HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY

(2008)

Another example of Perlman’s pipes, as Hellboy and Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) get drunk, pour out their hearts over their romantic entanglements, and end up singing along to Barry Manilow’s ‘Can’t Smile Without You’…

“That was pure Guillermo. He’s able to take these mythic characters and bring them down to this level of pathetic sentimentalism. You know if we get this right, the audience is going to say, ‘I don’t know what this is doing in the movie, but it’s my favourite moment.’ Usually you only have a third of the crew on set, but when we shot that scene, there were 400 people. Word got out that they were having fun on Stage 1. I’ll never forget that. Later, we were in New York doing a press junket for Hellboy II. I got in the elevator to go to my hotel room and there was Barry Manilow standing next to me. I tried to get his attention, but he just looked straight forward. That was my brush with greatness.”