Interview with Horror Icon Bill Moseley

Bill at the Crepitus Premiere. Photo by Vicki Woods

I have met Bill Moseley at numerous conventions and movie events. Always the gregarious and friendly guy, it was an honor to finally get a full-length interview with one of my favorite horror icons.

Los Angeles Zombie Girl: Hi Bill. It’s great to talk to you again! You are one of the biggest icons in the horror community! How do you feel about horror being your legacy?

Bill Moseley: I’m particularly happy about it. I was always a horror kinda kid growing up in rural Illinois, and Halloween was always my favorite holiday when I was young. I also loved to sneak into the library of our house at midnight, when I was a little boy and had been long since put to bed. I then tempted the wrath of my parents to watch what was local in Chicago a Svengoolie type show called Shock Theatre. It was our local channel with a horror host, and they would show all kinds of movies, mostly 50’s black and white horror and science fiction. That’s where I cut my eye teeth on one of my favorite sub-genres, which was the atomic mutation movies of the early 60’s, like “Beginning of the End”, “Last Man on Earth” and all kinds of really cool movies.

So, with that really baked into my childhood, the idea that someday as a grown-up I could make a living working in the movies period, but specifically horror movies, was a fantasy of mine. And the fact that it has come to pass is wonderful!

LAZG: It’s still a fantasy of mine! Lucky guy! You go to a lot of conventions. Why is it important for you to get face to face with your fans?

BM: First of all, I appreciate the courage of the fans to meet their horror favorites or any kind of fan that has a favorite hero to worship or is excited to meet somebody that has excited them in some kind of an artistic endeavor. Whether it’s a musician, an actor painter, writer etc… it takes a lot of courage to want to kick the tires of the people behind the characters, and the art, because you run the risk that, that person might in real life be a jerk and that would really undermine an appreciation for whatever you liked them for in the first place. I think of Otis, Chop Top or Luigi or whatever the character I have played. If I was a fan of that character and that movie, then showed up and found out that the person was a jerk, for me it would really ruin the experience.

I’m very happy to see the fans. I’m a fan myself, so I’m excited not to just greet the folks at the conventions, but also hobnob with my fellow monsters. I’m pals with Doug Bradley, and certainly, Kane Hodder, Sid Haig, Robert Englund, Bruce Campbell, Elvira, Linda Blair- you know- the names go on and on. So, it’s really a lot of fun to see them at the conventions and hang out, have a meal, have a laugh.

I think it’s important to go to the conventions because it’s important to encourage local and up and coming talent. I’ve had a couple of situations which have been actually beneficial business wise, where I got hired for such and such a job and it turns out that I met the young writer, director, him or her, at a convention when they were like 12. I was a decent human being who put out a hand, and they remembered that and that’s also encouraging.

Also, it’s a business, so the fact that people hand me money for a signed picture is wonderful. It’s great for me especially because a lot of my jobs are low-budget independent films and usually that’s a far cry from say a studio picture where you might get good residual checks over the years. With low-budget independent features, it’s very rare that you see a residual check. So basically, what you get for the job is at the end of your remuneration. Going to conventions really just helps to pad the bank account enough so that you don’t really end up having to take every job that’s offered, or you don’t have to take every job that’s offered with a very low pay scale. It helps the financial side; Conventions seem to remove or lessen the financial neediness that most actors have, except for maybe that one percent that gets paid the higher scale.

LAZG: So, I have been following the progress of Three from Hell for quite a long time now. I know you can’t say much, but there are so many horror icons involved and you got to work with Rob Zombie again, so there must be something you can share?

BM: True, I really can’t say much, but I can say it was wonderful working with Rob again. Three from Hell is finished, we finished a couple of months ago and that from what I see on Instagram and Twitter, that Rob is in the editing room. I know the editor that is doing Three from Hell is a guy named Glen Garland and that he has edited pretty much every Rob movie since The Devil’s Rejects. For the Rob Zombie cinema fans, good old Glen is back on the job and that’s great! I know it’s coming out in early 2019 and might have been done earlier, but Rob just finished up a two-month tour with Marilyn Manson, the Twins of Evil Metal Tour, and it was awesome! I caught the last night of it a few weeks ago down in Irvine, Ca and it rocked!

LAZG: I saw you quoted as saying that Three from Hell is a mind-blowing masterpiece, but I don’t know if that was really you or not. Do you think the people who are super fans of The Devil’s Rejects are gonna be happy with it?

BM: I would think so- but again, I can’t say much. I know that I never use the term mind-blowing so that was a bit exaggerated. I know Rob is very excited about it, and I think that he is really rolling up his sleeves and getting ready to put together a kick-ass sequel to The Devil’s Rejects. This is film number three, starting with House of a Thousand Corpses, Then The Devil’s Rejects and 14 years later we are at Three from Hell. Rob was in really good spirits on the set, it’s good to have him happy! Especially when he’s about to do the herculean job of editing lots of footage into an ass-kicking film. In addition to being a part of it and having finished my scenes, I’m especially excited because I feel like there is going to be a lot of old school horror elements in, it in terms of gratuitous violence for instance. (laughs) Tons of bloodletting and that kind of stuff. That to me is something we are kind of getting away from in horror films. Lately, the horror movies that are coming out are what I think of as “safe horror”, even though they still have the jump scares, makeup and CGI stuff. But my money is riding on Three from Hell being great. The fans are really excited too and I know they are not gonna be disappointed.

LAZG: I absolutely loved you in Cynthia! I was so surprised when I saw you! How did Corpsy (Producer/Director Robert Rhine) talk you into doing that character? You were adorable!

BM: Thank You! You know Corpsy and I go way back. I’ve been on a couple of covers of good old, Girls and Corpses Magazine, and so we’ve been pals. When he started shifting into writing, producing and acting in features, he was talking to me about Cynthia and he called me up and said I’ve got a great part for you. When he explained the character, I think he was a little nervous because he didn’t know if I was gonna say you’re insane, I would never do that. So, I said you know what, I see a yellow dress, a blonde wig and I wanna call the character Buttercup. And he said you’re on and I was totally down with it. I just showed up, ready to play. I loved our two directors, Corpsy was there, also I know and love Scout from other conventions and projects. So, it was just a very comfortable environment that fateful day, and I just went for it and out came Buttercup.

LAZG: I hear you are going to be doing some television now too.

BM: There is a show called 86 Zombies still in the discussion phase. I also just recently went up to outside Toronto and I played in a Netflix series called Slasher. I did a couple of episodes of that and it should be pretty good. The series itself looks great and I’m very happy to be a part of it.

LAZG: When I looked on your IMDb site you have about 25 different upcoming projects in the works! You are a busy boy! Are there any of them you can talk about?

BM: You know I am, and I’m very grateful! I do like to work, and I love my fans, so it’s all good. I have quite a few things that are upcoming. Crepitus certainly is one of them. The Church, Dom Franklin’s church-based horror film out of Philadelphia will be out soon. An English movie called Shed of the Dead looks like it’s also stirring. Another production out of Philadelphia is called American Exorcist, has a Blu-ray and VOD release date and that should be really fun. I keep catching jobs, it’s great! I have a good manager, Judy Fox, who just takes good care of me. She’s like the engineer shoveling coal into the furnace to keep the locomotive running. The more jobs I get, then I’m happy and my wife is happy that I’m out of the house and not a schlump sitting on the couch watching Sports Center.

LAZG: I know people ask this all the time, but can you share with me a favorite experience in your horror career?

BM: I seem to always go back to Chop Top from Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, way back in 1986. Just because it was really the first time I had ever realized that this could actually be a living and not just a running away and joining the circus type of fantasy. I just loved it. One of my favorite experiences was a scene where we are in the radio station, and my character is introduced. I’m terrorizing Stretch the DJ, when all of a sudden, the hapless Lou Perryman playing L.G. comes into the radio station office and he is knocked down by Leatherface and I jump on him. Before he can get up from the floor I start banging on his head with a claw hammer. It was very hot, it was an indoor set, back in the day of film cameras and big lights. L.G. is on the floor and Tom Savini is right off the fringe of the camera pumping blood through a blood pump and a tube that goes up the back of Lou Perryman’s neck and through his hair and stops right where his hairline ends. When I start hitting him, Tom starts to pump and blood sprays all over poor L.G’s face. My hammer, though it looked like a claw hammer, was a prop made from foam rubber and it had a coat hanger core to it. So we had done maybe 12 takes of me just banging on L.G’s head and each time Tobe Hooper yelled cut we’d have to clean up L.G. and get ready to do it again. We did it over and over. I made up a whole bunch of stuff, singing “If I had a hammer” channeling Sgt. Rock comic books and hitting poor L.G. mercilessly time after time.

A few times I understood why we cut because sometimes the hammer would be bent like a pretzel.  A few times the hammer stayed true and I thought we’d done a great job. So, after we finished take 12, hot, bloody, sticky, I turned to Tobe and said, “Am I doing something wrong?” And he looked at me and said, “Hell no Bill, I’m just having fun watching you!” That was an awesome moment for me! I don’t know if that was the kindest thing any director has ever said to me, but it was one of those moments, and there have been a few, where you realize you’re into it, the director is into it, you are one with the magic of movie making. I love those moments.

Another one was a scene at the Kahiki Palms Motel, in The Devil’s Rejects when I did a very gnarly rape scene with Pricilla Barnes, it made my guts get tense, and it was a bummer of a scene, where I’m doing horrible things to Priscilla in front of her husband and my sister. I came off the set and I was very bummed out, it was so honest and accurate. Rob Zombie came up to me and I told him how upset I was and he said “Art is not safe” and that was also a moment for me where I received so much information in so few words. I’ve had a few of those moments, where you are doing what you love, everybody’s into it too, and there really isn’t a higher calling than that.

Bill Moseley has numerous projects coming out soon. Check out his IMDb page to get more info.