Saving the world is a hell of a job . Paul Fischer discusses 'Hellboy 2: The Golden Army' with the stars, Selma Blair and Ron Perlman .

PERLMAN, TOO, RELISHES ANOTHER HELLBOY.
Ron Perlman, Hellboy II Interview by Paul Fischer.

Hellboy II could well be another Beauty and the Beast, that TV series that established Ron Perlman as a major screen presence. His Hellboy re-established the actor as a movie star, and in Hellboy II, while battling golden armies, he also discovers love with the fiery Liz, as well as his caustically comic side. Perlman talked to PAUL FISCHER.

PAUL FISCHER:How was it manoeuvring in the Hellboy costume?

RON PERLMAN: It's not that bad. The tail is probably my biggest obstacle because it sometimes zigs when I zag. And you don't want to trip over the tail, because then you squish the rubber.

PAUL FISCHER:How much did you improv? There seemed to be more throwaway, deadpan lines in this film than the first one.

RON PERLMAN: That's simply the way Guillermo writes. I mean, it sounded like I was making the whole movie up in Hellboy 1, and yet I think there was maybe one improv in the whole movie. You know, he's got this idiom down, this kind of like longshoreman guy who's raised in New Jersey, eastern kind of barroom American slang for a guy who's...you know, English is his second language. It's kind of remarkable.

PAUL FISCHER:How much fun was it to embrace Hellboy's humorous side?

RON PERLMAN: Great. My favourite aspect of Hellboy is the trash talk, and the cynicism and the humour is real east coast. I'm a New Yorker by birth, and spent almost my whole life there. And I know that humour. I know that kind of gamesmanship that jocks have. And Guillermo somehow captured it in a way that was hard to believe and too good to be true all at the same time.

PAUL FISCHER:There was a four-year break between the two films. Was it easy getting back into character?

RON PERLMAN: It's probably the least adjustment I make from like the conversation I'm having with you to action that I've ever had to make as an actor. I mean, I didn't make any alterations behaviourally or voice-wise, or this or that or the other thing. Guillermo kept reminding me, "When you start acting, you're going to screw up, because I've done everything in my power to make Hellboy you, and you Hellboy. Don't make any adjustments. Just do it." And that was very freeing, actually. The most freeing direction I've ever been given. But yeah, there's no real adjustment, either for Hellboy 1 or for Hellboy 2. The only thing that changes are the circumstances of which scene we're shooting on any given day.

PAUL FISCHER:How much input did you have with Guillermo before shooting?

RON PERLMAN: Zero. I didn't want any input. [Laughs] Why would you ever think that you're going to come up with a better idea than this guy who's truly got a handle on this thing in a way that's complete and holistic, profound? You just bask in his glow and thank him and be grateful for the amazing dramatic opportunity he's given you.

PAUL FISCHER:Does that make the make-up work more tolerable?

RON PERLMAN: Well, for some strange reason, the make-up has never been a burden. When it comes on the heels of absolute no sleep, then everything's a burden. But I regard the transition into the make-up every day as kind of like a ritual of preparing to become Hellboy. Almost like a samurai goes through that highly ritualistic transformation from mortal to warrior. And I come out the other side looking a whole lot cooler than I do in real life, so why would anybody complain about that?

PAUL FISCHER:Has the make-up process changed since the first one?

RON PERLMAN: Not a whole lot. It moved from being a Rick Baker make-up in Hellboy 1 to a Mike Elizalde Spectral Motion make-up in Hellboy 2. But everything remained the same except for some slight alterations. I think he looks a little younger, a little bit more energetic. A little sexier.

PAUL FISCHER:Why do you think Guillermo is the right person to do The Hobbit?

RON PERLMAN: I think Guillermo's the right person to do any movie that you can think of. I think that he was born to be a filmmaker, that he occupies a class unto himself as a filmmaker. He's already made one movie in his short career, which goes on the 100 Best Movies Ever Made, which is Pan's Labyrinth. And I think that The Hobbit, which is an exercise in fantasy, is very, very, very, very lucky to have Guillermo del Toro at the helm.

PAUL FISCHER:Who are you going to be playing in The Hobbit? It's a given that you're going to be in it.

RON PERLMAN: Well, I hope you're right. We haven't discussed it. I did say, when I found out he was going to be out of the country for four years, "I'm going to miss you, pal," and he said, "No you won't!" That's all he said.

PAUL FISCHER:Are there any characters you might want to play?

RON PERLMAN: Well, I haven't read The Hobbit since I was in sixth grade, and so that's about four and a half decades ago. So if you wanted to give me a test on comparing and contrasting The Hobbit to the works of Carl Jung, I'd probably fail. [Laughs]

PAUL FISCHER:Can you talk about how Hellboy goes from hellspawn to cynical New York trash talker?

RON PERLMAN: Well, the cynical New Yorkish guy is strictly a product of his environment. He grew up in New Jersey. And he didn't get to go out very much, but I'm sure that there were an awful lot of local people that intersected with him in his youth that gave him the accent, gave him the swagger, gave him that sort of worldly, world-weary New York/New Jersey kind of vibe. At least, that's what I decided, you know? With regard to the heart of the guy, that was completely a gift from Professor Broom to Hellboy, and I think it's so strongly embedded in him that even though he has these primal impulses, things that come with his DNA, somehow the heart triumphs over the nature--the nurtured aspect triumphs over the nature aspect in Hellboy. At least, so far. And he's been tested, but not nearly as much as he will be in the third one, if there is a third one.

PAUL FISCHER:Do you think a third movie is a distinct possibility?

RON PERLMAN: I think it's a possibility. I think it's completely a function as to how Hellboy 2 does in the marketplace. And if it does quite well, then I'm pretty sure there'll be a third one.

PAUL FISCHER:How would you like to see the character development in the third one?

RON PERLMAN: Well, I don't have an agenda. I'm completely in the hands of Guillermo; because where he takes it is going to be fine with me. He has given me a rough idea about the direction the third one will take, and I can tell you that in true trilogy fashion, it's the closing of all of the things that have been foreboded in the first two films. It's the Jesus moment, and it gets very, very heavy and very dark, and very cinematic.

PAUL FISCHER:Hellboy has a love for kittens and television. Would you say you're a TV junkie or cat person?

RON PERLMAN: I love cats, and I love television. And I love to watch cats on television.

PAUL FISCHER:Any favourite TV shows?

RON PERLMAN: Well, when I was a kid, Superman was my favourite show, and Soupy Sales. So anything that has "Soop" in the first syllable. What else did I love? I loved The Dick Van Dyke Show. I loved The Danny Kaye Show. I loved Dean Martin.

PAUL FISCHER:Did you love horror/sci-fi before you were an actor, or has the passion come from the roles offered to you?

RON PERLMAN: The work that I've gotten, and the work that makes up my resume, is purely coincidental. It has nothing to do with my own personal aesthetic. And when you do one, you're on the shortlist to do a second and then a third, you know? And then the proclivity of the guys who found me acceptable to work with, and that's a very short list, happens to be sci-fi oriented. There's Guillermo, there's Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and there's Joe Dante.

PAUL FISCHER:Can you talk for a moment about Ice Pirates?

RON PERLMAN: Probably not. I mean, I guess I could. Life is real short, man, you know?

PAUL FISCHER:Are you doing any voicework?

RON PERLMAN: I do voicework all the time.

PAUL FISCHER:Are you doing the new Batman cartoon?

RON PERLMAN: I can't do the new Batman cartoon because they were looking for people who are here all the time, and I'm travelling too much. But I do a lot of stuff with Andrea. As much as we can logistically swing. I love doing voicework.

PAUL FISCHER:What do you like about it so much?

RON PERLMAN: Well, I love acting, and I love acting quick. And the process of voicework is very result-oriented. You really go for the big performance like the first time out. And that's my favourite way to work, is on a purely instinctive level. And voicework is fun to do. You don't have to shave. You don't even have to put on pants. And you know, there's a nice little check in the mail.

PAUL FISCHER:What else are you working on?

RON PERLMAN: Well, right now, I've had to put everything aside because I just started a new TV series called Sons of Anarchy, which will premiere on the FX channel about September 4.

PAUL FISCHER:Who do you play?

RON PERLMAN: It's about a motorcycle club not unlike the Hell's Angels, in a town called Charming, California. I'm the president of the club. And the guy who was the head writer on The Shield writes it. We have an order for 13 episodes on the air, so we're going to get a chance to spread our wings a little bit and truly begin to explore this twisted, sick world.

PAUL FISCHER:FX pushes the envelope. Is this in the vein of things like The Shield?

RON PERLMAN: Yeah, it's The Shield on steroids.

PAUL FISCHER:What boundaries does this show push?

RON PERLMAN: Not so much sex, but definitely violence. These guys are completely ruthless. Let's put it this way: the character I'm playing in Sons of Anarchy has the least feminine side of any character I've ever played. In fact, he has no feminine side. Hellboy has a huge feminine side compared to Clay Morrow, the character that I play. He is the quintessential alpha male in terms of anything that I've ever attempted to do.

PAUL FISCHER:Is there a lot of gang warfare?

RON PERLMAN: Yeah.

PAUL FISCHER:Does it take place in modern day?

RON PERLMAN: Yeah.

PAUL FISCHER:What is Mutant Chronicles?

RON PERLMAN: Mutant Chronicles is a picture that is finished, but yet not finished. Because I guess there are enough problems with it. We're actually going to take it to Comic-Con and have a fan screening to sort of find out what is right and wrong with it. There's a huge amount of great work in it, particularly on the part of Simon Hunter, the director. And Thomas Jane and John

PAUL FISCHER:Malkovitch and I are incredibly proud of the picture, and we're going to do everything we can to help get it out to the marketplace.

PAUL FISCHER:Will you be at Comic-Con?

RON PERLMAN: We're going to be at Comic-Con with a screening. It's either a 10 o'clock at night screening or a midnight screening. It's just coming together as we speak.

PAUL FISCHER:What day?

RON PERLMAN: On the 26th of July, Saturday night. They've got a venue and stuff.

PAUL FISCHER:How do Uwe Boll and Guillermo del Toro compare as directors?

RON PERLMAN: Well, they're both foreigners. That's where the similarity ends. Uwe Boll is kind of like a P.T. Barnum, you know? He's a guy who makes the show possible, in a very good way. And he loves movies, but he hasn't devoted his life to filmmaking as Guillermo has. And anything more I would say would be unfair to both people. You can't name those two people in the same sentence. Even though you just did.

PAUL FISCHER:Having worked with Uwe Boll, what do you think of his reputation?

RON PERLMAN: I'm not going to comment on Uwe. I never saw the film. Let's say that. I never saw Dungeon Siege. I hear it's got problems. I like the guy a lot. I like the guy a lot and I'm not going to say anything negative about him, ever. Because he's a really good-hearted guy. And that's all I have to say.

PAUL FISCHER:Any chance of bringing Outlander to Comic-Con?

RON PERLMAN: I don't know what's going on with Outlander. Outlander was supposed to come out last March, and I don't know why it didn't. I can't get any kind of answer as to what the status of it is.

PAUL FISCHER:When you signed on for Hellboy 2, did you have any idea there was going to be singing?

RON PERLMAN: No. I'm very happy...You know, what a bonus.

PAUL FISCHER: Has Barry Manilow seen the movie yet?

RON PERLMAN: I don't know.

PAUL FISCHER: How about working with Doug Jones? Did the use of his actual voice change your interaction with Abe Sapien?

RON PERLMAN: It didn't change my performance in any way, shape, or form. I thought it was phenomenal that we finally got a chance to bask in the greatness of Doug Jones. Times three, by the way, because he's also the Chamberlain and the Angel of Death. And it's his voice in all three instances--I think maybe not in the case of the Chamberlain, but it's certainly his voice in Abe, and it's certainly his voice in the Angel of Death, for sure. He's a major talent who's finally getting the attention that he so richly deserves.

Selma Blair walks in to our interview with a half smile, short-cropped Audrey Hepburn-style hairdo, as she busily promotes Hellboy II, in which she once again reprises her fiery role Liz Sherman in the comic book sequel. For Selma, it was important to develop her relationship with the Red heroic Hellboy II of director Guillermo del Toro’s proposed trilogy. “I knew that when we left Hellboy I, Liz obviously had taken some control of her power. I mean after all, she saved the day at the end of Hellboy I, and did embrace Red at the end of that movie, so there was only one way to go, which was to move forward and leave her sad sack of a life behind her, and become a more functioning, stable woman,” Blair explains in a Beverly Hills hotel conference room. “So it was interesting to go and move forward with Liz, and play her differently and I kept wanting to play her as the Liz I knew. It was difficult for me to play her as a more stable girl, because the Liz I thought I knew was really so much more hesitant and afraid. But it was great to play her as a more engaged woman in life.”

Throughout the film, Blair confronts an array of mythical creatures, but was gratified when she realised she would be working less with CGI than in most fantasy films of this type. “The thing about Guillermo that’s so wonderful, is, these are real monsters that were created. I mean, they were puppets that were there, everything in the troll market was really there, so you don’t have to deal with very much CGI. I mean, just the Golden Army was the main CGI thing, so that was the only thing that wasn’t really there. And thank God, because once you create the Golden Army, you’re doomed,” she adds laughingly. As for a Hellboy III, “Guillermo will be very busy with The Hobbit, but Hellboy II does set up Hellboy III as a very, very sad piece of material.”

The 36-year old actress says that it’s challenging to find the kind of work that interests you, especially having worked for the likes of Guillermo del Toro. “Guillermo spoils you so much, so everything’s going to seem pretty mundane after you walk off a Guillermo Del Toro set. I mean how do you then go to, like, sitting in a living room, reciting regular lines, after you’ve been on the set of The Golden Army, or walking through Bethmora, or something.”
But her next project is different: the US TV series remake of the hit Australian satiric sitcom, Kath and Kim, which she says will have marked differences from its Aussie counterpart. “We’re actually adapting it to a US version. I play Kim the daughter and Molly Shannon plays the mother and no, it doesn’t have to make sense mathematically. In the original version, Gina and Jane are the same age. It’s like a satire, they’re comedians and it doesn’t have to be accurate.” As with the original Kim, “I play this very self-absorbed daughter who is obsessed with tabloids and celebrities, and it takes place in Florida. I’m married to a great actor, Mikey Day who works at the Best Buy. I think I’m a trophy wife. I still wear my clothes from when I was 13, I think I’m a really big deal which I’m not. Everything’s too tight on me, I think I’m gorgeous and I’m not, so it’s similar to the Australian one, but definitely just middle class America.”

Though Blair just shot the pilot, she describes the tone of the new Kath and Kim as “like almost documentary style and kind of shot like The Office, or Arrested Development. But it’s funny and strange and I think it’ll take a couple episodes for people to catch on to the tone. I don’t know if you’re going to get it the first episode, because it’s a little dry and a little weird.” And she insists it’s as satiric as the Australian original. “It’s like the Australian one. It’s not sitcom-y which is why I think it might take a minute for people to get it and it’s not so in your face, but there’s a lot of love. The mother and daughter really love each other, they’re really close, but my character’s a bit demented, I have to say, not to mention very whiny very loud and based on two people that I know very well.”

Blair says she was looking for a different direction in her career. “I was in Budapest shooting Hellboy II, and I kind of thought, ‘You know, I think I’ve had it with locations for a while.’ It was pretty lonely being away, even though I loved everyone on the movie so much, but it’s like, ‘God. I’d like to kind of lay some roots down in one place for a while.’ I’ve been travelling so much, I feel like such a gypsy, and kind of just wanted to get settled, so I was kind of looking for a TV show.” And she says that she is comfortable doing comedy. “I really love comedy, though ironically I’m not very good with sitcoms, because I get really nervous in front of big crowds, I’m always a bit uncensored, and I say the wrong things too often. I’m just going to get in trouble on a sitcom. Things are going to end very badly, so it’s best I just don’t put myself out there every week in that way, which means this, was perfect. I had heard about it, and I really fought for it. I really had wanted to do it, they didn’t want me for it and no one thought I was right for it.” The actress recalls that the show’s producers “had a different idea of what Kim was going to be. I don’t know exactly, but I just don’t think I was anyone’s idea of it, so I just really fought for it. I thought it was amazing writing and I think Ben Silverman picks amazing projects that he adapts. There are so few roles that are amazing women character-driven pieces that I just wanted to grab that one. This was kind of the first time that I really went after something, because I just don’t usually have that kind of drive,” the actress says, laughingly. “But it paid off. I was really happy to get it, I kind of made myself a little sloppier, because it was important that Kim thinks that she’s such a big deal and has the confidence, but she’s not, really.”

Blair even put on weight to land the role. “I don’t want to make this such a weight issue thing, but it was an issue that a lot of people had. ‘Oh, God, Selma can’t play this, because she’s a skinny Hollywood girl, and it’s so important that Kim doesn’t have those qualities, because middle America’s not like that.’ So, we just played it a little more middle of the road, but now I’m back at the gym, and the weight’s not coming off,” she says amidst peels of laughter.