Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - DAMIEN LEONE: Creating TERRIFIER, Intensity with Art the Killer-Clown & the Power of Horror

Episode Date: April 29, 2025

Damien Leone (Terrifier) joins us this week to share everything about the intense horror and word of mouth rise behind the Terrifier franchise. Damien talks about his origins in filmmaking, how he learned about the power of horror in being able to scare adults, and how his passion for effect and storytelling helped him create an iconic horror villain. We also talk about research that one into some of the most brutal scenes throughout the Terrifier series, the self admittedly, underwhelming, inception of Art the Clown, and how idle hands lead to his panic attacks. Thank you to our sponsors: 🍓 Strawberry: https://strawberry.me/inside 👕 Quince: https://quince.com/inside 🛍️ Shopify: https://shopify.com/inside ❤️ This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://betterhelp.com/inside and get on your way to being your best self __________________________________________________ 💖 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/insideofyou 👕 Inside Of You Merch: https://store.insideofyoupodcast.com/ __________________________________________________ Watch or listen to more episodes! 📺 https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/show __________________________________________________ Follow us online! 📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/insideofyoupodcast/ 🤣 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@insideofyou_podcast 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/insideofyoupodcast/ 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/insideofyoupod 🌐 Website: https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. I have a Zit right here, Ryan. Thanks for pointing it out. Yeah. Bring the microphone towards you. Jeez. You're seeing behind the scenes now. Hey, I hope you guys had a great week.

And I don't know. Did you do anything fun this week? Maybe it's just Tuesday you're listening to this. Maybe the week has just begun. You're like, I'm tired. Just keep talking about your guest. If you're here for Damien Leone and you're a horror fan, I am big horror fan.

If you like this podcast, all I ask is please subscribe and, you know, that would really be appreciative. You know what I mean? I know what I mean. Yeah, I think it's appreciated. It would be appreciated. Yeah. Is the right term.

But yeah, and if you want to join Patreon, if you want to support this little show that could, please go to Patreon. Patreon.com slash inside is inside of you. Patron.com slash inside of you. Patron.com slash inside of you. Of you. Patreon.com slash inside of you. I don't know what to show them on anymore.

No, but patron is a really great way to meet people and with a lot of the common thoughts. People talk about mental health. People talking a lot of friends have, friendships have started through Patreon, which is really cool to see. And there's different tiers. There's the grand tier. Oh, no. There's how deep is your love tier? And then there's a top tier and a medium tier and a lower tier.

But you can gifts for me, there's zooms, there's this and that. But more importantly, you're helping the show. Picture it as a streamer. So get back if you like the show. Patreon.com slash inside of you. Also, guys, if you want some cool merch like a signed pilot episode of Smallville, Lexmas script, a shipkey, Tumblr's, Lex Luthor Funko's lunchbox is signed by me and Tom. It's all on the inside of you online store.

and so grab some merch grab some sweet merch is also autographed pictures for me so you know it's me you're getting them for me it's legit and uh you know damien leone is here i've been trying to get him on a while uh director of all the terrifiers i'm going to call it the saga the terrifier saga um he just you know this guy is so cool and so nice and so open but what he did was pretty astonishing to get something that gets so much attention to make a movie to write edit direct come up with this character and for it to become a franchise is such a rare thing in this world and uh he did it and it's brave and it's boy is he driven and he just sent me a big package of all the terrifier stuff and i really thank him and you're going to really enjoy this one um the talented and

Wonderful. Let's get inside of him. Damien Leone. It's my point of view. You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum was not recorded in front of a live studio audience. I know you're looking around. It's like you love this stuff. I do, man.

I do. You have a lot of my favorite films. What is your favorite films? What are your favorite films? Too many and I get in trouble all the time for saying my favorite, my favorite. Why? I have so many. And instead of people like, you have to say one of your favorites.

Yeah, if you had like, if you were in your house for a month and you only had one movie to watch. It is easy. I know the answer to that. And I've come to the conclusion that finally, Jaws is my favorite film of all time. Really? Jaws is, I mean, come on. How do you? It's a perfect film. And I've been watching it. So it also has the nostalgia connection to me because it's one of the first films I ever saw watching it to some three years old. You're serious? Beautiful. So Jaws. Jaws is honestly one of my favorites. I mean, I always, what's the scene you think of most when you think of Jaws?

Quint being eaten. Oh. Oh my gosh. His mouth and the blood coming out. His screams always got to me as a kid. And he could have made whatever that sharp. I like, I'll always. always defend the shark no matter what. I still think it looks incredible. Incredible. It's just an incredible design. It looks like this just amazing beast, right? Um, but no matter what that looked like, his performance would have made that scene work. It's so real, so believable. You believe the terror and the horror of what's happening. December 11th, 1943 cheese. It's so good. 1,500 men in the water that day. What do you say? When a shark bites his eyes roll over. Shucks got black eyes

Like a doll's eyes That terrible high-pitched screaming The ocean turns red Were you doing this Since you were a kid Since I'm a kid Since I was that kid Yep I was that kid

Preschool When the kids were playing Ghostbusters I was Jason I remember scaring the shit out of some kid This was preschool I don't know how old you are I'm preschool 5 years old

What are you 30s? I'm 41 just turned 41 Yeah I still got you by 11 years yeah you look great yeah well not that you know with the mustache you know um wow so because i always think like horror movie directors guys that like like gore and like the blood and like the you probably hate mom um you know do you like the real stuff like i do hate it hate it see that's people think i'm lying when i when i say no i love crime stuff i love crime dramas and all that

stuff, but I don't like seeing real death. So what is it? Why do we like the gore and the, as long as it's not real? What is that? I think that's the sort of the gateway, because violence is so profound. It's everywhere. It could hit you at any moment. We're so vulnerable, and I don't think we realize on a daily basis just how vulnerable we are. Right. And for me, anyway, and that's the way I always kind of dealt with it. It's kind of, you know, tackling your, your fears, your greatest primal fears. Yeah. Yeah, I always felt that sort of there was a power when I was a kid, because like I said, watching these movies at a very young age, four or five years old, and I'd see adults getting really scared and freaked out and they can't. I'm like,

hmm, I'm like, but I could watch it. And it gave me sort of like a power. I'm like, why am I able to conquer this when they can't? And I always explored that as a kid. I started getting more into every aspect of it, especially creatures and mom. Like why I gravitated toward fantastic creatures. Then it just got to a point where watching the movies wasn't enough. Now I had to be the one making them. I had to be the one scaring people now. But the thing is, I think you say four or five years old, what parent is allowing their

kids to watch? Because my mother at eight years old used to say, oh, I rented these horror movies. Everyone's too scared to watch them. You're going to watch them with me. And it was like motel hell and make them die slowly as an eight-year-old. I'm like, all right, make them die slowly. was one of the ones I watched. That was actually one of the ones

that my mother had a problem with me watching. Because it seemed too real and raw. Yeah, yeah. That was savage. That's next level. So what was it like? Did you have a good upbringing?

Very. Really? Staten Island. Staten Island. A lot of friends. You know, like very typical. A lot of sports playing in the street. A lot of friends.

But I guess I don't know. My mother named me after the omen. I, look, I swear to God, that's one of my questions. Yeah. I go, did your mother name you after the only, Damien? Yeah. Damien. It was. Why would she do that?

So, well, she tells me, I mean, she's been telling me my whole life, right? But when she saw, first of all, she loves movies, all movies, especially action and horror movies. And she saw the omen in the movie theaters. And she said, if I ever have a boy, I'm naming him that. I just love that name. And it was especially from the scene where the nanny hangs herself. And she goes, it's all for you, Damien.

It's all for you, Damien. Yeah. That's when the name just clicked with her. It was that scene in particular. That's crazy. Yeah. Like, that's kind of like when she told her friends are like, oh, okay. No, my grandmother refused to call me Damien.

She was very religious. And she thought it was the name of the devil. And she refused to call me. What she'd call you? She would call me boy. Boy. Got to the point when she'd call me, boy. So, this is such a funny story.

My mother tells her like every holiday. So, yeah, I mean, that was a thing. And priest had to be like, no, my grandma. of his name was Angie. It got to the point where she, like, got the local priest and was like, can you believe what my, what my granddaughter named this child? It's the devil. And he's like, no, no, Angie. There's a, there's a priest, Father Damien of the lepers. And there is a, there is a father Damien. So he like, an exorcist, Father Damien. Yeah, Karis, right? I know. Incredible. You know, that's my friend. I'm buddies with Jason now. Yeah, I know.

He did your movie, which we'll talk about. Yeah. Incredible. I mean, we talk about, we pretty much bonded over Jaws, Wizard of Oz, Godfather, and Exorcist when I first met him. Oh, yeah. I mean, I bet you had tons of questions about his dad who was with a priest and exorcist. Jason Patrick's dad. I did, yeah. And he's, you know, he loves talking about his father. Yeah.

He's obsessed with his performance in that. He kind of looks like his dad a little bit. He does. Yeah. There's, you know. Yeah. Jason's the coolest dude ever. He is.

And he was great in the movie. He was really sweet and subtle. And it gave that kind of calm before the storm. Absolutely. You know what I mean? I think that's what you're probably looking for. It was. It was. And the place that she could think of that she can go back to that kind of calms are. Yeah. And it's been, it's been building too over the course of the franchise about the father and you hear all these awful things. We're talking about. Terrifier three. Yeah. So you hear all these awful things about the father that he was actually abusive and he's kind of like, and then you, when you go back and you

see him finally, you're like, but why, he's such a loving, calm father. He's like the father everybody would want and then uh so you'll see i mean you'll see as we go forward i mean i'm gonna wrap everything up in the uh next installment wait so tariff our four would be the last one yeah and you're sure of that no matter what because they gave you i would never i would never say no matter what so it might come down but you want to move on to other things absolutely we'll get into that yeah but so as a young boy are you getting good grades are you popular at school are you um excelling i wouldn't say popular in school. I would get good grades, but I was the kind of kid who would just study for the test, do well, and then all of that information was out of my head. So unless I was really interested

in the topic. Me too. Yeah, I had no. I had ADD. I still do. But so if I'm I'm, if I'm interested in something, if someone's got my attention, I feel like I'm brilliant. But if I'm not invested or I'm not in it, I'm an idiot. Yeah. I'm ignoring everything. I was going to bomb the test. I remember this teacher, Mrs. Muller, she was a substitute teacher, came in our literature class, and I was not doing well. And she says, we're going to talk about Romeo and Juliet. And I go, oh, shit. And she made Romeo and Juliet so cool and so beautiful. There's these Capulets and there's Montague's, and they're fighting these families.

And she made it just so exciting. And I think that's what storytelling is, movie making. It's like, how do we make this story exciting? How do we get people to be invested? Yeah. You know what I mean? Of course I do. And I agree with you a thousand percent.

And one of my only takeaways from high school was Shakespeare. I was so. Titus and hono. Didn't read that one in high school, but it was. Macbeth. It was Macbeth, which is my favorite. Othello, Romeo and Juliet. I read some other ones, but those were the top that I absolutely loved.

And I was so interested in. Two gentlemen of Verona. Oh, yes, that one. If you could ever play a Shakespearean character, if you haven't yet, but who would be your ultimate? I played this character Ross. He was sort of the messenger gave, given the bad news all the time. Just called the evil, the most miraculous work of this good king. And which play? Macbeth.

And Macbeth. But, you know, if I had to choose a character, I mean, obviously Macbeth is a great character. He's incredible. I think that would be the one. He's incredible. I mean, people say Hamlet all the time, and that's the toughest to tackle. But to just have, McBeth's all in his head. You know, it's just like, it's going, I don't know.

He's a badass, too. And he's a badass. He fights. He's a warrior. Do you know, I've never heard this brought up anywhere. But my favorite iteration of Macbeth film-wise is the Polansky one. I don't know if you've ever seen it. Oh, yeah, we had to watch that.

Oh, my God. It's incredible. And then I remember the same time I saw that. You know why I remember that? because we're forced to watch it and Dr. Combs was our director and we're in this room and he's making everyone watch it and this guy John Jordan is kind of fucking around in the room he's like not paying attention he's like making it and I just saw Combs because he was sitting next to me Dr. Combs staring at him and he was very reserved very quiet teacher and finally John Jordan just got on his nerves and him to himself and only I heard this he said oh fuck you john jordan and i fucking told everybody and he goes he goes what is this you're telling everyone i go well i i told him the situation he goes and you said fuck you jacos well he was a fucking asshole in there did you see how he was acting um but anyway so i that was the

takeaway from polanski's yeah from macbath yeah oh my what were you saying i remember um Scarface is one of my favorite movies of all time. And I remember watching it one day and it clicked. I'm like, this has so many correlations to Macbeth where he overthrows basically the general becomes the king. Doesn't trust anybody. Kills his best friend.

And then his kingdom essentially at the end is overthrown. They come in and he's the last man standing who has to take on the whole army. Yeah. But I've never heard anybody talk about that. But there's so, the correlations, that's so blatant. inside of you is brought to you by quince i love quince ryan i've told you this before i got this awesome sixty dollar cashmere sweater i wear it religiously you can get all sorts of amazing

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Download the Rocket Money app today and tell them you heard about them from my show inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum. Rocket Money. Who's your favorite actor? Oh, man.

Again, here we go, right? I've so many. Do you know who I really love? Nicholson's up there. Nicholson, of course. He's up there. I love Gene Hackman. Love him.

Love him. It's one of the most intent. When he gets angry in a movie, it scares me. Oh, yeah. Because he is, you know, that, I remember what movie was it with Merrill Streep. But he says to her, she's an actress and she's a little drunker on drugs on the set. He goes, you get your shit together and you come back tomorrow or I'm going to fire you. God damn it.

And I'm like, oh, my God. Like he just believe it. I just believed everything. Yeah. That's the thing. When people can tap into the anger and you believe it, there's nothing like that. If someone, you know, because I could tap into it. That's one of my strengths is I could tap into.

And I think I get it because my dad, he had a bit of a temper. Like when he yelled, it scared. Oh, so that's how you kind of channel. Interesting. That's cool. The way he would say things. Yeah. And the, and how direct he was, it was terrifying.

But who's your favorite? But up there, Nicholson. De Niro, Puccino. You got to say, Daniel Day Lewis is just as good as they get. Merrill Streep, for sure. God, she's unbelievable. I mean, that scene in Sophie's Choice is just the most insane thing I've ever seen in my life. And you know who's one of the best actors, is what was his name?

From Batman. Christian Bell? Yes. Oh, my God. That guy is. I mean, I fell in love with him. What an actor, man. What an actor.

I fell in love with him. when American Psycho first came out. You know, it's one movie you haven't seen. Oh, why? Can you believe it? I'm a horror fan I have never seen it. That's all right. I could spend hours telling you,

especially in the past 15 years, I'm so far behind in modern horror. But, yeah, American Psycho is as good as its reputation. It deserves its cult status. So I got to watch it. It's a masterpiece. Yeah. Really?

And every time I watch it, it's better. Yeah. I mean, to me, there's nothing scarier than Nicholson on the staircase when she's Oh, I just watched it two days ago for the thousand times. I think it's got to be my favorite movie of all time because I watch it so much. But my right up there for favorite horror of all time is Texas Jay and Sondasker. You speak in my language, my friend. Talk about the most raw, holy shit, this could happen.

Yes. Kind of thing. I was talking about that during the Super Bowl. We monopolized. I went to watch it with my producer, my lawyer who lives out here and a couple of his buddies. and we talked horror movies the entire Super Bowl and we brought up Texas Chanso Massica and I was just talking about how perfect that movie is

and how it's just because it kind of transcends film where you totally forget you're watching a movie when you're watching that. At some point you're in the movie. You don't believe they're actors. Everything is so gritty. You see the sweat. You can feel the heat.

Yeah. And that it taps into a hysteria in that movie by the end where you just believe everybody's a maniac. This woman's losing her mind. And it's, that was one of the, Again, growing up watching all these movies and watching it from more of a fascinating standpoint, knowing it's fake, but the appeal of the monster and everything, I remember one day watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and it was while he's chasing her, that whole maybe, what is it?

It feels like it's 10 minutes long. Yeah. It might be where he's just relentlessly chasing her and all you hear is that chainsaw and her screaming for like 10 minutes. It doesn't stop. And I remember forgetting I'm watching a movie, and I imagined if, what if that was my sister that was running and it really freaked me out for a second and that was the power of that movie it's there's nothing like it i watch you like once a year probably yeah it just it just feels

like one of those movies where they made a wrong stop and everything just fell apart yeah like if you just meet the wrong people wrong place wrong time that's it yeah and it could happen and it could happen you know i and i noticed that i didn't know i didn't do my research beforehand but like you not only direct and write and produce, but you do all the special effects and makeup? I do. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's up until the third movie. Third movie I didn't. The first time I didn't do it. I mean, these scenes sometimes that I'm watching, sometimes I think this had to take a day or two. You're right. Sometimes they take more. What's the, I'm going to guess what took the longest to shoot? I'm going to guess it. Go for it. Terrifier two in the bedroom scene. You are correct. That probably

It took four days. Yeah, I'd say, I think we started filming it when we weren't prepared with the effects. And I remember shooting the scene. And it was intended to be the big scene in the movie, the big kill set piece. Because we made the first movie was, whatever you want to call it, notorious for that hacksaw scene. So I knew now going in, we have to kind of try and rival that or do something as cool. So there were so many issues making part two. I tried to get a makeup crew to help me, but they bailed out, and then we were all kind of

prepped to start shooting. So we kind of just had to jump in and figure it out as we were going. So when we got to that scene, we just weren't ready for it. And I remember being so disappointed as it's happening. None of the effects are working. And I'm just by the monitor. And I pulled my producer over a couple of other people. Freaking out?

Not freaking out, but just saying, you know, we're going to have to come back and get inserts and figure this out because this is not up to snuff. That scene blew me away, though. Oh, thank you, man. Blew me away. It just was relentless. It didn't stop. And it was like, you went everywhere.

Yeah. Like, I guarantee guys like Tom Savini watched that and go and probably called you up. Well, I got close to Savini now. And Savini's my makeup. And he's in three. He's in three. He's my makeup hero. Every time I'm asked, how did you get into makeup effects?

Love him. The only real, you know, definitive answer is I discovered his VHS tape called scream greats when I was a kid. And it was just 45 minutes of his movies and his work. And I fell in love with monster making at that point. So every time I'm making a movie, I'm paying homage in some way to him or his work. Yeah. When you're writing, do you sort of think, right, right, right, I just want to get to the horror.

I just want to get to the scenes. I mean, at first, like, I just want to get to the bread and butter. Not necessarily because I also don't write in like a linear way. So I'll just throw, if I feel like writing the ending, I'll write the end. Or if I have, yeah, if I have a note, you know, in notes or whatever now I use on my phone, I'll have all the breakdown, all the beats. I want this scene. I want this interaction with Arthur Clown and somebody, this kind of kill scene. And it might not have anything to do with the movie yet, but I know I have to weave it into the story somehow if I'm in love with that set piece.

So there's really, I have, there's no strict rule or formula as to how I write the script, but I bounce all over the place. Do people ever producers say, hey, let's cut down the movie or let's cut down the scene? I think we got it. Come on. Like, I think we let's move on. We got it. And you're like, no, we don't have it. In fact, we got another day of this.

All the time. That's my partner, Phil, who's my favorite person on the planet. But he's seen you like. Well, it's his job to keep me on a leash to some degree because I will ask for 10 days to shoot something when we only have the money to shoot it for three. So at some point, he has to be like, you can't. We have to stop now. But he'll give me as much as he possibly can.

That's he ever said, said, you're killing me. Every day. You're screwing. Oh, every day. You're screwing the day. Actors waiting in there for this next scene. We're not going to get to it. Terrify three, we were on the phone arguing all day long.

It was yelling. Yelling. It was not a fun experience making part three. Just because of so many other factors, external factors. Well, there's a lot of pressure on you. So much more pressure, so much more money. What did they give you for that? I think at the end of the day, it was somewhere around $3 million we had.

to, which was a ton of money. A ton of money for you. For me. Because the first one was... The most we ever had was up to that point was part two, which was around $250,000, $300,000. $300,000. Yeah. First one was $35,000 to $55,000.

We shot the movie, put the movie, he's saying in the can, even though it was all digital, but we shot it for about $35,000 and then put in an extra maybe $15. Did you finance Terrifier, too? Or did you have some investors? Mostly Phil, my producer, and then we crowdfunded. And if we didn't crowdfunded, we would have... ever been able to shoot that movie. Because we were basically assuming we could shoot it the way we shot the first movie. But I wrote this really big epic, you know, sequel to it where it was just

such a jump we didn't realize. And the only reason I tried to crowd fund because of the clown cafe scene. I said, we have this huge scene in the middle of the movie that I know there's no way we can shoot that without additional funds. So I tried to raise 50 grand specifically for that scene. And within a day, we raised two 50 i think or something like that the fans just came in like guns blazed and i didn't realize what we had at that point and didn't realize how big the fan base was how did how did terrifier two get into theaters because i i remember going to see terrifier too in theaters and it's packed and people were going oh my god like how did that movie get into theaters yeah i think i think it was sort of uh stars aligning lightning in a bottle it was sort of around right after covid if i remember correctly it was definitely

certainly during covid yeah so that's when theaters were dying they thought you know no movies were being made no movies were going into the theater so they were getting desperate to um to actually have content and i think that's one of the main reasons they took it where they typically wouldn't and they put it in a fair amount of screens um it was the company iconic and they're just sort of an independent company and it made 15 million dollars 15 million i don't know if it's 15 worldwide or but off a 250 000 but it's certainly 15 yeah yeah that's It's like up there with, you know, not as extreme as like Blair Witch and these paranormal activities, but like to make a $250,000 movie, you make $15 million in theaters. Oh, it's unreal.

We're still pinching ourselves. And to give us a little more credit, at least all those movies that blew up, the classic and independent ones, typically almost all of them, like Blair Witch and paranormal activity, they get picked up by a major studio. And then the studio puts a ton of like maybe $20 million or more. into marketing to push it like it's a big hollywood movie so but we've never had that the first movie we had zero dollars for marketing and then the third movie we had a five hundred thousand dollar marketing budget so it's that's just a testament to our fan base and just word of mouth that's it's an organic movie if you were if terrifier two wasn't as big a success as it was and terrifier three terrifier one hollow z like uh would you still be doing this because you

love it so much no matter what if you're broke as shit would you still be doing it a thousand percent uh my favorite thing to do now because i do a lot of the hard conventions with david yeah and uh you know all these especially young kids not only young i mean everybody who comes up there's so many aspiring filmmakers and they they say you know i've inspired them and how'd you do it and i made them want to make movies and um i my favorite thing to tell them is like dude i was writing the script to terrifier too in a flower van i was delivering flowers that was my primary job for 10 years because it was the only because I knew I didn't want to I didn't want to dive into a career that would lock me up or keep me away from filmmaking so I knew I had to keep you know

I had bills and everything and I'd pay rent so I knew I needed a nine to five job that I could break away from any time I would get a a freelance gig doing makeup effects on a movie or if I was going to go make my own movie but I would always go back to the flower van so I was literally wrote the entire movie of Terrifier 2 when I was delivering flowers almost All the ideas came to me while I was driving that van. That is crazy. Pretty wild, right? So, yeah.

I mean, you pinch yourself. You got to do you, are you able to sort of be on the outside looking in and say, Hey, man, look what you've accomplished. Man. This is, this is enough. This is good. Like, I know you push yourself, but do you ever say, hey, man, you've done a good job. You're, your success.

This is, this is good. You're proud of yourself. I am. Yeah. I'm able to do that for sure. Good. It feels really, it feels really good. and yeah i just want to keep but like it's like you said i would never even if i wasn't making

a living doing it i would never be able to stop these would be you know 10 000 movies if i had to max out credit cards and and make them i would do whatever i could to just it's in your blood and i tell i tell people all the time aspiring filmmakers i said if there's any doubt in your soul as to whether or not this this is for you it's probably not for you like i've never had 100% in always. I've never had a choice. I've never had a choice. It's not about making it. It's not about being a successful filmmaker. It's just something you have to do. It's like breathing. You have to create. I have to get the images out of my head. I have to get my imagination in front of my face. I have a friend Dave Bukert and he lives in the Midwest and we've been friends forever. He really, I mean, I was a big horror movie fan that I walked into his room and it was like this. He had all these horror posters and we just watched horror together. We became really close friends. And he's that guy. He's like in, you know, know just making no money working at like a race track or something or working at a no not what's the dolly part in the with the famous place in Nashville the granal opery he's you know filming at the grandal opery but he's just trying to make horror movies he makes these little horror movies and like he's

it's in his blood it's like that's all he wants to do yeah and it's a beautiful thing and I envy that you know I uh I think that's to have a passion for something and love something so much no matter how low the budget or whatever. Well, don't you have the same thing? No, no. You know, I do, I do, but has it shifted? I think it shifted a little bit because I sort of got tired of, you know, I think because I was doing well and people thought I was good,

that I was doing it more for people and agents and, you know, because making them happy, but also taking my craft very seriously when I was working. But I think I work so hard that it's almost debilitating. It's mentally like I just want to be great. I want to give the director everything. I want to go above and beyond. And that's, you know, instead of laying back a little more. But now I feel like I'm sort of I'm making my own decisions on what I want to do.

So I don't have to work. I don't unless something comes along every once in a while that I'm like really about you. You know, like, you know, if you said, hey, there's a cameo for like, you know, a scene in, in one of your flex, you know, I would consider that, you know, I would, I would crush it for you. But, um, I think I have a passion for a lot of things. I just, I come up with an idea. I'm like, I'm going to write a kid's book. I'm going to come out with a pet product. I'm going to write a series about a serial killer. I'm going to do that. And I don't, I used to be like the, it has to sell. It has to. that means I'm good that means and now it's just like the process I'm really enjoying I'm just beautiful that's beautiful level yeah just enlightenment writing a great pitch writing a great script that I'm proud of yeah and if it gets made awesome if it doesn't it's fine mm-hmm I'm just letting my imagination run wild absolutely it's beautiful and this and this idea that you can

really only do one thing yeah right if you're an actor all you can do is yeah I can't do that yeah If you're a director, you can't do makeup effects. No. It's like, no, it's like, I like, I like the idea. That's another one of the things I loved about Savini growing up was he would, he was an, I have no desire to act. Directed Night of Living Dead 90 version, which is incredible. I love that movie. It's incredible.

It's finally getting it's, uh, it's so good. It got overlooked. Big time. And you know, he, it's coming out. They, um, they're coming out with, uh, an extended cut or, uh, because they made him, they made him shoot for every goer gag. They made him shoot a censored version and a good. and they cut out all the gore. So they dug up the negative and they're putting, you know, high 4K, they're putting in

all the, I can't wait. I can't wait. Let's screen it here and watch it. Oh, 100%. Bombas makes the most comfortable socks, underwear, and t-shirts. Warning, bombas are so absurdly comfortable you may throw out all your other clothes. Sorry, do we legally have to say that? No, this is just how I talk and I really love my bombus. They do feel that good, and they do good, too. One item purchased equals one item donated.

To feel good and do good, go to bombus.com and use code audio for 20% off your first purchase. That's BOMBAS.com and use code audio at checkout. Inside you is brought to you by Rocket Money. If you want to save money, then listen to me because I use this. Ryan uses it. So many people use Rocket Money. It's a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your own. unwanted subscriptions. Crazy, right? How cool is that? Monitorers your spending and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. And you know what's great? It works. It really works, Ryan. Rocket Money will even try to negotiate lowering your bills for you. The app automatically scans your bills to find opportunities to save and then goes to work to get you better deals. They'll even talk to customer service. Thank God. So you don't have to. I don't know how much. times we talk about this but like you know you got it and they helped you in so many ways and with

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don't take any med you don't go see a doctor you don't talk to a therapist no no no I've never talked to a therapist. No, I try and figure it out. Definitely not. I bet it would help you. It might. It's helped me kind of figure things out, like, why I'm thinking this way and feeling this way and what's pushing it, what's causing it.

Interesting, yeah. Absolutely. Maybe, I mean, I don't get them so much anymore. If I feel them coming on, if I feel a panic attack coming on, I can kind of avoid it from So what happens, it happens on set sometimes? It's not typically on set, believe it or not. It's really when I'm just alone, lost in my head, lost in my thoughts. That's when it starts coming on, can you?

Yeah, it's when you're, what are they say, like, idle hands or whatever, it's like, you got, I have to be working. I have to be, my mind has to be occupied. And I think that's, this is the devil's workshop. Yeah, I think, I think that's when you see actors who constantly work, constantly. They'll make like two movies a year. Yeah, I understand it. I think that's why.

I think if they stop, especially when they're really famous. I think if they stop, they'll fall apart. I think, and they know that. They have to keep moving like a shark. Yeah, so it's probably unhealthy. Think about it. They're ignoring all this stuff. The root cause of whatever it is, perhaps, yeah.

But it started for me, I was a heavy pot smoker at one period in my life. And that was the time, when was it? It was kind of like 2004 to 2008. maybe um and and that's when you're getting you know you're getting older and you got to find your your place in life and it's like what are you going to be who are you going to be uh and i of course i wanted to be a filmmaker but you're not uh it wasn't making a living doing it and then you start you're just like smoking so much and you're uh you know your perception of reality you're more dreamer yeah and you and then you and i overanalyze anything everything anyway i mean that's like

that's all i do with with everything i mean as a filmmaker as an artist right you can could kind of like on you can dig deep into stuff right yeah watch movies i used to love smoking to watch movies because then movies would take on a whole new meaning and i could just pull so much more out of them but then that's where they kind of sparked that was like the first panic attack came from paranoia of smoking uh smoking and then once you open that door it's open you know you can't that's the thing once the doctor told me i think you're having a panic attack yeah the fact that he said that triggered more i wish you'd say it's nothing and that's gonna go away right and that's just tell me that popular i mean that's everybody knows that that it's it's it's the the the the the anticipation of

one coming on could set it can set it all and something like you feel like something's wrong with me and and uh this is why am i i'm in my week am i and it's so not true no no it's more about what's causing and cause many things uh not sleeping poor diet lack of exercise uh dwelling on the past dwelling on the future well all these things create this whirlwind of emotion and thoughts well this is a crazy place man this is a crazy reality crazy no just life life it's a well yeah that too this is a crazy existence we kind of mask it with everything but ultimately we have no idea how we got here why we're here and we just try and mask it and go on with life and when you just stop and think about that i mean that's enough to overwhelm you you know yeah

like you can't imagine what's the lowest you've ever been depression wise you ever get pretty low we're like i'm not going to do it i'm not going to make it i'm not going to succeed nobody wants to see my movies how am i going to get this movie made yeah i don't think to a point where i was sort of crippled by crippled or bedridden where i couldn't uh but there's certainly been days where it's lasted and it's it's the worst feeling in the world i've certainly certainly gotten that you just talk to someone or no i just wait till eventually it just you just wait yeah just wait you know it's like nara reeves was sitting where you were sitting and i asked And I just remember Ryan, he goes, well, I just like to be by myself, just quiet, close my eyes.

And I just think about it until I don't think about it anymore. That's it. Everything passes eventually. This two shall pass. Yes, two shall pass, man. Yeah. And I always say, you know, I'm 41. I've been through all this shit before many, many, many, many, many times.

I've been a nervous kid going to school, like my whole life, you know. I used to be so nauseous going to school. I hated going to school. And you get through it. Like, I've been through the worst things. So that's your, no, I was going to say the worst things. I have not been through the worst things imaginable, even close. But I've been through all that.

I've been through harsh anxiety and just terrible things. So that's your advice is you get through it. You'll get through it. It's life. Yeah. It's going to happen. There's a light at the end of the tunnel. We're going to go through a lot of darkness to get to that light.

Yeah. But it's going to happen. I mean, that's a way to do it. Or, you know, take an active approach too. I mean, find something that's going to get you out of that. So what's going to, what's going to keep you from falling into that dark place, right? When I create and my mind's occupied, I'm not going to go into that dark place. I go, I go pretty dark.

Like, even in bed waking up this morning, I had some dark thoughts. Because you knew I was coming. Yeah. That's exactly. Damn. It's all for you. A fucking antichrist is coming here. No, but I remember, I remember just thinking, like, you know, I've always thought, like, I had this death wish.

Like, I wasn't going to make it to a certain point. I didn't think I'd make it through high school. I didn't think I'd make it through this. And now I'm going on, I'm still here. Yeah. So those thoughts aren't real. But, you know, I get some dark thoughts that I just go, okay, let's take a shower. Yeah.

Let's stop thinking about this. Let's move on. Keep thinking about the fact that you are so not alone. You're not even close to being in the minority. That's true. Vast majority. Hey, man. Yeah.

You're not alone is key. Yeah. How did the inception of art, the clown, become a reality? Yeah. I wish it was a cooler. story. I had this amazing dream and he came to me. I know, I should create one. It really was when I was going to make my first short film, I said, why is anybody going to watch this? Why is it going to stick out to anybody? And that's always sort of my mindset with everything that I make even

now. And it was just, okay, I'm a makeup effects artist, right? So I'm going to try and pack this thing out in 10 minutes with creatures and some makeup effects gags and sort of, generic characters that I enjoy, or I creep me out, but now I feel like maybe I could put my own little spin on them or something. And clowns always creep me out. I didn't have a particular fascination with killer clowns. Like they were my favorite trope. Pennywise.

Yeah, but I love Pennywise. There was some other movies that I loved with clowns. Killer clowns from outer space, but they didn't scare me. Right, right. There was a movie called Clown House. You ever see that? A long time of 80s. From the late 80s.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And there's some creepy silent clowns in that. And they were very creepy. But I knew that I could put like a spin on on the clown and make a cool version of one at least. And then it just comes down to the, what's the process now of creating it? All right. You're going to go on the kill a clown route. Now, what does he look like? And why is yours going to stand out more than the, you know, 50 other things is. How long did it take you to create? Very quick. I think I sketched them almost. So you're an artist too. Yeah. You draw. So you, you sketch. You, you, you, you, you, you. You. that look that's why he's his name is art too and i hate telling that story because you're just it was a piece of it was a piece of art i didn't have a name for him and that's literally what i was like i need a placeholder and i just knew i didn't want to call him bozo or something silly like that and then i just said all right and for now he's art the clown and then i just kept referring to him as that and it was there ever other names that you thought of never a second name it's

some so many things like that they just click you feel like they happen for a reason when did you How did you meet David Thornton? Thornton. Yeah, David Thornton. Just an open call audition in Manhattan. How many people did you meet? He was the sixth person, I would say, to come into the room. And you knew?

Instantly. What did he do that was different? I would have, there's a good chance I would have cast him just on his physicality alone when he walked in the room. As soon as I saw him, I said he's just going to look great. I was just looking for a tall, skinny person. with a big smile like a big grin and as soon as he walked in i'm like well there's my guy because the first art the clown david's not the first art the clown right right right first couple of short

films that were then thrown into an anthology was my buddy mike ginelli and uh he just hung out with me when i was getting not an actor at all he just did you a favor did me a favor hung out with me and when i was getting into makeup effects especially i was started to get into um life casting and prosthetics so i molded his face and i would make zombie prosthetics for him and everything and then when i knew I was going to have this killer clown that I wanted to sculpt the prosthetic for. I didn't feel like finding an actor or getting another life mask. So I said, hey, you want to play this clown? I'm like, you don't have to act.

What you got to do is just sit there, smile and like just do some beats. But you could do it. Trust me. I was like, the makeup will take over. But he was, and he was really good. Yeah, great job. He was very creepy, played it very different than David. But you wanted up the ante.

You wanted to make it larger than life. Oh, yes. Well, I didn't want to replace Mike. But we were going to make a terrifier, and I reached out to him. He basically said, I don't think it's in me anymore. I can't go through hours and hours for months or whatever in the makeup chair. Really? Yeah.

Does he regret it? I think he's all right. He's very happy. He's got a family now. Yeah. I mean, it was just never his thing. But I'd like to get him in the movie somehow, at least get him a cameo. Did David know?

Was he even slightly aware of how much he would be tortured in this movie? like how much work it actually was nobody nobody knows nobody knows what these i mean when he's doing this movie when you cast him i mean the guy who's the nicest guy in the world you'd never think he'd be playing art the clown no he's so sweet he's like yeah he's you know i call him uh he's roger rabbit you meet him in real life he's bug's bunny yeah he really is he's a walking cartoon character he couldn't be any different than uh than art the clown uh it's pretty amazing but now that was scary though when i had to replace mike because mike worked Great. For all the flaws in my films, he was working perfectly. Like, that character just works. So I was like, fuck, you know, this could ruin everything, potentially. I don't know what's going to happen when I recast this role. So I said, but now going into, starting from scratch, and now that I could actually cast an actor and I can look for a specific physicality, I want this character to be, I always wanted him to be thinner. Because the way I sculpted the mask was a very gaunt zombie look. Right. So I wanted someone thinner, taller.

and hopefully with some just, you know, more acting experience. And then when David came in the room and I just saw him physically, I said he's going to look great in the prosthetic. I knew that right away. And then he didn't even have sides or anything. I think he knew he was just coming in for a killer clown. He goes, oh, well, what do I do? I don't have any sides. I said, I don't have any dialogue. I said, well, you don't speak. I said, I just need you to decapitate somebody. Act as if you're decapitating somebody and do it very gleefully, like you're having a great time. And then, that's all I told him to do. That's it. And you could see his audition. And he just flipped the switch. And he'd been playing the Grinch for years. And he loves Jim Carrey. I mean, he was just doing all this wonderful theatrical stuff. Stuff in Terrifier, too. And he's in the gift shop with the, you know, goofing. The glat. Yeah. Is that a lot of hymn improvising? Oh, well, the way I seen like that works, yeah, he does improvise a lot. But like that scene in particular is in the script that there's all he's wacky it's kind of my homage to that scene in peewe's big adventure when he goes into the magic shop yeah uh so it was like uh he goes into the shop every time sienna turns around arts at the

wacky sunglasses rack and every time she turns around he's got a different pair of sunglasses on so it's it's it's in the script but it's vague so then i just ordered a whole box of glasses uh from china we just threw them on the rack and then i go all right dave go crazy and he'll take the glasses one at a time and whatever the glasses sort of dictate to him he'll just start riffing on on that it's just unbelievable when he does this without talking yep which is unbelievable he does it all with physicality and you know it's have he's the nicest guy in the world has he ever lost it with you before oh yeah like lost his shit yeah there's times i've wanted to absolutely kill him kill him and he wanted to kill you i'm sure yeah yeah like what was a moment you're like david um

It happened a couple of times on Terrifier 2. Terror Fire 2 is a really tough shoot. Oh, yeah. Yeah, really tough. Because we would shoot for hours. I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't, there was no, like, unions or anything. There was no rules. So it was like a wild west.

16 hour days. 16 hour days. There was one day where I was up for, I think, 22 hours, all right, from like, I just had to go back into the next day of shooting. It was just, yeah, like a zombie. You were just on autopilot. You just have to do it. You don't have a choice is because typically I'm the, I mean, I'm always the first person there.

And David, if he's on set that day, he's, I have to put him in the makeup first before we do anything. So it's three hours sometimes. So he's exhausted. So that's it. I mean, really just gets to the point where people just start losing their tempers and losing their cool. Well, I'm fucking tired of it. Yeah. I can't do it anymore.

Yeah. Let's fucking shoot. You know, and I don't like any tension or any yelling or anything. My whole thing is if I'm not losing my cool because I'm working the hardest, then I'm, I don't want anybody else to lose their cool unless they have a great reason to do it. So he lost this cool, which is understandable if you look at it. Very understand. But like, it made you lose your cool.

Yeah, yeah. You're like, dude. Now, was there a thing? And then we just thought like where, you know, like bitching out each other like brothers, you know. Like, but we never, you know. Well, for Terrifier 3, I'm sure he said, I need to make more money on this. Yeah. I mean, it wasn't even that.

I mean, we get more money. We want to pay people more money. That's it. I make nothing. I can't pay people the way I want to pay. Exactly. The more I make, the more I'm going to try and pay. 100% but it's like it's it's it's it's tough it's like uh but i mean he must make a fortune

at uh he does great he does great at cons yeah so he loves that yeah and i always want to do the right thing but because these are things i learned just being a movie fan and hearing the behind the scenes like with freddie cruer and robert england and like him him fighting to get uh pieces of his merchandise you know merchandise and things like that like i won't even let get to that i'll like it's like i'm going to give you pieces of it you know like i just tell and like straight out because I don't want it to ever come to that is there an art the clown like kind of like that statue or like a like a really cool statue like that they already made like a really there's tons of stuff I think that um like if I wanted to get an art the clown statue there's

I don't know if there's a statue there's definitely like a 12 inch with the clothing have you seen that one no I'll get you that really yeah we'll talk yeah I'll send you a whole goody box of stuff you hear this you have a lot of shit at your house tons man tons tons like you get a piece of the merch? Oh, yeah, of course. So you made sure you did the George Lucas thing. I mean, I own everything. It's just me and my partner. It's your art. It's me and my partner. It's your art. Yeah, it's my art. Yeah. So there's no studio or anything. We only have distributors that come in. So we don't, you know, I mean, we have to split pieces of it with people for sure. But we own the majority of it. Do you date women who like horror? Have you ever dated someone who didn't like horror? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My, I mean, my girlfriend now is

not obsessed with horror. She likes horror. So I'm having the most fun showing her all these movies that she's never seen. So she's, we watched Nosferatu the other day, because I was so far behind. I had, and she had no idea about Norsferatu, and she'd never really seen a real Dracula movie before. Did she get scared? She, she really enjoyed it. She didn't get scared, but she really enjoyed it, but then I was like, okay, now you have to see Bram Stoger's Dracula, because that's, I think that's the best. Of course, of course. I think that an interview with the vampire or the best sort of iteration of the mythical vampire of what it is to be a vampire

Gary Ommon signed it. That's cool. I have closed the oceans of time to find you. It's incredible and I loved it so much. I just watched it in 4K. Oh man. But that yeah she loved Bram Stoker's Dracula. She actually liked it more than Osirot. Than Osirot too. Yeah. But yeah. What was I going to say to you? With Amex Platinum access to exclusive Amex pre-sale tickets can score you a spot track side. So being a fan for life

turns into the trip of a lifetime. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Presale tickets for future events subject to availability and varied by race. Turns and conditions apply. Learn more at amex.ca. slash Yanex. This episode is brought to you by Defender.

With its 626 horsepower twin turbo V8 engine, the Defender Octa is taking on the Dakar rally. The ultimate off-road challenge. Learn more at Land Rover. I had a good question. Was it horror related? Oh, that's exactly right. Do you, like, where do you see yourself after Terrifier? Like, what do you want to make? Um, I want to make continue making a, I have so many original ideas. Um, that's one of the reasons why I'm out here this week, right? So I'm meeting with agents and things like that. Agents. This is what?

my next project. So you know what your next project is? No, I don't. Not yet, but there's a bunch of options, potential projects. So it's a matter of if one of these other projects is ready to happen and that'll take me away from Terrifier 4. I'll do it because there's a couple that are impossible. Now, would you write or would you like direct something that someone else has written? Would you do that? Right now, all of these movies would, uh, potential projects would involve me at least co-writing them. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's really how you shape some of these things. Yeah. If you read something, you're like, no, I'd want to do this. Right. I'd want to do this. I'd want to do this. And a lot of these,

a lot of the studios that I speak to, it's like they're interested in what my take on it would be, not necessarily how I would direct the movie. It's like, what would you do differently with this. Do you like doing that, going in there and pitching like what you would do? Oh, I love it. Yeah. I pinch myself. I can't believe I get to talk to some of these people. Who have you talked to that? Can you even say that somebody you've talked to you like holy crap i'm having a meeting with this person well i've just uh i don't even remember half of their names but big executives oh yeah like presidents presidents of network almost all of them i think the only one i haven't been to has been warner brothers and what do they

say to you all right you're demented i've seen your shit they say that oh yeah what do you want to do next you're sick yeah yeah yeah they're all very cool too it's all been very cool um a lot of them are just curious as to how wise why do i think terrifier hit why do i think terrifier is why do i think terrifiers working because of course they want to try and see if they can replicate it somehow or have I tapped into something that they're not aware of. But if you're like, I was lucky, it never happened again. Yeah. I mean, listen, it's certainly a lightning in a bottle.

Oh, man. It's certainly lightning in a bottle. And I'm not delusional. There's a great, great, great chance that when I die, I'll be known as the creator of art the clown. I have no problem with that whatsoever. If I die, unless something else happens. Oh, yeah, he was Lex Luthor and Smallville.

That's not too bad. Who gives a shit? Incredible. People always think, what is he doing now? What is you, you know, if you do something that catches people's attention. Yeah. And people enjoy universally, that's success. It's wonderful. Why do you have to think I have to outdo that? I have to look for who. Yeah, exactly. Unless you have to do it for yourself. You don't. Unless you just get hung up on what other people keep thinking, which you can. You can't live like that, right? I was sort of, yeah. I mean, we all do it. I've done it. But you can't dwell on that. I was sort of like, I made it. Yeah. I'm done. Hang up the bell checking out man all right this is called shit talking with damien leone this is uh rapid fire from my top tier patrons they get back and um they're awesome patron dot com slash insidey if you want to support the show we need you b where the hell do you come up with these crazy kill scene ideas love it all can't wait for the fourth movie rapid fire i got no you could okay um it depends so sometimes i'll specifically go out to research maybe medieval torture methods and stuff that's things i want not aware of that's how

the hacksaw scene came to be. Part two, I was flipping through a book of Jack the Ripper and not necessarily looking for inspiration. I think it was a book that said, it was a theory that Jack the Ripper may have been a woman. I was like, what's that about? And then they had real crime photos of his victims. And one of them was so horrifying. And it was a woman mutilated on a bed.

And all you saw was skeleton. And I said, I'm going to use this and reverse engineer it. Basically. Wow. Yeah. That's the way to do it. And then the third movie was the chainsaw scene. So I always, I always said to myself, like, the most notorious movie kill scene of all time is Psycho, is the shower scene. So I said, what would I ever do if I was given the opportunity to remake Psycho? I was like, I would show every, because you don't see anything in Psycho. It's brilliant. I mean, you don't see any nudity in your scene either. No. And I didn't want to. And I wanted to be, you know, you hear classy coming from. me but I wanted to be I did yeah I wanted to be classy we made sure that you couldn't even even even if you did see something you would see tape or whatever and I looked so we had to yeah I looked very close so yeah yeah I really we really tried to do that as classy as possible because you know you didn't need that you don't need it I'm not about the that element of the slashers that we grew up with it was just like I kind of miss that stuff like exploiting I know I don't it's not I don't

I don't like exploiting but I I like seeing some boobies every once in a while yeah it's as much as a woman probably likes singing a dong. You know, it's like, if I see boobies, I'm like, boobes. I'm still a kid. I'm like, oh, that's cool. They still have the power. I get to see behind the curtain. This is, they still have the power.

But for some reason, I was watching this movie called Zombevers. Oh, I know the dudes. Wait, wait, the dudes who wrote that, they did our clown cafe, the Kaplan brothers, they're geniuses. They did our clown cafe jingle. That's the song that everybody just keeps humming. And they did the terrify a Christmas song. they're unbelievable they were friends of a friend that's so funny i said that it's not crazy

but you get to see some boobs there um that's cool that you do all this research leanne what's your latest guilty pleasure oh wow that's a good question guilty pleasure i mean older guilty pleasures like i do love um like does the jersey shore count as a guilty pleasure like watching that yeah yeah but i don't call it a guilty pleasure It's just a pleasure. Beast games for me. Oh, I don't know if that is. On episode 10, it's like people trying to compete for $5 million.

And I just, it's just ridiculous. I also like, uh, um, body cam. It's like police officers and their body cams that you get to see all the hell they go through and all the youth. And high speed chases is good. Okay. Well, this isn't a guilty pleasure, but I might as well just say. What I really love doing now to pass the time is watch, uh,

people's first time reactions of classic movies. So this is like, oh, I love that. Oh, my God. That's my favorite thing to do. I'm obsessed with it. I love that. Just to live vicariously again. I watch some woman watch Rocky for the first time.

Oh, man. And she's like crying through the whole movie. Like every beat is working. And I just gave me so much hope. Yeah. Well, today it's like, I just feel like it's such a short attention span that, you know, you always have to keep their attention to keep them in a movie. And like a movie like Rocky is just this like,

slow. Yeah, it's drama. Because you're with him. No explosions. It's all emotions. Lee, G. Do you ever consider the fact that you've created a character now that sits in the name Pantheon as Jason, the same pantheon as Jason, Michael, Chuckie, and Freddie?

Wow. I love hearing that. I really do. It's true. Well. But I also say, because they do throw the word icon around a lot. And I say, all right, talk to me in 20 years. If you're still talking about them, then I'll say.

You're very humble. Very humble. No, I understand that. Yeah. Yeah, because time, test the time, man. It's still, this is still very fresh. This just hit. This just hit. I know he's really cool. As a horror fan, I mean, I knew it when I saw Mike dressed up for the first time on set. Everybody was like, all right, there's something special. You can't put your finger on it. You don't know what it could be, what it might blossom into, but you just feel it. You feel it. So he's definitely really cool. He checks a lot of awesome boxes, and I hope people continue to enjoy the character. I'm going to make, I'm going to make Ryan watch it. Rosh says, tell me about a time you didn't accept no for an answer. Probably on set. Like, no, we're doing this. I could tell you.

Yeah, 100% on set. I think it was for speaking of my producer just trying to pull the plug, Phil and just saying, we can't, we can't. I said, we need extra days for the opening kill scene in Terror Fire 3. And I said, listen, I'll walk away right now. When he walks up the stairs. Yeah, it was for all the effects. It was for when we were getting it to him killing the.

him killing the mother basically oh yeah in the kitchen when she's walking out yeah very involved effects and i was like listen might as well just stop shut down production right now i was like if because we we can't don't get dramatic i did don't get traumatic yeah yeah it was crazy right my poor my poor ad had to just be in the middle of all this nonsense he's just trying to figure out what do you need me here for because no one's listening to me it's kind of the game i don't know what i'm doing here it's kind of a game it's like it's like a power game you and Phil play anyway. We know ultimately I'm probably going to win.

And what about Lauren? Yeah, yeah. Now, I mean, so she's been in two, two of them. Yeah, yeah. She goes through a lot. A lot. Yeah, we really put her through it. Did you make it apparent to her into that, listen,

whatever you're thinking, I'm going to put you through a lot of hell. And you're not going to like it, but it's going to end up being great. No. You didn't even say that? No. No, she was so psyched about it and she read the script and she's a stunt performer. So she couldn't wait to get in and do all the physical stuff anyway. And she wanted to do stunts that I wouldn't even let her do.

I was like, this is just a little like there's a scene where she falls through a floor and it's a big drop. She wanted to do that. She wanted to get thrown through a wall. I think at one point I was like, I don't think we should let you do this. But I mean, she loved it. And then she only had, typically everybody breaks at some point on these films. Everybody breaks. And everybody gets, you know, you're allowed to, you're allowed to break.

At the end when she's in the chair. I think it was when she was, oh, in part three. Yeah. I don't think she broke on part three. Okay. It was part two, though. I think she's really started to, because we're all, you could tell when the enthusiasm just peters out. And you're like, oh, it's like, yeah.

Just put some Bigi's on. Right? Yeah. We do. I think there's videos of them dancing to the electric. slide to something and having fun and I'm the miserable one trying to figure out the next shot otherwise having fun. I'm like, yeah. I think it was just, you know, being in that Valkyrie costume and we were in a, we were in a dilapidated under the basement beneath the

haunted house. Damp, like being in a cave for like 14 hours. And I think she just had to keep getting choked on the floor. I'm done. We got it. Yeah. And it was just one of those things. You didn't get it. Yeah. Gotta do it again. Yeah. And that's, you know, you can't blame you can't no no you just got to let them it's brutal i mean it's brutal it's not fun i mean these movies are you're in real environments it's cold it's gross you're sticky you're covered in blood you you're not sleeping you hope you're doing a good job so you know this shit happens yeah and i i wanted to bring this up before i don't know i felt like it was worth bringing up but movies aren't fun to make i don't know if you have not always they're really not fun to make

people think you're having the time of your life and don't get me wrong i mean because it's something we need to do and we're so passionate and you're happy to be there happy to be there but exactly it's work it is hard work and it's constant pressure yeah constant pressure from there on everybody yeah everybody from director down to first ad down to freaking uh you know i mean everybody even extras background they're on set for hours and hours and hours and you don't want anybody to feel bad no yeah it's just constant tension at all at all you know ends but um yeah you guys When I get, there's always moments of joy scattered throughout, right? You live for those moments where there's a great performance.

You see it happen. You're like, oh, my God, there's that magic. We just caught it. Or it effect works or something like that. But I get my ultimate joy is when, because I also edit these movies. And it's when I'm alone and I edit a scene. And then I'll quickly upload it to my phone from the computer and I'll watch it a hundred times.

And I'll just be like, I just created a little piece of magic. And then he'll say this sucks. willie oh he tells me everything's terrible he always checks me music and stuff it's gonna be better but right now it's very just drab and no he uh he always checks me he always which is great and he's not a horror fan so he has all these he's always coming from like outside the box perspective or something that's good because you can get caught in a bubble and just think everything you're doing is good everything's working and i just be like no this isn't working this isn't as good as what we did in the last one what was the biggest the moment when you got your first big check and

you went oh i've never seen this much money in my life yeah wow i'm used to making having nothing making things for nothing yeah and how did you feel oh wild it's pretty wild yeah probably from like a nice merch check or something yeah yeah yeah and you just said look at can you believe this kid from staten island finally man who was just goofed and watching hall movies with his mom yeah like maybe i don't have to deliver flowers this is delivering flowers yeah fucking idolizing i'm going to say a quote from a movie you name it yeah and he's in 20 25 years yeah but can you trust the bastard return the living good correct all right give me back my hand evil dead too okay um damy why you do this to me damy of course you're not my mother

One of my favorites. It's right there, Linda Blair. This has been an absolute joy. I've been talking about doing this forever, and I'm so glad you came over and did it in person. And I wish you continued success. You deserve it. You work harder than anybody I know, and you're an exceptional guy. And this has been a real treat for me.

Likewise, buddy. This was such a pleasure. I would love to come back anytime. Yeah, you will. If I do a podcast, you'll be my first guest. I'm in. I'm in, man. Amazing, brother.

Thank you so much, man. Thanks, buddy. You can get protein at home or a protein latte at Tim's. No powders, no blenders, no shakers. Starting at 17 grams per medium latte, Tim's new protein lattes, protein without all the work at participating restaurants in Canada. You know, it's cool too. Did I ask him this about he owns all the toys and all the stuff that I think I did?

Maybe I didn't. But I think he does. I think like he came up with this character and like so when they make dolls and stuff, and like little funcos you know he gets a piece of that he did what you know george lucas did which is like i just want this and they're like oh that won't do anything and then that's where he made the billions but uh i hope he did i hope he's uh so he looks like he's just one of those guys who wants to push himself more and more you know just has a lot of motivation loves adversity just you know um but it was a joy to have you here so thanks damien

Uh, right now, it's time to, uh, listen to the top tiers and the how deep is your love tier of, uh, the patron. So if you want to join patron, get your name shouted out, patreon.com slash inside of you. Here are those wonderful names of the people that really make this podcast. What would you say doable? Listenable. Your birthday was nice. Your birthday was nice. Oh yeah. Thank you for coming. Yeah, your dad, your mom. Parents, yeah.

Yeah, they invited me to come. Yeah. To visit camp. Yeah. Glamp. Come to camp. I would do it. It's really nice.

It's weird because they moved there kind of like eight years ago. And it's hard for me to imagine them ever living here where I grew up. Really? Yeah. How far away are they? Flight. The flight's only an hour. But driving's like seven.

Driving's like seven, yeah. But I know all the stops. I've been doing it for a long time. I know exactly where you go every other month. Yeah. I mean, we always like went up, you know, up north. because we've always had family in the area. You know how to camp, don't you?

No. I don't know how to camp camp. See, I don't either. I liked it. I went last year for the first time. I want to do it. I want to... Yeah, just like at a little campsite, like, in the Angeles forest.

I just want to, like, go with people that are experienced first and then do it. Yeah. Like, I want to light a fire. Oh, yeah. I haven't done, like, lighting a fire camp. I've gone to, like, a campground where you, like... Yeah, I want to light a fire, make some food, tell stories, play some guitar. Yeah.

that was fun um yeah uh here we go top tier patrons love you nancy d little lica ukeko bryan h nico p rob l i i i i rob i rabbi somebody correct as they said jason w sophie m rosh c jennifer n stacey l jemal jemal f jennel b mike mike meldon supremo yes 99 more santiago M. Maddie S. Kendrick F. Belinda N. Dave H. Love him. Brad D. Brad D. Brad D. Ray H. Ray Hada. Tabitha. Tabith. T. Tom N. Talia M. Betsy D. Miss you Betsy. And R. Michelle A. Jeremy C. Eugene and Leah and Leah. Mell S. Eric H. Amanda R. Kevin E. Jorell J. Jamm and J. Leanne J. Uh, Luna R. Don't forget Lune are in jules m jules m for crying out loud jessica b caley jarlene a marian louise l romeo the band gen t april randy s claudia claudia rachel d nick w stephen evan stevin stevin deny b716 e n g tracy keith b hether and greather ell ellie k ben b p r c s sultan david david david l jeff g k kareem h b b b b b b b b b b b r b b b b b b b bry I and B. I love senior names here. I try to message you guys every once in a while on patron as well. And yeah, what else? What else is there other than just thank you guys for being so awesome. I couldn't do it without you. I'm Michael Rosenbaum from the Hollywood Hills in California over there.

I'm Ryan Tejas and I've been here the whole time. He's been here the whole time. A little wave of the camera. We loved having you here. Thanks for making this podcast your choice. and be good to yourself. I'll see you next week.