ORLANDO, Fla. – Andrew Robinson once played a character who skinned his brother and wore the skin like a suit.
In playing siblings Larry Cotton and Frank Cotton in 1987′s “Hellraiser,” Robinson found metaphors of good and evil that were fascinating to play.
“It’s fantasy horror,” the 81-year-old actor said. “You know, the idea that you can take the skin of your brother and put it on your skin itself. I mean, all of that. It’s wonderful. And they’re wonderful metaphors.”
Robinson is one of the more than three dozen horror-genre celebrities attending Spooky Empire this weekend in Orlando. But his appearances in horror films like “Hellraiser” or the “Child’s Play” series are not his scariest roles, he says. His scariest character is much closer to reality.
Fans of Clint Eastwood films will recognize Robinson as the Scorpio Killer in 1971′s “Dirty Harry,” a serial killer terrorizing San Francisco until Eastwood’s Harry Callahan ends him with the iconic line, “You’ve gotta ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?”
The Scorpio Killer wasn’t a cartoonish villain. He was inspired by the Zodiac Killer who killed five people in the Bay area in the late 1960s.
Robinson’s killer is a psychopath, methodical in his plans, who pivots in maniacal ways, and smart enough to try to use the law against law enforcement. After all, the concept of Miranda rights was only 5 years old when the film came out.
But Robinson looked for more than just that. He created a backstory for the character: a veteran, scarred by the Vietnam War, further compounded by the reaction of some to vets coming home.
“He probably was messed up before he went, but certainly, I have, I’m thinking of two people that were friends of mine, who went to Vietnam and when they came back, they were not the same people,” Robinson said.
But reaching that pent-up anger and fear for the character also meant reaching into himself, to make the intuitive choices in his portrayal, Robinson said. His troubled childhood, which he talked about in his 2015 memoir “Stepping Into Light: Sources of an Actor’s Craft” gave him further inspiration. In the book, he talks about discovering his “demon mask” as he faced bullies.
“Acting is not an innocent exercise, acting is, it can be dangerous,” said Robinson, who also taught acting at the University of Southern California. “Especially if you go to the places that you’re asked to go to certain times. And when I got the job, you know, to play the Scorpio Killer, you realize, well, you can’t fake it. You really have to go to this place. Otherwise, people are going to hate you.”
But while a character like a Scorpio Killer might have hit too close to reality for the audience, in horror, knowing the scares are coming is the point.
“We like our horror movies because they’re expected and they’re contained. And after the two hours, they’re over, and we walk out and we feel kind of wow, that was interesting,” Robinson said.
For Robinson, a scene from “The Thing From Another World,” which came out in 1951, gave him his first movie fright. He remembers watching the movie in the theater with his mother, and at the moment when The Thing burst through the wall of the hut the scientists were hiding in, he threw up.
“Of course, I’d eaten a lot of popcorn but still, that was my reaction to it,” he recalled.
In the case of “Hellraiser,” Robinson was drawn to Clive Barker’s works, like the Books of Blood, an anthology of horror short stories, when he took the role of Frank/Larry Cotton. “Hellraiser” is based on Barker’s novella “The Hellbound Heart.”
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“(Barker) took the whole thing about blood and flesh to such a visceral place. That’s what I think took ‘Hellraiser’ to another place,” Robinson said. “I mean, through the floorboards that you know, the character of Frank coming together the gristle and the bone and the muscle and the blood in the veins and so forth. It’s such a basic thing. I mean, I think that’s what got to people with that.”
But “Hellraiser” wasn’t necessarily scary for him, nor were the other horror films he made. In truth, Robinson says real life is far more horrific than a horror film.
“That’s the true horror for me, that’s the thing that brings me down and makes me wonder what the Hell is going on,” Robinson said, relating the recent story of a man killing a Muslim boy and stabbing his mother in Illinois. “That is beyond horror. And then the horror on a mass scale, which is going on now in the Middle East and Ukraine.”
However, one part of “Hellraiser” did tap into a fear of Robinson’s — claustrophobia.
“That was my first introduction to very heavy makeup. That was where they had to do a life mask of my, actually my head. I mean it wasn’t fun. Breathing through straws in your nose and hoping that your heart doesn’t stop,” Robinson said.
It reminded him of another beloved horror film, “Frankenstein” from 1931, with Boris Karloff.
“He had to sleep in his makeup through the week because they couldn’t do it every day,” Robinson said. “What he did to create that character... if you’re living in that for a (expletive) week, you are creating something that is really out there.”
It was a terror he would experience again in one of his biggest roles, as Garak the spy turned (?) tailor on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” in the ‘90s. As a member of the Cardassian race, Robinson once again wore full prosthetics, costumes that he said felt like they were made out of furniture pads, and a wig to finish it off.
“I thought I was being buried alive,” he recalled.
In fact, Robinson suspects the writers made Garak claustrophobic and put him in claustrophobic situations on purpose.
“I think they did a very naughty thing. I think they just said, ‘hey, you know, Andy’s claustrophobic? Why don’t we put him in a claustrophobic situation and see how it works?’” Robinson said. “Well, it worked. It worked. But I was certainly glad when the scene was over.”
But Robinson loved to play the enigmatic Garak and just like he did for Scorpio Killer, Robinson came up with a history and kept a diary which helped with Garak’s inner monologue over the show’s seven seasons, becoming the basis for his novel about the character, “A Stitch in Time.”
“There was a journey that Garak took to where he became a better person. A more conscious person. That was a dream job,” Robinson said. “It really was and to be able to do this over seven years and to be supported by the writing because the writers loved Garak and they loved writing the Garak episodes.”
And the fans love Garak too. As Deep Space Nine has enjoyed a sort of online renaissance thanks to video streaming, so has Garak’s popularity exploded. It’s support he’s grateful for, if a little perplexed by.
“I just assumed that after the show was over, that was it,” Robinson said. “I had no idea, this took me by complete surprise, of the popularity of the character. And I’m still trying to figure out why. Why, I mean, what is it about that character that people just love?”
That fan support eventually convinced the publishers of Star Trek novels to release an audio version of “A Stitch in Time,” read by Robinson, earlier this year.
Voicing the character is one thing though. Would Robinson face his claustrophobia again to play a live-action Garak?
“In a New York minute, Christie, in a New York minute,” he said. “I’d put the sh** on, I’d get right into it.”
See Andrew Robinson and dozens of horror stars at Spooky Empire, Friday through Sunday at the Hyatt Regency Orlando. More information is on the Spooky Empire website.
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