Adam Green took time out of his busy schedule to sit with KaneHodder.net at his ArieScope studio to talk about his relationship with Kane, near death experiences, and Hatchet 2!

I guess the beginning of your relationship would be Hatchet. I know you had been building this story since you were a kid, so once it seemed like this was going to be a reality, was Kane always in your head as the role of Victor Crowley?

Yeah, he was always in my head, because I was such a fan. John Buechler was actually the first person to get involved with Hatchet, because Sarah Elbert had just done the Friday [the 13th] box set. She was like, “You know who needs to read this is John Buechler.” He read it and said “This is great, this is like the old stuff! Who did you have in mind for this?” I said I'd really like to get this to Kane Hodder and Buechler said "DONE!". He drove out to the set of The Devil's Rejects (where Kane was stunt coordinator) and was like "Kane ya gotta read this". Kane said “Aww, I get this shit all the time” and Buechler told him, “No man. This is different. You gotta read it.” and a week later Kane called me and said, “Yeah. Let's meet for dinner and talk about this.” So I was just going out of my mind! I'm like, I gotta bring my 18” Jason, all my toys for him to sign and the producers were “No! Don't do that shit! You gotta go in like a director. You're a director!”. The whole meeting I'm sitting there (bouncing in his chair with a big smile on his face) thinking “It's Jason, man!” And then we kind of hit off right off the bat. I think he saw that I was going to handle it with a lot of heart, which I think a lot times these lower budget slasher movies people just try and crank them out. Don't really care as much?

[Kane] was the first person I showed Hatchet to when it was done. Just let him come to the edit suite and just let him see it and he called me an hour later and was... overjoyed. Since then he's just trusted me implicitly and whatever I do he's always going to be apart of.

So when Kane signed on, was it a package deal? Actor/Stunt Coordinator? Or did you approach him about the stunt work?

I told him not only would I like you for Victor Crowley, but I'd like you to stunt coordinate also, which I think he was pretty happy with. I don't think there's a better stunt coordinator in terms of safety than Kane. Like he doesn't care if he gets hurt. In Hatchet 2 he got his ass handed to him, he almost got knocked unconscious. He also tore his entire bicep muscle in a fight. At this point, Adam proceeds to show me a picture from his phone of Kane's bicep with a bruise on it the size of New Jersey. A real human being would have gone home at that point, but Kane's like “No, no. I'm good. Let's go.”

I don't really like doing stunt work, especially on things like Frozen, but I like knowing Kane's there, because everyone looks to him. He doesn't say much. He'll just look at it. If he nods, I'm like “Phew! Safe!” But if I look at him and he just slowly shakes his head, I'm like “NOPE! We're not doing this!”

With Frozen, I know it was a brutal shoot. Was it ever a question that Kane would be your Stunt Coordinator for that?

What was interesting with that, is whenever you shoot outside of [Hollywood], there's a tax incentive that comes with that. So, the people in charge in whatever state you're going to don't want you bringing in anyone from out of state. Especially in Utah. They have great film crews there. There's a well respected stunt man who lives there, so instantly they were like "He is going to do this.” I had to say, “Mmmmmmm...no...I really, really need Kane on this.”

Everyday somebody could have died on that movie, and the only one I trust is Kane. He ended up calling the producers with me just saying “Look, this isn't about the money, or what you're going to save on a tax incentive with anybody else, I just go wherever Adam goes.” Which was pretty touching to have him say that, because a lot of people are just worried about their fee. He made a lot concessions just to make sure that he was there with 'the family'. And really made a world of difference, especially for the actors, because they were terrified throughout that whole thing. After talking to him, and meeting him and knowing his background, I think it gave them a huge amount of security. My heart was in my throat that entire shoot. I still have nightmares about it. But having him standing there, and being to constantly look to him, and he's like “That's alright.” I could breathe.

And then one time something went horribly wrong, and they did almost fall and die. Everyone on the set just starts screaming and running around. He just slowly walks over and says “Nah... it's good.” And once the actors were gone, he says to me “Don't you ever panic and scream like that in front of actors! Because now they'll never fucking go back up there again!” So he went and explained to them what had happened. That they were never actually going to die.

What is your relationship with Kane on and off the set?

The one thing I can speak to you about my relationship with is that we've become such close friends. The amount of trust he puts in me, even with the first Hatchet. At our first meeting he had a lot questions. “How are you shooting this... what's that going to be... explain the tone to me. What's on the page is these jokes, then these horrific kills. What are you really doing here.” And I think because I delivered on everything I said I would, since then, he's completely trusted me. There's something else we have coming up very soon. He hasn't even seen a script yet and says he's in. It's pretty rare to have that. I think because I cast and crew based on personality more than credits, that's what really made the difference in my films. I know what I'm getting into when I go to set. I've never had to deal with a difficult actor, or prima donna. Also just the way my sets are run, even if somebody wanted to try that, I think they know that nobody is going to respond well to that. That's another good Kane story. One night on Hatchet 2, this one grip, who I found out after the fact was extremely sick with the swine flu. This guy, whatever he had to do that night... “Can you move this 2 feet?”... and the reaction was always grunts or groans. Finally Victor Crowley himself just walks right up and says “Hey! What's your fuckin' problem? Why you gotta huff and puff about this shit? Ain't that your fuckin' job? To move this shit?” and just snuffed it out like that.

My AD swallowed half a fork one day at lunch, and had to go to the hospital... we had the weirdest injuries on this movie... and my 2nd AD had to step in and he has never run a set before. He's trying to get everyone to be quiet and just yelled “SHUT UP!” and then you just hear Kane from the bushes... “Hey! You don't tell your fuckin' crew to shut up! Apologize!'”

The 2nd AD says 'Sorry!'

“Not to me! The CREW!”

We all know Kane is HUGE practical joker. What jokes can you share from the Hatchet 2 shoot?

There actually weren't too many planned this time, because it was way more complicated than the first one. Didn't have as much time for goofing around. The tone of it is a lot darker and more serious, but he still found a way to get craft service, and the set medic. He'd go hide in room somewhere on the sound stage. You'd be shooting and randomly somewhere off in the distance you'd hear someone screaming their head off. The crew actually tried to get me on this one, because for 5 movies now they've been like “We're gonna fucking get him. We're gonna get him.”, but they SUCK at it. Kane knew I was going to figure it out. We were getting ready to break for lunch. Now, if you say “Lunch!”, you've never seen anybody move so fast. So the AD was like “Wait, Adam. We have a question.” In part of Hatchet 2 we had to put some actors in a harness and fly them in the air. So the AD says “We thought it'd be cool if you could get in the harness, and we'll kind of lift you in the air and get a picture for like Facebook.” I'm looking around and the entire crew is standing around with their cameras out and I'm like, “Fuck you guys. No. You're gonna put me up on the fuckin' roof and leave me there for lunch” All the stunt guys are just like “No, no man. Just get in.” I told them “Fuck you guys.” and walked off and all you can hear is Kane in the background. “I told you guys this wasn't going to work.”

Frozen, though, has a great one. There's a scene where a wolf takes down Shawn Ashmore. And the way that we were doing the actual take-down was a German Shepard... that kind of looks like a wolf, that we painted the same color as the wolf... and this German Shepard, just for the quick take-down, it's like 13 frames, where Shawn's got his arm up with a pad and this German Shepard just comes running up and just knocks him out of the shot. 48 hours before we shot the scene, the German Shepard dies. Nobody knows why, or anything, dog just died. The trainer said:

“I have 2 other dogs up here that can do it. One of them... he'll do it once. But... if you need a second take, there's a good chance he'll go for the face.'”

“Ummm... that's not gonna work, dude.”

“Ok, the other one, is a take-down dog. That's what this dog is for. It's his best trick.”

“Fine. What's the problem?”

:It's a Border Collie.”

“What's that?”

“It's like the size of a cat.”

“That's never gonna work!”

“Nah...you shoot up at an angle. It's quick...”

“That's my only option?”

“It's either that or the wolf.”

“Fine. Just don't tell Ashmore.”

So I talk to Kane, then I go into Ashmore's trailer. I'm like, “Hey man did you hear about Mister? (the dog that died). He's says “Yeah, that's fucked up. What are we going to do?'” Ok. Trainer's got this dog...it's a wolf/mastiff hybrid. I swear to god, I've never seen a fuckin' animal this scary in my life. I don't really think this is a good idea, but Kane said he thinks it's safe.”

“Ok man, yeah, yeah. Whatever you need.'”

You can tell that he's just scared to death. So I say “Look. When you see the dog, if you don't want to do it, give me a look and I'll call it and say I'm changing it. That way you don't need to feel bad, or look like a pussy in front of the crew.'” So I leave, and I'm trying so hard not to laugh, and Kane's waiting outside. I say “Go ahead. Go in.”

Kane walks in and says,

“You see the fuckin' dog that Green wants you to fight?”

“Yeah, I hear it's really big...”

“He's lost his fucking mind. There's no fuckin' way you're doing that. I've been a stunt coordinator for 30 years. No. I'm putting my foot down.”

“Well then what do you want to do?”

'Look. Go out there. And then give me a look and I'm gonna call it. I'll just say I'm not comfortable with it.”

“Alright. Thanks!”

We get ready to shoot, and just wheel out...this fucking huge cage, and Shawn keeps staring at the cage. Now if you're in on it, you're already laughing because from inside the cage all you can hear is this little dog going 'grrrr grrrr grrrrrr'. But Shawn's legs are like shaking and (Adam makes an extremely panicked look on his face) and he's like, “Green! Green!” I just look at him and go (big smile and 2 thumbs up) and go back to what I'm doing. So Shawn goes, “uh...uh...uh...is Kane Hodder around??” Kane comes over and Shawn's just giving him the look. Over and over. Kane just stands there. Throws a thumbs up and nods his head. And now Shawn's about to throw up. And then they open the door to the cage and Shawn's all crouched waiting with his pad and this little Border Collie comes walking out. Shawn pissed himself from laughing so hard. “I fucking can't believe you guys got me!”

But the funny part is that then the Border Collie actually kicked the shit out of him. To the point that his arm was bleeding and he opted to say, “You know what? Give me the real wolf.” So in the movie, that's a real wolf on Shawn's arm. He'd rather fight the wolf, than Dart the Border Collie.

With Kane doing his first true out of the make-up work, for you in Hatchet, when do you think the initial transfer from stunt man to actor happened for him?

I think Friday 7 was the first chance he got to play... a real character. Anybody who knows those movies, even though I don't necessarily think the Friday movies he was in were the best Friday movies, he was by far the best Jason. Because he cared! Nothing against the other guys but he really loved that character. And then with Hatchet what I think really attracted him, more than anything, was the stuff out of the make-up. And the fact that Victor Crowley doesn't wear a mask, a very emotional character that he can act through the make-up with.

In the first one, and he'll tell you, it kind of changed his career, because people were seeing the scenes where he was crying, and acting and started to getting offers for all these parts out of make-up...

Like B.T.K. ...

He's great in that! He's a great actor. In Hatchet 2, more than any of the other stuff in it, people are going to really impressed with him. He's got a love scene...

Really??

That was his first day on set. And when he read it, the first thing he did was call me and say, “A love scene?!” I said to him, “You ready for this?” He said “Umm... I don't know.”

And he killed it.

What I know a lot of people are excited for is Hatchet 2.

Hatchet 2 was brutal, because I still hadn't thawed out from making Frozen. We were so ambitious with this one. The scope of it so enormous. It looks and feels like a big studio movie. Which I'm partially worried about, because the charm of the first was how low-budget it looked. Which was obviously this duct-taped together labor of love...

But it still had a good look to it. It had a slick look to it...

This one is real shiny (laughs). We didn't change the look of Victor Crowley, because I know fans would be like “What the fuck did you do?!” But it's so much more intricate and complicated. What we did this time is now he full motion of his face. The first time, what I didn't like, was that half of his face... you could see Kane... and the other half started to look like a dude in a suit. This time around, the stuff was a lot more expensive, which made it a lot better.

I know Kane has been looking for that one showcase roll to show everybody what talent and skill he has. What I've been hearing from you today is that Hatchet 2 just might be that highlight real for him.

I think this is it. The kills in this beat anything he's ever done. I think Victor Crowley, as a villain, is better than any of the other villains he's ever played. But then, there a whole long extended flashback that tells the whole story of who Victor Crowley is, where he came from, and what he is.

I think this is going to be his calling card.