Rob Zombie Interview: Talks Upcoming Projects and Why Musicians Are Horrible Actors

Renowned horror film director, screen writer, producer and heavy metal frontman Rob Zombie is best known for his work on ‘The Devil’s Rejects,’ ‘Halloween,’ ‘Halloween II’ and other projects in both television and film.

He recently finished production his latest film ‘The Lords of Salem’ and when we spoke to him he talked all about being a film director and it’s challenges. Mr. Zombie also dished on his upcoming projects and why he thinks musicians are terrible actors.

Can you give us an update on the status of two potential projects – ‘Tyrannosaurus Rex’ and ‘Werewolf Women of the SS?'

Well neither of those are film projects I’m working on, ‘Werewolf Women of the SS’ was just what it was, it was a fake trailer for a Quentin Tarantino movie. That’s all it was ever suppose to be, it was never going to be a full movie. ‘Tyrannosaurus Rex’ is a script that I wrote, that I have but it’s not planned anytime soon. We finished ‘Lords of Salem’ and I’ll be doing music for the next year and a half within that year in a half maybe we’ll do ‘Tyrannosaurus Rex’ maybe not. I don’t know what the next movie is – we’ll figure that out.

What would you say you’re goal is as a film director?

I mean I don’t really have one goal. My goal is to keep making films and grow as a film maker that’s always my goal. I don’t want to just make horror movies, I don’t want to just make any type of movie -  I don’t just like horror movies, I love movies. Horror movies are just one small snippet of the things I like. It’s a tough industry because it changes all the time, you can just look at your local multiplex and what you can go see because it becomes very very limited. It’s very hard to make unconventional movies these days and get them released on a wide scale, I mean I’ve been able to do it almost every single time but it is very, very difficult. Just getting movies made is difficult because it takes a lot of money, I mean it costs more money to make one movie than most bands will spend on every single record of their entire career, it’s a huge undertaking.

Are there any current renowned actors or actresses you would like to direct?

Oh there are tons of people that I love. Josh Brolin is an actor that I really, really like, he’s fantastic. I worked with him once, he’s a really great actor. I think Josh Brolin right now is the most interesting actor.

What heavy metal musician do you think would make the best creepy character in one of your horror films?

Probably none of them, I find musicians are terrible actors. [Laughs] That’s not a flag on anybody but  -  I found that ‘cause actors have this weird thing that they can, sometimes as people they are very boring but they can morph into other people. Whereas musicians are so the persona that they are that I don’t think they really have the ability to break that down to be anyone else.

I mean I’m trying to think of someone who I’ve seen in a movie, a musician that I thought was a great actor, man I don’t know. Kris Kristofferson, he was good. [Laughs] Yeah just because their persona has totally taken their lives to a point where they can’t drop it and they always want to look good and be cool whereas actors don’t care, actors are fine if they look like idiots – they don’t have that filter. Musicians are so worried about being cool that they look so self-conscious on camera.