When Sid Haig died, did you ever consider just calling it -- canceling the movie entirely?
Here’s how it went down: we’d been prepping the movie for about a year, and a couple of weeks before we were actually about to start shooting, Sid was supposed to come in for some wardrobe fittings and different things, and he kept canceling. I didn’t think anything of it -- whatever, it didn’t matter, it didn’t seem like an emergency. Then about three weeks from the first day of shooting, he called me and said, ‘I’ve been in the hospital. That’s why I haven’t been showing up. And I’m still in the hospital.’
And at that point, it kind of goes into a tailspin because...making movies is fucking crazy, man! A couple weeks from starting, all the sets are built, the crew’s been working, you’ve already spent tons of money, the studio’s expecting a movie, so you reach a point of no return at a certain point. So we decided to visit him in the physical rehab facility -- we knew he was old, so we thought, 'Maybe he’s just recovering from surgery and he’ll get better faster.' But he really wasn’t getting any better, and the insurance company wouldn’t clear him to work. At that point, I quickly reconfigured the movie with a new character because -- well, we had to do something!
READ THIS: Never turn your back on a clown: Remembering Sid Haig
Was Richard Brake already attached to the film, or did you have to call him in at the last minute?
He wasn’t involved at all. He was in Spain making a different movie -- I didn’t even know if he was available. I knew he would be perfect, because I’d just worked with him [on 31], and I really like how he works, and I knew he would fit in great. He’d already worked with Sheri, and I knew they had a great chemistry, and I thought he’d work well with Bill. I called him up in Spain, and he was just wrapping a movie. We were already shooting when he showed up. He got on set, got into wardrobe, and boom -- he was there instantly. He probably studied his lines on the plane ride over.
How did you go about creating the Foxy character to replace Captain Spaulding?
My goal was for him not to be the same character -- though technically, he was replacing him. He’s a totally different actor playing a totally different role in a totally different way. Most of the scenes that’s he’s in were supposed to be Spaulding, but I rewrote everything that happens. He wasn’t saying the same dialogue or anything like that.
What was it like coming back to these characters all this time later?
Well, the last movie was 15 years ago, and every once in a while I’d think about it, because every year the characters get more popular, the cult of the movie grows larger. Every time we would show Devil’s Rejects somewhere, in Australia or France or whatever, the screenings would instantly sell out. The demand for the characters was there, but I thought, ‘Eh, I’ll probably never do it.’
But more and more years would go by, and it wasn’t until about three years ago that I thought, 'I’m going to really do this. I’m going to write the script, see how I feel, and if the script makes sense and people are on board with it, then we’ll do it. If the script doesn’t make sense, and other people said, Eh, this isn’t going to work, I wasn’t going to force it.' It had to come naturally. And it did -- day one of shooting, when Bill and Sheri were working together on the first day, and it was like no time had gone by. It was very strange, how little time had gone by. I thought it would take them a while to get back into character, ramp up, get their vibe going, but it was instant, which was very strange.