EP#109 Doug Jones

Kevin Lane's Spill Your Guts

Welcome to the Spill Your Guts Halloween Special!

The Man Behind The Masks: Doug Jones Talks About What It's Like To Truly Embody A Monster

Frankenstein’s monster, the wolfman, Nosferatu (or Count Orlok to be precise) and the Phantom of the Opera. All iconic monsters of early cinema played by equally iconic actors such as Max Schreck, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney and Lon Chaney Jr. These performances have stood the test of time not only for their inspired makeup and design but because the actors portraying them found the heart in the monster. Whether it’s Karloff’s touching humanity as Doctor Frankenstein’s shunned creation or Max Schreck’s spidery skulking as one of cinema’s earliest vampires, these are the monsters that paved the way for countless monsters throughout film history.

In the current landscape of cinema monsters there is one man who casts a very, very long shadow. He has portrayed so many memorable characters that will endure that it’s hard to count. That actor is Doug Jones.

For some, Doug’s first stand out role will be as Billy Butcherson in the Halloween classic Hocus Pocus. For others, it’s Abe Sapien in Guillermo Del Toro’s hit Hellboy. For Kevin Lane, it’s his dual roles as the Faun and Pale Man in Del Toro’s dark fairy tale masterpiece Pan’s Labyrinth. And it’s in Doug Jones that Del Toro found his muse.

Doug’s almost supernatural way of communicating through movement what most actors could not say in a monologue has created a celebrated ongoing collaboration between one of genre cinema’s best filmmakers and best actors.

This episode is very special because not only do we adore Doug, but host Kevin Lane had the opportunity to sit down with Doug in person in Toronto. Listeners of Spill Your Guts may know that most of our conversations are recorded remotely. There isn't a better guest for us to have had the opportunity to speak to in the flesh!

Doug and Kevin discuss his childhood self-consciousness about his body, his early mime work and sort of meeting Christopher Walken on the set of Tim Burton’s gothic masterpiece Batman Returns, his deliciously evil role as a cannibal in Larry Fessenden’s episode of Fear Itself and his many collaborations with Del Toro, including their best picture Oscar winning film The Shape of Water.

As much as Doug has portrayed characters in many magical films, there is nothing more magical then the man himself.

Welcome to wonderous world of Doug Jones!

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