KELLY HU:
It was my first movie ever, and I was like 18 or 19 years old. I didn't really have any idea that we were going to be in Vancouver for such a prolonged period of time. I literally thought I was going to be there for three days because there was some miscommunication within the agency. It wasn't until I got there that I realized I was going to have to be stuck there for eight weeks. But I really enjoyed the experience. I had just a small role, so I didn't spend a lot of time on set and was able to discover the city of Vancouver. I remember going out with Jensen once to a bar, and we'd all hang out and go to dinners and things. And when you're doing a horror film, everything's shot at night and you become this sort of vampire.
And, oh my God! I don't know what they were thinking with that outfit they made me wear. I was at that age where I don't think I really cared. And I came from a modeling background, so at the time I thought it wasn't my business to care what I look like, it's just my job to get up there and act. It wasn't until many years later that I started to realize that it kind of is my job to judge what I look like. But let me tell you—in that cold weather out there on that rickety old boat I was freezing, so I was glad to be wearing legwarmers under those ugly shorts.
Production design sketch for the Lazarus, one of the two ships the filmmakers of Part VIII would utilize during production.
SCOTT REEVES:
I don't think the styles were very flattering back then. On anybody. The hairstyles! Man, the product endorsements we could have gotten…
I think the only really difficult thing about shooting that movie was the schedule. All day, almost every day of the week—you had to switch your sleeping schedule to be like a vampire. Black out the windows of your hotel room, and try sleeping with the city noise going on all day. And I vaguely remember that there were a lot of the pranks took place at the hotel—Kane Hodder had a little war going on with one of the crew members, so I'd see things flying down past my window from like the 20th floor and not knowing what they were! So So that, and the water scenes and the storm—especially the scene when we were getting off the boat into the rowboat to escape. We were just drenched from head to toe the entire time. And wearing those same wet, heavy, dirty clothes. It was demanding.
SHARLENE MARTIN:
I did most of my scenes with Kelly Hu, and she was fantastic. We were all really young, but she was a little younger than me. She was just super excited and really nice and so supportive. She's gone on to do great and she certainly deserves all her success. I'm not surprised so many of the cast went on and continued. All of the cast were more like a family, and we were all so excited to be making this film. We all thought of it as a big studio picture, and that we were doing a Part VIII of something that had a real tradition, and we all wanted to uphold it.
I remember the day I first met Jensen. When she walked in, I just thought she was beautiful. And a little larger-than-life to me, because she already had some experience and was a great actress. But she was very kind, very sweet and very generous to me. The funny thing with Jensen, though, is that my character is so manipulative and just so mean to her! I would never do that. Today, if I saw her, I'd run up to her and give her a big hug and tell her how sorry I am that my character was so mean to her. What you see on film is not at all what was happening off camera, of course. Quite frankly, I would have loved to play Jensen's character. Because she's a lot more sweet, and I hope I'm more like that. But on the flipside of it, it's nice to play something that is just the opposite of what you are. So it was great. Ultimately I didn't get to shoot opposite Jensen as much as I would have liked. I learned a lot from her, and my experience with Jensen is that I wish I had more of it.
V.C. DUPREE:
The funny thing, prior to Part VIII, I didn't have any knowledge of the horror genre. I didn't even know that I was going to shoot a Friday the 13th until I was at the airport. At first the movie was called "Burial at Sea," and then "Ashes to Ashes." So I was in the little first-class area waiting to board, and Kelly Hu comes up to me and says, "Hey, are you going up to shoot Friday the 13th?" I said, "Am I what!?" That's when I put two and two together—all I knew was that they were going to pay me to go beat up some killer.
I was really impressed with Vancouver. At that time, the whole production craze up there was just beginning. There were a lot of crews already working up there, too, like "21 Jump Street," which was shooting at the time, so it already started to have a Hollywood vibe. They were so welcoming to our crew—every restaurant knew if there was a production from out of town, so we'd usually get our meals comped, or a really big discount.
ROB HEDDEN:
We very specifically changed the title of the movie during shooting because of the fan base. Friday the 13th is a mythic kind of franchise, and people would come out of the woodwork if they knew you were making this movie. We wanted to be very discrete and not telegraph that we were going to have Jason walk through Time Square, because everyone would want to touch him and get an autograph. Or maybe get beaten up by him. So the script was called "Ashes to Ashes," and that's what we used as a working title during production—not that we were ever going to call it anything but Friday the 13th Part VIII. I even have a slate with that title which hangs in my office at home, as my little memorabilia from this movie.
RANDOLPH CHEVELDAVE:
There were so many titles being bandied about, and a few that were even real possible subtitles. For a long time it was "Ashes to Ashes." Then it was called "Burial at Sea," "Terror in Times Square" and even "The Mystery of Sour Gum Lake." I still don't know what that was supposed to mean!
KANE HODDER:
One unique thing about playing Jason in Part VIII was that for every single shot I'm in, they had to lay on slime—I was supposed to look like I had just emerged from Crystal Lake after being waterlogged for however long. But the goop would soak through my costume and I was like a giant slimy sponge. There's this one scene where I'm walking down a steep flight of stairs toward the girl who's playing the guitar. These are tiny steps, and I've got these big-ass boots on—I have big feet—and I have to walk without looking down. So I'm walking down these steps, and I'm holding my hand back to grab the rail but hiding it from the camera. Then when I turned to walk away, I slipped right off the ground, and because of the slime, I hit the deck right on my ass.
Gallery: filming aboard the Lazarus #2.
ROB HEDDEN:
Martin Becker had done the special effects for most of the previous Friday the 13ths. And it was Marty who brought in various Jason masks when we began our film. He'd say, "We used this mask in this Friday, that mask in that Friday." There were all these variations. Ultimately I left it to Marty to decide which mask we should use in the film. And Kane, too, who's worn it a few times, said, "This is the mask." So who the hell am I to say it's not? Some fans have commented that the mask in Part VIII is not quite the same color as the other movies. There was no mistake made. Nobody who looked at the dailies and said, "Oh, we screwed up. This mask is yellow, not white!" I never really looked at it in question and said, "Hey, this isn't the right," because these guys were the experts.
ALEX DIAKUN:
Kane Hodder was a nice man. Everyone enjoyed working with him and just being around him. And I recall he had to work in a wetsuit, and every once in a while he'd get so sticky and stiff that he'd ask somebody to pour warm water down his back. It would wash down through his body, and he'd just say in his deep voice, "Oh, that feels goooood…!"
SCOTT REEVES:
Kane was just this happy-go-lucky, cool guy outside of work. Then, man, you get on the set and when it is time for him to do his thing—Jason took over. It was kind of freaky. I'll never forget, I would walk out of my trailer and I'd hear all this death metal playing out of Kane's dressing room. I remember thinking, "Oh, man. I hope I don't run into Kane on my way to the set. He's not gonna be happy!"
JENSEN DAGGETT:
Kane Hodder could not be a nicer guy so it was a little
difficult to be afraid of him. There were times when I was begging him not to make me laugh.
KANE HODDER:
I played a practical joke in one scene in Part VIII, which is pretty rare for me in my overall approach to the character because I am protective of not doing anything on film that makes Jason look silly or stupid. But there is a scene at the beginning of the movie, when a girl runs to the bow and hides down in a hatch, and then I kill her by ramming a thin spear through her chest. And it's shot from her POV looking up at me as I open the hatch. The camera operator had to open the hatch during the shot, so we played a joke on him—when he opened the hatch up and looked down, and I had a large prosthetic penis hanging out.
ROB HEDDEN:
There is a shot in Part VIII, when Jason first arrives in New York, and Kane had to climb up a ladder out of the freezing-ass Vancouver water that was like 40 degrees. I don't even think he had a wetsuit on. I remember I used to have to say, "Kane, you have to wear a wetsuit, otherwise you'll get sick." Kane is a trooper. He'd walk through glass for you and wouldn't bat an eye.
I am biased, but Kane is the definitive Jason for me. He's incredibly affable and cooperative and enthusiastic, and has great ideas for the character. This was my first movie, and my first Friday the 13th, so I relied on him a great deal throughout the shoot. I would ask him, "What do you think of this?" And Kane would say, "Well, Jason would do this or that." Or, he'd offer ways to move and position Jason in a scene to make his actions more effective.
KANE HODDER:
Rob Hedden was a real pleasure to work with, and I'm not just saying that because I'm trying to be a kiss ass or anything. I've just been very fortunate in the directors that I've worked with on all my Fridays, partly because they really appreciate my input as far as the character is concerned. I think I know more about the character than almost anyone. Rob was really open to my suggestions when it came to what Jason should do and not do. Like John Carl Buechler, they are directors secure enough in their own abilities to listen to actors. It doesn't mean that I always have the right idea, it's just nice to have a director that will listen to you and work something out. Like in Part VIII, there was one quick little shot where I break a radio antenna off the boat in the middle of a rainstorm, and it was higher than I could reach. So I suggested that we build a little platform out of an apple box, because I didn't want it to look like Jason had to really reach for it. I hate compromising the character.
V.C. DUPREE:
Julius makes it to like the last 15 minutes of the movie, unlike most black guys in Friday movies, who get killed while they're in the bathroom or whatever. So I was excited about that. But I wanted Julius' survival to seem real, too, instead of the quintessential "going after somebody with a flashlight in your hand" thing, or Jason's chasing you and you just whimper and fall to the ground. Rob really gave me a lot of freedom with the character. I'm particularly happy with the scene where Julius gets the guns and I corral all the guys on the ship. Originally we shot that scene and it didn't work. So Rob asked my advice on it. He pretty much let me direct it—I took the shot down to where we're on our knees and it's a little more intense and the camera moves in really tight. I was so proud of that, because Rob allowed me to work on a lot of my acting chops in my first film, and it was a great experience as a young actor.
The character of Crystal Lake High's resident "rock chick" was a special one for director Rob Hedden. "I wanted to have a guitar player in the movie, 'cuz in the late 1980s every high school had someone who was an aspiring rock star," says Hedden. "That comes back to, again, the whole character thing where you want everybody in the movie to be somebody you could know. But I put a little spin on it because JJ is a girl—usually it is a guy. Of course, now there's plenty of female rockers, starting with Pat Benatar back then and now people like Courtney Love and Liz Phair. So that's what really inspired JJ in the movie."
PETER MARK RICHMAN:
I enjoyed working with Rob, but there was one humorous moment that I was upset with in terms of the editing. It's the scene in the cabin, when Sharlene was undressing to seduce my character. Well, I can be very funny, character-wise, and I was doing certain things, like when she was starting to undress, my expressions of "Oh my God!" and that kind of reaction. And in the editing, he did not cut to me. The cut stays on her and they pan down from the top of her head to the bottom of her boobs and crotch and all that. Nothing of my face was cut in at all. That was important to me, because the way my character was written he was just villainous, so I tried to make him more human. That he was a man, and he had genuine concerns as a parent. And because of circumstances and not being able to deal with certain things in the proper way he comes off deformed in a way. So I was particularly annoyed in that, especially after the discussions I had with Rob about the character.
SHARLENE MARTIN:
Peter Mark Richman was the veteran. He certainly had the most experience of anyone in the cast. But he was lovely. Really charming. Especially because that whole scene, with my biology "exam" painted all over my body that Tamara uses to seduce him, that wasn't easy for me. There wasn't a lot of nudity involved by today's standards, but back then, it was a little nerve racking. And it took quite a while for them to draw that all on my body. They used paint, and they really took their time—it was really quite anatomically accurate. But Peter was lovely. He made me feel really comfortable and we had a lot of fun doing that scene.
SCOTT REEVES:
There is a scene, when we are all in the lifeboat and I have a life jacket on—my wife just dies when she sees that. Because I have like eight chins. I have no neck. And when I turn my head, I turn my whole body at the same time. Like I have whiplash. My wife never lets me live that scene down—she calls me the Michelin Man. It's hilarious.
KELLY HU:
Mine was such a small role that, to be honest, I don't think they gave it much attention. There was not a lot of guidance there. But they did teach me how to snort cocaine for the "coke scene." I had never seen it before, and I certainly had never seen anyone do it. So they had to have one of the set guys build this special straw with this netting through it, and then I'd snort baking soda or something. The idea was that I'd snort it up through this metal straw and the baking soda would be caught in the net. But I could never get enough "vacuumage." So then they built this other contraption—it looked like I was holding the straw, but it was actually attached to this rubber tube on the side. As I was snorting this baking soda, some guy at the other end of this tube would be inhaling it. That was a thoroughly bizarre experience.
RANDOLPH CHEVELDAVE:
The only drugs happening were on the screen. People had to work too hard. I've been on an awful lot of movie sets throughout the drug craze of the late '70s and early '80s, but this was a clean set. The entire cast was excellent. We all had a really great time. We truly did.
JENSEN DAGGETT:
It was really hard to ever feel rested on that movie. But I guess it helped to make me look disheveled—method acting, so to speak. We were hosed down with freezing cold water in between scenes, or had to jump into freezing water on the set. And honestly, I love dogs, but my scenes with Rennie's dog took twice as long to shoot. There are a lot of technicalities to working with an animal. And when you are surviving on very little sleep and you have four scenes the next day with the dog, you know it will be a long day…
ROB HEDDEN:
The tough thing with Jensen was that she was extremely reluctant—even adamant—about not taking her clothes off. I worked on her and worked on her, because the studio wanted her to get naked. I was like, "I totally see your side of it, Jensen. I know you want to have a serious acting career." Then I brought up all these examples of big actresses who took their clothes off. It didn't work, of course. Then I was like, "You've at least got to take your blouse off, okay? If you don't, they're going to riot in the theater. This is called Friday the 13th—it's not called Driving Miss Daisy!" But that didn't work, either.
I have the fondest memories of Sharlene Martin, who played Tamara. There was a shower scene written for her character right before Jason shows up. Well, Sharlene was a sweetheart but very, very nervous about getting naked. I said, "Sharlene, I'm not going to shoot this in a way that is a tight close-up with bright lights on your breasts, okay? I want this to be scary and I want it to be sexy and I want it to be titillating, but I don't want it to be sleazy. So I'm going to show you how it's going to look." She climbs out of the shower and goes and stands by the camera, and suddenly I take off all my clothes and I get in, and I do the scene. I start singing in the shower, moving my arms around and steam is coming up, and of course the whole crew is laughing. Then I come out of the shower and put my clothes back on and go, "See?" And she says, "Sold!"
What I didn't know is that our director of photography Bryan England had decided to roll film. And the whole thing gets printed as dailies and sent back to Paramount. And the next day all the executives are watching to see if the director is doing his job and there he is, naked on the set. And they're like, "What the fuck is going on up there?" Believe me, they never let me forget it.
Gallery: disco death.
SHARLENE MARTIN:
My death scene—despite the fact that there was nudity involved—I was actually quite excited to do that scene because it gave me an opportunity as an actress to explore something I normally wouldn't get the chance to do. So that aspect of it was great. Now, there was the nudity part in the shower, however, which I was quite uncomfortable with. But Rob was amazing. He was so kind. He stripped down—he got right in the shower. So then I was able to do it. He also called for a closed set. So Rob actually made it a lot of fun. It really gave me a chance to lose all my inhibitions and then I just went for it. And today, I'm actually really happy with my performance in that scene. Unfortunately, I had to die though—that's my only regret, because I didn't get to go to New York!
Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th (Enhanced Edition) Page 61
