"Devilish" Ron Perlman

If you are old enough to have been watching t.v. ten years ago, you might remember a very popular series called "Beauty and the Beast" in which lovely Terminator fighter Linda Hamilton fell for an underworld guy who wasn't quite human. He looked like a big lion, in fact. Unique actor Ron Perlman was able to project a fantastic humanity and pathos through his make-up to create a very well-loved character. He's done it again, as the big red devil-dude Hellboy, a devil's spawn who just wants to be a regular guy and get the girl. We chatted with the actor about his very personal struggle with looking "different" as a kid, his love and respect for the comic book character and his wonderful ability to make strange-looking characters live, breathe and emotionally touch us.

TeenHollywood: Had you ever read the Hellboy comic before doing this film?

Ron: I'm a huge fan of the comics now. I was told about Hellboy moments after (director) Guillermo (Del Toro) first met with (creator) Mike Mignola about the idea of adapting it to the screen. And I refused to allow myself to become emotionally involved because I really never believed that it would be me playing it. You don't want to fall in love with some chick only to see some other guy going down the aisle with her. So I refused to allow myself to indulge in the universe of Hellboy, even though I was peripherally introduced to him on that evening. Guillermo said: 'I've now been given the rights to adapt this and in a perfect world, I'd like to see you play the guy'.

TeenHollywood: When was that?

Ron: That was six years ago, and it took that long to prevail. Once they greenlit the project and approved me, then I went out and bought every nuance of Hellboy you could possibly get and steeped myself (in it) and fell in love with the world, the universe and all the characters.

TeenHollywood: Guillermo describes this as "the Beast and the Beast" because of Hellboy's love for another being who is a little weird. You've starred in "Beauty and the Beast".

Ron: I see where you're going. It does seem to be a running theme. But, I feel great about that, because I've always felt there were aspects of me that were monstrous that you can either hide from or confront, embrace and understand that those are aspects that make you unique and define you and motivate you as a human being. This affected my every thought, the way I composed myself, the way I carried myself. Life became a question of dealing with this monstrousness in one way or another. One certainly becomes afraid of being judged on that level, (appearance) or one finds a way to understand and make friends with that monster and understand that that's the very thing that makes you who you are. That's your emotional and spiritual fingerprint.

TeenHollywood: So these feelings started with you were a kid?

Ron: It started when I was a kid. I don't think I'm the only person who feels that way about himself but I get a chance as an actor to grapple with those things.

TeenHollywood: Would it be fair to call this a demon which you've eventually conquered?

Ron: I don't think I've conquered it. I just think I've learned to live with it. And I honor it and I make peace with it. And I don't think I'm any worse than anybody else on earth because of these aspects of myself that are hideous. I don't think I'm any worse off because I think the only people I'm interested in are those that are in touch with their monstrousness. I'm not interested in guys who walk with a swagger and think that they own the world and that they're entitled to better things or more things than I am because they have nothing "wrong" with them. I'm not interested in those people. Those people bore me. I'm interested in the Hellboys and the Vincents.

TeenHollywood: You have a great ability to make character shine through all the make-up. How do you do that?

Ron: When you're working under Rick Baker's makeup, you're not hindered. You're augmented. It's something I learned when we saw the very first makeup test. The DP brought his whole crew so he could experiment with filters and lighting and find the best way to light this particular makeup. And the camera came on and one of the secretaries at Rick Baker's was asking me if I had the keys to my car since I was blocking somebody in the driveway. And I had just sat there for 12 f****** hours having people poke me and prod me and she's asking me for my car keys? I'm looking at her and you can tell exactly how I felt. You could tell what I was thinking, what I wanted to say. That was the first image I ever saw of Hellboy, and I said to myself: my god, I don't have to do anything. You can see exactly what I'm thinking. So that was very liberating, to know there was no adjustment necessary. Just put it on and make that slight adjustment to who you see in the mirror, put a little of his swagger in there.

TeenHollywood: Part of your physique is a suit but did you have to bulk up, slim down?

Ron: I had to slim down. I was at my fighting weight for Hellboy. But I lost 45 pounds from the time I heard that they were going to start the project. I thought I was just a neutral kind of palette on which to put the color, and that the leaner I was, the more the suit would speak. But I also had to be in good shape endurance wise because of the physical arduousness of the shoot.

TeenHollywood: How did you get through a 12 hour make-up application?

Ron: I was wearing as great a makeup as had ever been created in the history. As great a makeup without equivocation, in terms of its suppleness, its startling beauty, its sexiness, its formidable power, its fierceness, its vulnerability — all these things were in that makeup. And what an honor it was to be the guy, to put that on and transform himself into that other entity. It was the furthest thing from an imposition. It was suiting up everyday like The Last Samurai. There was a ceremony to it that I found to be elevating and uplifting.

TeenHollywood: You have a son. What's it like for you and him to see your big red picture on billboards?

Ron: He kind of digs driving down Third Street and having this bus over here — the whole way to school, it's riding along beside us. He's having a good year.

TeenHollywood: Have any fans of the comic come up to talk to you yet?

Ron: The screenings have just started within the last week and a half and some of the hard-core fans we've invited to come to this early screenings. They've anticipated this as anyone else because they have a very sort of proprietary insane desire to make sure we don't f*** this up. Guillermo has always been acutely and desperately interested how the true hardcore Hellboy fans are feeling about this process. And he's very respectful, because he is one of them. This guy loves him as much as we do. He is entitled to tell his version of the story because we're pretty sure he's paying homage to Mike Mignola (the comic creator and not trying to improve upon him. It was desperately important to me that I wasn't overstepping his creation, that I was living in this place that he had intended. My god, I could play Hellboy every day for the rest of my life and probably never get tired of it.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.