"ENCOUNTER WITH JEFFREY COMBS"
Portrait of Herbert West, the re-animator
Maybe Jeffrey Combs only has two movies to his credit, but this doesn't keep him away from being already one of the big heros of horror cinema. It was him who proclaimed that "death is only the beginning!" in his part as mad scientist in "Re-Animator". In "From Beyond" he prooves that he's quite capable to impersonate the most different characters: there is no doubt that poor little Crawford Tillinghast will go down in history of horror cinema as one of its most pathetic characters.
Jeffrey Combs himself already went down in history. Well. Almost. Within only a couple of years, the Californian actor has done it all: theatre, TV, movies (small parts), more movies (big parts that gained him international success), and we can say that he won't disappear too soon, but put on Herbert West's white jacket again in Bride of Re-Animator. You bet!
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You know that I come from the theatre, and there are many theatres in California, but people are not aware of this. The responsible for the casting of Re-Animator saw me in a piece, quite simple, and that's how he came along and asked me to meet the authors of the movie. Well, I got to meet Stuart, who remembered me, and trusted to give me the part.
After the phenomenal success of Re-Animator, the public tends to identify you with Herbert West and forgot about Jeffrey Combs. Do you have problems with this?
It's one of the characteristics of my personality that I got more than one string on my bow! It's not always easy to find work, and I know that one should ask himself this question, but ... it might be better if people would see me in a different light, if they'd say: "the actor who plays Herbert West is really good" instead of "Herbert West is really good", but that's where the difference stops. I can do other things, and I count on this movie to proove this.
Is it because of your previous work with Stuart Gordon that you got the part in From Beyond?
Exactly. This shows that Stuart knows I can do more than Herbert West. I read the script and asked myself how I could bring myself into the story, what nuances, what impulses I could give. I think Crawford Tillinghast is a very straightforward person ....
At the end of the film, your face is almost completely covered in make up and prosthetics. Is it very difficult to give live to a face that's not your own?
It's true that this can be a problem. You can't rely on the impression that you leave.
People are not aware of this, but they are not able to watch this deformity without judging the person behind it. They can't see further than the outside. This is very, very hard.
Is the make-up help for you, does it support your acting?
Yes, it sure does. There are times you don't really have much more to do as the way you look like says all there is to say! The work gets simplified. It's like on stage: you act the way you look like to convince you really are like that. This really helped me a lot with Herbert West, his costume: the black suit, the black glasss, the black tie. This helped me a lot to set the frame. So I only had to transfer this personality to the inside. A massiv make-up like the one in From Beyond basically works the same way.
The character I impersonate realizes that he has to destroy the monster from the inside. This is a very important step in the development of his character, who's the victim all through the movie. At the end, he becomes a hero. I believe that the audience will find the tone of the movie very much different from the one of Re-Animator. The viewer becomes a complice, just like in Re-Animator, takes part in ... a tragedy, maybe. It's a gothic movie, very tragic.
Jeffrey Combs
It's all the same but still completely different. On stage, an actor has more control over the things that happen. When the lights go on, it's up to you, you can change your way of playing according to this specific evening. In cinema, you're no longer master of your play. You can't react in the same way. On the other hand, it's like an open door: you can do things in movies you could never to on stage. These are two completely different experiences, but both are part of being an actor. It's like painting, to explain on another artistic domain: there are some who do aquarelles and there are some who prefer painting in oil. These are two completely different technics. As for myself, I like painting aquarelles in oil. I love theatre and I love cinema. But I could never do without the theatre.
Who knows? We'll see ... at the moment things look better for a Re-Animator sequel than for anything else ...
Arent't you afraid that the audience who saw From Beyond could think that it was of the same blood and be disappointed?
Even if they expected to find the same black humour like in Re-Animator, I don't think they will be disappointed. This does not mean that the movie completely lacks humor, but I think that it frightens in the first place. It's a less bloody, but more exciting movie. Talking about a different experience ...