Racks and Razors
2005
[Owen Keehnen]
Actor Interview
THE MAN WITH THE HOOK
MUSE WATSON KNOWS WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
Muse Watson was catapulted to the forefront on many a horror fan�s consciousness with his bone-chilling turn as butchering fisherman Ben Willis in �I Know What You Did Last Summer� and �I Still Know What You Did Last Summer�. But "The Hook Man" has an awful lot of other credits to his name --- many of them in the horror world such as his work in �Dead Birds�, �Birds II�, �Hollywood Vampire�, �House of Grimm�, �Frankenfish�, as well as an unforgettable performance as rodeo clown/vampire C.W. Niles in �From Dusk Til Dawn II�. Some of his other numerous credits include Sundance Festival award-winner �Songcatcher�, �Rosewood�, �Assassins�, �Austin Powers II�, �Jane Doe�, �A Day Without a Mexican�, �American Gothic�, �If I Die Before I Wake�, and �Something to Talk About�. In the past he has guest starred on numerous TV series like �Matlock�, �Young Indiana Jones�, �JAG�, and �Walker, Texas Ranger�. Now his career is about to move to the next level. This summer the red-hot actor is filming the first 13 episodes of the highly anticipated new series on FOX, �Prison Break� (Mondays at 9:00) in which he co-stars as inmate Charles Westmoreland. Recently Mr. Watson too a few moments out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions for Racks and Razors.
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Now on to the horror stuff. How did your being cast as Ben Willis in 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' (and the sequel) come about?
I read for the part after the production had already gotten underway with pre-production...so I don't know if they had had a tough time finding Ben or whether they waited til the last minute because they didn't think there was much to the part. But five minutes after I read, the casting director said she was going to Fed-x the tape to the director who was already in North Carolina. I liked the challenge of the role as it was written in the original script. The script described a guy who was devoted to his daughter. She had been on a date and the boy she was with had gotten drunk and wrecked the car they were in, killing her. The guy found the kid on his pity pot on the coast and whacked him. Four drunk teens driving on the coast run over him on his way back to his truck and dump his body in the ocean to assure an uninterrupted college career. Surviving the ocean, he returns to make the teens life "hell". Literally. I was thrilled at the chance of playing this guy. He was smart. He was organized. And he was a loving father in trouble.
When I got on location, a lot of the loving father part disappeared and what was left was a quick and cunning serial killer. The hook he used was cumbersome and an unlikely tool of such a man. The hat covering his face became another stretch of logic with the movement he accomplished. All in all, I loved working with Love Hewitt and Michelle Gellar a couple of professional actors who were a pleasure to talk to and be around.
After the film opened breaking all records for an October opening, I went back to work on my next projects. I was in South Africa shooting Dusk til Dawn II when I got word that they wanted to do a sequel. I knew Love had signed on for two, but they hadn�t thought it was important to get me signed for two. We negotiated another and I was excited to see the gang again.
When I met the new director, who could have felt like he was inheriting a circus animal, I felt great that the first words out of his mouth were that he really liked the movement that I had given the character. I felt like he "got" my performance. Then I got to read the script. They had new writers and had decided to give some background information on Ben�s character. I didn�t know who they were talking about. They decided he had been kuckold? Are you kidding me? For one thing, the info was unnecessary and for another, it didn�t fit the Ben who had borrowed my body for 4 months.
What did you use as your motivation for Ben Willis? Did you have any special tricks for getting into character?
After finding the character in me, by studying the script and asking him to take over my body...I didn't have much trouble conjuring him as needed. Now that I have a daughter of my own, I realize that the producers saw Ben in me. I thought I was acting. LOL. I realize now, that Ben�s feelings are close to what mine might be under the circumstances.
Did you have any inkling the movie would prove so successful?
Not a clue. I didn't go to the premier. I was at my hideout in the foothills of the Smokie Mountains and my publicist called and said that there must be something wrong with the film because they were not allowing the press to pre-screen it. He said that I didn't have to go to the premier if I preferred staying in the mountains. On Monday morning I was working on the place with my caretaker and I got a call from one of my buddies in Hollywood. He said..."You got the number one movie in the nation"...I hung up the phone in my shop and walked outside and said to my caretaker, "I got the number one movie in the nation". He spit a big shot of his chew and said, "Yeah, we got to move the tractor".
The complete interview can be found at Racks and Razors.
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