Elias Koteas on Let Me In, the '80s and His Lingering Crash Resentment

A remake of the recent Swedish classic Let the Right One In, director Matt Reeves' Let Me In is the tale of a sleepy New Mexico town, circa 1983, that happens to be he new home of a predatory vampire stuck in the body of a 12-year old. For those not familiar with the original, certainly don't expect the sexy version of the vampire legend that audiences have grown accustomed to over the last few years. For starters, veteran actor Elias Koteas means business as The Policeman, the only authority figure assigned to investigate the film's series of brutal killings. Movieline caught up with Koteas today to talk over the remake, what is was like revisiting 1983, and why he still can't believe there's another movie called Crash following his own, similarly titled 1996 film with David Cronenberg.

Have you seen Let the Right One In?

I have not. And it wasn't a conscious decision on my part, somehow it just never happened. I just got caught up in the script and the making of it. Eventually I'm sure it will come around. I hear great things about it. There are a lot of people who are very ferociously pro the first one. And any ideas of a remake or another adaptation is horrifying.

I think fans of the original film will appreciate the tone of Let Me In.

From my own experience, I just saw the film for the first time last week. I was so blown away by it; it had me in tears. It was just so moving. For me, I did it a year ago and it was a beautiful experience and journey, but nothing really prepared me. When I read it, I fell in love with it. I knew that it had a lot of potential and a lot of soul. But when I saw it, it just went right through me. It made me remember, Oh, this is why I became an actor. This is why I do what I do.. If [viewers] can go in with an open mind and know that this director approached it with sensitivity and with soul, I think they'll really appreciate it.

And for people who are not familiar with the original and are thinking of this just as a vampire movie, they're going to be surprised. There are no bare-chested hunks.

No [laughs], that's true. When people ask me what it's about, I tell them, "Well, it's about a 12-year-old boy who's coping with the failure of his parents' marriage, who's coping with being bullied." And when I tell them that there's a little girl that moves in next door with her father, and she just happens to turn out to be a vampire, you can see their face glaze over. Or sometimes it just goes into a different direction. But the movie is so much more than that, it's so much deeper than that. The vampire part, I think, is really just a metaphor for dysfunction.

The film is set in 1983, but it doesn't go overboard with the '80s references. Sure, I wasn't expecting to hear two Culture Club songs, but it does a good job of reminding you that it's 1983 without hitting you over the head.

You know what? For me, I was in my early 20s in 1983, so, for me, it was like, "hey, this just seems normal." Nothing seems over-the-top, in some ways it just made me nostalgic. It's hard to believe that it's so long ago. When did that happen?

Here's the thing about movies set in the '80s: Not everyone wore parachute pants and a jacket from the "Beat It" video. In most movies, when it's set in that year, that's what we see.

You do see old footage from basketball games in the '80s -- the [shorts] are high up there, man. Also, there's no Internet, there's no Facebook, there's no cell phones. There's nothing like that. You have to get to the landline. You have to find a quarter or a dime, or whatever it was, to get to the pay phone. If you leave the house right now without your cellphone, you'd be like, "Oh my God, I'm so out of touch." At that time, there was a lot of alone time.

And it's great watching a movie set in that year that's not played for camp. It's not like your character is wearing one Michael Jackson style glove. It felt like an actual representation.

The costume designer did a beautiful job putting all that stuff together.

Did you resist the urge to take a shot at the Ms. Pac-Man or Gorf machines that were in one of the scenes?

I missed it, man! The Pac-Man... The times I spent with my high school sweetheart, you know? We spent time doing just that. Just playing Pac-Man, chewing gum, or whatever it was that 15-year-olds ferociously do.

You're playing a new character. If I remember correctly, in the original, it's the boyfriend of the woman who gets attacked that is in the bathtub scene...

Oh, interesting. I've heard a lot about that, I'm curious to see how it was if I do come across the original. I like to say, "The original." It's kind of like saying, "The original King Kong."

Well, I enjoyed watching you play a police officer because, usually, when you show up on screen, bad things seem to happen.

[Laughs] Really? I'm such a pacifist, low-key guy, man. It's crazy, I don't know why that is. I guess it's my mug. That's interesting; so someone has to fill some niche. I felt that the way he was presented, it softened him up. It was very important that you approach it in a compassionate, bearing witness sort of way. Because I'm aware of that, sometimes, being that the character was presented in a way where he doesn't necessarily affect things. He just sort of goes through things. Without giving away too much what happens to the guy, it's like he's almost having to retrace his steps an investigate where he went wrong.

Like not calling for backup when you enter an apartment?

When I saw that, my comfort was that, you know, he's in over his head. Even the way he moves around in the apartment. But, yeah, you definitely don't go down an alleyway alone without calling for backup. But I don't think he necessarily thought that; I think he's just following a hunch. It's a small town, he may be the only guy on the case, who knows?

I've always wanted to ask you this. Crash is one of the most polarizing films of the last 10 years. When you hear people complaining about Crash, does it take you a couple seconds to adjust and remember, Oh, right, they're not talking about the Crash I was in??

Yeah, I don't understand why someone would sit down and write a script and decide to name it Crash. It's a book by J.G. Ballard, it's a movie made by David Cronenberg. Why name your movie Crash? I'm going to write a movie and say, "Hey, I'm going to call it Gone with the Wind."

I'm going to write one called Star Wars.

Yeah, I'm going to write one and call it Star Wars. Not to take away from the movie itself, but why bother? Is that lack of inspiration? It didn't make any sense to me. A lot of times I think, I wonder what I would say, or does it really matter anymore? But I did find it odd that he wrote a great script but he couldn't get it together enough to find an original title. So, whatever. Onward and forward.