An Interview with Brian Lloyd of “Doll Graveyard”
BY KEVIN CARR
Brian Lloyd is the star of Full Moon Pictures’ “Doll Graveyard.” Lloyd, a North Dakota native, has been seen on “CSI: NY” and “Huff.” His upcoming films include “Candy Stripers” and “Bald.” Excerpts from the interview follow.
Hear the entire interview…
7M: WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO WORK ON “DOLL GRAVEYARD”?
It was a hell of a lot of fun to make that film. It was the first bit of work that I got to do. Working with Charlie ended up being one of the neatest experience I’ve ever had. That was just a fun character. I enjoyed playing that real redeeming Stifler character.
7M: HAD YOU KNOWN ABOUT FULL MOON BEFORE AUDITIONING?
I had met Charlie for the callback audition, and I really didn’t know who the guy was. I knew what “Puppet Master” was and “Troll” and “Ghoulies,” but I wasn’t a horror aficionado like Charlie is. I didn’t know what to expect, and the thing exceeded my expectations a hundred fold. I got a new appreciation for this thing. Charlie didn’t pull any punches. His movies are what they are. They’re a lot of fun, and you get a kick out of them.
7M: WHAT WAS THE SHOOTING SCHEDULE LIKE?
I think we shot in twelve or thirteen days over four or five weekend stretches. It’s not like you had one take, but it’s not like you had a million takes.
7M: DID YOU LIKE THAT PACE?
I didn’t know anything different. I thought it was great. As an actor, your job is to make something work and to take direction. If Charlie wanted to change things up, you’d make an adjustment and you’d go with it. Hell, I loved it. I was kinda a meat-and-potatoes kid, so I didn’t do any theatre growing up. I wasn’t the actor kid. I was a sports kid, and I was in college and a fraternity and the student government.
7M: WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING WITH PUPPETS?
They had to wait on those obviously a little bit. It was challenging kinda in the fun way because you gotta try to make this flashy effect, so you’ve got the puppet guy pushing this thing forward and you’ve gotta be giving a reaction and trying to make it at the same time that it’s half believable.
It was the old puppeteering where there were two long stick handles and that’s how [the puppeteer] would move them. Then they would just CGI out the sticks. Consider for what the movie was made, it looks pretty darn good.
7M: TELL US ABOUT OOGA-BOOGA, THE DOLL THAT KILLS YOU.
If you gotta go out, you might as well go out with a blaze of glory. I guess that’s like the real deal. Charlie researched these things, and that’s what people would call these things back in the day. I gotta go with what the man says. He loves them.
They make these things to scale, and they’re real intricate. All I know is that below that little satchel thing he was wearing makes a guy feel pretty inadequate, if you know what I mean. The guy was impressive. I’m just glad I didn’t have any girlfriends running around because I would have lost them to him right away.
7M: WERE YOU HAPPY WITH THE FINAL CUT?
Believe me, a DP and an editor can be an actor’s best friend. They can make you look brilliant or like a complete jackass. It exceeded my expectations like you wouldn’t believe. It was fun, for going into what it is, it’s an entertaining little movie.
7M: ANY CHANCE YOU’LL BE IN THE SEQUEL?
Myself and Scott Seymour that played Tom we were pitching it – “The Return of Rich and Tom” – to no avail.
7M: WHAT DID YOU FAMILY THINK?
I go, “Whattaya think, mom?” And she kinda smiled and laughed and said, “I think you did a good job of getting progressively drunker.” That’s right, four and a half years of college, and my money was good for something.
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