Hello ladies and gentlemen, Muldoon here with a pretty cool chat with actor Andy Powers. You’ve likely seen Powers in HBO’s OZ, Spielberg’s TAKEN, a handful of episodes of ER, or randomly popping up in some of your favorite shows. I recently had the opportunity to ask a few questions in relation to a film he shot a few years back, but is now seeing a release, CLOWN. As I’d assume you might be familiar with his past characters, rest assured – for that hour and half, you’re not thinking of his those familiar roles, you’re not watching a guy memorize lines and spit them out while hitting a mark, you’re witnessing a “real” person (“Kent”) thrown into an insane scenario, feeling for him and quickly fearing him. While I’m a huge fan of KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE, IT, and the recent STITCHES film, CLOWN is a darker film that doesn’t fly too close to the sun in terms of silliness. It’s dark. It’s creepy. (It has Peter Stormare!) The film is a bit heavier than I expected going in, a lot more sinister than I’d thought it would be. It has a lot going on, and one of the best things it’s got going for it is having Powers in the lead, a performance that has to sell you on something that could never actually happen (or could it?!?). As always, I truly appreciate Powers taking the time to chat with me about a film he’s passionate and proud of. CLOWN hits select theaters and VOD this Friday, so if you’re looking for a dark horror film with clowns, think about checking it out.
Hi, Mike. How are you?
I’m good, Andy. How are you doing there, sir?
I’m good. I’m good.
So first off, let’s start with an obvious question, how did you get involved with CLOWN?
The casting director has been sort of a friend and champion since my days in New York and he thought I might be an interesting choice and I got to meet Jon, and I think the second audition… [Laughs] In trying to find the right sort of tone for the character of the Clown, he asked me if I had ever seen HOWARD THE DUCK, from the eighties. So then we are just one-upping each other on our impressions of Jeffrey Jones’s character in the film. I was told they were really interested, and I didn’t hear much for almost like six weeks and then suddenly after six weeks of not hearing anything, they go “You’re the Clown and you’re going to LA next week.” So that was it.
So what do you typically look for when you’re circling a project? Let’s ignore the financial draw or how the length of the shoot might impact you, what types of things go into your head when deciding upon doing a project?
I always try to find a unique angle of some kind, trying to see how this person evolves throughout the story, whether that’s the lead in a film or even a small character. I love the idea of normal people being caught in extraordinary circumstance, because that’s where those more interesting stories come from, in my opinion, and CLOWN is a perfect example of that. It’s an al-American loving husband and father trying to fill in, doing his best for his son’s birthday party and this completely insane thing begins to happen to him that overwhelms him and takes over his life, while destroying the people around him through no fault of his own. For me, when I read the script and I realized there was going to such a drastic change thrown at such a normal person, that’s the kind of thing as an actor that I want to do.
Given you have so many different looks throughout the film, I assume your makeup process was rather intense. Can you describe what that process was like for your, as the guy with all of these applications glued on daily?
You know, I thought I was really ready for it, because I had done a miniseries a few years ago called TAKEN where they had to age me in it, so I knew what to expect from being in a makeup chair for hours a day. What I was not expecting with the makeup involved in the film was how detailed they got. I thought, “Oh… These guys are going to do maybe four or five different looks” and I counted them up one day and this guy had twenty-seven different variations of those looks. Some of them you won’t recognize, and some you might, but it was one of these things… I’ll be honest, some times I got a impatient, like “Aren’t you done, yet?” and he’s like “No, no I’ve got this one little vein that needs to be just a little louder that it was yesterday.” He would sit there with the airbrush for twenty minutes making sure that that just looked perfect. I was really blown away by how much of the resources that this film had for making Clown look the way he looked. He people that they brought on set were the real deal and their efforts showed it. The thing I wasn’t prepared for was being in Ottawa in the middle of winter were I’m stuck in a clown suit. The have to arrange it, so once you’re in it – you’re in it and in it for eighteen hours.
Yeah… that’s nuts. I don’t want to even pretend how that must’ve felt to be in your shoes for that, your giant clown shoes actually. The makeup certainly did look incredible. I assume it helped with your performance, just in the fact that looking in the mirror at that detail had to have influenced you day after day. Going a little deeper, under the makeup – in preparing for the role, what did you do to get into the mind of Kent/this demon Clown creature?
Well what I realized I had to do to play this, was honor the slow transformation and so what I did is I had to break down each and every scene to its most subtle moment. I had this giant sketch book that just had these pages of charts and highlighted passages, particularly where each new physical trait that Kent started to experience had to be in the right order and since you don’t shoot most movies in order… You might shoot scene 36 and then the next day it’s 24 and then the next day shoot the last part of the movie… You never know, so you had to have all of that stuff choreographed and lined out. So in the time between my audition and the start of filming, I was really just mapping that out so that I knew exactly where Kent/Clown was in that particular moment in that particular scene. So did Jon, which was really nice. He and I always seemed to be on the same page. Case in point, the diner scene where he’s there researching through the files and he starts to hear the kid and smell the kid and look at the kid… That’s a real subtle thing, but it’s the start of… You look a few days later and he’s way further into the transformation, so the way he relates and interacts with these people is way different. I know I keep praising the makeup, but the truth is the makeup does so much of the work for you that you can really just decide how much of an instinct was taking you over and the makeup helps you tell that story so clearly. Like, “Well of course he’s in pain; he’s got a giant gash on his head” or “he’s got his fingers stretched twice their normal length…” When you are saying “Ouch, that really hurt…”
I read that you’re from El Paso. Is that correct?
Yeah, I’m from El Paso.
How does a guy from El Paso, Texas end up starring in crazy stuff like this? I fully realize that’s a big question, but how did you get from a kid growing up in West Texas to starring in features and having leading roles in shows like OZ?
(Laughs) I don’t know, man… That’s a life question… I left El Paso right out of high school. I knew I wanted to try my hand as an actor performing here in New York and I think I just always… You grow up in a place like El Paso and you view movies as this supernatural outside thing, this thing that’s far away from you, and the chances of you participating in that seems just so small and insurmountable, so when you set out to do that while not knowing anybody who can immediately get you involved, there’s a real learning curve vs. someone who may have grown up in Los Angeles or New York or Chicago where there’s inroads into the business and people that guide you into it. For me, it’s been such a creative journey. I still come to it with that same sort of awe and reverence and excitement that I did when I would sneak into a movie at the local multiplex by my house when I was twelve years old to watch their rated R movies or something, so I approach it that way. It’s been a long road. I don’t really know how to answer that in such a short time.
Just like that. I ask, because I know there are people out there in places just like El Paso or Midland or other small cities across the nation who dream of doing what you do and as I’m here talking to you now, an accomplished actor, it’s possible. I do think our time is just about up, unfortunately. I loved your performance in the film and found you rather disturbing. (Laughs)
Thanks man, I appreciate it. I really do.
Great, well Andy have a great rest of your day, sir. Thank you again for taking the time to talk with me – I really appreciate it.
My pleasure. Be well.
There we have it, ladies and gents - a glimpse under the makeup of CLOWN's Andy Powers. The film hits theaters and VOD this Friday. Thanks again to Powers for his time and to Samantha at Katrina Wan PR for making this happen.
- Mike McCutchen
"Muldoon"
Mike@aintitcool.com
