts
of the franchise
finally meet
and surprisingly team up.
That's when you first
saw Tiffany
as sort of
a smooth master criminal,
and you saw a woman
that was really in control
and sort of masterminding
some of the things
that were happening,
and that was a very interesting
direction for her to go.
And Nica... she's got this dude
kind of walk to her and,
you know, she kisses Jennifer
so passionately,
and I really do,
I think it's brilliant.
It was -45 degrees
in Winnipeg.
It's so freezing.
Like, snow is everywhere.
And so I'm asking two
of my dearest friends
to make out
in a blizzard.
And it's 40 below.
I cannot believe
you call yourself a director.
She did not say that.
That's, like, when
the friendship
part of the relationship
really pays off.
I am her favorite director.
He's my favorite director ever!
So we wanted to do this thing
where we kiss...
we kiss and then I slap her...
him, Chucky...
and then she slaps me back
and then we kiss again.
We just thought that that...
and we're laughing.
We just thought
that was, like, a great thing.
Don was like, "Girls!
What are you doing?!"
And then they get in the car
and then there's the Tiffany
doll in the back seat laughing.
It's like it just keeps building
on top of itself.
And I really like that
as an ending.
I thought it was a really,
really strong ending
and they literally drive off.
It's like, where can this go?
They can go literally anywhere.
The end of "Cult of Chucky"
left this cliffhanger.
I was like, "Drive me away.
Great.
Like, I'll do this again."
Who are we kidding?
Chucky can come alive no matter
how badly he's m*rder*d.
There's a sequel coming.
You know, there's bucks
to be made.
Kyle?
Andy sent me.
We're gonna have some fun.
You know, after having
tested the waters
with Alex/Andy in "Curse,"
it was great
to finally bring Christine in.
They were running over.
The producers were trying
to pull it and say,
"We're not gonna do it.
We don't have time.
We're not gonna do it."
And I'd been I'd been there
for five days.
I've been standing around
in the freezing cold all night.
And Don's like, "No, she's here.
We're gonna do it."
So it almost didn't even happen,
even though I was
standing there.
And I got like three...
three shots at it.
One, two, three takes,
and that was that.
For a moment, it looked like
"Are we gonna have to
scrap this whole idea?"
And I really didn't want to
'cause I really wanted Kyle
to be at the end of the movie.
The hat that I wear
in "Child's Play 2" was my hat.
It was my lucky hat.
And when Don found that I still
had it, he made me bring it
so I could wear it
for my reappearance
at the end of "Cult."
I mean,
she's such a strong character.
It was so great
to see her show back up.
Yeah, really, really happy
it happened.
The lunatics taking
over the asylum
and leaving it in bloody ruins
meant the sh**t was a success.
The next course of treatment
was to edit the film,
create the score, and bring all
the madness and mayhem together.
The post process was
very tight,
so while Don was sh**ting
in Winnipeg,
I was in Los Angeles,
and I would get the dailies
the next day, and so the scene
they shot on Monday,
I would cut on Tuesday.
"Cult" was, uh,
a long time brewing.
And so, you know,
Don made me aware of it
even from the script point.
So on "Cult,"
Don was the producer,
the writer, the director.
And I had him all alone
in the editing room.
Well, my first pitch
for "Cult" was that,
"Oh, we're in
an intimate setting,
so let's just have
five strings."
And that didn't go over well.
I think that the idea is that
Don's cinematography
and his palette, uh, visually,
is so large and so broad
that he really likes to see
the music just as colorful.
I think there's more
cinematic moments in "Cult,"
and that's definitely
Don's esthetic as well.
It was three weeks,
80-plus minutes of music.
It went down really quickly.
First time I saw it
was a rough cut.
I knew it was good.
I saw it and went,
"Yeah, this works."
So the first time I saw "Cult,"
I think it was at a screening
with... full of fans,
which was amazing.
I brought my Mom,
who I warned, you know,
"I'm gonna die again,"
but she loved it.
It just did
what a great horror movie does.
It just builds and builds
and builds,
and you just think,
how can this get any scarier?
How can this get any worse?
How can it get any gorier?
And it was such a moment
for me
because it was the first movie
that I could remember,
really, that I was proud of,
I was proud to be a part of,
I was proud to contribute.
It was a blast.
My friends were all like,
"We, uh...
we struggled a lot
to watch you get decapitated,"
but I had, like,
childhood friends who were like,
"This is the best thing ever!
I love that you're
a part of this series."
Seeing the movie
for the first time was insane.
It's my first time
seeing Chucky split.
I think it was a huge deal
for everybody,
so it was really cool to see it
come to life on screen.
"Cult" is my favorite film
in the franchise.
I love how it's shot.
I think that "Cult"
is a masterpiece.
Chucky's spell over those
working on the film
had clearly been cast,
but the true test
would be the reception
from critics and audiences
at large,
and by all accounts,
the response was insane.
The critical reception
to "Cult" was phenomenal,
especially for a seventh
installment of a franchise.
This movie got really,
really good reviews,
including from places like
"The Hollywood Reporter."
And, you know,
there's the line about it
being kind of like a low-budget
de Palma movie,
which is a great way
of describing it.
It way outdid what
their expectations were.
There are so many Don
subverting expectations
in so many places,
and fans really
responded to that.
Don always has surprises,
and I think that's why the show
has endured for so long.
He never tries to do a retread
of something that came before.
He's the ultimate fan.
I'm always on this quest
to experiment,
to find what is
the perfect balance of humor
and horror and camp and meta?
So there are new "Chucky" fans
coming along all the time,
and so "Cult of Chucky"
might be somebody's
first exposure to any of this,
and they discover, oh, wait,
there's these other movies?
And then that
that's the incentive
to go back and check those out.
Taking time between movies
is a good thing.
I think it helps.
You know, I'm not thinking
about the box office of it.
I'm thinking of the horror fans
and the horror culture.
So I actually think, like,
withholding some of these things
for a few years...
I actually think it's good
for the series
and good for the franchise.
Though Chucky first
slashed his way
through audiences'
hearts in 1988,
the character proved
he could still knock 'em dead
decades later,
and while that road to success
may have been paved
with plenty of carnage,
the journey maintained
old friendships,
embraced new ones,
and proved a true classic
never goes out of style.
The success of every project
is a conglomeration
of the people
that are doing the project,
and where you are
and what mood everybody is in.
It was fantastic.
Making "Cult of Chucky"
was like getting to be
part of the sort of movies
you watched when you were a kid,
where it's a bit of a sci-fi,
you know?
It's a bit of a sci-fi, it's
a bit of an evil-doctor thing.
And it was very nice to be part
of something
you would have watched
and thought was really cool
back when you were 10.
It's always a blast.
It's all good. It's fun.
Thank you for having me back,
Don, and I look forward
to seeing you in the future.
Don is a really loyal person.
He falls in love
with his cast in a way
I think most showrunners
and writer-directors don't.
I had the chance
to experiment
and do not just Chucky
as a normal character,
but do multiple versions of him
and a disembodied head of him
and hopefully make people
laugh and scream.
And that's really
why I'm there.
It's an all-encompassing,
challenging art form.
And it sounds ridiculous,
but Chucky is Shakespearean.
The crew was unbelievable.
Everybody was really,
really warm.
They made us feel like
we were their family.
I'm really glad and honored
to have met Don
and the people involved
in the production,
and it was an absolute bloody
pleasure to die this way.
The easiest and most fun part
about "Cult of Chucky"
was the camaraderie.
We knew we were doing
something special.
I light up because I have
such fond memories of that time.
I feel lucky that
I got to do it, yeah.
I honestly had
a really good time,
and it's a very fond memory
of mine.
Chucky and I have
a bit of a feud still.
He flipped me off a few times.
So he's kind of a d*ck
like that.
But, you know, at the...
at the very end of it,
he's still my friend to the end.
Being part of
the "Child's Play" franchise
feels like I won
some weird lottery
that I still can't
totally explain to myself.
My family connection to it,
um, feels significant.
It's something that's just been
around me my whole life.
I just feel, like, so lucky.
It's just so lucky.
So thank you.
Thank you to the fans.
Thank you to Don Mancini.
Thank you to the producers.
I feel very, very lucky
to be part of this franchise.
I love Tiffany.
I love all the characters.
But it really
is a "Chucky" family,
everybody supporting each other
and working really hard
to make a good product.
I mean, it's a family.
I couldn't turn it down
if I wanted to, you know?
Um, "Chucky" is...
is a family project.
I consider Don Mancini
to be a friend, and, um,
and I could never bring myself
to say no to him.
You know, um,
don't tell him that.
I have enormous pride to have
been part of this franchise
that started off as a movie
with no thoughts of franchise,
being able to work with
so many talented people,
the Kevin Yaghers of the world,
the Tony Gardners of the world,
all of these people
bringing this to life.
It's more than half of my life
that I that I have been
a part of this.
And it does make me
feel good
that I saw something
in that first script
that I felt
that other people would love.
And I've been very fortunate
to be part of this ride.
I love the world we've created.
We have a lot of characters
and relationships.
There's a lot going on.
So I feel very, very lucky
to be able to keep expanding it,
pursuing it.
That's what Chucky means to me.
He allows me to express
this subversive perspective
on the world,
and I'm super grateful
to the people like yourselves
who support it.
Oh, man,
I'm not doing the chant, guys.
Guys, you really want
to open that box?
Ade Due Damballa!
Give me the power,
I beg of you!
Hi. I'm Chucky. Wanna play?
It's time to forget
these fantasies of k*ller dolls.
I'll do it like Tiffany.
Ade Due Damballa.
Give me the power, I beg of you.
All I hear is Jennifer Tilly.
Ade Due Damballa.
Give me the power,
I beg of thee.
French, French, amort,
French, something.
Leveau mercier du bois
chaloitte.
Secoise entienne mais pois
de morte.
You are without a doubt
the most pathetic thing
I've ever seen.
Wouldn't you agree?
I remember that line now!
I f*cking remember that line.
Last time I'm gonna tell you.
Get rid of that thing a rest,
or... something else.
Ha!
Ade Due Damballa.
Give me the power,
I beg of you.
You've seen dolls that pee?
This one bleeds.
We need you to put
a little more into it, DJ.
I'm not really feeling
like you're feeling it,
so try to channel
whatever you've got in there.
Let me give you
a little quick fluff here.
Ooh! Something
really stinks in here.
Ade Due Damballa.
Give me the power,
I beg of you.
I just like, ooh, why did they
have to do this goobly-gock?
Jennifer, if anything
happens to me,
I want you to know that I-I...
Uh, let's not get crazy.
It's 8:00.
We've been here for 6 hours.
So the first one is,
"Oh, sweet Jesus.
God bless the little people."
And I'm back.
Oh, this is funny.
You silly guys.
I mean, print media is dead.
Ian's working at Starbucks.
I feel like I had
pithy stories,
but I feel like all the stuff
I want to tell you
is stuff I probably
shouldn't say.
Ade Due Damballa.
Give me the power,
I beg of you!
It's a doll. What's the worst
that can happen, huh?
Oh, nowyou're ready, Bill?
Okay.
I realize I'm giving you
a lot of good stories
and nothing you can use.
Andy?
I can't.
Oh, you're k*lling me!
Oh, my God, this is...
I think this is my whole part.
Nica, thank you so much.
The chili was delicious.
Dr. Foley, it's true!
He's alive!
You've already burned
through my...
my cerebral cortex,
you've moved into my cerebellum,
and it's exiting out
my cervical spine.
I've missed these
little sessions of ours.
- Haven't you?
- I can hear him.
I can still hear Chucky
inside my head.
Ade Due Damballa.
Give me the power, I beg of you.
- Is that all you need?
- That's all we need.
Oh, okay. Oh, I can
do that better, though.
Christ, there's a lot
of lines here.
No.
No, Tommy.
I'm tired.
This is the end, friends.
Ade Due Damballa.
Give me the power,
I beg of you.
Let me be in focus.
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Doc of Chucky (2024)
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