Eric Balfour

Exclusive interview by Thomas Chau, UGO Contributing Editor

While his name isn't immediately recognizable, you've probably recognized Eric Balfour's face either from the HBO series Six Feet Under, 24 with Kiefer Sutherland, or simply that guy who Punk'd Jessica Biel. But get used to it, for Eric Balfour is a fresh new face in the Hollywood scene. Balfour has a major upcoming television series executive produced by Jerry Bruckheimer called Fearless in which he stars opposite Rachel Leigh Cook, a female FBI agent who is born without the gene for fear. 

But before we see Eric in that, you can catch in him in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, opening October 17th. I had the chance to sit down with Eric one-on-one to talk about Leatherface, Fearless, and something about a French prostitute?

UGO: You're known to some people from Six Feet Under and you're known to some people for 24...but is it weird to also be known as the guy who played Satan in a minivan commercial?

ERIC BALFOUR (EB): I guess. Most people who I encounter know me from Six Feet Under or 24. I guess there's the occasional commercial person. 

UGO: But it sticks out in people's minds.

EB: I guess that's good!

UGO: So why did you decide to do a remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre?

EB: It was never something in my mind that I thought I wanted to do, or that I necessarily thought doing a remake of this movie was a good idea. What it really was, was that I read the script and it had really good three-dimensional characters. It wasn't like the first one where it was sort of annoying almost. They were well developed, the story was good, and it stayed true to the original but it was its own piece. And then, you meet [Director] Marcus [Nispel] and see what he can do visually. That was what intrigued me the most. Nobody has made a horror film look the way he could in a long time. He was really dedicated to making it look beautiful and make it look interesting. I guess David Fincher did it with Se7en and that's the closest thing I can think of. 

UGO: What were the conditions like shooting in a van in Texas during the summer?

EB: It was hot. It was hard. It was 100 degrees everyday, 100% humidity. It was 140 in the van with all of us and the lights. But it kind of added to the whole thing cause it certainly made it more real. 

UGO: Did you build some kind of camaraderie with the cast?

EB: It was hands down the best cast I've ever worked with. I'm not saying that they're better actors than anyone else I've worked with. I've worked with some very amazing people. But we still hangout every week. We're all friends.

UGO: Well I guess you had to have had a good bond with Jessica because I saw the Punk'd episode where you "punk" her maybe 5 million times on MTV over the summer. How did that come about?

EB: They "punk'd" me on the red carpet with that little kid Ryan [Pinkston].

UGO: What did he say to you?

EB: I don't remember but he was giving me shit. Ryan's a funny little fucker. Ashton [Kutcher] calls me and he says, "Say, do you want to punk somebody?" I'm like, "Oh wait, I want to punk Jess!" I actually had to lie to her and tell her that I needed her help with a charity that I work with. And she's like, "I'll help you do anything you want." And she meant it. She would help me do anything she wanted me to do.

UGO: What are your favorite horror movies of all-time?

EB: The Exorcist is hands down my favorite. I thought it was a beautiful film - the way it was shot, the music. What I loved about Poltergeist was that it was funny in a lot of ways. Craig T. Nelson was very funny and the humor didn't come out of jokes. It came out of a real-life comedy. It's like when people laugh at funerals. Obviously, funerals aren't funny but it's the only way you can get through this stuff sometimes. The Shining is a great one. 

UGO: So you probably think that the recent trend of "Who Dunnit" teen slasher flicks suck...

EB: I like the classic horror films that were good versus evil and that were truly dark films. All the other ones from the last 10 years has too much of a "wink wink," everyone-is-in-on-the-joke type of thing. They poke fun of the genre but it was fun the first time. They're all so aware of themselves now. What's the point? 

UGO: How did you feel when you first saw the scene where Leatherface wears your face?

EB: The first time I saw that freaking mask, it only confirmed that I looked as goofy as I thought I was. [Executive Producer] Brad Fuller actually has that mask sitting in a glass case in his office. But it was a little uncomfortable. 

UGO: Well, we saw New Line put Freddy up against Jason. How do you think Leatherface would fair against them?

EB: Well I think Jason is a retard. I never dug him. He never did it for me. Freddy always had a little flavor to him. I got to give him credit for that. I would have to go with Freddy. Freddy could take Leatherface. But I think Leatherface could definitely take Jason.

UGO: Can you talk about your band Fredalba? I read somewhere you named your band after a French prostitute? What's the story behind that?

EB: She stole a bunch of money from us. It's kind of a long stupid story but we were in Paris and ran out of French franks and all we had was U.S. dollars. No cab would take our money. They're not the most helpful people. We couldn't get back to the apartment we were staying at because it was all the way across the city and it would've taken us all night to get back. So we're hanging out in a sort of red light district and we started talking to this girl on the corner, who turns out to be a prostitute. So we're chatting it up and someone asks, "Hey do you have franks on you? How do you feel about us giving you U.S. money for franks, and we'll give you an extra 20 bucks?" Nobody was paying attention and we gave her 100 U.S. dollars for 100 franks and the exchange rate was five-to-one at that time so we got took for about 80 bucks.

UGO: Who are your musical influences and favorite CDs?

EB: Prince's Purple Rain. Anything by Stevie Wonder. I love the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I love the new Outkast album, I think it's really good. I like N.E.R.D. a lot. 

UGO: And can you talk about your show Fearless. It's being pushed to mid-season?

EB: It's being pushed to mid-season. It basically came down to the fact that Jerry Bruckheimer wasn't happy with the direction the writers was taking the show so they needed to step back and figure it out.

UGO: You shot the pilot already. Are you scheduled to shoot more episodes later?

EB: Yeah, they're still trying to figure some things out. 

UGO: What's your role and relationship to Rachel Leigh Cook?

EB: Rachel and I are partners and we both work for the same unit of the F.B.I.

UGO: They brought back your character, even though he's dead, on Six Feet Under. Is it a possibility that they'll bring you back again?

EB: (slyly) Yeah it's a possibility.

UGO: Is that being kept underwraps?

EB: Yep.




Jessica Biel

Featured interview by Thomas Chau, UGO Contributing Editor

It's awful hard to make the jump from the WB to a legitimate film career; just ask Dawson, Pacey and the rest how they're doing. But Jessica Biel seems to have a legitimate shot, and she's making the most of it. In The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, she's taking up the mantle of scream queen as she runs from Leatherface and his messed-up family, and she's already slated to appear in Blade III. Not bad for the girl from 7th Heaven. We sat down with Biel to discuss her past, present and future.

UGO: Were you familiar with the original movie before you signed on for the film?

Jessica Biel: Before I signed on, not really. But after it was shot, I saw it. I liked it! I thought it was really disturbing. It felt to me like I was peeking in on some sick, twisted family torturing. I liked it a lot. 

UGO: Do you like horror movies?

JB: I do. I really like horror movies. 

UGO: What's the appeal of horror movies?

JB: Everyone asks me that. I never have a good answer for it. I don't know what it is. I love to be scared, I think. But I think it has to be some sort of morbid fascination - a fascination with death and killing, but in a venue that's harmless. You know it's not really happening, but you can really get into it for an hour and a half, scare yourself to death, be afraid to go to sleep, but wake up the next morning and know that what you watched isn't real. No one's being tortured, so you can get into that kind of weird stuff, but not really.

UGO: What are some of your favorite horror movies?

JB: The Shining. I really liked Poltergeist. 

UGO: So what is it like to be in a film that will scare audiences for years to come?

JB: It's a lot of fun. I haven't actually seen the movie yet, all together. But it sounds like it's scaring people and if it didn't, then I would be, of course, disappointed. But I'm very excited that we're going to be scaring a lot of people. 

UGO: There have been a string of teen slasher flicks the past couple of years. Why do you think people will see this one as different kind of horror movie?

JB: I think it has an appeal simply because of its title. You're either going to be attracted to that title, or not be at all. Even if you didn't see [the original], you've heard of it, and you've heard of this cult classic and the wave it made in the genre movies of the 1970s. That has an attraction right there, the whole "massacre." I'm hoping that people will see a lot of the press that we're doing for it and the people know that they're not going to be seeing just a slasher movie. It's really unique. The name says one thing and then we show you something very different. It is a remake, but it also stands alone as its own movie.

UGO: Was there any pressure to please the fans from the original film to enjoy this one?

JB: I initially didn't really think about that. But now that we're finished, I'm thinking a lot more about it, because it's good. You never know when you're in the middle of something if it's good or not. It's really hard to tell. Really, what it was for me was making a good remake and a movie that the cult followers would love. That was the major pressure I felt throughout the whole shoot. Is this going to be good enough for them?

UGO: When [Director] Marcus [Nispel] yells "Action!", how do you work yourself into that frenzy of being really emotional?

JB: The movie was shot in order. Our first day was the first shot of us in the van, and we shot eight pages, which is crazy. I was disappointed and frustrated when we started going out of order. That was really hard for me, emotionally, going up and down all the time. But how I got there emotionally was that I really substituted my brother for every scene, for whoever it was. It was my mostly my brother that I used. Like when Mike [Vogel] is on the meat hook, I put my brother in his place, because that hits home. My brother just always brings emotion out of me, so I use him a lot. I would take my [script] pages and just write over and over, "I have to save my brother and it's my fault. The other characters are my family and it's my fault that they're dead." That would make me feel really guilty, and it would be my last shot to save him and get him out. Or I would have to stay alive to help him. That got me really hysterical all the time.

UGO: Were you prepared for the amount of physicality and emotion that was required for this part?

JB: I don't think I was. I knew what I was getting into. I knew it was going to be a lot of work and hot, but I'm ready for it! Every day I would go on set and I would freak out in my trailer. I told myself, "I can do this, I can do this." I would have these crazy emotional days and everything would be good. And then I would go home, and then I would get really nervous for the next day. "Can I do it? Can I pull this off?" I remember calling my mom and saying, "I don't know, Mom. I don't know what I got into. I don't know if I can pull this off. Can I cry again?" It's hard to know what a person would do in this situation.

UGO: Like the scene with the rats?

JB: Well, that was easy! (Laughs) I have no problem with rats. I was actually the rat wrangler that day! They would be going everywhere and I would be picking them up and bringing them back to actually rat guys.

UGO: What was the hardest scene for you to do?

JB: There were so many "hardest" scenes. The slaughterhouse was really hard, at first. I'm a big animal lover and I actually started the movie as a vegetarian. But I was in Texas and it was really hard! It's hard to not eat meat and get enough protein to finish the day. It sounds like a cop out, and I do feel a little bit guilty about it.

UGO: When you chose this project, was it with the thought of doing something really different than what people know you for?

JB: It's so weird. You always have some sort of a plan. You think, "Now it's time to do an action piece. Or something Oscar worthy." You have all these ideas that this is what's going to come next and you're going to hold out for it. But then, something like this falls in your lap. Initially, I was very intimidated and very concerned about making a remake of this classic, and then I read it and it was great. It just happens. You never think, "I've got to do a horror film. Or I've got to do an action movie to get out of what I've done before." You want to do something completely different, but you never know what it's going to be. Same thing with Blade [Trinity]. I was thinking, "I need to do a small, indie $2 million dollar movie." Now I'm doing an $80 million action movie. Fighting vampires is so different.

UGO: Do you think people will see you as an action hero after this movie and Blade?

JB: I don't know. I think image is a really hard thing to get. I'm sure after these movies, I'll probably be looked at as an action hero, which is so funny, because I'm not. 




Michael Bay

Featured interview by Thomas Chau, UGO Contributing Editor

Michael Bay has made his name as a director, primarily working with producer Jerry Bruckheimer on action flicks like Armageddon and The Rock. Now he's getting into the production game himself, lending his considerable clout to the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. What does it take to cross that line, and what's next for Bay in the director's chair? We found out in this interview.

UGO: Why did you want to create your own production company? 

Michael Bay (MB): It was about a year and a half ago. I wanted to create a company, and I named it after my first student film, Platinum Dunes. I made two of my very close friends partners, and they were very young in the business. I wanted to create this company to help new directors, and I just wanted to shepherd a new director - teach him every bad trick I learned and what not to do. You want to give as much guidance as you can. I love lecturing at film schools and I really like helping film students. Marcus [Nispel] has shot a lot and is a very accomplished director. There's still that learning curve going from commercial to movies. 

UGO: Did you see in Marcus a little bit of what you went through when you started out?

MB: Oh, yeah. We were actually looking for European directors for this one. Directors from Spain, directors from Germany. Marcus has a European thing about him. He's just got a gritty, drama look.

UGO: Is it hard, being a director yourself, to work with another director on a project?

MB: Some [directors] have told me, "I don't like working with other directors." I actually like it. I enjoy producing. It's really weird to walk on a set though. You sit there like, "Yeah, I'd shoot that differently. Oh look, the dolly's there...interesting." (Laughs) 

UGO: Would you ever take over a project if you thought it was going in the wrong direction?

MB: Yep. Because my name is on there. The way we did this movie, we did it in a unique way, because we got the rights and I wanted to start this company and we created this teaser where it starts "From the [archives] of American History, the most gruesome crime happened in August 1973." There was eerie music, black screen, in a huge theater. I had some of my sound mixers, using surround sound, have this girl running up these stairs, goes into a closet, barricades herself in, and is trying to bite her tongue, keep quiet. Then you hear male footsteps around the theater and he comes up right in front of the closet, still not seeing anything, and there's 4 seconds of ultra-silence. He hits the door and everyone in the audience jumps, but then they laugh because they got scared of the sound. Then you hear some more screaming, then the door, then a chainsaw turns on. We sold the movie worldwide with just that teaser.

UGO: Why do you think a teaser like that could scare people so much?

MB: Well, I went to this thing at Disney. That's how I got the idea. There is this parabolic room with amazing sound. It was like a show, but it was all in your imagination, so that's where I took the idea from it. 

UGO: Why start out with a horror film instead of an action film, for which you're more known?

MB: Because I like all sorts of movies. That's what people don't know about me. Horror is concept driven. You don't need actors who are stars. You can do it very cheaply and there's a good return on them. 

UGO: How has audience reaction been to the film so far?

MB: Much better than I anticipated. 

UGO: How did you see the original film?

MB: I saw it on a tape at my mom's house. 

UGO: Were there some images in the original that you wanted to keep in this remake?

MB: Yeah, the door (makes a door swishing sound). I knew we had to have that door. There are certain things in there for the core audience who haven't seen the movie.

UGO: What was the scariest movie for you as a kid?

MB: The Exorcist - I saw it when I was 13. I slept between my parents after I saw it. But there's something fun, as a kid, being scared. It's a fun thrill. The Shining, to me, is a scary one. When I see those two scary g*ddamn little girls at the end of the hall, I just... (shivers)

UGO: Are movies still as exciting for you now as they were when you were a kid?

MB: When I was 15, I worked at Lucasfilm. This is a true story. I was filing Raiders of the Lost Ark storyboards. I thought, "This movie is going to suck." I told Steven Spielberg this when I was 25 and I saw it at the Chinese Theater and thought, "Wow! This movie is so good!" 

UGO: Do you want to follow in Spielberg's path? He's made some films that have received box-office but not necessarily critical success, and vice-versa...

MB: I want to reinvent myself. I want to change it up. I'm branching out and meeting with new producers. I met with Scott Rudin yesterday, who's got great taste material. I want to find a small character movie with actors. I have a long way to go. I like all types of movies, and you wouldn't have thought that I liked horror movies, but we did this. I'm a huge Coen Brothers fan, and I'd love to do a movie like that where it's just actors and a dark comedy. It's just flexing different muscles. 

UGO: Do you know why people still liked to be scared at the movies?

MB: The story of Texas Chainsaw Massacre is like one of those great, horrific dreams you have as a kid being stuck in a tunnel you can't get out. That's like a huge horror concept. There's this adrenaline. You see kids coming [out of the theater] and they're like shaking. But you see them laughing as if they've been on a Disney ride. 

UGO: How much was trying to please the fans from the original film in your mind?

MB: A lot. There was a guy from MTV - I saw him at a screening in LA - he says, "Let me tell you something. I didn't want to see the movie because you're involved, you got the girl from the WB, and the original is one of my top five. I gotta tell you, this is a 10/10. I loved this movie." And he was like a cult fanatic of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

UGO: So what if, ten years from now, someone tried remaking Armageddon?

MB: Do it. (Laughter) They tried doing it with The Core, didn't they? (Laughs) Paramount was arrogant enough to put out an ad campaign saying, "This is the movie Armageddon wanted to be." That is tempting the movie gods so bad!

UGO: Why was Jessica Biel perfect for the lead?

MB: We auditioned hundreds of women for this, and something about her just clicked. She looks physical, but her acting is real. I think she's going to go a long way. 

UGO: What is next for you as a director?

MB: I'm looking. I'm looking for that small, quirky thing. I'm working on a couple of things. There's a character, dark comedy at Paramount that I found.

UGO: Is Bad Boys 3 a possibility?

MB: Maybe years from now. Will [Smith] is getting gray right now. (Laughs)