The Horror Returns - THR Bonus Episode - Texas Frightmare Weekend (2023): Interview With Andrew Robinson

Episode Date: July 3, 2023

As a little bonus this week, we are pleased to bring you a very special interview with actor Andrew Robinson. Not only do we learn that Andrew ad libbed the iconic line "Jesus Wept" in Hellraiser, he also got his big break into acting playing the lunatic killer in Dirty Harry, and of course brought us the the infamous Cardassian tailor/spy Garak in Star Trek Deep Space Nine. We are honored to have had the chance to visit with Andrew! Thanks for listening! The Horror Returns Website: https://thehorrorreturns.com THR YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/@thehorrorreturnspodcast3277 THR Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thehorrorreturns THR Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehorrorreturns/ Join THR Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1056143707851246 THR Twitter: https://twitter.com/horror_returns?s=21&t=XKcrrOBZ7mzjwJY0ZJWrGA THR Instagram: https://instagram.com/thehorrorreturns?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= THR TeePublic: https://www.teepublic.com/user/the-horror-returns SK8ER Nez Podcast Network: https://www.podbean.com/pu/pbblog-p3n57-c4166 E Society Spotify For Podcasters: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/esoc E Society YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCliC6x_a7p3kTV_0LC4S10A Music By: Steve Carleton Of The Geekz  

Victims, for those of you delight and dread, who fantasize about fear, who glorify and go. Welcome. You have found the place where the whole returns. Listeners beware. This podcast contains major plot spoilers. and the foulest of language. Join us in celebrating the old and the new, the best, and the worst in horror.

Greetings listeners, we have a special of Texas Pritmare interview for you. It's Andrew Robinson. You know him from such films as Hellraiser, Child's Play 3, and Dirty Harry, but Lance, of course,

being the trekkie that all our listeners know him to be, you most fondly remember from Deep Space 9 of Garrick. Andrew, thank you so much for the interview. My pleasure. Yeah. So one of the first roles that we remember you in was being the over-the-top killer and Dirty Harry.

How did you land that role? And how was it like to work with Old Quint? Oh, Clint. God, yeah. I mean, it was my first film. and near and dear to my heart, I had a great time, great time doing that film, even though, you know, how can one say they had a great time playing and same psychotic killer, but I did. But you got killed by Dirty Harry?

Yeah, no, exactly, exactly, sure. You know, went down, went down in film history, as well as into a drink. yeah so it was uh you know i was a new york actor um and uh really didn't have much aspiration for you know being in films i mean i you know i i i was thought that might have been a possibility someday and then um a friend of mine uh told me that his father is uh it's this big time film director i didn't i didn't know who his father was uh and he said he's coming the town. He said, you know, he asked me, you know, he's looking for, you know, an actor to play this heavy. I said, oh, that's great. And that's all I heard from it until I got an interview with

Don Siegel, who was my friend, Chris's father. And so Don Siegel said to me, he says, I understand you're the best actor in New York. And I laugh. And I said, wow. Okay. I'll take that, sure. uh... and and i knew nothing about the project knew nothing at all we had a conversation for about fifteen minutes uh... he uh... then he said well that's nice to meet you and i said well if you want to see my work i'm in a i'm in a play downtown and he said uh... i gotta get back to los angeles and so i figured well that's that okay

and then uh... a week or so later uh... in the play that i was doing down at the public theater uh... the stage manager came backstage and You know, Clint Eastwood is in the audience. And he told this to the actors. He had no idea that I was up for this film, which I guess I was, when Clint was coming to this little theater downtown. So, and that's how I got the role.

And then the following week, I got the offer, and I was off to San Francisco. And my life was changed. I imagine. My turn for a question. I've been dying to talk with you, Anne. Of course, we all know Star Trek has always been known for multifasted characters, but there's perhaps no more interesting character of Star Trek Lord than Garrick. We never really knew if you're just a humble tailor or still very much working with the obsidian order.

You always kept us guessing as to your motivations, intentions, even sexuality. Yeah, that was covered in the documentary that we all watch, things you leave behind. Right. What were your inspiration secrets? Yeah, you know, it's interesting. The inspiration part of your question is there weren't a lot of those kinds of characters. I mean, I think of, you know, God, Richard Woodmark played this character, Tommy Udo, and I forgot what film was. but I remember he was a killer and he had this giggle.

He giggled when, you know, in inappropriate moments. I thought that was a cool thing to do. But, you know, other than that, I mean, they just weren't. And essentially, if you ever looked at the script, very sparsely written, you know, he just doesn't have long monologues about, know, he's violent

to him why he took this shit. So, so it's basically, you know,

I had to make this up. I mean, what was real was the fact that he did

these unspeakable things to people, and that he was completely insane.

So, and that was it. So from there, you know, it was like, you know, making it

out of cold cloth. The things that great difference, though, is that, you know, what's compared to a lot of other shows that I do later, because I was working with a great director. Don Siegel was a master director. And it's not as, and I mean this in the sense that he wasn't giving me the psychological motivation for any, that shit.

I mean, if I were to ask you about a question, like, what my motive? He'd say, well, I hired you, you're the actor, he was shooting. Being my first film, this was incredibly valuable information because it's not like doing theater where you're, you know, you're in front of an audience and talk me about filmmaking. Explain each shot, what you, what the act is, and then beyond that, and that was the joy of like that entire kind of, you know, just, I knew I had to go crazy. I had to somehow dig down and find, you know, you know, my crazy. Do I either go there or you don't? And if you don't go there, if you don't go to that dark, deep, weird place, the audience will hate you because they'll, you know, they'll know that you're fake.

That's right. It's disturbing because I used to disturb what I was doing, you know, doing, doing things like that, you know, the cubs of seven years if you really got to scare. And that's that. But also kind of fun. I love to care. The writers. And it's only because you like that on a station. on a station, you know.

Oh, yeah. I don't think it was one of my favorites, personally. But we'll shift on over to Hellraiser since we are a horror podcast. Oh, yeah. Oh, Deep Space Nine. Right. Yeah, that one in Next Generation are probably my favorite Star Trek things. But that's just because that's when I grew up.

Yeah. But yeah, we'll shift on over to Hellraiser since we're a horror podcast. And you played Larry and later the Reborn Uncle Frank. What was it like working with Clive Barker? Uh, seagull. Mm-hmm. Matter of fact, one of the things I did. Do you have any more stories to share about the Hellraiser experience where they're like

cinnabites walking around in full makeup and did you know it was going to be a classic? Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's a good one. A beautiful line to go out on. I got a third-or-stero, right-factor, I thought was really exceptional. I mean, you know, I'm the opposite one thing, you know, like the social killer or sort of, you know, a hellraiser. But then you think that, Liberace, which was a complete choice of you.

And then, yeah, I mean, it was the end of him with all of these, with the real costume that he wore and the jeweled and the jeweled. And then there was shows that pop up. Like there was a, you know, just an example. It was the Kojacks that I did with the boot board. Well, do you have anything coming up in the near future? Oh, I got you. Yeah, enough to stay busy. The climate, as much of the money as they can.

And the other one is the doctors without work. These doctors strongly heard, you know, if. Good answer. Yeah. Yeah, I got some work stuff happening. I'm not sure I'm quite going to make it on Friday, but we'll see. All right. Yeah, thank you so much for coming on with us.