Horror Month – June 2015
We spoke with Ken Kirzinger known for his role as a Jason Voorhees in the New Line horror franchise crossover epic Freddy vs. Jason. He also had a small role in the previous instalment Friday the 13th Part VIII. Ken has also appeared in many films & TV shows including Wrong Turn 2 & Stan Helsing as well as stunt work on films such as Watchmen, The Cabin In The Woods and the X-Men franchise.
“Playing Jason is a gift that keeps on giving”
What inspired you to become an actor?
I got into stunt work after I blew my knee out playing college football at The university of British Columbia. I played college football and basketball in Canada and had scholarship offers from Stanford for javelin, Hofstra and Tennessee for basketball and a few other notable universities for sports, but I wanted to stay close to home.
When people ask me what my favourite stunt role is it’s hard to say, there have been so many. Acting, like stunt work affords us the ability to never grow up. I’ve been a Viking in The 13th Warrior, monsters on The Twilight Zone, MacGyver, Cabin in the Woods, Wrong Turn 2, a super hero on X Men United and on and on. One movie that jumps to mind however was doubling Jeff Goldblum on Hideaway. I broke 2 vertebrae on that movie, but the variety of stunts were fun and the driving I got to do in the opening sequence was challenging to say the least.
Playing Jason in Freddy vs Jason was one of the easiest jobs I ever had. To be honest I never even read the script. I had no lines, and my own stunt double, all I had to do was be in character and show up for work on time. Actually there was a point when we were over a week into production and they hadn’t given me a contract yet. I had to threaten to quit the show to get them to give me one. That was nerve
wracking because I knew how easily I could be replaced, but I knew how long they had been looking for a new Jason and figured they wouldn’t want to explain how they lost me to Ronny Yu the director. They finally gave me one and the show as they say went on. I never knew why they pushed not giving me a contract for so long or why my union allowed that.
After the movie Robert and I did promotional appearances together and after a radio show interview just prior to San Diego City Comic Con there were a bunch of fans waiting outside. I turned to Robert and said “Could you imagine if this was number one in the box office!?” Well it turns out it was, two weekends in a row! I saw Freddy vs Jason for the first time at an outdoor theatre with over two thousand fans and did a Q and A with Robert after. Going from a lowly stuntman to answering questions for two thousand fans was amazing! Playing Jason is a gift that keeps on giving.
As far as other projects I’d love people to check out Joy Ride 3 on Netflix now where I play Rusty Nail the psycho truck driver. Lots of good kills! And for fun look for Blackburn. It’s directed by ex stuntman turned director and my friend Lauro Chartrand. Myself and another good friend Brad Loree, who played Michele Myers in Halloween Resurrected appeared in that.
Interview with Zack Ward (Freddy Vs. Jason)
Get involved with Horror Month!
Take part in our Survey for a chance to win some horror goodies and tickets to HorrorCon UK 2015! Contest details here.
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[…] Канадский актер и по совместительству каскадер Кен Кирзингер рассказывает, что роль Джейсона в фильме «Фредди против Джейсона» была одной из самых легких для него и что он согласился сыграть этого персонажа, даже предварительно не читая сценарий. […]
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