Interview With Vernon Wells, Star Of ‘Tales From The Other Side’

I love movies that are set on Halloween. I can smell the crisp fall air and pumpkin scented everything. I can hear the crunch of fallen leaves underneath the feet of trick-or-treaters. I can taste apple cider and those tiny little bite size candy bars that taste just a little bit different when wrappers are decorated with ghosts and witches and black cats. That’s one of the things that drew me to the new anthology, Tales from the Other Side.

Synopsis:

Three kids sought out to have the most legendary Halloween night ever. Their Trick-or-Treat adventure brings them to the home of the local town legend, “Scary Mary.” Legends say that she is a woman of pure evil, but one thing is for certain: She knows just the right spooky tales to give these three kids the scare of their lives.

To celebrate the release of the film, I chatted with legendary actor Vernon Wells (The Road Warrior 1982 – our retro review, Weird Science 1985, Kill Giggles 2020 – our review) about his role in the film, why he loves horror, what’s up next, and more!

PopHorror: What intrigued you about Tales from the Other Side, and your segment, “Flicker?”

Vernon Wells: Well first, I knew the people doing it, so I was happy to do it. But it was a little bit different for me. It gave me a chance to do something, to be something, I don’t everyday play. A little bit of a difference to it. I always sort of go for things I’ll have fun doing. 

PopHorror: Makes it worth it if you’re having fun.

Vernon Wells: Yeah, I had a lot of fun. I was just doing voice work on a film I did called Thor: God of Thunder. I play his father. It was quite fun. I was worried about the film, but then I saw part of it when I was looping, and I thought, “Wow! That looks good.” So that’s a whole different character for me, too, because it’s a whole different place. That’s the kind of thing I like now. I like getting into characters that are just fun. The whole thing seemed like it was going to be hysterical or really bad.

PopHorror: Makes it a lot easier to go to work when you’re having fun doing it.

Vernon Wells: Yeah! I like it.

PopHorror: This is not your first foray into the horror genre. What is it that draws you back to it?

Vernon Wells: Well, horror is… You can do things that you can’t do in reality. I always look at it like you can be and do things that you want to be and do that are outside the norm and are outside the parameters of what we think is how we should function. And you get away with it. When I’m doing a film and I’m playing the villain, like a real bad villain in The Road Warrior or something, there’s no parameters to it. I can do anything I like because of the character. Then, if I play a good guy, there’s parameters because good guys do only these things. So, when you get into horror, because of the genre that it is, you can just step outside of those boundaries and everyone goes, “Yeah! Kick his ass!” Whereas normally they go, “Oh, why did he do that?” That kind of thing. So it opens a whole new avenue of doing stuff.

PopHorror: I love that! You have a very impressive resume. I think I saw over 200 credits, which is just mind blowing. What would you say has been your most challenging role?

Vernon Wells: In all of the films I’ve done? Oh, just one? Dammit! (laughs) Being serious, I did a film way, way back, which is on my resume, called Circle Man, about a mentally challenged boxer. And I think that challenged me deeply inside because I had to be a little boy in a man’s body. I had to be this big guy who, if you cornered him and pissed him off, became a brutal animal. But at other times, he was just a little boy. Just getting inside that character was a lot of work to do to make it work. I think that was a big, big challenge. Everything is a challenge; don’t get me wrong. No matter what the role is, it’s a challenge to make it work because the whole point is when people look at it, they’ve got to look past who you are into the character and go, “Wow! That was great. He did that really well.” Whereas you don’t want people going, “Oh, that’s Vernon Wells again playing Vernon Wells.” You don’t want that. You want to avoid that at all costs, so I think the challenge in any film that I do is to find places I can take the character that surprises the audience.

PopHorror: Makes sense. They’re coming to see you transform rather than be who they were just talking to a few minutes ago or whatever.

Vernon Wells: Yes! I know it’s interesting to me if I’m doing a convention and people walk up and they go, “Dude! I’ve watched The Road Warrior, and I’ve watched Commando, and I didn’t realize it was you in both of them!” To me, that’s the greatest thing to tell me. They didn’t have a clue.

PopHorror: That’s a great compliment to you!

Vernon Wells: Yes! That’s what you look for as an actor. That thing that you want is to be able to get into a character deep enough that people don’t see you. They see the character.

PopHorror: I’m glad that you mentioned conventions because I know that you are a fan favorite. When your name is announced, people are going crazy all over social media. How does it feel to you to have people come out and see you based on roles that did you years ago that are still resonating with fans today?

Vernon Wells: I actually think it’s great, mostly to just have people come up to you and talk to you about something you’ve done, and they’ve liked it. They want to discuss it with you, and they’re really excited that you are the one that did it. I think that some of those films, like The Road Warrior, resonate more today because it’s the society that we’re living in now. We are so bloody close to The Road Warrior. Someone sent me a gif the other day that was a photograph of me from Road Warrior and it said, “When petrol gets to ten dollars a gallon, there’ll be mohawks and bare asses from here to the ocean,” sort of thing. Thank you! That’s what I need. But that, to me, is funny that people do that with a character that’s what, 40 years old?

PopHorror: And look! You’re a gif now! That means you made it.

Vernon Wells: I know! That’s better than having an Academy Award. When you become a gif, there’s nothing that can hold you back. You’ve reached the pinnacle. I can just stop now. There’s like nowhere to go. It’s funny. The first time I ever saw one, I was like, “What? What the hell?” It was just like, “Why would people spend their time doing that?” But I love talking to people that have seen what I’ve done. A lot of people surprise me. They’ll come up and they talk to me about films and I have to go, “What?” And they go, “Yeah, King of the Ants. Wonderful film!” And I go, “Dear God, you saw that?” They go, “Loved it!” And I’m like, “Huh.” Well, there’s hope for everything, isn’t there?

PopHorror: That’s so awesome! What’s one piece of advice that you wish someone had given to you when you first started?

Vernon Wells: Quit while you’re ahead. No, I think the one piece of advice I wish someone had given me was that it’s a very long ladder to climb. Be very gentle to people on the way up because when you trip, they’re the ones kicking your ass on the way down.

PopHorror: That is very true.

Vernon Wells: You always have to remember that everything you do comes back to bite you. No matter if you think, “Oh yeah, that’s bullshit.” No, it’s not. Because eventually somewhere, you’ll run into that person or a friend of that person who hates you for it. And suddenly, that blows up. I know I had a big problem because of a manager that I had who was doing things that I didn’t know. Her partner finally left her and rang me and told me what she was doing. She caused so much grief for me and my career. And I was like, “What the fuck?!?” You may feel that what you’ve done, you got away with it, but eventually, there’s someone who knows someone whose mother’s brother’s cousin was the one it was about. And you run into them, and they come up to you in a thing and go, “Hey, asshole!” It had nothing to do with you in reality, but because of who you are, you are the one they blame.

PopHorror: That’s some great advice.

Vernon Wells: It’s fun though. I’m pretty good at talking my way out of it like, “Oh, did I? Was it good?” And they’ll get the joke and they’re like, “You asshole.” But if you take it seriously, as far as I’m concerned, you lose the spirit of what we’re doing. What we’re doing is fantasy, for goodness sake. What we’re doing is giving people an hour and half or two hours to forget their problems. To forget the world’s problems. To sit down and get involved in something that’s total fantasy. And at the end of it, now they’re going to have to get back to reality. So for that time, it’s up to us to make sure that they enjoy that period of time that we give them. When people talk to you, you don’t get serious. You have fun and carry on like an idiot because that’s what they want. They don’t want me to sit down and start talking about world politics. They want me to sit down and be a total dickhead, because that’s what they love. I think it’s on us to make sure that we do what we’re really supposed to do, which is to entertain.

PopHorror: What is up next for you?

Vernon Wells: Which one of the 22 do you want? I’m actually shooting a film called The Green Oak Guardian. There’s a company in Cincinnati who hires me regularly to do films, and they’ve booked me for four films. They can never get me when they want, so in January, they rang Joseph, my manager, and said, “We want him for four films on these dates.” This is the second one, and I’ve got two more to do after that. In it I play—I love this—a film director who’s kind of an ass. Gee whiz, I wonder if I can pull that off? And that will be fun because they always give me really cool roles that are just so far out of my comfort zone, and I have a lot of fun doing them. That’s the next one I’m shooting, but there’s a lot of films coming out. I did The Monster Within, which is turning out to be an amazing horror film where I play a defrocked priest who’s trying to help an ex-student with an exorcism. Even though, as a defrocked priest, I can’t do an exorcism, so I’m basically fighting the devil on my own terms.

PopHorror: That’s intriguing!

Vernon Wells:: Yeah, and it’s apparently turning out to be just an amazing little film. That one, I’m really proud of. I loved doing it. Then there’s one I did, which I think is out now on streaming, called Kill Giggles, which I loved, and was basically about a guy killing clowns. I’m the guy who causes it unknowingly. It’s a very good film, a fun, fun little film. I’ve got a big film that I did about seven months ago—I’ve been in New Mexico—which is coming out, but I’m not allowed to talk about it. There’s one that I did with a Japanese director that’s coming out in August. They’re both bigger films. In this one, I actually play probably the most horrific role I’ve played in a long time. It’s rather interesting. But then there are a lot of small films. I’m one of those people that does small films because I love the material. If I don’t like the material, then I don’t do it, whether it’s a big film or a little film. A lot of smaller films have got some really good scripts, which I have a lot of fun doing. I have as much input as I can to make sure that it turns out to be really good. There’s a little film out at the moment called Bearry. I play one of the cops trying to track down whatever it is that’s trying to murder all these people. It’s so far out there. It’s a very funny movie. I’ve got a lot of stuff coming out. I just keep working.

PopHorror: That’s great! That’s the whole point, right?

Vernon Wells: Yeah, I’m happy. I’ve got a film coming out that I play the doctor in from the company in Cincinnati. It’s a really cool film.

PopHorror: I’ll have to keep an eye out for all of these.

Vernon Wells: I’m fortunate now. Sally Floss is coming out shortly, I believe. That’s a children’s book. Sally Floss is a 14 or 15 year old girl who’s a detective. I play her grandfather. I loved doing it because it’s a kids’ film. And then there’s another kids’ film I did coming out called Geek, which is about a little robot that comes from space to check out Earth before the ship comes down to take over the planet. It gets screwed up on the way down. That one is really good, and it’s coming out. I loved doing that one. That’s the sort of the way my mind goes now with the movies I’m choosing. Things that I can really enjoy because I think I’ve done enough in my career, and now I can have fun. I can get out there and do them and people accept them, which is the wonderful part. It’s stuff that I like doing, and same as the one we were talking about, Flicker, when we first started talking. It’s stuff I want to do.

PopHorror: It drives you. If you love what you’re doing, why do something that you hate?

Vernon Wells: I’ve been lucky. I’ve got to say, it’s actually 300 films that I’ve done. And of all the films I’ve done, there’s probably only six or seven that should be burnt. All the rest of them I’m quite happy with. I think that’s a pretty good average. I’m always the worst critic. I’m always my worst critic. 

PopHorror: I think that’s only natural, to be our own worst critic.

Vernon Wells: When you’re working, of course, that’s the way the character goes. That’s not something you’re doing to be funny. It’s like you’re inside the character and that’s how the character is coming out. You have to sit there for a while and you get it. You make it work. But that’s what I love.

PopHorror: Only one last question for you today. What is your favorite scary movie?

Vernon Wells: What is my favorite scary movie? Gosh, my favorite scary movie. I don’t know if it’s so much a scary movie as it’s a movie that gets in your brain and makes you think. I saw the original Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the original one. And then the other two that went after it. I just loved it. It’s scary, but it’s also something that makes you think. I like it if I have to think about it a little bit. I love that. And there’s a couple of others in my past that I’ve really, really enjoyed. I could go back and say that I really loved the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre. But the one I like the most is the original from back in 72 or 73, the original movie about zombies, The Walking Dead.

Thank you so much, Vernon, for taking the time to speak with us. Be sure to catch Tales from the Other Side on VOD and DVD June 7!