Mr. Beaks Survives His First Encounter with the New Jason Voorhees, Derek Mears!!

I have one criterion for an actor playing Jason Voorhees: be big. Derek Mears is big. Really fucking big. Like shot-put-you-to-the-moon big. He's also a big softie. From the second I sat down with him, I couldn't believe that this was the same hulking mass of hurt who, a half-hour ago, was terrorizing Sunday Comic Con attendees on the big screen in Ballroom 20. Though we only got one full shot of Mears wrecking shop as Jason, it was easily the most indelible moment in the teaser: a soon-to-be-victim backpedals in abject fear as Jason sprints toward her, winding up his machete for an emphatic coup de grace. So who's this bald, smiling tower of goodwill bouncing my way? Well, according to his bio, he's an actor who's no stranger to working under prosthetics (having appeared as a variety of creatures in films like ZATHURA, CURSED and THE HILLS HAVE EYES II), and a stuntman who's taken his lumps on some of the biggest blockbusters of the last few years (e.g. PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN and INDY 4). Hopefully, we'll get to know Mears better as FRIDAY THE 13TH gets closer to release. For now, here's a quickie five-minute interview with the new man behind the mask.

Beaks: Derek, that looked pretty fucking great. What was up with that money shot? I guess that's Amanda [Righetti] backpedaling, but she's moving so fast, it looked like she was on a rig.

Derek: I don't know how much I'm allowed to say, so... that's the character panicking and trying to get away, and I'm right on top of her.

Beaks: You're playing a more realistic version of Jason in this film - or, at least, you're not playing a supernatural version. Does that make a difference in the way you play him?

Derek: I think so. Whoever is playing the character... it's an acting choice. I don't know how he became supernatural [in the first run of films], but the way the script was written by Mark [Swift] and Damian [Shannon], they did a really good job of making it a full fleshed-out character and not just a guy in the mask. There's a level where you can understand where he's coming from, which also kind of adds to the intensity. If you can see on one level someone being incredibly emotional, hurt and vulnerable, and then flipping that when you see the incredibly intense anger... and letting out that hurt energy. It's moving. It's intense. To flip from one side all the way to the other, it's more disturbing than playing him as a... well, they just gave me more chords to play than two chords.

Beaks: So you can play pain. You can really be physically hurt.

Derek: Exactly. When I was doing the posters - and more will come out as we get closer to release - the photographer was like, "I don't know what you're doing for your character this time around, but... (group of people walks by our table and drowns out part of the answer) we'll take some pictures and go from there. So I'm doing different poses - and I'm a firm believer in the idea that whatever you're thinking or feeling, it'll come out and be captured on camera. And the guy stops and says, "Hey, man, I don't know if you're in the right area. You're kind of sad, angry and tormented. Is that...?" I gave him the thumbs up, and he was like, "Alright! Awesome!"

Beaks: So if you're playing a more human, tortured Jason, does that mean the kills will less elaborate and more functional?

Derek: What's interesting about the kills in this film is that they derive from the character. They're intelligent. He'll actually set people up, rather than... "Wow, there's a giant sandpaper machine in the middle of the woods! I wonder if I'll see that again!"

Beaks: (Laughing) And there's an electrical outlet in that tree!

Derek: Exactly! In our film, it's things that you just kind of pass by, and then you're like, "Holy shit! He put that there on purpose because... and now he's going to... Ohhhhhh!!!" As a fan, that's what I got from reading the script. It really plays on the horror fan's intelligence, rather than have a guy walking around and slash! Where's the next guy? Hiding in the closet? Slash! You actually see the method and thought process of what's going on. You set people up. I really dig that.

Beaks: In terms of playing pain as a monster of sorts, did you look at any of the classic monsters? Like Boris Karloff's Frankenstein's monster?

Derek: I'm familiar with them, but I didn't purposely go back and do research for that. I looked at Rambo in FIRST BLOOD, where he's an outsider, he just wants to be left alone, but he's pushed against the wall, so... he fights back with that savagery. Also, kind of like the Vietnam flashback, [Jason] still has the pain of seeing his mother's death. It's still happening. He was too young and fragile at the time to protect her, but now he's bigger and stronger. So it's a mixture of John Rambo, and... I would say Tarzan, to the point where he's become the alpha male in the woods; there's nothing bigger than he is, so there's no fear. And also a little bit of Lenny from OF MICE AND MEN. I hate to say that, because it makes me sound like a snotty actor.

Beaks: It also makes it sound like you know what you're doing.

And there's AICN's first, very succinct chat with the new Jason Voorhees. Here's hoping that Mears gets to thin out the dope-smokin', sex-havin' teenaged population for many years to come. For a (maybe not entirely unstoppable) killing machine, he's a damn nice guy. Marcus Nispel's FRIDAY THE 13TH hits February 13, 2009. Faithfully submitted, Mr. Beaks