How did he survive shooting the horror-comedy?
When you talk to Alan Tudyk, expect a lot of laughing. Especially when he’s chewing your ear about director Eli Craig’s Tucker and Dale Versus Evil, the horror-comedy hitting VOD August 26 from Magnolia. It’s not just because he’s a funny guy, but because the picture he paints of the production is amusing, to say the least.
Shock recently received a phone call from the actor (who also appeared in this summer’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon) to discuss his part of Tucker, a redneck who, with his pal Dale, are mistakenly taken for backwoods killers by a group of college kids (one of them played by Katrina Bowden). Below, Tudyk chats about working with co-star Tyler Labine, how he suffered for his art, where he would like to see Tucker and Dale in a possible sequel and his upcoming part in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, opening next summer from Fox.
Shock Till You Drop: Finally, we can say congrats on the release!
Alan Tudyk: The release is a little smaller than anticipated by Eli and the producers, but I hope people see it in the theater because when you’re surrounded by people, this movie is such a better time.
Shock: I was sitting next to an elderly woman at our press screening, she was probably in her â70s, and she was howling over some of the scenes.
Tudyk: Really? Nice! [laughs] My mom went to some festival in Texas, she took some of her friends. I was surprised by some of the people who went on and on and on about it. They thought it was [in high-pitched tone] funny!
Shock: Obviously, when you’re doing the duo comedic thing, it might take some time to find your rhythm. So, how quickly did it take for you and Tyler to find the groove of your characters?
Tudyk: It was pretty easy. They’re just a bunch of good ol’ boys. Growing up in Texas, I know a lot of those. It wasn’t too hard. For us, it was about setting up our relationship, how long we’ve known each other, where we’re from. Then, going through the movie, it was about responding to the situation as realistically as possible. I think that’s what makes it funny. As opposed to a scary movie type thing where everybody is acting in an exaggerated way with a wink-wink nature. If you react to somebody jumping into a wood chipper, let’s say, [laughs] when Dale says, “What the hell happened to you?” And Tucker responds, “What happened? Are you serious? What just happened to me?” Tucker is losing his mind, he just watched a man die in the most horrific way. [laughs] The humor would just come out of that.
Shock: Sounds fun, and you get to have horror with your comedy by playing off the absurd amount of blood and body parts.
Tudyk: [laughs] That was pretty great. One of my favorite parts to shoot was the guy going into the wood chipper. We did it two ways. When he initially jumps in and I grab his legs, the actor stepped out and then they put in the dummy with its legs and they’re squirting blood in my face. So, now I’ve got dummy legs that I’m trying to act like they’re kicking. Half a torso with blood squirting in my eyes and acting like the body is being ground to a pulp. So ridiculous for a day’s work.
[laughs] It wasn’t too far from that. [laughs] When we were shooting it, you couldn’t help but question, “Are we shooting an Ed Wood movie?” We had to shoot so fast, Tyler and I would be riding back â we were shooting in Calgary â we’d be going back home, we’d be like, “What did we shoot today?” Because we’d do two takes of everything. We had to strain to think of everything we shot. “Oh yeah, that one scene, that kind of worked.” We were really in the dark. We only had that time to think about it, then we’d crash, woke up and start over. When Tyler and I saw the first compilation, it was a relief to see it wasn’t an Ed Wood pull-the-strings moment.
It was physically exhausting. From the point Tucker gets hung upside-down, that was a tough day. Again, we were shooting fast. I volunteered to be strung up for most of the coverage for that scene so the actor had me to play off of. I know yoga people stand on their head, and I have to say, it was not good. There has to be a point where the benefits of doing that stop and it becomes detrimental to your health. My head was swollen. I was puffy for a couple of days. I couldn’t think straight. I was doing random things, leaving things behind like my wallet. I wasn’t thinking right.
Shock: Eli has mentioned that he’d like to do another Tucker and Dale, where would you like to see a sequel go?
Tudyk: Somewhere that has great scuba diving. [laughs] For me, I would love that. Mexico would be cool. Eli had suggested Tucker and Dale Go to Yale, where they explore the slasher movie element. I think vampires are big. I say we go down to Mexico and do a From Dusk Till Dawn type of thing. Let’s get some vampires in the mix and go crazy. Abbott and Costello thing, where we meet all the monsters. I’m on board it all.
Shock: How was your time on Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter?
Tudyk: It was great. I’m Abe Lincoln’s political foil. Historically, Stephen Douglas was initially engaged to Mary Todd, who became Abe’s wife. They were fellow Senators and they battled it out for the presidency. Stephen Douglas was a flip flopper. He started out his career being opposed to slavery, then he married someone with a plantation and saw all of the money coming in – it was then politically expedient to be pro-slavery. Whenever there’s a political statement to be made, Stephen wanders into the movie to represent the other side. Also, historically, Stephen Douglas worked closely with vampires to realize his political ambitions. Working with Rufus Sewell, the big baddie vampire, was great. So was Ben Walker, who plays Abe.
Tucker and Dale Versus Evil opens in theaters on September 30.
Source: Ryan Turek, Managing Editor
