Playing a character as sick and depraved as Art the Clown from the "Terrifier" series has to mess an actor up a little, doesn't it? As it turns out, the man who dons the makeup has a method to keep his humanity intact.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Playing a character as sick and depraved as Art the Clown from the Terrifier series has
00:04to mess an actor up a little, doesn't it?
00:07As it turns out, the man who dons the makeup has a method to keep his humanity intact.
00:12Back when Art was just one of many twisted killers in director Damian Leone's short films,
00:17Leone's friend Mike Giannulli played him.
00:19Art was recast for 2016's Terrifier, with actor David Howard Thornton taking on the
00:23role and defining the character as an unhinged killer, with a cheeky side.
00:28Leone's darkly comedic take on the sadistic clown gave Art a perversely memorable personality
00:33that turned him into a burgeoning slasher icon.
00:37Terrifier 3 is making mint meat of the box office, securing the number one spot in its
00:41opening weekend and earning nearly $46 million domestically as of the making of this video.
00:48Not every audience member is making it through the whole thing, though.
00:51The opening scene reportedly caused walkouts at its UK premiere, with one person said to
00:55have lost the contents of their stomach in the process.
00:58It seems, then, that when Thornton claimed one scene in Terrifier 3 almost made him vomit,
01:03it wasn't just a shrewd marketing ploy.
01:05It was actually the scene that made me huh, that kind of surprised us, I was like, dang
01:10you Damian.
01:11Before that, the actor remained remarkably unfazed by the horrific acts portrayed in
01:16the Terrifier films, and it seems that might have to do with a subtle trick he uses when
01:20in character.
01:21The actor told Dread Central,
01:23As soon as I understand the character, I can become the character, so it really doesn't
01:27do anything to me mentally, except it's made me a little bit more creative in life.
01:32When people upset me and stuff like that, I'm like, I wonder how I could turn this into
01:36a kill.
01:38Thornton quite clearly has a good time playing Art.
01:40He landed the gig after a nasty bit of improv during his audition, which saw him salting
01:44an imaginary decapitated head and instantly winning over Leone.
01:49Since then, the actor has brought that grim comedic sensibility to Art, who remains disturbingly
01:53silent throughout his various killing sprees.
01:56To find out a little more about Thornton's process, Slash Films' Jacob Hall sat down
02:01with the actor to pick his brain just before the Terrifier 3 premiere of Fantastic Fist.
02:06He said of being silent,
02:07Even though I don't have lines, per se, I'm always making up my own dialogue in my head,
02:12just so I have something to go off of, motivation-wise and also beat-wise.
02:17Hello, hello, hi, hi, come on over, come on over, it's fine, yeah, ha, ha, ha, ha.
02:25The actor likened the experience to performing comedy, adding,
02:28You have to have those certain beats that you have to hit there so the joke lands the
02:32right way, and I'm constantly just making up my own dialogue and it helps me out a whole
02:36lot on set and everything, if people only heard the things I'm thinking in my head.
02:41Before becoming a slasher star, Thornton had his sights set on different things.
02:46He earned a degree in elementary education and made YouTube videos of himself doing voices
02:50and impressions.
02:51Between stints as Art, Thornton has actually landed a few VO roles in film and TV.
02:57That makes it even more strange that his best-known role is totally silent.
03:01He said,
03:02One thing that was a definite challenge for me for playing Art was that it was something
03:06I had to change about how I approach a character, because beforehand, I would try to find the
03:10character's voice, and it seems like once I found how that character talked, everything
03:14else would fall into place — my posture, everything like that.
03:19Thornton did end up devising what Art's voice was, but in a different way.
03:23He said he built the character off of his physicality, thinking of Art's voice as his
03:27face and his body.
03:29He added,
03:30It was a fun challenge to undertake, but now it's become so second nature to me after three
03:34films.
03:35Considering that Terrifier 3 turned out to be an absolute smash and that Terrifier 4
03:40is already in the works, it seems he'll get plenty more opportunities to make mayhem as
03:44Art.