RANT&REEL
ROBERT
ENELONE
"He is a cautionary tale to all the adults
out there. Freddy is pollution. Freddy is
evil. Freddy is what's wrong with the
world and youth recognizes it first, and
the parents, the adults, the power
weilders are weary of the recognition,
and the children are frustrated..."
Robert Englund began his
acting career when he was
twelve in
a professional
children's theatre. In October of
1968 he turned seriously profes
sional. Since then, he's played
the part of Judas in Godspell in
New York and starred in
numerous spots on television
and feature films, including,
most recently, the part of the in-
famous child killer Freddy
Krueger in the continuing saga
of "Nightmare on Elm Street"
horror movies.
Although he grew up on the
valley side of Topanga Canyon,
he maintained an intimate rela-
tionship with the ocean as an
early surf enthusiast. He
pioneered the surf in Ventura
County when the only locals
were farmers, sessioned North
Bay and Hollywood-by-the-Sea
in '62 with the likes of Dan
Merkel. This background
proved beneficial to his acting
He is the
nightmare in
white America and he's
reminding you that you can't
escape 171 Racism, pollution,
child molestation, child abuse,
alcohol, drugs. He'll take
advantage of every flaw you've
got, because he relishes your
pain.
IN EUROPE
So I'm in Paris, and it's
great. I can't make at
mistake. I hear the best jazz I've
ever heard in my life and
everything is goin' perfect. I'd.
do talk shows with a thing in my
ear where it's being instantly.
translated. Macho shit, y'know.
I'm on with, like, Alan Tanier.
Alan Tanier and Freddy.
Krueger! Because over there,
there's more respect for horror
films. It's 'Cinema Fantastique.
They love it because they can't
do it. The French can't do two
things. They can't rock n' roll and they can't make horror movies.
So anybody that can, they just think is unbelievable.
Interview/Photographs by M.Fo
career when he landed a part in the surf epic "Big Wednesday." The
present finds Robert directing his first feature-length film, produced
by Lisa Hansen, and entitled "976-EVIL."
The following are excerpts from an extremely candid discussion with
Robert in his comfortable Southern California home. Portions of this
article are crude, so discretion is advised.
ROBERT'S DEFINITION OF FREDDY
Freddy, an existential anti-hero. He is a cautionary tale to all the
adults out there. Freddy is pollution. Freddy is evil. Freddy is what's
wrong with the world and youth recognizes it first, and the parents,
the adults, the power wielders are weary of the recognition, and the
children are frustrated. Freddy goes to the most private part of their
domain, their diaries, where they hide their Kotex, where they put
their prophylactics, their bedroom, their adolescent bedroom. Freddy
is there, he knows if you've been good or bad, so be good for God
damned sake.
Freddy! Nightmare on Elm Street! C'mon all you THRASHER
creeps! Elm Street! The last time you guys read anything was Dick
and Jane, the primary reader to try and teach you to be a literate
generation. Look, Dick!, See Jane, see Dad, see Spot, running
up. Elm Street.
Elm Street, Wes Craven, an artist.
Elm Street. The classic WASP, white, Anglo-Saxon protestant,
white, safe, midwestern place to dwell. Who's there? Who's there?
WHO'S THERE!? Who's in your mother's drawer? Fred Krueger-
he is the Nightmare on Elm Street. He is the nightmare in a suburbia.
Anyway, here's what I am, I'm on the cover of a French magazine
at Morrison's grave.
I was in Rome during Chernobyl and the Libyan thing. I had no
idea I was this big star. Not from Elm Street, but V, this television
series that'd been showing over there. It's unbelievable, I'm like Larry
Hagman over there. It's nuts, it's insane. I was torn out of a Mercedes
and passed over a crowd, and I shared a suite with Joan Collins,
that's how sick it was. But I gotta tell you, I avoided looking like an
American for weeks. I dressed as G.Q. as I could pass. Finally, I
was out of clothes. One thing that you forget is that they don't know
how to do wash over there. So I'm running out of clothes. I wind
up putting on an old letterman jacket, and a Hobie t-shirt, faded 501's,
and I bought a pair of Italian brown loafers. My socks were dirty.
I'd taken them all to the concierge. I went to "Harry's Bar" in Florence
Got the best table there because everybody is in to Americans there.
Same exact thing in Paris.
One night, in Paris, I went to a great place, it was like an
"alcoholic-late-twenties-we work for the government-let's party
on the weekend" place. This place was called of all things,
"Washington Square Bar & Grill," off the Champs d'Elysees, right
near the Arc de Triomphe. All the artifacts on the wall are primo jock
design stuff. So there's like the best propeller you've ever seen, the
best early laminated snow ski, the best snow shoes you've ever seen,
the best L.L. Bean canoe hanging from the ceiling. Jean Claude
Killy folding bitchin' froggy ski-chairs. All this stuff is old, except the
full-f-skateboard up there. It's a Darth Vader, about a four or five
year-old skateboard. When I say Darth Vader, I'm talkin' a Trans Am
black. Real black, progressive. It's up there, really cool. I saw a lot
of skateboarders in a neighborhood over by the canals in Paris.
Wanna hear my La Bamba story? Wanna hear my real La Bamba
story?
Because I'm old, as old as Skipper Engblom. I'm an old man..
I learned how to dress cool sitting on a curb, practicing how to spit,
parrallel lines of spit, okay, and watching four guys in my
neighborhood play, after school, winter, sun going down, slap hard
on the hips, touch football in the street. The guys wore horseshoe
taps on their perfect black loafers, and when they would run out and
go for a pass they'd slide and their heels would spark. And I sat
there, practicing how to spit and trying to learn how to tuck in my
shirt with my skinny belt pulled over to the side. This was in Topanga
Canyon. One of the guy's name was Kenny Martinez, the other guy's
name was Pat Ludwig. The kid who lived next door to him, his name
was Gary Geneezer. Gary was the
guy who invited them to our
neighborhood to play.
football. Pat Ludwig
had a sister named
Donna Ludwig.
She dated a guy with bad skin from Pacoima, named Richie Valens.
He wrote a song for her called "Oh Donna."
I had the first pool in our neighborhood. My dad's real successful;
he built the U2, y'know. He sent money to Gary Powers in the Soviet
Union. We had the first really nice twenty-by-forty foot pool, with
double lapped tile, and this girl comes over. Well, I'm a water dog.
I'm into full, back one-and-a-halfs by the time I'm twelve years old.
We played a game called, "Strip Monopoly." She'd rub me and I'd
play with her.
She goes on her first date at the age of fourteen and a half. She
goes through the windshield, decapitated! Full, high Catholic mass,
open casket. I am chosen to be one of the pallbearers. And I'm with
Pat Ludwig, Gary Geneezer and Kenny Martinez, the guy who
sparked when he went out for a long pass. I look in the open thing,
and they've taken the head and they've sewn it back on, and they
put that awful, garish Madonna make-up on her. I'm lookin' in there
and I lose it, man. I'm gonna vomit in the open casket, and these
greasers grabbed me and held me up for the whole forty-five minutes.
Richie Valens' girlfriend's brother saved my life-my first, major, be-
a-grown-up-time in my life-and taught me how to dress.
ON BIG WEDNESDAY
I got to hang out with a couple of guys that I idolized as
a kid. That was really worthwhile. The original script for
that movie was so great. John Milius, who wrote and
directed it, does not enjoy the collective, aesthetic
process of filmmaking. He thinks there's
something sissy about it. He doesn't like
casting, and he lost his attention to detail
on the look of that moment of time, what
people really looked like. He also lost the
ultimate pay-off, which involves Gary
Bussey, the sort of John Belushi
"Animal" guy, who does great work
in the movie. The button of the movie
was when Gary Bussey returns;
he's a vegetarian from Santa
Cruz with an old beat up MG,
he still rides longboards, he's
got a beard, his wife's nurs-
ing a baby and they're
eating French bread as
they drive down Big Sur
to come to Big Wednes
day. In other words, the
most animalistic guy in high
school is the first one to zen
out, and the guys that zen out are
the guys that go nuts when they're
35 and 40. John made that point
and then didn't shoot it. If you look
at that movie carefully, Gary ►
Detail of storyboard for "976-EVIL." In this
scene, Angela (Marla Rubel) discovers Aunt Lucy
(Sandy Dennis) has been devoured by cats. Hoax
(Stephan Jeffries) turns reptilian and says, "Cat got
your tongue?" Left: Glare of Robert Englund.
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