RON PERLMAN
The veteran actor is still giving ’em hell, boy.
IT’S HARD TO believe that two-time Hellboy Ron Perlman has just turned 70. He shows no sign of slowing down, either in terms of work — he has two movies out in the next few months, including revenge thriller The Big Ugly — or his political outspokenness; only two days after our mid-june Zoom chat, he tweetchallenges Republican senator Ted Cruz to a $50,000 charity wrestling match. Perlman claims to be a “lazy fuck”, but we don’t buy that. He ain’t shy, and he certainly ain’t retiring.
How are you getting on, 12 weeks into lockdown?
The lockdown has been surprisingly illuminative of how good I am sitting around the house and doing absolutely fuck all [laughs]. This interview is the closest I’ve been to showbusiness in months!
Welcome back! At least you have a new movie out, The Big Ugly, with Vinnie Jones. How did you two get on?
Well, Vinnie and I go way back. He’s a fighter for very good causes, in a territory that I’ve been dallying in for the better part of a decade now: the raising of independent cinema. So I had sympathy for the cause, but primarily I had a tremendous admiration for the role he was asking me to consider.
It’s an interesting character: an oil-man gangster with a strong moral code. Is that what hooked you?
That’s exactly what hooked me. Preston is an oil man who is environmentally conscious, which in the world of oil guys has turned him into a pariah. But he’s also a good ol’ boy from Virginia. So the character was an opportunity for me to try to tip the hat to both impulses and find a balance in-between.
He makes a great speech about the Confederate flag being a loser’s flag. Did you have any input into that?
It’s all in the script, by Scott Wiper. I’m very tempted to tweet it out, because we’re being forced into that struggle over whose country it is and, you know, white supremacy and all of those things.
You don’t hold back on Twitter. Do you ever regret speaking out?
No. I regret some of the tweets I’ve put out [laughs], but I try to speak from the heart. It would be a horrible waste of life to stand for nothing, to play it safe, and to be somebody who never makes waves and doesn’t piss anybody off.
Later this year, you’re appearing in Paul W.S. Anderson’s Monster Hunter. How was that experience?
It was great. One of my best friends is Tony Jaa, who plays the title character. Paul is a beacon of positivity, and Milla [Jovovich] is just a dream.
You and Milla have Hellboy in common; she starred in the David Harbour version. Did you compare notes?
I didn’t realise she was in Hellboy until very late in the game, and then finally when I broached it with her, it was a subject that seemed better left unexplored [laughs].
So you’ve never seen Neil Marshall’s Hellboy?
No. It would only provoke me into whatever things I didn’t need to add to my list of grievances [laughs].
What can you tell us about your upcoming Guillermo del Toro collaborations, Nightmare Alley and the animated Pinocchio?
Nightmare Alley is a remake of the 1947 Tyrone Power movie. It’s my favourite noir film. I started talking about it around 12 years ago, and Guillermo wasn’t aware of it. It’s a huge movie, like a Greek myth. Guillermo fell in love with it, and I thought if there was ever somebody who could really honour its hugeness, it was him.
And Pinocchio?
I won’t say too much, but it will surprise everyone. No-one’s ever seen this take on it. It’s an exposé on fascism. It’s powerful.
Finally, could you ever play Hellboy again?
If Guillermo were to say, “You know what, Ron? We need to finish the trilogy,” I’d be there in a heartbeat. But without him I have no interest. And I just turned 70. So I would actually go down in history as being the oldest superhero!
THE BIG UGLY IS ON DIGITAL FROM 24 JULY