Final Destination 5's Tony Todd Names His Favorite On-Screen Brushes with Death

After spending so many years in the world of horror films, is it still fun to kill or be killed onscreen?

Yeah, because you know, I live and breathe, I've got to give it a healthy outlook. It's not like I got my master's and said, 'I want to go to horror film class,' it's the luck of the draw. And I'm fortunate, because for every one person that's working there's at least, what, three thousand out of work? I'm just talking actors, not even the rest of the country. So I'm continually being asked to play, to come join the party, and it's a blessing.

Can you tell us about the role you went out for today?

No, because I don't have it yet. But it's a redo of a very iconic '70s television show. I'll give you a big clue: It had three women in it.

Aha!

Very short list. I went in today and laid down nine pages of voice-over.

You are known for that voice!

That would be awesome, so we'll see. At least I'm not up against Ricardo Montalban, or James Earl Jones. [Laughs]

How do you see things when you look back on your career, how things evolved for you over the years? Platoon, for example, was one of your very first films, and yet your horror work has dominated your career.

Well, the battle's not over yet. I have a bunch of stuff in the can that hasn't come out yet. One in particular is a movie called Sushi Girl. Mark Hamill's in it, James Duvall, Andy Mackenzie, Sonny Chiba, Danny Trejo, Michael Biehn, Jeff Fahey...

That's such a fantasy cast for genre nerds of all stripes.

It is! The fact that these guys were able to get everybody in the same room at the same time for three weeks is incredible. But it's creating quite a buzz and it's definitely the best role of my life.

Why so?

The character has a strong beginning, middle, and end -- he's got a great arc. He's a complete dominant sociopath, in the most deviously likable ways. It was just a great guy to get under his skin, or to let him get under my skin. And headlining a cast like that? Come on, now. You're only as good as your weakest link, so for that one they gave me really good targets, no pun intended. The only person we didn't get was Malcolm McDowell.

I find the idea of seeing Sonny Chiba interacting with this cast to be especially intriguing.

Oh, he is such a classy guy. We went out and had a sushi dinner with him, and hearing him talk about his experiences in the '60s, being an icon then... You know, he's still happy, he's still resonant, he's vibrant as ever. And Mark Hamill is the same way -- you can't get more pop cultural than that.

What's the current status of Eerie, PA, which is set to mark your directorial debut?

You know, the stock market crashed. We had half the money raised and then everything went kaput. So we're in a rebuilding period, but now with a couple of these successes out there it will be a little easier to get it done again. I'm going to be talking to New Line in particular about it, and once they see the numbers that they expect come this weekend, that'll be fantastic.

What spurred you to make this your first film as director? You've described it as a sort of Midnight Cowboy meets Boxcar Bertha.

That's my baby, it's a non-genre project about a couple of smal-town bookies that get in over their heads. They have a timeline to come up with the money, or else, and it becomes a test of their loyalty to each other and to the city that they live in. I was inspired because I went to visit Erie, PA, and it's a town that's just lost in the '70s -- complete with mullet haircuts and attitudes, racism and so forth.

It's also where the real-life pizza bomb incident that inspired 30 Minutes or Less took place.

Yes, that's right! It happened right there. So that's the kind of thing that happens, it's filled with Hardee burger shops and Dairy Queens. I did a lot of research and in the 1800s it was one of the most profitable cities in America because of the railroad and the Erie Canal and all that. Then it just sort of started disintegrating.

And you'd like to get actors you've previously worked with onboard?

Yeah, well part of the director's job is 90 percent casting, right? If you hire the right person for the job, that's that much less you have to do on set and you can focus on how the shot looks, and so forth. And also I like giving back. I've been lucky in that I have a lot of friends who are in the business, I'm not the type of guy that blows up on set and I'll never speak to you again, and that's benefited me at least in terms of relationships with directors. There are quite a few that I've worked with more than once and that, to me, should be the goal in life -- if you get it right, all things being equal, why not work with someone you get along with?

Who would you like to cast?

A guy that sort of spurred me to writing it, because that was my major when I was getting my master's, but when I went to New York the acting came first, was a guy named Bob Sachetti. He's nobody you've heard of but he was one of the best acting students in my [class], he's currently working as a sound man. So I wrote it for me and him to do. I've talked to a whole bunch of people who've said yes, but I've just got to wait for the actual day and see who's available. I want Lewis Black to be in it. We'll see.

Final Destination 5 is in theaters Friday. Read Movieline's review here.

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