By Gill Pringle
Have you been on a cruise and is this the kind of vacation you take?
I’ve never been on one, it feels awful to me, because I’d be trapped. I’d just be standing at the side, at the edge the whole time like “ohhhhhh, where is the next port of call?”
Who would be your ideal cruise partner?
I would take my wife, my future wife I should say, she’ll be my wife in June. Elisa [Pugliese] makes observations and says something pithy quickly, she’s very very clever. She just makes me laugh. We would people watch, that might be worth it. Jordan [Peele] would do that too.
Who’s your favourite monster?
I’m going to think of six more answers when I’m in the car on my way home… As a child, I was a huge Godzilla fan. There was like a terrasaurus creature from the Godzilla universe named Rodan. I love that his name was Rodan. ‘An enormous artist who was fighting… I’ll sculpt a weapon to kill Godzilla…’ And there was Gamera who was like a turtle. I love those guys, all of them. And then Godzuki which is the little baby Godzilla and Mechagodzilla. I’m a big Godzilla guy as you can tell.
Hotel Transylvania 3 has great diversity in its casting, do you think that’s important for children’s entertainment right now?
I’m going be very subversive right now. The kids are already on their way, it’s the adults… I say that because there’s certain people who live in the United States, who will take their kids to see this movie and then hopefully that message will be bestowed upon them in a way that is palatable, and maybe that will evoke some kind of change. I think it’s extremely important to do it in this genre, it’s a very intriguing delivery system.
You have mostly acted recently, but you have written in the past. Is writing something that you’re looking into again in the future?
And I would like to direct soon. But writing, it’s one of those things where I have now started to raise my hand a little bit. When directors go “We have to make this part a little snappier, you work on that Keegan…” And I go “no, no, where’s my contract? Where’s my writing contract?” It’s become a thing in American cinema, when it’s like “the script’s kind of a B, can you help out?” I’m like, “I’m more than happy to help out if you pay me.” It’s a bit of a disturbing trend.
Here’s the one way I would write for free, if you’re going to direct a movie the way that Sidney Lumet used to direct movies. Sidney Lumet used to rehearse a movie for 3 weeks and then whatever was discovered in that rehearsal, I count that as part of me being an actor. Then I’ll just take the money from my acting contract, but if I show up and you’re asking me to change it or improve it? Then I think there should be some compensation.
We’re coming out of that place a little bit. My hope and my feeling is, that there’s a resurgence of the written word in a screenplay again. I just finished The Predator, with the great Shane Black who wrote Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Long Kiss Goodnight, and all those movies have such lovely dialogue because his favourite movies were based on Dashiel Hammett and Raymond Chandler novels, where you’re allowed to utter poetry in a movie. I think there’s room for something to be elevated and heightened in the cinema.
So, I want you to write a really fantastic script with lovely words in it, but otherwise let me just interpret your work as an actor as opposed to being a co-writer.
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation is in cinemas June 28, 2018
