RONNY YU:
When I look back at all the characters in both franchises, there's almost no value to them. Their only purpose to get chopped up or killed. Here, the writers were very smart, because they created characters that turn the tables around. In the beginning they're victims, but then they think, "Ah, why don't we use ourselves as bait to bring these two together and let them fight it out while we watch?" The characters become the actual means by which to bring the two monsters together.
The class of Springwood High, 2003. From left: Monica Keena as Lori, Katherine Isabelle as Gibb and Kelly Rowland as Kia.
MATTHEW BARRY, Casting Director:
Nancy Green-Keyes and I had done three or four films for New Line, and we had worked with Doug Curtis on Friday After Next. Doug introduced us to Ronny Yu, and I guess we were kind of young and hip at the time, and he liked us and we had a good relationship with New Line. So we all just hit it off.
A lot of casting directors don't like this kind of film. I was all into it. Nancy was more hesitant, like, "Do we have to do this?" And I was like, "Nancy, this is guaranteed box office!" I grew up on it. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre I watched, like, every Monday night at the 8th Street Playhouse for a year.
Whether it's a comedy or a horror film, you want good actors for their respective genres. A lot of young actors will come in for a Freddy vs. Jason and act like it's Starsky & Hutch. Another problem with Hollywood, kids are not trained—we wanted some good, trained people. And we also wanted unknowns. The studio agreed, because they already had Freddy and Jason—what else did they need? It doesn't make any difference if Ashton Kutcher is in it. That was great for us because it meant we got to break some new kids—there's nothing more exciting than that.
DOUG CURTIS:
We got a lot of flak at first from a casting director up in Canada. We originally hired a woman who is one of the top two or three people in Vancouver, along with Matthew and Nancy--who are fabulous, by the way. I'd do every film with them. They were the key for getting the cast. Anyway, there were a lot of day players we still needed to get from Vancouver, and one day Ronny just blew up at this casting director. "They're treating us like this is just shit! Like this is a fucking B-movie! Worse!" And I said to Ronny, "You're right. They are." So I sat down with the casting director and I said, "You're not satisfying the director. You're treating this like a piece of crap." And she said, "Doug, it's not a Shakespeare play." I said, "That's not your judgment. You have to treat this like a Shakespeare play because you're the one we hired to cast the movie." I don't know if she ever changed her attitude about the material, but she sure changed her attitude in dealing with us.
CHRISTOPHER MARQUETTE, "Linderman":
I was born in Florida, but I moved to Texas when I was two. It was one of those "traveling convention" type things that come around and say, "If you think your kid is cute and has a personality, stick him in this business—he could be famous!" It's a lot of crap, but my mom had a friend and her son was going to do it, so she asked me if I wanted to do this and—I don't even remember this—I was psyched about it. It grew from there, and I got lucky and did some commercials, and shows like "Barney" and "America's Most Wanted." Then we had moved to Georgia, so it really came down to the decision I made on my own, saying, "I really want to do this," so I went to New York to try and get an agent and start my career. Texas or going to New York and seeing if I wanted to start a career.
I actually didn't get to read the full script before I said yes to Freddy vs. Jason. I knew what it was and I just really, really wanted to do it. Instead of thinking that this was just a good part for my career, I thought, "Wow, what an amazing experience to be a part of something so big!" And I'm the type of actor who thinks it can be difficult to create a really great performance in a horror movie, only because it's hard to make it real. I saw it as a huge challenge.
KYLE LABINE, "Freeburg":
When Freddy vs. Jason came along, I was actually going to go into a theatre program for two years. So I just went balls out on the audition. It was like, "This might be my last audition for two years, so why not just give it everything I have? And I only auditioned once. For a big movie, usually they have a lot of callbacks so I guess they liked what they say.
I actually auditioned for the role of Linderman first. I guess they saw a different part for me and they brought me back for Freeburg. Which is funny, because my character is the stoner, and I've never smoked a joint in my life. And then I waited a long time until I found out I got the part, because I had heard they were having issues about racial diversity in the film—that is, that it might be too much of an "all-white" cast.
MARK SWIFT:
Sometimes things just change. I never wanted Freeburg to be a completely stereotypical stoner. He definitely turned into that, and I really wanted to stay away from that. In our third draft, we wanted him to be an Asian kid. We wanted him to be very, very different. And then, sure enough, they cast a guy with the hat and the long hair. I was watching it and thinking, "Oh, man, that's exactly what I was trying to avoid!" It was frustrating.
Director Ronny Yu and actress Monica Keena.
MATTHEW BARRY:
Diversity was a huge factor, absolutely. As casting directors now, we don't want to make a "white" movie. We want to add some flavors to it. And it's not just ethnicities. It's gender as well. Because do you know who goes to these movies? Women.
For example, the character of Mark, Jason Ritter's best friend in the movie, was originally written for a Latin kid. We had wanted to cast a Latino actor we had already found, but then he went and took some low-budget scale movie because he didn't want to do a horror movie. It was like, "We aren't going to find any fucking Latin actors in Vancouver!" But we had hired Brendan Fletcher for a smaller role in the movie, and he was so good that we decided to test him for the Latin role. And he was phenomenal. He kicked fucking ass. Ronny loved him: "Great acting! Great acting!" So he came back the next day, and all he did was open his mouth and he got the job.
BRENDAN FLETCHER, "Mark":
Although I was more of a Freddy fan growing up, I knew there was a following for both of these characters. So I leapt at the opportunity to be a part of a Freddy movie, let alone a Freddy and Jason movie. It's like Batman vs. Superman or Godzilla vs. King Kong. I was right in there.
MARK SWIFT:
We had originally written more scenes with Carlos' parents, that we thought would make things a little more realistic, but it just all got wiped out. It doesn't even make sense in the movie now. Well, at least it used to make sense...
JESSE HUTCH, "Trey":
I quickly picked up on the fact that I was playing the dickhead—which is weird because most people who know me don't think I'm a dickhead. Yes, Trey's a mean character, but he also doesn't realize it. For some reason, when people see Trey in the film, they find him to be funny. I didn't play him that way, but that's why I'm guessing he comes across as funny because it's like, "Who is this guy? Who says things like that!?"
KELLY ROWLAND, "Kia":
I remember being on the set with Beyoncé when she did Austin Powers and thinking, "This looks so cool! I want to do this!" This opportunity just landed in my lap. I remember my agent even asked me before I went out on the audition, "Will this bother you? How would you feel about doing a scary movie?" I was like, "I don't care! That sounds like fun!" Plus, Freddy and Jason—that's history.
I actually went into the audition with the idea that I wasn't going to get it. I had heard all these stories about how hard it was to act scared, and I have the most punk-ass scream anybody's ever heard. So nobody was more surprised than I was that I got the part.
MATTHEW BARRY:
Of course, the studio wanted some kind of hip-hop quotient. We interviewed Eve and Pink and all these other hip-hop artists and most of them just couldn't act their way out of a paper bag. But Kelly came in and she was really determined. Her audition actually wasn't the greatest—she was missing something. But t
hen she called and said, "I'll work with you. I really want to do this." And she had a solo album coming out at the time, so we had to work around her schedule. But she was like, "If I need to push here and push there, I'll do it because I really want to be a part of this." She wanted it bad. So we did a satellite audition where she was at the New Line office in New York and we were at the New Line office in L.A., and it was a slam-dunk. She kicked ass.
DOUG CURTIS:
Kelly was Ronny's favorite. He absolutely loved her—and for good reason. She's just great. And we didn't consciously set out to make our cast more diverse, it really was something Stokely wanted because Kelly Rowland was a star. Period. But it was a good idea. It just made perfect sense. And she was fabulous.
RONNY YU:
Kelly was just a down-to-earth, normal girl, and so serious about what she was doing. She had the perfect attitude. Kelly was our one fantastic discovery. She was just so natural, and likeable as a person.
MATTHEW BARRY:
Casting the lead, Lori, was the hardest. We literally went down to the wire and saw everybody. Every bad fucking actress—probably close to 300 from Los Angeles to New York. We also had had a lot of people turn down the role.
Monica Keena was someone Ronny and myself, and my casting partner Nancy Green-Keyes, really fought for. I discovered Monica on a film called Crime and Punishment in Suburbia and I knew what she could do.
A massacre on Elm Street.
MONICA KEENA, "Lori":
I was never really a huge fan of either A Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th growing up because they scared me too much. I always swore that I would never do a horror movie, just because I can't watch them. But I thought this one would be kind of fun—it was an interesting concept to finally have the two most famous villains in horror movie history battling each other. And it's something very different from anything I've done. I usually do dramas and independent movies, so this was a totally different realm. It was exciting.
Also, Lori is a very strong part for a young woman. My character is the leader and the strongest person in the group, and saves everybody. I think in horror movies in the past, the women have always just sort of been sex objects that are just there to look pretty and get murdered. The thing I liked about Lori is that I didn't think she was victimized. She wasn't just this pretty girl running around looking hot the whole time, but a meek girl-next-door who was put in this crazy circumstance where she had to face up to it and be strong. In a way, it's a coming-of-age story because she really finds herself by the end of the movie. She wasn't just screaming and hysterical.
With the start of principal photography looming on the horizon, Freddy vs. Jason at last had its cast in place. Or so it seemed. The late Brad Renfro, then 22 years old, had been hired to star opposite Monica Keena as "Will," the film's troubled young hero. Renfro had earned early acclaim for his performances in such films as The Client and Apt Pupil, but had also made tabloid headlines with his "bad boy" reputation, which included arrests for drunk and disorderly conduct and the alleged theft of a speedboat. Although Renfro's subsequent departure was officially attributed to "creative differences," the production would be forced to find a suitable replacement with only a week to spare.
MATTHEW BARRY:
Here's the truth about the casting of Brad Renfro. We all loved Brad. He was a great actor. But his agents lied like motherfuckers. Flat-out fucking lied. We called about his reputation and they said, "Yeah, he was fucked up. He hasn't worked for a while. But he went back to Tennessee, checked himself into a spa and got cleaned up." We said, "Okay, we want to have a deal based on a meeting with Ronny." Everybody was okay with that.
Then New Line went and made a deal without Brad meeting Ronny first. Doug and Nancy and I were furious. Because Brad comes up to Vancouver and they hate him. He doesn't look the role. He's fucked up. He had done some things up there that I won't say.
DOUG CURTIS:
Ronny originally really fought for Brad. But the day Brad walked into our office, he looked like a street bum. He was drunk, he was beyond unkempt—he looked like an 80-year-old in a 22-old body. Then later he got fucked up on heroin and lied about it. And he disappeared for a week. We didn't know where he was, we just knew he was out on a binge. It was bad.
MATTHEW BARRY:
Even after that we still wanted to talk to Brad, but his representation said, "Well, he's in Phoenix now. He's cleaning up and getting in shape for the film." Eventually, we didn't cast him, but on top of all that, his representation says, "We want his salary." They wanted to be paid! We said, "Go fuck yourselves. You have some fucking nerve." But it's really sad about Brad because he was talented.
So with a week to go before shooting, we had to scramble. We had tested this one kid, Ian Sommerholder, and we liked him a lot, but Ronny thought he was too pretty. Jason Ritter had actually come in before and he was okay. But what Nancy and I like to do is give people a second chance. "Come in and work with us, then we'll put you on tape." Some actors won't do that and they'll blow their chance. But Jason did. We wanted to fight for him. So we coached Jason to get him into the emotional depth of the character. Was he better than we expected? Absolutely. He was terrific in the film.
Concept art for the "bed kill."
JASON RITTER, "Will":
Because both of my parents were actors, I grew up around the business. I wanted to get into it when I was real young and drop out of elementary school. But my parents said I had to go to college and learn how to do it the right way. My father also wanted me to be realistic about it. Acting is a scary business to watch your children go into, and Hollywood is a difficult, scary place that's filled with rejection and heartache. He just made sure I studied, that I was trained in theatre and things like that. But he never really stopped me. He and my mom made sure my head was screwed on right about it—that I wasn't going to have any misguided notions that you just walk into this town and get handed a part.
Bride of Chucky was one of the first horror films I saw, because my dad was in it. I hadn't actually met Ronny before, but my dad told me he was a really cool guy and a good director, so I wasn't as nervous to meet him as I might have been otherwise. But auditions are, by definition, awkward. You're in a small room with a 50-year-old man, trying to imagine you're on a beach talking to a 16-year-old girl. It's so odd. So in my first audition I was like flailing around. It's so unlike when you're on a set, where you believe it more.
I was surprised when I got the script, with the story and the characters. I thought they would mostly be stock types, because usually in these movies they are but everyone's ok with that because it's all in fun. But these people weren't just stereotypes. I liked that Will and Lori both had tragedies in their pasts. Lori's this sort of withdrawn, sensitive girl who becomes like Lara Croft in Tomb Raider. And Will is this fragile little boy from a mental institution. I thought it was interesting, instead of just having the heroes be the jock and the kick-ass tomboy girl or something like that. I thought the writers put some thought into it and we could do something with it.
RONNY YU:
Luckily, the casting directors came up with Jason Ritter. We flew Jason up to Vancouver and he and Monica did a rough read-through. We all liked him, and the studio liked him. I looked at some of his work and I thought he was a really good kid. And then when Nancy said, "Guess who he is? He's John Ritter's son!" I just went, "Wow. What a coincidence—I directed his dad in Bride of Chucky!" Sometimes life is so weird.
Even with its two young leads in place, Freddy vs. Jason's biggest casting controversy was yet to come. Few would argue that the biggest stars of the movie were not its human characters but its monsters. And it would be nothing short of heretical to suggest that anyone but Robert Englund should have slipped back into the dirty red and green sweater he had made famous seven times before. Actor-stuntman Kane Hodder, however, was not as recognizable as the face behind Jason Voorhees' iconic hockey mask. Still, it was never a question among genre fans that
Hodder, who had already played the role four times previously, would be asked to reprise the role in Freddy vs. Jason. But as the start of principal photography approached, rumors began to circulate on the Internet that not only was Hodder out of the running, but that the filmmakers were plotting a startling reinterpretation of the character, one sure to alienate the franchise's most ardent followers. While some of the gossip bordered on the outlandish—the most popular rumor being that, at one point during the film, Jason would even cry—the recasting of Hodder ultimately proved true.
The performer the producers would eventually choose to wield Jason's machete was 6'3" Canadian-born Ken Kirzinger, who faced the unenviable task of not only filling Hodder's venerable boots, but successfully interpreting the filmmakers' new vision for the character. The Jason Voorhees in Damian Shannon and Mark Swift's screenplay, while not a complete re-invention of the character, does attempt to delve deeper into Jason's psychological mindset than any previous Friday the 13th film, as well as more fully dramatize key moments of his backstory. Jason's look is new, too, with a slightly redesigned hockey mask, blackened skin and a more streamlined build. Even if the bold steps the filmmakers took with the character were vindicated by the subsequent success of the film, the departure of Hodder remains a hotly debated subject among diehard fans, and a contentious sore point for the actor.
MATTHEW BARRY:
Who else could play Freddy? Robert was always in, and he loves the character. Although Robert wasn't getting hired a lot at the time, which is sad because he's a really good actor. So we weren't worried. There might have been some fuss over money, but I think he ended up doing Freddy vs. Jason for $1 million. It never even crossed our minds to look elsewhere.
Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th (Enhanced Edition) Page 84
