What do the Joker, Pete Davidson, and "Family Guy" all have in common? David Howard Thornton. Turns out the Art the Clown actor is known for much more than just slicing up his victims in the "Terrifer" movies.
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00:00What do the Joker, Pete Davidson, and Family Guy all have in common?
00:05David Howard Thornton.
00:06Turns out the Art the Clown actor is known for much more than just slicing up his victims
00:10in the Terrifier movies.
00:13Growing up in Huntsville, Alabama, David Howard Thornton was a shy kid.
00:16He was first introduced to theater by his mother, who encouraged him to audition for
00:20his school's production of Mickey's Christmas Carol in the hopes it would bring him out
00:24of his shell.
00:25He wound up being cast in the lead role, playing Walt Disney's famed creation Mickey
00:29Mouse.
00:30Thornton recalled in an interview with USA Today,
00:32"...I found my love for acting, especially comedy, because things went wrong on stage
00:36and I started improvising on the spot and just started cracking jokes.
00:40For the first time ever at that school, people were laughing with me instead of at me."
00:45Realizing he thrived on stage, Thornton began landing roles in Huntsville's Fantasy Playhouse
00:50Children's Theater and wound up appearing in several productions.
00:53Thornton told AL.com,
00:54"...That's where I learned, I didn't go to school for acting, but I considered the stage
00:59my college."
01:00While he was attending college, Thornton's mother died from cancer, which caused him
01:04to have an epiphany.
01:06In the midst of attaining a degree in education, he decided to follow his dream of becoming
01:10an actor.
01:11He told USA Today,
01:12"...Life's too short not to do what you really want to do.
01:16That was my last conversation with my mom."
01:18"...And if you succeed, you succeed, if you don't, you don't, but at least you tried and
01:23you're not going to live a life with regret."
01:26After college, Thornton headed to New York City to pursue an acting career.
01:30However, success did not come overnight, so he had to initially wait tables to make ends
01:34meet.
01:35In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Thornton recalled a time during that period
01:39when his career hit a low point.
01:40He told the outlet,
01:41"...I had been up for five or six different Broadway tours, and every single one of them
01:46had fallen through at the last minute during final callbacks.
01:49So I was getting discouraged, and I was like, I'm so close to getting something."
01:53Thornton had been working primarily in theater when he learned of a low-budget horror movie
01:57looking for an actor to portray a sadistic clown.
01:59He explained to AL.com,
02:01"...I had never auditioned for any film roles before, and I wanted to get into film.
02:05I then came across this audition for Terrifier, and I was like, oh well, that looks like fun."
02:10He also felt that he definitely fit the criteria, at least in terms of his physical attributes,
02:15telling AL.com,
02:16"...they were looking for a tall, skinny guy that had clowning or physical comedy experience
02:21to play Art.
02:22I just submitted myself to the audition, and I booked it off my first audition."
02:26Having landed his major role in a horror film, Thornton felt that he had a great handle on
02:30what he could do with Art the Clown, as he was already familiar with the character from
02:34another Damian Leone film, All Hallows' Eve.
02:37However, Thornton encountered resistance from his agent, who felt that playing a masked
02:41maniac in a slasher flick was beneath him.
02:43He told The Hollywood Reporter,
02:45"...she was like, this is such a low-budget, independent film.
02:48You really don't need to do stuff like this.
02:50And I was like, well, I want to get experience in front of the camera, and this could be
02:54something I can add to a reel one day.
02:56I just want this experience."
02:58Looking back at Thornton's audition, Terrifier director Leone told USA Today the actor won
03:03him over with his over-the-top mannerisms.
03:06Leone also added that Thornton was born to play Art the Clown.
03:10With Terrifier under his belt, Thornton garnered another screen role, this time in an independently
03:15produced web series pulled from DC Comics' Batman universe, Nightwing Escalation.
03:21The series follows the adventures of Dick Grayson, who followed up being Batman's sidekick
03:25Robin by morphing into a new superhero called Nightwing.
03:29Thornton played the Joker in the series, which relied on fan contributions for its budget.
03:34Playing the Joker was so enjoyable for the actor that he's expressed his desire to reprise
03:38the role in an official DC production.
03:40He told GamesRadarPlus,
03:42"...The Joker is my favorite villain of all time, and that's a character I would love
03:46to play myself one day.
03:48So hopefully someone like DC Studios head James Gunn gives me the opportunity to tackle
03:52that character, because I would like to do a lot of fun things with him."
03:57Over the course of three Terrifier movies, Thornton's Art the Clown has committed some
04:00wildly heinous acts, like slaughtering an entire family while dressed as Santa Claus.
04:05However, the most difficult faux-murder Thornton ever committed on camera occurred in Terrifier
04:103.
04:11In the scene, Art feeds live rats to a helpless victim through a tube.
04:16Thornton told The Hollywood Reporter,
04:17"...I feel that director Damian Leone specifically put that element into this one kill scene
04:22just to see if he could break me.
04:24And it worked."
04:25However, despite there being no limits to Art's murderous depravity, there is one line
04:30that Thornton refuses to cross in the role.
04:32In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Thornton made it very clear that Art will
04:36never commit sexual assault.
04:38He told the outlet,
04:39"...it disturbs me and disgusts me, and I just think that something like that has no
04:44place on film."
04:45Thornton elaborated while appearing on the Jake's Takes podcast, explaining that he's
04:49come to a very specific take on Art's sexuality, or lack thereof.
04:54While discussing why Art is a murderer but not a rapist, Thornton said,
04:58"...I don't see him as a sexual creature, I see him as very asexual.
05:01That's just, I feel like sexuality is something that's beneath him."
05:06Shortly before being cast as Art the Clown, Thornton had recently returned to New York
05:10after being on tour with Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas the Musical.
05:15Thornton told The Hollywood Reporter,
05:16"...I understudied the fantastic Stefan Karl Stefansson, who played the Grinch, and I also
05:21played Grand Pahu."
05:22His experience portraying the classic Dr. Seuss character no doubt came in handy when
05:26he was later cast in the 2022 horror film The Mean One.
05:30In that role, Thornton didn't drift far outside his Art the Clown lane, portraying a maniacal
05:34killer with a strong resemblance to the Grinch.
05:37"...Oh, I went nuts when I first saw myself in the mirror in full makeup."
05:42Thornton clearly had a good time starring in a horror spoof of the classic animated
05:46holiday special.
05:47One of the key factors in Thornton's performance as Art the Clown is that the character doesn't
05:51speak and wears a featureless mask, expressing himself entirely through movement.
05:56For inspiration, Thornton drew on his love of silent film comedians from the early days
06:00of Hollywood.
06:01He was also inspired by the later work of actor Andy Serkis, whose gift for embodying
06:06a character through movement was on full display when playing Gollum in the Lord of the Rings
06:10movies.
06:11Meanwhile, Thornton also finds playing the role to be a great way of relieving stress
06:15by releasing any underlying rage that might be bubbling under the surface.
06:19He told USA Today,
06:21"...This is my therapy.
06:23Art therapy, I guess you could say."
06:25While growing up in Alabama, Thornton was not one of the cool kids in high school.
06:29Becoming famous, however, has brought him to a status he certainly didn't have as a
06:32teenager.
06:34This shift became apparent when he attended his high school reunion and encountered a
06:37woman who used to look down on him.
06:39Thornton said on the Building Friendships podcast,
06:41"...I could tell she still had that mentality from back in the day.
06:45That very condescending, oh, what are you doing?"
06:48"...And I was like, oh, I'm signing autographs."
06:51When Thornton explained his role in Terrifier, she immediately began singing a different
06:55tune.
06:56He recalled how her entire demeanor grew friendlier once she realized she was speaking with a
07:00celebrity.
07:01"...I looked up at her, and I was like, oh, I'm sorry, I don't remember you."
07:07There's no surer sign that Art the Clown has permeated mainstream pop culture than the
07:11character's appearance in Bupkis, the quasi-autobiographical comedy series starring Pete Davidson.
07:17In the brief scene, Davidson envisions a hallucination of Art waving at him.
07:21As it turns out, Davidson was a huge fan of the Terrifier franchise, so much so that he
07:26used to show clips of Art's murderous mayhem to other members of the cast.
07:30While appearing on Real Appreciation with David Claire Bennett, Thornton said,
07:34"...and they just show them the hacksaw scene or something like that just to mess with people."
07:40In an interview with Cinefied, Thornton confirmed his Bupkis cameo came about at the request
07:45of Davidson himself.
07:47Thornton's talents extend beyond portraying crazed killers on film.
07:51As he revealed during an appearance at the GalaxyCon fan convention, there's a whole
07:54other side to him that Terrifier fans probably don't know about.
07:58He said,
07:59"...I'm a musician as well, that's why I was a musician before I was an actor."
08:05Thornton is an accomplished voice actor who's appeared in various audio-only projects, including
08:09radio commercials and an array of character impersonations.
08:13Thornton is also a talented impressionist.
08:15More than a decade ago, he posted online a video in which he whips through more than
08:19a hundred impressions in just nine minutes, including several Family Guy characters.
08:23"...Hey Lois, heh, tell your reggae, heh."
08:29Thornton told AL.com he was originally inspired by the legendary Mel Blanc, who provided the
08:34voices of numerous cartoon characters, ranging from Bugs Bunny to Barney Rubble on The Flintstones.
08:40Thornton said to the outlet,
08:41"...I was like, wow, there's this one guy that has all these voices.
08:45I would like a job like that.
08:47And so I started teaching myself how to do character voices.
08:50Now I do over 200 of them."