INT: Bill Moseley

Last Updated on July 28, 2021

The Arrow
interviews Bill Moseley

The
man appeared in “Army Of Darkness”, “The First Power”,
“The Blob” (rmk) and
we will see him soon in Rob Zombie’s
“House of a 1000 Corpses” and
“The Convent”. But the part that will always
stay in horror buffs’ hearts is without a doubt the one he played in
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. Chop Top is in the house and he’s still
crazy….

1- What’s your favorite horror
movie?

I gotta say Evil Dead 2. I love Bruce Campbell smashing
himself with

plates, love Sam Raimi’s
direction and the fat lady in the cellar! Horror, humor and the best
camera work in show biz.

2-
How did you get started in the business?

I got into
features in 1984 playing a cab driver in an Alan Rudolph film called “Endangered
species.” I swapped the producer some pictures of real
cattle mutilations for a
speaking part and entry into the Screen Actors Guild. My first principal part was in a female Road Warrior epic
called

“Osa,” starring
Kelly Lynch and shot at a Club Med in Mexico. I played the

nefarious Quilt Face; my best
line was “Shit and Mary!” and I’d be amazed if you
could find it on video. I
think it might have been burned to protect our
national security.

3-
What kind of preparations did you do for Choptop in Chainsaw 2? Was

there
a lot of improv?

Hmmmm,
let’s see, preparing for Choptop. Well, first & foremost,
tried to imitate Ed Neal, the Hitchhiker (and my twin brother) from
Chainsaw 1.
I owe a lot of the character
to Tom Savini’s makeup crew: Sean MacEnroe,

Mitch Devane, John Vulich,
Gabe Bartalos, Gino Crognale, and of course Tom

“King of Splatter” Savini. I mean, after they shaved my head and subjected me to

hours of claustrophobic head and body molds, there wasn’t much of
Bill Moseley left- so it
was easy for Choptop to shine through. And yes, a lot of my Choptop
dialogue was improvised, especially my opening scene with Stretch in the radio station. Lines like
“Lick my plate, you dog dick,” “E-x-i-t, exit,” and the three funny
“good-byes” all popped out of the plate cover. That’s not
to take anything away from the masterful, evil script by Kit Carson
& Tobe Hooper. Without them, Choptop’s just another Texas hippie.

4-
Got any kool Texas 2 set stories you can share?

One hot,
miserable day in Austin we were indoors in a suffocating small little
room shooting the scene where I bash LG’s brains in with my trusty
claw hammer. We must have shot the scene ten different
times, each time with me belching a different set of improvised lines,
Savini just

off camera pumping
red karo syrup out of a little tube just at LG’s hairline, hot,
sticky, LG spitting in the air, me whacking him
with my rubber

hammer.
Well, we were just about spent when Tobe said, okay, let’s do
it one more time. I said, Tobe, am I doing something wrong? Tobe
looked at me, smiled

and said, “Hell, no, I’m
just having fun watching!” That fired me up.

5- I hear you’re playing
in Rob Zombie’s “House of 1000 Corpses” (opens in January). Can you tell
us about your character? Are you done filming? Is it gonna be a gory
flick?

I play
Otis, an evil albino artist who lives with his extended family in a
ramshackle house somewhere in rural America. I got long white hair,
rotten teeth, I’m skinny
as a rail and draw my artistic inspirations from the
victims who just happen by. I’m a lot meaner than Choptop, not
so funny or twitchy.
We’re pretty much done. Will it be gory? Somewhat. Not buckets
of blood, but plenty of mayhem and madness, the backwoods version of
man’s inhumanity to man.

6-
Biggest disappointment of my show biz career?

Not sleeping with
Jamie Lee Curtis when she was bounding around in a leotard with John
Travolta in “Perfect” or starring in that Eddie Murphy film,
“Trading Places.” I interviewed her for Interview Magazine,
then again for Family Weekly Magazine when I was living in New York
city, and I did get a peck on the cheek. but I’m a Scorpio, dammit!

7-
What’s next after 1000 corpses?

Well, I hope
there’s a sequel, maybe 2000 corpses. I like working

with Rob and Universal
Pictures, the Monster Studio (Dracula, Frankenstein,

Mummy, Invisible Man, Wolf
Man, you name it). I’m also in a movie called “The

Convent,”
directed by Mike Mendez, and an Internet film called “The All-American Massacre,” written & directed by Tobe’s
son, Tony Hooper. Right now, I’m trying to sell the Cornbugs CD I did
with guitar god Buckethead. You can only buy it at my website,


Choptopsbbq.com. Tony Hooper’s my webmaster, by the way, and you
should check out
Allamermass.com
to find out about his new film.

8-
What’s easier, a love scene or murder?

Well, I ain’t
done too many love scenes, so I guess the answer for me is

the murders. I do have two
daughters, by the way, Jane, 13, and Marion,

almost 2. So I am partially
human.

9- What’s the weirdest fan
reaction?

Uuhm, once I got a
fan letter who said she loved me, wanted to fatten
me up. I was flattered until I
realized that she was writing to Choptop!

10-
Looking back at Choptop, was there something you would have
done differently?

No, I was
Choptop!

Thanks a bundle
Bill. If you guys love the Top man and want to check out his wacky,
nutty site…just click below and have a good time:

Chop
Top’s BBQ