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Tell me the basics; how did you get involved in this role in The Last Exorcism
and what attracted you to it?
You know, I’ve been working
as an actor for quite a while – and just like any other role, I just came across it and my agent sent me off to it.
I went in and the audition was unique in that there was nothing required – I just went in and met Daniel Stamm,
the director, and I improved myself trying to be a preacher who was trying to convince someone to go see a doctor.
So we played around for a while, the director sort of dialed us up and down. And the second audition,
they asked me back and wanted me to do a ten minute sermon. Then I got the part and read the script –
and I started to talk to the director about what this guy was about. Playing a preacher is a great role
as an actor because he’s sort of a larger than life character… you get to sort of over-act… for a lack
of better words. Over-act in a good way – if that’s possible.
Tell me a little about the character and a little about the movie.
Well, Cotton Marcus is a man of the cloth – he’s reached the mid-point
of his life where he’s disillusioned and having a crisis of faith. He’s been performing exorcisms,
but kind of like as a scam for most of his life. So he wants to go in to make a documentary film to sort
of blow the lid off of it, and by doing that he can expose other people… and to sort of make amends along the way –
so he can hang up his cross to go on with his life in whatever direction he is going to go. But we get
out to the Sweetzer farm and we see Nell Sweetzer who is played so deliciously and on-spot by Ashley Bell, and we run into
something we haven’t seen before. So the Reverend Cotton Marcus has to figure out what he’s
going to do then.
Were you able to relate
to your character?
Yeah, absolutely.
In terms of not sure what is going on – and not sure what is real and wondering what I’m going to do with
life… and me being in my forty’s as well.
This handheld camera style is certainly becoming the popular thing to do in a horror movie.
What do you think The Last Exorcism has to offer that the other movies didn’t?
Well, I think that some of the other movies – and this is not to diss on anybody, but there was
a phonetic pace to the camera work that I think lent itself to sort of making the audience pushed away a little bit more.
Our cinematographer had a real steady hand about what was going on, and the percept is that we are supposed to be filming
this – there’s no reason to have this camera be this intruder, you know what I mean? The audience
will accept the fact that there’s a camera there – and when you see the film… I use the camera.
It sort of allows the audience to come in and sit down – and it really draws the audience in and lolls them in
a sense of security – then everything gets turned upside down in the third act. The audience is locked
in at that point – they can’t get out.
When it comes down to exorcisms, ghosts or goblins… what do you actually believe in?
I totally believe in ghosts and goblins, well maybe not goblins – but
ghosts absolutely. You say goblins and automatically I think of…
Lord of The Rings.
Yeah, exactly… [laughs]
or The Goonies or something. I definitely believe in spirits or ghosts – as far as exorcisms…
I believe that people believe that they’re possessed, but by the devil? Who am I to say?
But I definitely believe there is good or evil in the world.
I read that you guys were able to go off-script a little bit during filming, is
that true?
Yeah, we were… absolutely. Huck
[Botko] and Andrew [Gurland] wrote a really great script and we used that as our roadmap most definitely,
but there were certain scenes and certain spots where we do multiple takes… twenty or thirty takes of a scene, and
that allowed us to fray around the edges. And by that fraying we’d find different aspects, so we’d
take exits off that roadmap to explore stuff like that. And a lot of that stayed in the film.
One thing that definitely can make or break a horror movie is the
sound or the environment, can you tell me about those elements in the movie?
Nathan Barr [Grindhouse, Hostel] is the guy who adds the music, it’s not heavy…
like Halloween with the piano… which is spooky and scary on the film, but this is not that kind of film.
The music actually… you don’t realize the music is there, but it certainly adds itself to the movie…
and near the end there is definitely sound elements that latch on to a sense of anxiety.
The movie hits theaters today, do you have any final words on the film?
You know what I think it is – I think it is a great exclamation point
on the end of summer. It’s the perfect film to see before school starts and before summer ends.
It’s a psychological thriller that’s got lots of creepy scenes; I guarantee you’ll jump out of your
seat three or four times – it’ll get you laughing as well rather surprisingly… and not at the film but
with the film. And it’s a great thrill ride, and I encourage everybody to take their mother, grandmother,
father and brothers and sisters and spouses to go see it.
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