Ron Perlman Interview The Big Ugly

Ron Perlman Interview: The Big Ugly

Ron Perlman, star of Hellboy and Sons of Anarchy, talks about his latest film, the cross-cultural thriller, The Big Ugly, starring Vinnie Jones.

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Ron Perlman Interview The Big Ugly

British mobsters seek fame and fortune in rural West Virginia. This is the basic setup for The Big Ugly, a new drama/thriller produced by and starring Vinnie Jones. Directed by Scott Wiper, The Big Ugly follows Jones, an enforcer for Malcolm McDowell’s old-school British gangster, whose personal grievance against the son of the local oil baron threatens the quiet town and the lives of its residents.

Ron Perlman co-stars as the aforementioned local oil baron, and his time-tested brand of macho charisma shines through in every scene he steals. Perlman is no stranger to playing honor-bound tough guys, having starred as Clay Morror in FX’s critically-acclaimed biker drama, Sons of Anarchy. In The Big Ugly, his character is bound by his word, but his word is absolute. For better or worse, he does not compromise his values for anyone or anything.

While promoting the release of The Big Ugly, Ron Perlman spoke to Screen Rant about his work on the film and his career in Hollywood. He talks about digging deep in order to play the role of Preston, a character who might be flat or reductive in the hands of another actor. He talks about his friendship with Vinnie Jones, and laments the commercial failure of one of his favorite projects, the underappreciated Asher, which he made with his own production company, Wing and a Prayer Pictures.

The Big Ugly is out now in select theaters and drive-ins, and in virtual cinema and on VOD/Digital July 31.

Ron Perlman Interview The Big Ugly

I want to break the ice with you to get the ball rolling. Hopefully this isn’t too random, but did you grow up as Ron, Ronnie, or Ronald?

The only one I didn’t grow up with was Ron. Ronald was something I heard my mom say when I knew I was in trouble. Probably Ronnie was the most prevalent moniker of my formative years. And Ron was a show-biz thing. I needed the onomatopoeia of finding a sound that would go with Perlman. So it just seemed to flow. That’s when “Ron” was born.

Well, it’s clearly working for you!

Whether it is or it isn’t, I’m stuck with it!

You play tough guy roles that embrace manhood, but also condemn the toxic masculinity that so often runs amok in any culture run by guys. Preston is one of those guys who is right down the middle, where his machismo is sometimes for the better, like that first scene with the flag, which was so awesome, and sometimes for the worse, with a lot of the other decisions he makes in the movie. Are you drawn to roles like that, or would you just say you have the right face for it?

I’m just drawn to anything that’s well-rendered. When I start to read something, I’m not looking for something in particular other than to be delighted by the intelligence of the writer’s depiction of the world he’s exploring. And also, humanity in I’m being asked to consider being a part of. With Preston, this guy was such a compendium of incongruities, so the trick was to try and figure out, “What is the persona of a man who can be an oil man but also a conservationist, but also be a tough, complete OG, cock of the walk, type A personality, but also have a big heart and all of the things that one needs to be a generous, forgiving father?” And he had all these qualities, so it was going to be interesting how to figure out how to fit the ball into one guy. I found it to be a phenomenal opportunity for myself as an actor. A real challenge. I admire all of Preston’s values a great deal. I really wanted to play him.

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Ron Perlman Interview The Big Ugly

Was it a situation where the script kinda floated across your desk, or did the director approach you? What was the process of getting it?

Vinnie approached me. Vinnie co-produced the movie with Scott, and Vinnie was the one who got almost everything that you see onscreen. Aside from the script and the direction, everything was provided for by the great Vinnie Jones. As it turns out, he’s a phenomenal producer. He raised all the money himself. Almost all the actors were there because he sent the script around and begged them to give it a read, myself included. Vinnie is somebody who you want to say yes to, just because he’s such a beautiful cat. But when he gives you something like this, it’s holy sh*t, this isn’t just a yes, it’s an enthusiastic, “I can’t wait, where do you need me and when?” So it’s a real pleasure.

How long have you known Vinnie, if I may ask?

I’ve known Vinnie on and off for maybe about ten years. We had never worked with each other, but we’d seen each other socially a lot. We played a little golf together, did a lot of charity work together. And we’re constantly saying, “One of these days, one of these days,” and he picked a good one, man. He picked one I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into.

Did you shoot in West Virginia?

Kentucky.

Had you been there before? Did you get to explore the local scenery at all? Or was it a tight shoot?

Where I was, I had never been before. The only time I had been to Kentucky was to play in a golf tournament. One of my favorite all-time golfers had a charity tournament there every year, and I played in that a couple of times. That was my one and only time in Kentucky, and it was up near Louisville. The closest city to where I was to shoot The Big Ugly was Lexington, but we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere in a little college town. It was my very first time in real rural Kentucky. It was a revelation, because I had no field of reference, no experience, I didn’t know what I was going to encounter in terms of everyday dealings with the locals and stuff. But it turned out to be quite a beautiful experience. I found a lot of warmth, a lot of friendship, a lot of generosity, and I was really beautifully surprised.

Ron Perlman Interview The Big Ugly

You don’t strike me as the type of person who goes to a bar and demands attention by going, “Do you know who I am, dammit?”

It’s just the opposite. I want to find out who you are. If I’m privileged enough to have my work take me to places that I would never otherwise contemplate visiting, then the best thing I can do is to use it as an opportunity to explore and ask questions. Like, what’s it like to be you? What’s it like to live here? What’s your life like? It’s one of the perks.

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You’re always keeping busy. You’re always doing movies and TV and a lot of voice work. Over the years, has there been a role that you’re particularly proud of that you feel didn’t get the recognition it deserved in its time, that you’d like to shout-out for Screen Rant?

There have been a couple… Probably the number one is a movie called Asher, which I produced. It took five years to get done. It turned out exactly as I had imagined in my mind. But it got a really shi*** distribution… Nobody saw it. The few reviewers who did see it wrote very positively about it. The few friends of mine who saw it said it was among the best things they’d ever seen me do. And I agree. The shame of it all was that it was a big tree falling in the forest and nobody heard it, so it almost didn’t happen.

I’ve been on a couple of sets and I’ve been able to see how much work goes into even the quote-unquote “small low-budget movies,” and then for it to come out and for you to be so proud of it, I hope we can get a few more people to give it a chance.

It was a little bit of a heartbreak. But you write for one of my favorite movie sites, and maybe one day we’ll do an interview about the devolution of cinema. With the advent of all the streaming and stuff, that’s a whole other conversation.

For sure. But kinda building on that, The Big Ugly is releasing in a time when theaters are just not open right now. What is your opinion on video on demand and direct-to-DVD and that whole ecosystem separate from the movie theater business?

I’m a little heartbroken that something that means as much to me as cinema is unrecognizable in terms of how it reaches the marketplace compared to when I was a kid growing up and all the things I had assumed. I mean, that being said, I still believe movies have a power and glory that will always hold a place in my own consciousness of great majesty. I will always find ways to be involved with things that I just find to be worthwhile. I don’t worry about the rest of it. It’s nothing I can control. I tried to control it. I tried to build a company called Wing and a Prayer Pictures. Asher was the last movie of that. I realized it doesn’t matter what you do, there’s no endgame to it. It was a very painful moment. But it never had anything to do with my love and enthusiasm for cinema itself. Finding a way to do The Big Ugly, and now I’m helping to get it marketed and we’re looking at drive-in theaters, the culture’s answer to the Coronavirus. We’re looking to get in every drive-in theater in the United States, and this is a perfect drive-in movie. You find different ways to skin the cat.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/big-ugly-movie-ron-perlman-interview/

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