By Linda Simeone

Meeting actor Robert Englund, one expects him to stammer and withdraw into a shy, self-conscious soul, very much like his on-screen counterpart Willie, the gentle rebel alien he plays on V.

On the contrary, one quickly discovers that the handsome, blonde actor is anything but shy.  In fact, Englund is extremely articulate and knowledgeable.  As an actor he knows his craft well.

Englund likes his character Willie a great deal.  "There's a built-in characterization in Willie that audiences seem to gravitate to in the rhythm of any given episode.  He can be used to fight anything that is overly sentimental.  It's also nice to come back to him when things are getting just a little too tense in terms of the action, drama or fear.  It's really nice the way that the powers-that-be placed him in that position.

"As an actor, playing Willie is a joy simply because you can go just about anywhere with him.  He has some super-physical strength that hasn't yet been fully explored.  We saw this in the first four hours, when he rescued the worker from the dry ice chamber."

Willie is also very committed to truly learning the ways of the earthlings, even though he stumbles about; there's something very sincere and genuine about his wanting to be accepted by the earthlings.  Willie sees the goodness in the people of the earth, much more than his own race.  There is also a deep-seated goodness in Willie.  There's also a bit of mischievousness in him, an elf-like quality.

"As an actor, I use the image of Pan for Willie.  Sometimes we use things we can't explain," Englund says, and admits that one of the tricks or skills of being a good actor is knowing when to use those tricks.  To cite an example, he risks giving away one of his secrets to acting.  "It's image," he quickly confesses, eager to share.  "One day when I was playing Willie I was having a bad time nailing him down during this one scene.  Sometimes when we're in a jam or in a bind, we will use 'shortcuts.'  The director simply tossed a shortcut at me.  He simply mentioned a name: 'Gene Wilder.'  Now, by simply saying the name of that actor, being a fellow actor, I knew just how Gene Wilder might have approached that scene.  It really made a big leap for me.  It came through loud and clear how I would then play this particular scene which was giving me a block.

"It was magic.  I simply used that marvelous bit of business that Wilder often does when he'd doing comedy.  It's a kind of self-scolding type thing.  The camera will cut back to Wilder and you see him doing a little mental 'slap-on-the-wrist' gesture.  A kind of afterthought when a Wilder-character has been caught in a mistake.  Well, I've used that mental image for Willie at times when I'm in a jam.  Just using an image of Wilder opens it up for me.  It helped a lot in the begining of creating Willie."

Willie and the Star-Child
Another dimension to Willie this season is the Star-child, Elizabeth (actress Jennifer Cooke).  Englund will be working closely with Jennifer so that innocence can be explored further, the child-like quality which is the fun part of the Willie character.  Could there possibly be a love interest in the future for Willie?  Englund thinks a moment.  "I don't know.  I've heard rumors, of course."  He says with a sly chuckle, "We all hear rumors."  He laughs and continues, "I think it's too soon after Harmony.  He's still carrying a torch for her.  But at first I thought when I had a lot of scenes with Elizabeth, the Starchild, 'Gosh, she's so beautiful,' and of course Jennifer Cooke is such a good actress.  I thought how easy it would be for my character to have a crush on her character.  But I believe they're going to use other people in the Bible of the show to have crushes on Elizabeth, so this is not within Willie's forte.  Then my plan was to play 'brother' and 'guardian angel' to her."

"Soon after I made the decision of playing the protector role towards her character, I received a copy of the next script and interestingly enough, in that script there was a line of Willie's with reference to Elizabeth that read: 'I'm her guardian angle.'  Now, being a bit unsure of Earth language, Willie does a malaprop, he says angle instead of angel, you see?  That was the image I had already established even before I read the script.  That shows that at least I'm getting more in tune with my character.  I'm thinking along the same lines as the writers of the series, which is a good sign."

Although Englund has done numerous films, television and stage work, the actor says it's difficult for him to say which he is more comfortable working in.  "I've done a lot of stage, so in many ways I don't miss it.  In fact, I did nothing but stage work from 1965 until about 1973, then of course I came out here for Badlands with Martin Sheen (he's in that?) and then Buster and Billie and fortunately have found myself working steadily ever since.

"What I like about stage work is that in the theatre, you can't cut away from me.  If I think it's important for you to look at me, at my character, I can make you look at me with my own energies as an actor and I can most likely control you as an audience.  But in film and television, you surrender yourself to the trust in the director and the editor, and you have little control.  Which can be pretty frustrating to an actor."

Englund says that if he hadn't become an actor, he would most likely have entered the teaching profession, preferably working with children.

Pratfalls and Cameras
He enjoys the pace on V but confesses that he is still just settling in and is only half way to working a full seven or eight day shoot.  "Normally I only work about three and a half days a week, perhaps four, depending on how much of Willie they use in each episode.  It's an ideal situation being a supporting played because I don't have to learn lines every day.  Marc Singer and Faye Grant are learning lines every single day.  Besides that, Marc, for instance, has to run around and learn stunts and tricks.  Marc does most, if not all of his own stunts.  After four or five takes, you wake up the next morning and know the real meaning of the word 'sore.'  Even if you do just tumbles or fall just from your own standing height to the ground, it eventually catches up with you.  I can go off of a second story roof for one take, but if more takes are needed, and you have to do it over and over, if it's not a close-up, we all agree that using stuntmen can be a good idea.  Besides, we are all very safety conscious on our set."

"I did a pratfall in one of the episodes.  It was great.  I mean I was getting my own laughs and they kept on covering it from all different angles.  But by the fifth take, let me tell you when I got home that night and gratefully soaked in a hot tub, there were black and blue marks--everywhere!"  He laughs, "You don't really feel the full effects when you're actually doing the work because you're so full of adrenaline, you love it.  It's part of your job, and of course you are glad that they really gave you this beautiful close-up and opportunity, but still, it catches up to you."

Between takes, Englund isn't just one to sit down and read a book, play cards or knit as the majority of actors do while waiting for their call.  He says he has too much 'nervous' energy and too much residue and juice of the character within him.  He's been working in the business long enough to know how to keep himself on 'simmer,' which is Hollywood terminology for keeping the character ready until the cameras and director are ready to roll.  So usually, Englund will take brisk walks around the studio lot, concentrating on his character and the upcoming scene he will be in.  His background prepared him well.

Beginnings
Born and raised in Los Angeles, of Swedish and Scottish heritage, Englund first began studying acting in college, but was preparing long before that.  He always knew he wanted to be an actor.  As early as eight he staged plays and performed in his family's garage in L.A.

"One day, a friend of the family's daughter was in a play at the Teenage Drama Workshop in Los Angeles.  She went there as a student.  At that time the workshop was world famous and had a lot of children of major stars enrolled.  They also had huge budgets for sets, lighting and other technical things.  One day we went there to see her perform and I was immediately bitten by the acting bug.  I quickly auditioned, was accepted and wound up playing such wonderful juvenile roles as Peter Pan, Pinocchio and Hansel in Hansel and Gretel.  It was great, I got a lot of the lead parts.  They made you grow your hair long way before long hair was 'in' for most guys.  But, it was a great deal of fun, especially when the teenage girls would fuss and comb my hair and everything.  A lot of my friends in the neighborhood would laugh and tease me and call me a sissy.  But hell, now how could you be a sissy when all of these cute 14 and 15 year old foxy girls were fussing over you?  I loved it!  Believe me, I immediately hurdled that fear of an actor being classified as a sissy."

Englund followed the traditional training expected of a budding actor and pursued a drama curriculum at UCLA and CalState Northridge.

Shakespearean Training
During the early sixties he auditioned for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in England and was accepted.  After a bried tour he discovered that the Academy was not recognized as a Draft Deferred institution and soon returned home to the United States to pick up studies at UCLA.  Shortly thereafter the Royal Academy formed a branch of study in the United States in Birmingham, Michigan, which Englund describes as "sort of the Beverly Hills of Detroit."  The actor took off for Birmingham and picked up where he had left off.

There the famous British acting school had formed a company called the Meadowbrook Theatre and employed a lot of actors from Stratford, Ontario.  "Richard Kernock, Maggie Smith, Brian Bedford would come down and work their American Equity time at our threatre and later we'd get to go up there for a little bit.  So here I was working with the best English and Canadian actors in the Western hemisphere when I was only 21 years old.  That was a big kick for me," he boasts proudly.

Englund feels he further perfected his craft working as a resident actor at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival.

"Tom Hanks studied there for a while, too.  It was really great training.  I was there for two years performing Shakespearean plays.  It's not easy; you work well into October, right through the season, and then at the end of the season perform a lot of the plays for school children.

"It's definitely a 'seat-of-your-pants' style of acting.  You've got to be good because kids tend to get restless if you're not holding their attention, and you'll soon know about it.  These kids are used to Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark and action-oriented TV shows.  Without a doubt you have to have your tumbling, thrusting and parrying down pretty good.  You just can't go out there and lamely bang wooden swords together, you really have to knock yourself around and show them some fancy stuff.  When you get right down to it, actually, Shakespeare is pretty violent."

Although classically trained, Englund feels fortunate in also being the basic "alternative threatre actor."  In 1967 he ran a threatre, Theatre Anteaum, in Los Angeles.  He and his group staged the West Coast Premiere of Megan Terry's Viet Rock and Arthur Miller's After the Fall, to name but a few.

Englund admits to playing clowns until he returned to Hollywood, where he was offered his first screen role in Buster and Billie, opposite Jan-Michael Vincent.  He played Vincent's sidekick and best friend, a southerner.  It too was purely a light, comedic role.  After that he was typecast as a 'redneck.'  Then he began playing heavies and found himself working with Henry Fonda in The Great Smokey Roadblock, which he also narrated.

From the V Files continued.  

Science Fiction Roots
He loves science fiction and claims he was a die-hard fan until age 15 when he outgrew it for a time in the course of pursuing an acting career.

"When I moved back to Hollywodd and first began working here, a good friend of mine was Mark Hamill.  This was before Star Wars, when Mark was doing a lot of television and 'Linda Blair made-for-TV-type movies.'  Mark was a leftover diehard science fiction fan and so, he reintroduced my girlfriend and I back into science fiction.  At the same time, we introduced him into the history of American Cinema.  We would take him to see Citizen Kane and he would take us to see Forbidden Planet.  Well, then of course, bang!, he went off to do Star Wars.  I think he was supposed to do a series at the time, but then opted for Star Wars instead.  He knew Star Wars was going to be a hit, probably because he was such a big science fiction fan.  I'm sure Lucas knew too, but not everybody thought it would catch on as big as it did.  I'm sure a lot of people simply saw it as a passing fad.  Subsequently, I was then reintroduced to the better B-movie science fiction and some of what was then called the 'new' splash-splatter films.  In those days, some of those classic B films were directed by guys like Tobe Hooper and Joe Dante, who are now two of the hottest directors in town."

Englund worked with Tobe Hooper on a film originally called Death Trap (not to be confused with the play and later film starring Christoper Reeve).  The title was eventually changed, but it was definitely an early B-type horror film.  

Nor is V Englund's first major introduction to science fiction.  In fact, he worked in Roger Corman's film, Galaxy of Terror with Ray Walston and Eddie Albert, which is now a kind of cult film.  He also did a movie entitled Dead and Buried with Jack Albertson.  "It was about a bunch of people who were all dead and living together in this tiny little town.  It wasn't really all that scary as much as it was sad, actually.  These people were Norman Rockwell-type of characters.  I played a tow-truck driver, and someone else player a baker, and there was a mayor and we were all dead.  There was this loveable little coroner, who also happened to be a mad scientist.  That was Albertson's role; it was perfect casting."  He reflects with a laugh.  "Oh, we had some great effects and it was filmed up in Mendocino.  Stan Winston did the makeup.  It was great fun."

While he has been seen in some 20 or more television series, including Hart to Hart, Police Story, Charlie's Angels and Simon and Simon, V is Englund's first regular and recurring role.  He realizes just how powerful the medium of television is.  He tells of the time he and an acquaitance, who is also an actor, were celebrating the opening of his friend's latest film, which had been directed by Arthur Penn:

"It was quite a lavish affair at the L.A. County Art Museum, downstairs among all of these fine works of art and Georges Braque statues, people were dressed in black tie and such.  There was champagne, caviar, chocolate covered strawberries, the works.  I'm in my very best sports jacket talking to my friend about his wonderful role and opportunity he has had in this film, when suddenly from across the room I spot this very erudite-looking gentleman.  He has a beard, smoking pipe, smart looking sports coat and turtleneck--very sophisticated looking.  He catches my eye and begins walking toward me.  I think, 'Oh, wow, he's recognized me, probably from one of my 'A' art films or Stay Hungry or maybe from one of the plays I had performed locally.'  Anyway, he comes over to me and in full voice, in front of all of these people standing around in their Rent-A-Tuxes sipping champagne, says, 'My God!  You're my favorite Lizard!'  Well, naturally heads turned and everyone stopped just like they do in that E.F. Hutton commercial.  I was very flattered.  It was very interesting, to say the least."