 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
Shawn Allen - How was your dinner last night with Lloyd?
Trent Haaga - It was good man. He picked up the tab, so anytime he picks up the tab it's a good thing, ya know. I've done so much work for him that taking me out to dinner once a year is kind of an unspoken thing that we got going on, so he, I and Adam, who co-wrote the book with us all went out to dinner, so it was nice.
S.A. - Are you guys thinking about doing anything else together any time soon?
T.H. - I don't know, you know, I think Lloyd sort of has this Roger Corman thing where you work for him then he casts you off into the world, ya know. All things cosidered I guess I have done more projects than the average Troma employee, with the two movies, the T.V. show, and working in the office all the years that I did it, so ahh I don't know, I mean I would be totally willing to go back and do something for him next time he does a picture, but I don't forsee it happening in the future. I know that Adam is working on a novelization of the original Toxic Avenger, but it's for a Canadian publisher so I don't know if it's going to come out in the states. But at this point man, I've done so much work for Lloyd that were kind of just friends. We see each other and have dinner, that kind of thing.
S.A. - Well, that's alright, but you guys do great work together.
T.H. - Why thank you. Yeah, I think so too but it's alot easier if you all live in the same city, what with the Troma budgets being what they are and everything, ya know. Even if he did another movie, to get me out there to be involved would concur more cost than I'm worth. Wow, that would be like three hundred dollars man I'm not worth that.
S.A. - That's ridiculous, you're worth that.
T.H. - Thanks man, hopefully some stuff will be happening. I actually just got an offer from a guy in North Carolina. It looks like I'm going to go out there and shoot a part in his film next month. Right now I'm actually reading a script from a guy in Fortworth, Texas who wants me to do a part in March. Hopefully, ya know, that will pan out.
S.A. - Sometime we might have something to send for you to check out.
T.H. - Hey, anybody can send me anything man, and I ain't free anymore, but I'm damn cheap, you know what I mean. I'm pretty reasonable.
T.H. - So yeah, that's what's going on with that. It kinda hasn't been as productive of a year as I'm used to doing, what with having a kid and all. I've kinda been busy with that. I'm trying to get back in the swing of things ya know, right now I've got three pictures in the tubes that havn't come out yet. One is Chad Ferrin's "Ghouls", and one is a giant killer scorpion movie that Fox Home Video did called "Deadly Stingers", and the other one is this movie called "Slice Of Life". So I don't know, I don't even know when these are supposed to come out, but I heard sometime this year, which narrows it down to the next three months.
S.A. - So you really haven't been working on anything lately?
T.H. - Ya know, I've just been paying the bills by doing alot of crew work on movies and T.V. commercials, or whatever, but as far as being involved in any low budget horror type thing, I mean the last one I did was a little less than a year ago. Like I said, I went to Texas and did this movie called "Slice Of Life" and, ah it was called "Blood And Roses" when we shot it, now it's called "Slice Of Life". Ya know, it was a good time and I'm hoping if I go out to North Carolina in October and I get another movie lined up in March, at least I got some stuff that's going on, ya know. Actually, like two days ago I got a script from a guy who's going to be shooting in Jersey in two weeks and he's looking for like a script polish, so it looks like I'm going to be doing that for him. That one is called "Rave To The Grave". It's kinda like David Cronenberg meets Demons, so ya know I'm still trying to do some stuff man. I'm working on scripts myself.
S.A. - I was wondering If you ever thought of putting your own project together?
T.H. - I think about that every day, ya know, especially after doing this movie "The Ghouls" with Chad last year. I mean, we made a movie for nine thousand dollars. It's got three distributors in North America interested and it's playing at the Sitges Film Festival in December, and we have a couple Spanish distributors interested as well. Ya know, you do the Troma thing and it gets you all excited for the independent spirit, but I mean he's still spending a quarter of a million dollars or something like that. But when you go out and make a movie for nine thousand dollars and people are still interested it's like, hey man you can make a movie for something that I can actually afford. But eventually it's like ya know the beginning of last year I said this would be the year that I actually got to direct, ya know what I mean. I've done everything else there is to do on a movie set except direct, but it looks like I'm going to shoot for next year man.
S.A. - I would like to see you direct a project.
T.H. - Yeah me too, so hopefully it will happen, ya know.
S.A. - How long have you been in the independent industry?
T.H. - Ya know, I was just thinking about that the other day, believe it or not. About five years ago I did Terror Firmer. Five years ago in August, now it's September, so five years and one month ago I had never done any picture ever. Yeah, so in five years I've done whatever man; a couple movies, written a couple screen plays that have been done, I did the book and the T.V. show and all that kinda stuff. So maybe that's why I'm kinda despondent about this year only having a couple movies come out, cause I'm kinda used to doing five or six pictures a year, ya know what I mean. But the short answer to your question is about five years.
S.A. - You've gotten alot accomplished in five years.
T.H. - Well thanks man, ya know you have to put it in perspective, ya know what I mean. I think that's why I have accomplished so much, 'cause no matter what I do I'm like, "well shit that's done, I gotta get something else like now". That attitude has kind of gotten me alot of work over a short period of time. I guess alot of people say that they're actors or say that they're screen writers, or say that they're producers, and they say it for a decade and never have anything to show for it, so at least I have put my money where my mouth is.
S.A. - Can you name some of the great people that you have worked with?
T.H. - Well, of course Lloyd Kaufman, creator of the Toxic Avenger and president of Troma Studios, and while I was working for Troma I had the dubious pleasure of working with Ron Jeremy, Al Goldstein, Corey Feldman, and, god rest his soul, Hank The Angry Drunken Dwarf. I've worked with J.R. Bookwalter on a hand full of movies. He's kind of a big B guy who has done alot of films, ahh Conrad Brookes from plan nine in outer space, the lovely Debbie Rochon, I've done a ton of movies with her. That's about it man, ya know I always have these weird little things that I work on like last month I did a TV commercial with Anna Nicole Smith. Ya know what I mean, I worked crew with Anna Nicole Smith, but as far as any A lister types, ya know what I mean, there's probably nobody that you would recognize, and come to think of it there really isn't anybody that I want to work with, except for maybe John Carpenter or Peter Jackson. Ya know as far as like Collin Ferrill I could care less, ya know what I mean.
S.A. - Actually, I think I would be disappointed if I heard you were working on a project that involved people like that.
T.H. - Ya know I just don't think it's going to happen man, and I got no problem with that, you know what I mean. I know my place and this is what I love, ya know. I love doing this and I guess if I would have aimed higher maybe I could have gotten one picture that was big and made more money than I made on all the other projects that I have done, but I've got that attitude that when you die your bank account can be as big or small as you want but I've got a much larger body of work. And this is what I like. I grew up on horror movies. I love this shit.
S.A. - At what age did you get into horror movies?
T.H. - Man, I don't even know. I have often wondered about that cause from the time I was toddling monsters were where it was at ya know. My parents would take me to the movies or what ever and I wouldn't care about the Disney stuff, but like the Sinbad movies with psyclops and the dragons and stuff I would get really excited about, ya know. And like the earliest pictures I drew with a crayon for mom to put up on the fridge were like of Frankenstein, the Wolfman, and Dracula, ya know. So since I was even aware of what the hell a monster was or what horror movies were I've been into them and it's been that way my entire life. I think my parents or whatever, especially when I was a teenager, thought that it was some kind of phase. I just never grew out of it.
S.A. - That's the way I am too.
T.H. - There's nothing wrong with it man, ya know what I mean? There are moments, especially when you have to go work a regular job with real people, and you tell them what you're into or what you do and they look at you like you're some kind of freak, and you start to go geez what the hell is wrong with me? There's nothing wrong with you dude, there's nothing wrong with me. It's just the way we are.
S.A. - I think about that stuff all the time.
T.H. - Hey I'm living proof you may not get rich, but I'm doing exactly what I want to do and to me that's more valuable than having a ton of money.
S.A. - Out of everybody that you have worked with who was you're favorite?
T.H. - Oh man, out of everybody I've worked with, well of course Lloyd Kaufman comes to mind. I mean the guy was my hero when I was in junior high. I was renting Troma movies and I knew who Lloyd Kaufman was and I was like this guy is a fucking genius. So getting the chance to work with him over and over again was really great, but I have to say the person that I really love and who has helped me out the most and who is just an all around great person and she doesn't get the props that she deserves is Debbie Rochon. I didn't even know who she was when I worked on Terror Firmer with her. And then in the subsequent after working these projects and knowing her and everything, ya know alot of people discount her as like a scream queen, ya know, but she's way, way, way more talented than anybody you could ever imagine man. I wouldn't even lump her in with the scream queens, ya know what I mean. She's a fucking good person; a good person to work with and a great actress and she's a wonderful person.
S.A. - She is a very good actress.
T.H. - She really is man. People like, ya know because she is willing to go topless or whatever, they think that she is just a pair of boobies or whatever and that's far, far from the case man. She's dead on. She's quite talented.
S.A. - You wrote the script for Citizen Toxie on your honeymoon didn't you?
T.H. - Ya know what happened was me and my wife had been dating for a long time, about eight years before we actually got married, and after Terror Firmer we got married. And then like about three days after we got married I flew to France to go to the Cannes film festival with Terror Firmer, and I was there for like sixteen days and we were going to go on our honeymoon when I came back. So when I came back from Cannes I had like a week off before I was supposed to leave again to go on my honeymoon. And like the day after we got back from Cannes I got a call from Lloyd and he told me to come down to the office, and I went up there and he's like we are going to go on Citizen Toxie in like two months and we don't have a script. I guess somebody that lived in Japan had written the script for it but they hadn't seen any of the other movies, and I don't know why Lloyd had hired them to do it. And they submitted a script that was only forty pages long and it was obvious that they had no experience with the Toxic Avenger when they wrote the thing. So he was in a panic because we were supposed to shoot the thing in a couple of months and ahh, so he was like look, I need the screenplay and of course I was stoked as hell man, I grew up with the Toxic Avenger. So I'm really excited to be able to write a Toxic Avenger movie. I mean, I'm sure that you can imagine If that opportunity was thrown at your lap you would just say yes, ya know, but I was like hell yes I'll write it, and he was like great I need it in like twelve days. And I said I'm going on my honeymoon like the day after tomorrow for like a week, and he was like, ya know well too bad I need to have it. So basically I sat there with a note pad and wrote it out long hand on the beach in Saint Thomas while my wife swam in the water, and I came back and typed it all up and I turned it in like the day or two after we got back from our honeymoon.
S.A. - I bet that made your wife happy.
T.H. - Yeah, ya know it's like I said we've been together for a long time and we had been together for a long time before we got married, and she knew how much the Toxic Avenger meant to me and how exciting it was for me to work on Terror Firmer. She's very supportive, you know, obviously I would not have married her if she wasn't like supportive of the whole thing, and luckily she's a really sharp chick that has a good job and everything like that, so I can continue to slum in independent films making a little money here and there and not worry about losing our cars or anything like that.
S.A. - At least you can keep yourself going.
