Heidi Hawthorne/Valak
Blumhouse/New Line Cinema
Phil Archbold
Even if you're not a fan of the horror genre, chances are you've heard of Freddy Krueger, but would you recognize actor Robert Englund if you passed him in the street? Englund played the iconic villain for the first time in 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street and went on to reprise the role a whopping seven times, making his final bow as the scarred serial killer in 2003's Freddy vs. Jason. Englund might be a legend in horror circles, but he isn't anywhere near as famous as the Krueger character. It's a problem that the actors behind many horror movie villains have to live with — you give your all to a role, and yet nobody ever sees your face.
Whether the evildoer is some kind of creature/demon/alien, or simply an utterly deplorable human being doing terrible things, the audience is often not supposed to view these characters as people. Elaborate costumes and makeup certainly help us with that, though we still can't help but wonder what's going on underneath all that latex and face paint. What do the actors behind these horrific characters actually look like?
Englund isn't a bad looking guy (He's certainly a lot easier on the eye than old Freddy), but there's a handful of horror movie actors that really don't look like they should be playing the villain. See for yourself.
Sofia Boutella (The Mummy)
Sofia Boutella, The Mummy
Getty Images/Universal
It was supposed to kick-start an all new cinematic universe, but The Mummy unraveled pretty quickly. It got off on the right foot when Sofia Boutella's Princess Ahmanet was introduced, but in the end, this reboot simply wasn't as fun as the 1999 movie of the same name. According to SyFy, the reboot "did Sofia Boutella dirty" by minimizing her character in favor of Tom Cruise. "…It may be called The Mummy, but one of cinema's rising stars never gets her moment to shine in the title role."
The negative reviews and poor domestic box office numbers posted by The Mummy left the future of the Dark Universe in doubt, but for all the bad press, Boutella's dedication to the project was never in doubt. The Algerian actress (who toured with Madonna and Rihanna as a backup dancer before she landed her breakout role) was a huge fan of Universal's Classic Monster movies growing up, as she explained to the Independent. "It's not just a monster walking around," she said. "If you look at the original ones, they're interesting, profound metaphors."
Bill Skarsgård (IT)
Bill Skarsgård, IT
Hiring an actor who moonlights as a model only to cover him in makeup might seem pointless, but Bill Skarsgård wasn't cast as Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the 2017 adaptation of Stephen King's IT because of his good looks. The Swedish actor brought a whole new level of intensity to the character, setting his Pennywise apart from the earlier Tim Curry TV version. Getting into the right mindset for the role was difficult for Skarsgård, and he found it even harder to shake it off after the film wrapped.
"I was home, done with the movie, and I started having very strange and vivid Pennywise dreams," Skarsgård told Entertainment Weekly. "Every night, he came and visited. It was in the shape of either me dealing with him, sort of Pennywise as a separate entity of me, and then also me as Pennywise in circumstances that I didn't appreciate."
It wasn't just Skarsgård himself who got spooked — some of the child actors he worked with were "traumatized" too. "Some of them were really intrigued, but some couldn't look at me, and some were shaking — this one kid started crying," he told Interview. The actor admitted that the moment director Andy Muschietti yelled "Action," he went straight into character, tears or no tears. "So some of these kids got terrified and started to cry in the middle of the take, and then I realized, 'Holy s***, what am I doing? What is this? This is horrible.'"
Ken Kirzinger (Freddy vs. Jason)
Ken Kirzinger as Jason Vorhees in Freddy vs. Jason
Getty Images/New Line Cinema
Man mountain Ken Kirzinger once played college football for the University of British Columbia, but he decided to get into stunt work after suffering a bad knee injury. Speaking to Indie Mac User during the blog's horror month, Kirzinger revealed he secretly hoped his stunt work would lead to him being discovered, but he had no idea his "very modest" involvement in the Friday the 13th franchise would cause such a ruckus.
"My favourite role has probably been playing Jason [Voorhees]," Kirzinger said. "Little did I know what an iconic character I was lucky enough to get." He donned the famous mask for the first time in 1989's Jason Takes Manhattan as a stunt double and later appeared as one of Jason's victims. Kirzinger banked his stuntman checks and forgot all about the character until he was offered the chance to play him for real.
"When I was asked to play Jason in Freddy vs. Jason, I didn't know it was such a big deal," he said. "Since Freddy vs. Jason became arguably the most successful of the Jason instalments, I have been humbled by the attention I have gotten, and very appreciative." The nature of this particular Jason Voorhees movie meant that Kirzinger even got the chance to act heroic for a moment, decapitating Robert Englund's Freddy Krueger in the closing moments.
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