INT: David Naughton

Last Updated on July 28, 2021

The Arrow
interviews David Naughton

There
I was walking the 2001 San Diego Comic Con, kind of feeling a tad bored
with all of the Klingons and The Wolverine poseurs walking around. Suddenly,
at a far table, I spotted actor David Naughton, probably best known for his
portrayal of werewolf boy in “American Werewolf in
London”, which
happens to be my fav wolfman flick. I didn’t know the dude was
going to be there! Of course, I decided to head over and nab an interview with the guy. This is
how it went down:

ARROW: I want to flashback here.
You
started acting in theatre, didn’t you?

DN:
Yes, as a matter of fact I did in New York.
I went to the London Academy Of Music and Dramatic Art and
returned to New York where I started my career. The first job I
got was with the Joseph Bapp’s New York Shakespeare festival,
I did some off Broadway and that’s really where I started.

ARROW: So theatre was your
first love?

DN: Yes. As a student in London,
I had seen so many shows, so many plays and had seen so many
greats of the day. And having performed in high school
productions and college productions I was primarily familiar
with live performances on stage.

ARROW: So how hard was it to make
the transition from stage performance, which is fairly big, to
on-screen, which is more subtle?

DN:
Having gone to drama school where I was
really trained for classical theatre or for modern theatre…it
was different, certainly different. It’s trial by error and
hopefully you work with directors who can modulate your
performance and that’s really the key. You need help when
you’re starting out. On the other hand, some people are very
naturalistic to begin with.

ARROW: “American Werewolf
In London” is the movie that you’re most famous for…

DN:
Yes, I would say so.

ARROW: Do you ever get sick
of it?

DN: Well, it depends, when you come to a convention
like this, I’m primarily here for that. Generally the
feedback’s been good. If it wasn’t so good and I was known
for something bad, it would be harder to live down. It
depends…I generally hear about the same kinds of things; where
people were when they saw it, or how they got really scared.
It’s kind of amusing.

ARROW: How did you feel when you first saw the transformation
sequence on the big screen?

DN:
Well, I realized finally that all
of the hard
work paid off. I was not prepared for the actual process itself;
having to go to the shop and having some molds done. People were
not doing that at the time. In 1981, nobody had experienced this
kind of a makeup before so I was one of the pioneers and there was nothing to prepare me for it. So I had to have
faith that the makeup people, in this case Rick Baker and his
crew, knew what they were doing and of course they did. And it
was quite a payoff to see it all cut together in about a
two-minute transformation. Sitting in a theatre with an
audience, it proved that it really paid off.

ARROW: Were there ever talks
of having you in the sequel?

DN:
I don’t know. There was lots of talk,
lots of different sequences, I don’t know if you’re alluding
to…

ARROW: “American Werewolf in
Paris”. I’m sure it went through so many stage over the years…

DN:
Yes, different stages, different re-writes,
different people involved and I don’t know really know if my name
was ever mentioned. My contention really was that if there was
going to be a sequel, I would have had the same people involved.
The creative people. John Landis who wrote and directed the
first one. The fact that it wasn’t John, that none of the
makeup people came back and none of the actors either, I always
felt that it wasn’t necessarily a sequel so much as a tribute
to the original.

ARROW: Did you like it?

DN:
We had set a pretty high standard is my
feeling…they tried…

ARROW: They tried, they
failed…I’m going to name one of your other movies and tell
me the first thing that comes to mind: “Hot Dog”.

DN:
Skiing, lots of fun, amazing stunts. I was
always grateful to the stuntmen. These people that doubled us
weren’t even stuntmen, they were hot skiers, daredevils who
said “yeah sure!” They never had any experience in film and
fortunately nobody got hurt on that movie.

ARROW: You’ve played in
more horror movies than I thought. “Amityville New
Generation”, “Mirror Mirror 3”, “Body Bags”,
“Sleeping Car” is one I remember
seeing a while back. Actually, I was curious, is “Separate
Ways” a film you did before or after AMWIL?

DN:
Before, really early before.

ARROW: And what was it
about?

DN:
It was about an hour and a
half (we laugh).

ARROW: Would you say that
the horror genre is one of your favorite genres?

DN:
It could be fun, it depends on
who’s involved. I’m not a big slasher film fan. I always go
with the story and character and if those are good and if the
setting is something that’s scary (horror films seem to always
take place at night and the weather’s always bad) then I might
be interested. But I basically look at the characters and the
story and if it happens to be in the genre, than that’s fine.

ARROW: What about “Crack In
The Floor”. That’s one of the more recent ones you did with Gary
Busey.

DN:
I basically did sort of a cameo for a
friend of mine who was involved with that project as co-producer
and director. He asked me to be in it. Occasionally you do these
kinds of things for friends but I haven’t seen it. I think it’s
been listed and that it has distribution.

ARROW: Yeah, it’s out on
tape…

DN:
Oh..

ARROW: I actually have a copy of it at home,
but just haven’t
gotten around to watching it yet. I’m going to go back to one I
have seen. “Sleeping Car” which was kind of an “Elm
Street”-type flick. Did you play the villain in that one at
the same time as the hero or am I confused?

DN:
John Buechler played the villain and he
did the makeup. He played a creature…I forgot what they called
him…

ARROW: Me too…had to do
with a train…

DN:
…the train man or
something. But John
Buechler was involved in creating that creature but no, I’ve
never played a real bad guy in a film.

ARROW: Well, you have this
very kind aura about you. The average nice guy, good guy thing
going on…You think you’ll ever play a psychopath?

DN:
I don’t know about a psychopath. They are
too many around Hollywood for them to pick and choose from so I
don’t know if I’d get a chance to. But the character that I
play in this new film “Flying Virus” that we just shot in
Brazil
is not a particularly good guy. He’s a guy that makes the
wrong decisions but he’s kind of a creepy guy. That was fun to
do.

ARROW: Who directed that?

DN:
It was written and directed by a first
time director named Jeff Hare, who I think has a bright future
ahead of him.

ARROW: Is the distribution
locked?

DN:
I don’t know much more than that we
finished principal photography and that they still have some
more things to do on it, some more post, some CGI which seems to
have become a standard now.

ARROW: What’s your
take on the whole CGI thang?

DN:
It really depends. Talking to some CGI
people, it’s a complicated process. You have to pay for it as opposed to having it done cheaply
because it can really destroy a
film if badly done.

ARROW: For example, the AWIP
transformation sequences are nothing compared to the ones in
AWIL.

DN:
I agree.

ARROW: Sometimes I think
filmmakers are becoming lazy with all that CGI.

DN:
Well, it’s a way to save money. It can be
effective but I think it should be used sparingly.

ARROW: Any other projects in
the works?

DN:
There’s always things in the works but
nothing I’ll discuss until I get the green light, I hate
talking about things and then they’re put on the backburner.
Then you get “what happened to that project you were talking
about”?

ARROW: What about the stage?
Have you been constant on the stage over the years?

DN: I have, I think to do a play a year is
very good if you can afford the time and the energy because it’s
difficult to do, it’s really the actors medium of course, because
you’re really out there and nobody’s yelling cut so, yeah I
have. Musical theatre is something I’m familiar with, I’ve
been doing that. I did an original play last year and am looking
again for another piece.

ARROW: It’s more
satisfying for an actor.

DN:
It’s also harder to do, you have to stay
with it otherwise you never go back to the stage.

ARROW:
My last question: Am I ever going to see a movie written by
David Naughton or directed by David Naughton?

DN:
Well you know, never say never. The
writing aspect of it I kind of doubt; my hats off to all the
screenwriters of the world. It’s a slow process to have something
written and made…it can take years to get something approved or
even to get a treatment done. The directing aspect…who knows?
Certainly I’m interested in it. I’m just looking for another
opportunity to star in another film that’s going to be a big
success sort of like Werewolf.

ARROW: Would your first
directing gig be a horror film?

DN: I don’t know. Again characters are the
key for me, character driven films. Comedies are something I’d
be very interesting in doing. I don’t think I’d be directing a
horror film.

I’ve met many “celebrities” through
this site and I have to say that many
of them act like pretentious jerks holding their heads high
above mine, thinking they’re so special because they’ve played in a
film. David Naughton was not one of them. He came across as a giving, caring and just all-around
sympathetic dude. I really enjoyed
my sit-down with him. David thanks a bundle dude, you were
actually the highlight of The Con for me.