If there’s one actor out there who’s spreading himself out between the realms of film and television, and pulling it all off without a hitch, it’s actor Alan Tudyk. The man is a talented actor that’s been on the scene for years and has appeared in a wide variety of films and TV shows. Yes, this is the part where I mention he was on “Firefly.” Now here he is sharing the big screen with “Reaper” actor Tyler Labine in Eli Craig’s feature directorial debut “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil.”
Tudyk plays Tucker, a hillbilly man who wants nothing more than to crack open a nice cool beer, go fishing and enjoy his brand new vacation home with his best friend Dale (Tyler Labine). Unfortunately they’ll have to put the relaxation part on hold as a group of college kids who’ve seen one too many slasher flicks get the wrong impression of the two. Next thing you know they’re running for their lives away from the band of young idiots who want nothing more than to destroy them for killing their friend Allison (Katrina Bowden) when in fact they’re just making sure she’s all right after she took a nasty spill.
I got the wonderful chance to chat with Alan Tudyk about “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil,” Eli Craig’s slightly questionable but effective directing techniques and a particular film franchise that we both can’t stand.
ShockYa: Eli (Craig) told us that you signed on literally two days before shooting. Was it just completely random how you landed the gig, did your agent call you up and say ‘Hey, we’ve got something for you. You’ve got the free time, do you want to do it?’
Alan Tudyk: Yeah, it was like ‘Read this fast because if you like it then they’re moving really fast.’ I read it and really I think I was there three, four days later. I was in Canada and I was like ‘Okay, let’s do this thing. I’ll start growing my facial hair.’ Yeah, it was fast, it was fast.
ShockYa: Especially working with Tyler (Labine) throughout the film, it’s just surprising that you two didn’t have that much time to spend with each other beforehand because you two just clicked. It looked like you two were buds, like you knew each other for years on end, but that wasn’t the case.
Alan Tudyk: I know, but it worked out really well. Tyler (Labine) is a really generous actor and we were both — especially in comedy, actors will be competing with one another.
ShockYa: Really?
Alan Tudyk: Oh yeah, you know some people are scoring, especially in comedy. It’s my least favorite thing because when somebody starts to score around me I just tend to back off and go ‘Have at it. Score all you want, you with your silly game.’ But Tyler (Labine) and I were just in the mood to make a good movie and to do the best job we could. We couldn’t do that without each other so we just went along together.
ShockYa: During production the gore was amped up and we were told that the producers wanted ‘more blood’ in there. So what was it like working with all of that going around on set? Especially with the wood chipper scene which appears to be everybody’s favorite part.
Alan Tudyk: It was fun, that was one of my favorite scenes to do just because the acting of it was just fun.
ShockYa: And I heard you improved the line once the carnage ensues.
Alan Tudyk: Yeah (Laughs) I had another line too. I said ‘Are you okay?’ and there was some other one. There wasn’t a line after that and I wanted one. I don’t know, we were all very much involved in — I remember reading that scene going ‘I need to say something at the end of that.’ I don’t know if it was on the spot or premeditated but there was a lot of adding. We all were working to make it better and it’s neat to see your own lines in movies.
ShockYa: Was it a particularly fast production?
Alan Tudyk: Oh very. Tyler (Labine) said it was twenty-seven days. That sounds crazy. It was fast, I remember it being very fast. In the beginning we were only doing one take. Tyler and I were like ‘Look Eli, we have to have two. What if the focus is off?’
ShockYa: Was it easy or difficult to work with Eli (Craig) especially since he was a first-timer or was it more like a learning off of each other kind of experience?
Alan Tudyk: I think every movie feels like a brand new experience. There are a lot of technical things that remain the same from movie to movie but each one poses its own challenges and has its own learning curve. It was Eli’s baby and he was there to help us along. He was great but I think the best thing about it was that he was open to suggestions and things like the beer on my face. I’m the one usually suggesting things like that because my character has bee stings all over my face and I take a swig of the drink then pour it all over my face, wouldn’t that be great? I’m used to the director saying ‘No, that’s too much to reset, to get your clothes changed, we’ve got to talk to costumes, we’ve got to talk to makeup. We’ve got to do this, we’ve got to make a plan, there might not be enough beer that day.’ There’s so many people you have to talk to.
ShockYa: May not have any beer that day? Is the beer going that fast on set?
Alan Tudyk: We only had a twelve pack for the whole movie.
ShockYa: Really? It looked like you guys went through more than just that.
Alan Tudyk: We had to put water in the cans and we faked it for awhile. But yeah we only had a twelve pack and there were issues with part of it being Eli’s naivety or the fact that he would just randomly agree to things. Other directors have a little tighter reigns and he let us go. It was fun.
ShockYa: What was it like working with the remainder of the cast? You guys were talking about how it felt like you were filming two separate movies. You guys didn’t have that much interaction with them did you?
Alan Tudyk: No we didn’t. I remember the scene where the college kids rolled up in the cop truck and that day, where we did the scene where we were explaining ourselves about the bloody mess. We were talking to them and were like ‘Hey, how have you guys been doing? We haven’t seen you in awhile!’ They were so cool, they loved the scene and were saying the same thing too, that it was a different movie. We didn’t know what we were shooting when we’re shooting the movie. When we saw them we got a better grasp of what we we’re shooting. And it’s true, there are two halves of the movie.
ShockYa: Was that particularly difficult as well just trying to —
Alan Tudyk: No, not for us. We just had to live in our own world because that’s what our characters are doing until our world encroaches in their own. We’re blindly ignorant to them and are just sort of reacting to ‘What are these college kids doing? They don’t make any sense.’
ShockYa: There were different films that inspired Eli and Morgan (Jurgenson) to create the story just in the horror genre alone, were there any horror movies that you were reminded of while shooting this or what popped into your head?
Alan Tudyk: I think they’re are a lot of them between the homages to “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” of course and the “Evil Dead” cabin. “Wrong Turn” I think is the most literal film that’s turned on its head because it’s a group of kids who are driving through, their car breaks down and hillbillies from the woods kill, eat and rape them. There are so many versions of that movie, so many young actors that have to go into movies, get their first job and get raped by inbred fucking people.
ShockYa: And it’s kind of weird too because we’re remaking a fair portion of seventies and eighties horror with “Straw Dogs” and other movies of that nature. There’s a lot more of those films where they have to deal with rape like with “The Last House on the Left.” It’s kind of disturbing that it’s the new “trend” right now. Then you have “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil” which is like a breath of fresh air because it’s taking the general slasher flick and spinning it on it’s head but not bogging it down with a litter of pop culture references at the same time. There’s films like the “Scary Movie” franchise that drowns you with everything that’s been “in” from the past six months before they started shooting.
Alan Tudyk: Yeah, it makes those movies really disposable and they’re ridiculous. Those movies don’t make me laugh at all.
ShockYa: You are so great right now. I thought I was the only one! (Laughs)
Alan Tudyk: Some people really like them and I think it’s just a certain type of humor that’s for younger people, immature —
ShockYa: But it’s kind of like a crude humor.
Alan Tudyk: There you go, crude, that’s the word. It’s easy, it seems very easy. You know it’s filled with just fart jokes. What if a ghost farted in a room and you go ‘Woo! That stinks!’ That’s the joke, beginning middle and end, what the fuck. That’s just — fuck.
ShockYa: I feel like I’m aggravating you now just bringing it up.
Alan Tudyk: Oh no no no. (Laughs) Nah I’m comfortable and I just watched “Scary Movie 2” the other night. I had no idea how many people were into these films. Some of the actors in there I really like and Anna Faris is amazing, she’s so funny. She’s not just funny, she’s good.
ShockYa: Anyways, we should probably back track into “Tucker and Dale.” (Laughs)
Alan Tudyk: Right, sorry about that.
ShockYa: Don’t worry, I was the one who brought us into that topic. But there’s been a lot of talk about the sequel and Eli (Craig) wants to make it a college campus version of “From Dusk Till Dawn.” What interested me the most about you at the roundtable was that you seemed to name off ten different projects that you’re attached to within the span of this coming year. I was thinking ‘This man… does he sleep?’
Alan Tudyk: I’m… (Laughs) Well I’m doing a lot of voice-overs that attaches me to a lot of things but those — my schedule is pretty crazy when it comes to one thing to another, it’s a little nuts. With voice-over stuff it’s a lot easier because you don’t have to go through too much of a physical transformation and you can go back into the booth. I’m kind of into those types of things, voice-overs. I’m like mechanical so I get to do a lot of characters and can knock them out fast.
ShockYa: Lastly, what is it that you hope that everybody gets out of “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil”?
Alan Tudyk: I just want people to see it. I think it’s really enjoyable, the enjoyable is stupid, I think it’s a blast. We’ve seen it at Sundance, we’ve seen it in a lot of different settings and the theater setting is the best one to see it in.
ShockYa: Well when I saw it the film got a great reaction out of the audience.
Alan Tudyk: Yeah, you can play off of another and if you miss a joke that somebody else gets in a room you’re like ‘Oh wait, I did miss this. Ah!’ and you can pick up on things. I hope that people see it in a theater, I do. I’m glad that it’s out there as a VOD and there’s the DVD that’ll come out and people will have a lot of different options to see it. I hope they see it in theaters.
“Tucker and Dale vs. Evil” is out on VOD and in limited theaters now. Check your local listings to see if it’s playing at a theater near you.