Jackie Earle Haley on the 3D Elm Street Sequel: 'Maybe I Should Call the Producers!'

In many ways, Jackie Earle Haley's new status as a fanboy icon is as unlikely as the actor's comeback itself. After success as a child actor and then a long hiatus from the industry, Haley was enticed back into work through two stately dramas, All the King's Men and Little Children. Still, it's his work in Watchmen, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and the TV series Human Target -- not to mention that variable voice -- that have quickly given Haley his bona fides in the Comic-Con community.

Haley rang up Movieline this week to talk about that evolution, what he thinks of the newly announced Elm Street sequel, and what recent film gave him a "nerdgasm."

So, congratulations on last weekend's box office. Were you invested in how much the movie would make, or were you trying not to think about it?

How can you not think about that? You always hope it does well. It was a super exciting weekend. You want to wait a little while to hear the results, but you're always curious.

And then earlier this week, producers announced that there'd be a sequel shot in 3D. Had you been privy to any of that talk before the announcement was made?

I wasn't even privy to the announcement!

So this is one of the first times your hearing about it?

Yeah! I've kind of seen it on the web. I don't know how official it is.

Jackie! Shouldn't they be telling you this?

I don't even know if it's been announced. I guess maybe I should call the producers, huh? [Laughs] I have no idea what they have in mind. There's no real story, we haven't sat and chatted. I haven't thought that far ahead.

Is your excitement for the sequel dampened at all by the knowledge you now have of what the makeup process will be like?

There's definitely a love/hate there. It's very, very arduous, and it's tough to get into that makeup and stay in it all day. It's really easy to sit here and complain about it and tell you how arduous and tough it was, but it was also well worth it. It was a great experience.

You're shot in shadow so much of the time. Couldn't you appeal to the producers and say, "Look this is a really shadowy shot. Can't you give me the lighter version of the Freddy makeup?"

[Laughs] Yeah. You never know how much you want to bite into that shadow, though! Those decisions come later. You don't want to find yourself in the editing room at some point, saying, "Hey, let's break that up," and there ain't nothing there.

It's interesting how quickly you've become an object of intense fanboy interest after just Watchmen and Nightmare on Elm St. Do you feel that energy, that now you're suddenly a very boldfaced name on Ain't it Cool News?

Man, it's a big, huge warm fuzzy. It's really cool. I think the whole genre world, the comic books and sci-fi and horror, it's so incredible how passionate they are. There's a sense of propriety to the properties that they love, and that can be good and bad. [Laughs] At the end of the day, though, it's the passion that's wonderful. I've continued to understand that a bit more as time goes on, and by that, I can appreciate it more and more.

By that, I mean that when I started into Watchmen, I didn't really get the comic-book world because I was never a comics fan, but through the process of making that movie, I became a Watchmen fan. I mean, what an incredible work! I could really understand how this audience that's followed Watchmen for twenty-some years could have that sense of ownership. I've definitely felt a lot of that with Nightmare on Elm Street, and that sense of "geekism" or whatever you call it, it's set in very strong with me. I really felt like I was understanding it, finding it, digging it.

Are there moments now where you feel that "geekism" yourself?

When I saw [the remake of] Star Trek and damn near had a nerdgasm near the end of it...wow! Now I really got it. First off, it was a good movie and good on its own, but the way it lit up the franchise...I'm not a Trekkie, per se, but I've been a fan of Star Trek. I especially liked the first TV series and those movies, so to see those characters when they were young, and the way they paid homage to the original in subtle ways...man, it was a real nerdgasm experience. It was awesome.

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