During the process of making a movie, you often get so wrapped up in the day-to-day issues that you have to solve. And the person who holds the purse strings, if they disagree with something or don't like the way things are going, has the power to pull the plug. So I felt I needed to take those ideas that were presented to me and somehow try to make them work. The last thing I want to do is start to whine and complain about the script. You don't want to be the guy who is a part of the problem; you want to be the guy who is a part of the solution. And you can do that a couple of times. But if you start to do that over and over and over again, that's when things start to fall apart.
The casting of the Friday the 13th films had grown more progressive throughout the early 1980s and '90s, as the cultural attitudes and expectations of teenage audiences began to change. White bread, wholesome ensembles were no longer the mandate of the studios and filmmakers, for fear that the exclusion of key demographics, such as urban audiences and female viewers, would mean potential lost profits. In fact, by the end of the '90s, most of the major studios began to realize that a lack of ethnic diversity in the cast of a mainstream horror film was tantamount to commercial suicide. With the success of Wes Craven's Scream and its two sequels, even the most non-horror savvy moviegoer had become wise to the clichés and conventions of slasher movies. Now that the bar had been raised, the characters on screen had to be just as smart. The late '90s also saw an explosion in the popularity of a spate of high-gloss, youth-oriented American television series populated mostly by unusually photogenic, wise-beyond-their-years teens. Shows such as Dawson's Creek, Party of Five and Buffy the Vampire Slayer radically changed the expectations for young actors in Hollywood. If Jason X was going to appeal to the kids of the new "postmodern age," its futuristic teens had to be just as hip, modern, witty and proactive. And, of course, good looking.
JIM ISAAC:
One of the things I liked about the concept of space was that it would enable us to create new toys—cool weapons these kids could have at their disposal. One of the things I was tired of seeing in the other Jason movies is that the kids were always just so defenseless. They're just victims from day one. I didn't want that for Jason X.
NOEL CUNNINGHAM:
Jim Isaac and I went up to Toronto around October of 1999. We brought up a skeleton make-up effects crew to start working on special effects and getting things together, and we also started to hold the casting sessions, all with local Canadian talent. Some of the actors who came in, right as they walked in the door, it was like, "That's the character!" Then there were other actors that you go, "I love them, but they're not right for this role, but maybe for this other one?"
We never thought about going after any "name" actors. We didn't have the money. If we had a cast like Scream or The Faculty, our budget would have shot up—all of a sudden everyone has bigger trailers and more support staff and the schedule gets longer. And on many levels it's easier to get fresh people because they're more willing to work with you. On the flipside, and especially with the horror genre, a film like Halloween H20 wouldn't have done a dollar if Jamie Lee Curtis hadn't come back. I do think that of course the cast you have makes a difference, but at the end of the day, we all thought that the success of Jason X would just depend on how good of a movie we had.
TODD FARMER:
Another reason to utilize Canadian actors is because none of them were SAG in Jason X except for Kane Hodder. So they could all be "bought out." Meaning they'll see no residuals—the movie could have made $100 million and they wouldn't see a dime.
I did get to be a part of the casting process. I saw a few of the tapes and I was certainly able to say, "I like that person" or "I don't like this person." Though I doubt my opinion swayed anything one way or another because I was just the writer. And I do wish we had at least one name actor in the thing to have pulled in some box office, but I still think everyone who was cast did a fine job.
ROBIN COOK, Casting Director:
I had previously done Frequency and Knockaround Guys for New Line. I remember getting a call saying, "We'd love to interview you for a new project. The film is called Jason X." So I go online and find out that's "Friday the 13th Part X." I was so taken back. I said to myself, "I don't know if I should to this." So I went to the interview and—this is first and only time I've ever done this—I sat down and was totally at home because I didn't care if I got it or not. I just sat down with my Starbucks coffee in my hand and talked with Noel and Jim. And they're both just so lovely.
When I read the script for Jason X, I thought it was funny. And what you do as a casting director is send out a synopsis to agents along with comments, usually something like, "Shoots in Toronto." For Jason X, in my comments, I wrote in caps: "Yeah, I know, I know. What can I say!?" See, for me, that was the beauty of the film—we all knew that what we were doing was camp, and that we were going to have fun with it. Kudos to Noel and Jim and Todd for taking it seriously. But for me, and I certainly take my job seriously, I loved the idea that we all knew that this wasn't Citizen Kane.
LEXA DOIG, "Rowan":
I actually laughed when I received the script. When I saw "Friday the 13th Part X," I looked at my agent and said, "I didn't know there was a VI, VII, VIII and IX." But I thought the character of Rowan was great. She changed the whole stereotype of the scantily clad, not-very-bright female that seems to appear in a lot of horror films, especially ones from way back when. And in the script, I also thought that all the women were integral to the action. Those who did survive wouldn't have, if it wasn't for the input of everybody, including the ladies.
I think Rowan was a very strong person in her time, and was sort of a woman living in a man's world, to some degree. It is sort of like Ripley in the ALIEN films—there are definitely parallels there. Because then this whole complete chaos comes into her life. She's got nothing left. The only thing that she does know is Jason. That kind of gives her an anchor, oddly enough, in a really sick and twisted way, to plod through the events that are happening. Because, even though she's in a complete environment with new toys and new tools and new weapons, Jason's still there and she can't really escape him. Just like Ripley and the Alien.
"I play a stupid doctor who deserves to die!" laughs veteran filmmaker David Cronenberg (third from left) of his cameo role in Jason X. "David is the dean of Canadian horror films," says executive producer Sean Cunningham, "and he is a very dear friend of director Jim Isaac. So when David found out Jim was making a Friday film, he was an enormous help and came in for two days work. And we were very grateful to him, and he's very good in the movie." Directing his longtime mentor was a dream come true for Isaac. "Those were a great couple of days," remembers Isaac. "He was wonderful, and he tweaked his scenes a little bit. I would ask, 'What can we do?' And he'd say, 'Well, last night I went ahead and rewrote a couple of things...'"
ROBIN COOK:
Lexa just had that right kind of toughness, beauty, and vulnerability. You just wanted to watch her. Yet even then I still remember having conversations about, "We really need to go even better looking." I was like, "How can you get better looking!?" Just look at Lexa. She's so stunning.
Personally, I didn't want Jason X to be so much "Jason Meets Beverly Hills 90210." That sort of took away, for Jim and I, the camp of it. You look at the actors who are on any Teen Beat cover or on the WB and they're all gorgeous. And nothing against Aaron Spelling. But all Jim and I really cared about was that they were fit. And some people definitely turned us down. But, it just so happened that when we were readying production there were hardly any features filming in the city. And who really wants to come to Toronto and shoot in the middle of winter?
NOEL CUNNINGHAM:
I, especially, wanted good-looking people. That's a sign of the times. Film is a fantasy, an escape. Especially Friday the 13th. As much crap as reviewers and critics will sling on you for gathering a whole bunch of pretty, attractive people, you know what? If you gathered a huge bunch of really u
nattractive people, I bet your box office scores would be lower. People want the fantasy, and hopefully they can identify on some level with the characters, too. And also, with Jason X, it's in the future, so there's natural selection and all that. All the hot people were nailing each other. Ugly people ain't gettin' none.
TODD FARMER:
I like strong female characters, like the kind in James Cameron's movies. I think they're sexier. I think they're more fun to be around. You know, a girl who'll slug you is the kind of guy I want to go into battle with, if that makes any sense. And that probably comes from my scarred childhood on the playground when the girls would beat me up during games of "kiss and chase."
That really came out with the character of Kay-EM. The idea was she was supposed to be a smart, sexy, femme-bot android, a synthetic—whatever you want to call her—and then to give her the opportunity to rage-battle with Jason.
LISA RYDER, "Kay-EM 14":
Robin Cook had used me a couple of times before, and they were having a tough time casting the part of Kay-EM. The first time I auditioned, I walked into a room full of models—all stunningly beautiful women. And originally, the sides were really wacky, like Jim Carrey wacky. And they were trying to get the models to be "out there," and I don't think any of them could go there. Then they were trying comedienne-ish women for a while. They were vacillating. It is kind of a tricky part, because they wanted someone for Kay-EM who was babe-ish, but also funny, and strong, too.
I do think Jim Isaac did a really interesting thing with the casting. He didn't go the typical way that the '80s slasher films went. He didn't cast victim girly girls. He didn't cast buxom blond chicks. And in casting me he went a little bit older, because Kay-EM is supposed to be a 19-year-old android. And by doing that, he made the character more of a mother to the kids. So that helped make the movie kind of special, or at least the casting of it.
ROBIN COOK:
The casting of Lexa and Lisa together was actually a funny story. We were pretty much ready to go with both of them, but then they also had to go and do an audition for a series called Andromeda that was beginning production around the same time as Jason X. So they went off to do the audition, and weirdly enough they both got it. And their parts were kind of like the exact opposite of what they were playing in Jason X. So to cast them in this, we had to be sure we released them from the production by a certain date so they could go and start Andromeda. We couldn't even go over as much as a couple of days, so it got very scarily close at a couple of points near the end of the shoot.
LISA RYDER:
It just happens to be that most of the stuff shot up in Canada is sci-fi. Because the American dollar has been so strong, productions can come up here and get a better value for their dollar on special effects. So Lexa and I met on Jason X while we were both auditioning for and getting "Andromeda." It was the first time I'd ever heard of her, but we ended up working together for the next four years solid.
MELYSSA ADE, "Janessa":
I think there has consistently been strong female characters throughout cinema. What was exciting about this is that our age doesn't seem to diminish our potential strength. The women onboard are all young women. Janessa's a teenager. So regardless of that, we still have a full range of human emotions, we still have a full range of capabilities. And that was definitely an appeal with this project—that these young people are very capable. We're not just running and screaming from one cabin to the next. We have a problem to solve and we get down, we get dirty, and try and solve it. These kids just want to go home. That's all. And that's where you grab yourself. That's real. Whether it was set in outer space or in Tahiti or on the top of a mountain.
CHUCK CAMPBELL, "Tsunaron":
Jason X happened by accident for me. They just happened to be shooting in Toronto. And when I got the call for the audition and saw it was "Friday the 13th Part X," I wasn't that interested to be honest with you. I think I only saw the first two Fridays, so by this one, I had no idea what the hell was going on. But it was cool because Robin Cook was very nice and she said, "They're not taking it so seriously this time. There's going to be a fun feel to it. Just go in and have fun and audition." I felt Jim Isaac wanted people to enjoy it and give credit to the series, but do something different with it, too. What ultimately attracted me to doing this role was playing the eccentric. Nerds and geeks, they're fun, and this guy was great because he was supposedly a little insane. The whole idea of building this android, Kay-EM, is a little wacky. So I went in and just got lucky.
JONATHAN POTTS:
A lot of actors decide early on that they are going to get into it and make a lot of money and have that kind of overnight success. And if you saw me in Jason X you know I'm not a stunningly beautiful young man. I started from the absolute bottom, and it's been a really slow, slow progression. I've done everything that there is to do in the business from industrials to commercials to extra work to voiceovers and cartoons. I'd known Robin Cook for years. She does the big films up here and the weird little independent stuff, too. So I was and am still happy for every job I get, and was happy when I got Jason X.
There's no star system in Canada. There are certain things that I won't do anymore, that I don't want to do, but here, there's not enough money to be that choosy. People just kind of do the work. There's also not a lot of A-movies available. Occasionally you get an X-Men, but most of it is TV movies and low-budget stuff. And that means that the stars of these pictures are either people who are on their way up, or on their way down. So there's nobody in Canada who goes into acting thinking that they're going to be famous. It just isn't in the cards. And I think we all knew that the star of this film was Jason, anyway.
Director Jim Isaac would make extensive use of many talented artists and craftsmen when realizing the future world of Jason X. Throughout this chapter, view key concept art designs by illustrator James Goodson, including early visualizations of many of the film's key scenes, locations and characters.
YANI GELLMAN, "Stoney":
What drew me to do Jason X? The money. No, just kidding. Just being a part of the whole Friday the 13th series is really cool. I grew up watching them, so to actually get killed by Jason is kind of exciting. Jim Isaac was also trying to really represent a sort of diversity that will occur in the future. We're sort of this ragtag band of humans that have escaped from Earth, so we're not all gonna look clean-cut and nice. There is a quirkiness we wanted to present a real human crew from all different walks of life.
ROBIN COOK:
Diversity was never explicitly discussed, but that's the way I casted Jason X. If race is not specific in the script, that's where my creativity comes into play. For example, Peter Mensah was totally out of my head for Sgt. Brodski. Jim just wanted somebody imposing, and I said, "I've got the perfect person for you…"
PETER MENSAH "Sgt. Brodski":
I grew up in England, and I was eight years old when I did my first school play. I pretty much lived on the stage until I came to Canada. I'd spent my summers in the south of France and Italy, and gotten to know that part of Europe so well that the next frontier was either Canada or Australia or something like that. Then I went to Canada and fell in love with it.
I think the Friday the 13th movies and Freddy Krueger—you could find them in England, although usually a year or two after their release in the United States. Still, it wasn't a genre that I had paid enormous attention to, admittedly. I was just happy to have gotten a role that I don't think was meant for a black actor. And Brodski is not a name you would usually expect to have a British accent.
DERWIN JOHNSON, "Waylander":
What was attractive about the script was that I thought it was very well-established throughout that these are real people with thoughts and ideas and feelings, and that we were all very specific individuals. Even Kay-EM has a very distinct personality and characteristics to her that I think feeds into the film. I think that's what makes it different from the other Friday the 13ths. Not onl
y are there these explosions and special effects, but these are real people in a real situation.
TODD FARMER:
Jim made a point to not typecast. And I like that. I think it makes for a better movie. The beautiful thing is some of the smallest characters have the most wonderful performances, because Jim stayed in the casting room for days looking for the right people.
JIM ISAAC:
Sean and I can argue about this until we die, but it was his idea to have the kids up there in space, driving spaceships and doing things as if they are these teenage geniuses. I think that is, overall, the biggest disagreement Sean and I had about the characters. I felt Sean was going more towards young sort of Star Trek kids. I thought that was a little boring. Again, at first, I thought I could live with a little of that. Then it just kept going more and more in that direction.
SEAN CUNNINGHAM:
Not to get too serious, but in the other Friday the 13th movies, as often as not, the people involved in it were victims. At least with Jason X these people had a hand in their future. Whether they were able to save their own lives or not, at least they were empowered. They have skills. They have a disposition. They are not saying, "Oh, what's going on?" and just waiting to get chopped on the head with a machete. They're smart, they're witty, they have power.
DERWIN JOHNSON:
I remember when Jim called about a month before shooting to come and do rehearsals—I was surprised and incredibly impressed by that. He would sincerely ask, "What are your opinions?" And if you would tell him, "You know, this doesn't completely work for me," he would say, "I'm going to work on that." And he really did. You hear that so often in this business and nothing happens. But I would come back the next day, and there are new pages with the writer going, "We took your input seriously, and here it is. Does this work for you now?" It was totally fantastic.
Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th (Enhanced Edition) Page 75
