Robert Englund shares the “happy accident” that led to him becoming a horror actor.
He wasn’t a superstar; he wasn’t a name.
But things changed in 1984, when he auditioned for the role of Freddy Krueger.
Not because it was some kind of calling, but because it was a job.
It will be available on Screambox and digitally beginning on June 6.
I spoke with Englund to discuss what we learned in the documentary–and what we didn’t.
Looking back, do you regret it at all?
Robert Englund:Oh, no.
It’s not something I set out to do, but it was a happy accident.
It made me international overnight, and I’ve been able to work in Europe as well as Hollywood.
So is that one of the perks, getting to travel the world?
And it elongates your career.
But I came out of the makeup in the mid-’90s and I had aged.
I looked much younger than I was when I was a younger actor.
I mean, I got carded in bars until I was 35.
I didn’t look like a kid anymore.
No one else was doing those, so I stepped up.
I did those and I did heavies, bad guys.
My first film, a starring role, with Jan-Michael Vincent.
He and Burt Reynolds were the biggest stars in the ’70s.
It’s been 50 years since then and I’m still here.
Freddy became a lot more tongue-in-cheek as the movies went on.
How much of that was you and how much of that was the scripts?
Well, there are jokes all over the original Nightmare.
He’s a cruel clown from the get-go.
What happened was, I think New Line just reacted to the fan mail and what the fans loved.
I always saw Freddy kind of like a cat who plays with a mouse before he kills it.
He taunts it a little bit.
You know what happened?
It’s not my favorite film in the franchise, but I like my work in that.
Renny Harlin let me dance Freddy a little bit against the landscape of the dream, the nightmare.
I think we went with a jokey line there instead.
Was there anything not covered in the documentary that you wish they had covered?
Of course, I have these terrible ideas.
I kept thinking, “Oh, that will be fun, a montage.
Robert Englund dances!”
But thank God they didn’t do that, because that would’ve been a bad idea.
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