Texas Frightmare Weekend: Robert Englund Hams it Up!

“On some poetic level this totally makes sense to me: Freddy Krueger is the bastard step father of us all!” –Robert Englund

Robert Englund, known mostly for playing the iconic horror character Freddy Krueger, graced Texas Frightmare Weekend with his presence. He was funny, entertaining, and not scary at all, which is a nice change from him haunting dreams and killing people.  You can tell he loves what he does by the way he talks about his career and plays to the crowd. Englund has appeared in over 100 films and TV shows such as the Nightmare on Elm Street series, Zombie Strippers, Hatchet, 2001 Maniacs, The Batman, The Simpsons, and The Spectacular Spider-Man.

Robert Englund has portrayed Freddy Krueger eight consecutive times! He is one of two actors to ever portray one character so many times in a row. He credited everything great about the Nightmare on Elm Street series to Wes Craven, who created the franchise by writing and directing the first film. Englund said, “The only thing I brought to the part was my physicality. I had just seen Nosferatu, he has a bald head. And I thought it would be great at some point to reveal Freddy as bald.” After going on a tangent about a bald head being phallic and the source of the insult “dickhead,” he talked about how he saved Freddy’s fedora, and how that iconic piece of clothing became part of the Kreuger image. Apparently Wes Craven had begun second-guessing the fedora and called Englund in to try different hats on him. After they tried many ridiculous hats, Englund intervened, and described what he said and did in that moment: “Wes, it’s in the script. It’s in your mind. So I put the fedora back on and stood so that you can see my silhouette. And that’s what sold it. So if I did anything for Freddy, I saved the hat and brought my physicality to him.” Good call, Robert!

Out of all the many Nightmare films, just about each film had a different director. Englund said the director he enjoyed the most after Wes Craven was Chuck Russell, director of Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Russell brought in the mask, had no budget, and was the first guy on the set and the last to leave. Even though Englund thought the first one was the scariest and the seventh film (Wes Craven’s New Nightmare) was his personal favorite, he thought if you polled the fans world wide the favorite would be Dream Warriors.

So what can we look forward to from Robert Englund in the future? Some things we WON’T be seeing him do are any romantic comedies or directing. He talked about how directing takes up way too much of your time and how his biological clock is more attuned to acting.  Regarding romantic comedies, he said he would’ve loved to do one a few years ago but now “I know what I look like!” Englund is very aware that he doesn’t look like the usually romantic lead guy and that’s ok with him. “I love playing the psychiatrists, bad daddies, and bad doctors. There’s no romantic comedy left for me. I occasionally get to show my tender side in B- movies…such as it is (creepy low voice)” Sorry ladies and gentlemen, you will just have to get used to seeing Englund as the “bad guy.” There will probably not be any “happily ever after” characters for this guy.

On the other hand, Englund is doing voice work for Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Ultimate Spider-Man. He also wrote a book a couple of years ago that you can pick up today titled Hollywood Monster: A Walk Down Elm Street with the Man of Your Dreams.

One last thing Englund wanted to clear up before the time was over regarded Mark Hamill. They are very good friends and people often hear that Englund was responsible for getting Hamill the Luke Skywalker role in the Star Wars series. Plain and simple Englund said, “No. Mark’s agent got him that role.” Englund did, however, happen to try out for handsome space rogue Han Solo himself, but as we know, he became Freddy instead!

This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!