Alex Winter Discusses His Epic Career And Upcoming Projects!

Where did you grow up and how did you get your start in your career in the entertainment industry?

I was born in England. I moved to the midwest when I was fairly young. My parents were both dancers and so I moved from England to St. Louis and then to New York and I grew up basically in those three cities. New York is kind of my hometown. I’ve done a lot of there over the years there. I started working professionally as an actor when I was about 10. I started doing theater. I did a production of “Oliver” with Vincent Price and then I ended up on Broadway and I was on Broadway with Yul Brynner doing “The King and I” and then Sandy Duncan doing “Peter Pan.” I sort of did Broadway throughout my teens. So I did a lot of acting as a kid but filmmaking has always been my passion.

So I went to NYU film school for college and then got out of college and started shooting commercial and music videos and still did the acting, that’s when the movies happened, “Bill and Ted,” “Lost Boys,” all that stuff. But my focus has always been shooting. So I kind of aimed my career towards doing that full-time than acting full-time. So once I was able to make a living shooting I put the acting to bed and starting shooting and been doing that ever since.

You are a pretty recognizable figure from pop culture. How often do fans recognize you and do you view that as a blessing or a curse?

I get recognized everyday, but you know, it’s not really a curse because you go into acting you assume that you’re gonna get recognized. But I get recognized every single day for “Bill and Ted,” “Lost Boys,” “Freaked,” any of that stuff. I mean I’m used to it because I’ve been frankly … you get used to it. If you’re a child actor … I mean I started doing interviews even locally for Broadway and stuff, dealing with fans and all that jazz when I was a kid so I was pretty acclimated by the time it happened in the movie business just because it happens to you in more places. You go to the middle of the Black Forest in Germany and you’re getting recognized as well as in the grocery store. So that was a big change but that’s been like that since the ‘80s so I’m pretty used to it at this point.

Did you ever imagine that those films would become so popular and affect people the way they have?

I mean nobody does when they’re working on something that hasn’t become iconic yet, you know what I mean? So when I was doing “Lost Boys” … with “Lost Boys” Warner Brothers was really behind that movie and we kind of, we had a suspicion it was going to leave some kind of impact while we were making it. So I would say with “Lost Boys” more than “Bill and Ted” we kind of knew that it was going to have some popularity and Joel’s a really great director and there were just a lot of variables that were swinging for it. It was a big studio movie or, you know, it was a medium budget studio movie but they had a lot of support.

“Bill and Ted” was the opposite. It was an independent movie basically, there wasn’t a studio behind it, it was pretty low budget. No one involved had really done anything before. So we didn’t really expect it to have any cultural impact at all. We just hoped people liked it and thought it was funny. You know that was kind of the extent of it. You know, it was kind of a pleasant surprise that it took off the way that it did.

What made you focus more on the directorial aspect of your career as opposed to being in front of the camera?

That was always kind of my end game. I mean since I was a kid. I started shooting movies when I was really young. That was always my end game. There was no real transition. Before I did any of the movies I had already gone to film school and I was already writing and directing. I started directing and writing commercials before I was acting in the movies. So I was doing all that shooting clean through all of the acting so I always kind of worn those hats. If I had time I would still do some acting. It’s just really hard to … it’s just acting in movies isn’t really like a job you can do as like a side line job that easily. It takes a lot of work and a lot of commitment and it’s very difficult for me to manage movies and writing my scripts and getting my movies going and be on the projects that I’m working on and try to manage an acting career. So it’s never something I wanted to juggle all at once. It just felt like too much. I’m at a point now where my work is off and running on its own steam on the writing and directing side so I might do some more acting down the road if it’s easy! [laughs]

I’m curious, who has been the most influential to you as a director? Is it another director or a colleague or a teacher?

Well it’s really general. I would say that I have … for the filmmaker I have the movies that have influenced me the most which are a really wide gambit. I was always really into Kurasawa and a lot of Japanese directors, Eisenstein, Ozu, Buster Keaton and I can’t forget Kubrick, I mean it’s a big giant pot of great stuff! And I’ve been really into watching movies since I was really young. So there was a lot of stuff I take influences from. And you know comedy stuff, specifically physical comedy stuff, I’ve always really been into Monty Python and a lot of the Brits. So it’s … I’ve always tended towards pretty rich cinematic filmmakers, people that really do a lot with atmospherics and light and space. So even people like Fritz Lang have been really influential for me. And then as I got older I did a lot of effects work so it’s, you know … so the people who are doing stuff in that world that I also really like. That’s a whole different kind of gambit or sort of string to my bow in terms of stuff that I do.

One of your early outings behind the camera was “Freaked.” You also had an acting part in that too. Was that difficult to juggle those responsibilities and how do you think you’ve evolved as a director and filmmaker since then?

I’ve evolved a lot! [laughs] In that we were 25 – we’ve never shot 35 mm before in our lives! I had come out of film school, we had our TV series on MTV, “The Idiot Box,” this was me and Tom Stern, who I was directing with at the time, and that was a lot of fun. We were writing and directing and staring in that and it was sort of a creative free for all. We were shooting on 16 mil and we were shooting commercials and music videos, music videos mostly at the time. So “Freaked” was a huge opportunity!

We were really young. We had pretty much total creative freedom. We were working really closely with the studio. So it was an enormous learning experience. We had a huge effects team on that on the physical effects, special effects, the whole bit and a great cast to work with. It was great because I had gone to NYU and I had gotten a lot of theory and I had learned a lot from my teachers from NYU whom I loved and then I got to then practice in the field with “Freaked.”

Once “Freaked” was done I felt like I had cut my teeth and was sort of ready to go out on my own. And I started up a production company in London and started shooting a ton of commercials and really developing my voice and my style personally. So I’d say it’s evolved a lot. I’ve discovered a lot more sort of what stories I like to tell, how I like to tell them since I made that movie.

What is your most fond memory of that project?

I have so many anecdotes from that movie! It was insane. And every day was insane. Putting Mr. T in a dress was just the beginning! [laughs] It kind of went on from there … it kind of spiraled on from there! Oh God, there was so much crazy stuff that happened.

One of the toughest things was that, at a certain point, Mr. T just got tired of being in a dress! [laughs] I think even though he was a really good sport about it for the first 99 percent of the shoot. By the end of the shoot he just got baked. And eventually he just disappeared! He just plain disappeared and we had like two more days of shooting to do with him and he was gone. So anyway, I had to call him and we found him in Chicago and he was just fried. Baked like an apple! And he just couldn’t do it anymore. So we had to get one of the other actors to kind of luke his lines pretending to … he did a really good Mr. T impression. We still had all this dialogue to do so we got a fake Mr. T that actually did a couple of shots in the background! And we got him afterwards to loop some of his dialogue as Mr. T.

“Bill and Ted” was obviously more mainstream, but “Freaked” has more of an underground following. Given the circumstances around its release, are you surprised that that following continues to grow after all these years?

Not so much. I’m really happy to be honest with you. We made a movie for a specific audience and I’m really happy with the response that it’s gotten over the years and the fact that it’s lived on cable and acclimated is absolutely slamming DVD release for us a couple of years ago with two DVDs and timed with extras and a couple of short films that Tom and I made at NYU. So I’m really happy that it’s had longevity. We put our heart and soul in that movie. It was over three years of solid labor for me and Tom Stern. And I’m really, really happy with it.

It was an incredible opportunity to fly into the studio realm via a back door and just do what we wanted to do. But I think in terms of its longevity, I think you know it was … it’s a kind of an irreverent movie that ended up having … a lot more stuff got done like that later like “South Park” and things like that. So I think it sort of fits into that slot in terms of why people still dig it.
There’s a lot of pop culture references, it moves really fast, there’s a ton of stuff coming at you and I think that now with “Family Guy” and “South Park” and a lot of that type of stuff, I think it fits pretty squarely in that zone.

What can you tell us about Trooper Productions and what you guys have going on over there?

Trooper is just my production entity. And a lot of times I’ll produce what I’m directing like the two “Ben 10” movies I did for Cartoon Network, I’ve produced those as well. So those were Trooper Productions. And it will be whatever other projects I’m working on whether it’s some of the commercial work that I’m doing, music video work. It’s umbrella for the production stuff that I’m generating and right now I’m working on a remake of a movie called “The Gate” from the mid-’80s which I’m really excited about. It’s a 3D movie. We’ve been working with great, great 3D people to make it look fantastic. We have a really great effects team assembled. So I’m working on that right now, which I’m really excited about!

I’m also working on a project about Shawn Fanning and Napster which I’ve been working on a long time but that’s starting to ignite. So those are the two movie projects that I’m working on right now.

Speaking of “The Gate,” how did you originally get involved with the project and what attracted you to it?

What attracted me to it was that I love movies … I love movies that are atmospheric, I love movies that are cinematic, I love movies that are kind of “hyper real” without getting silly about it. So sort of whatever genre I’m working in, whether it’s “Freaked” which is like extreme comedy or the small kind of movie I made called “Fever” which is really a psychological thriller, those are the tones I like to play with sort of edging towards realism without going all the way over. And I love the idea of doing that for a kids’ movie. Having a kids’ movie that has some very hyper real aspects to it and “The Gate” I feel is a really ripe remake because we don’t get that many movies that are for kids but have genuine edge on them.

I really want to make a movie that it’s fun and it’s an adventure and it’s not “Jaws” or “Saw” but it is a PG-13 movie for kids that while it’s fun and has humor definitely has some darkness and some edge. And I’ve got kids, I’ve got three, and I know what scares them and I know what makes them laugh and I’m looking forward to doing both of those things! [laughs]

Did you have any reservations initially about tackling a remake of a film considering the flack Hollywood is receiving from some circles about a lack of imagination?

Well no, because I don’t run Hollywood! [laughs] It’s not like I’m in a position to say what they do or don’t do. I think that we’re filmmakers! I mean geez, the Cohen Brothers just made “True Grit.” It’s like it’s not really down to us what gets made. It’s down to the market and the reason the market is making these movies is because our economy is in the toilet. And it makes big business very risk adverse because they don’t have money and they’re afraid they’re not gonna be able to sustain themselves and the technological climates are changing and the distribution exhibition models are changing at 100 miles an hour and nobody knows where things are going to land so everyone is terrified. So in a culture here you stick to what you know.

I’m not defending it. Don’t get me wrong. I think a lot of these remakes are just God awful and unnecessary. On the same token some of my favorite movies have been remakes. So do I have an absolute, staunch adversity to remake? Of course I don’t. I mean John Carpenter’s “The Thing” is one my favorite movies I’ve ever seen. And that’s a remake.

For me “The Gate” is a good story to tell the kids today. And that’s the way I’m addressing it. It’s a template. Let’s be honest. The notion, the general schematic of that story of kids unleashing something and then having to conquer it is pretty broad. It’s been done in different stories over and over and over … it’s basically a fairytale. So I think this kind of story, we’re not going to ruin the original. The themes to me that make the original “The Gate” special are never going to go away. I mean the work that those guys did with stop motion, the foreground miniature work they did, the strange, weird theater camp uniqueness to that movie is going to live on in there, you can watch it whenever you want. I certainly feel like we’re gonna make a movie that we have heart and believe in and that’s really what counts!

Did you have any hesitation about going the 3D route for that project?

No. It was actually my idea! To be fair to my producer they didn’t even think of it. I actually love 3D when it’s done well. And the reason it’s been done crappy is mostly because a lot of people, especially the studios, are trying to play catch up with the technology which is going to take a second. But when it’s done well it looks fantastic. I mean to me it would be like “Avatar” or a movie like “How to Train Your Dragon” I think used 3D really, really well. And it’s beautiful and it does serve the story. And they know when to push the dimensionality and they know when to pull back on the dimensionality.

I think that a story – to me “The Gate” really for me cinematically is a film whooper. You’re doing one set of people in one house from beginning to end. It’s the whole movie in one house. So the things that you can do with space and architecture and foreground and detail over the course of a hellish journey in one house in 3D is really exciting to me from a film standpoint.

Sounds awesome. Can’t wait to check it out. What’s the current status on that project?

We’re in pre-production. It’s a pretty complicated effects job so I’m not gonna be shooting for a while. I’m not gonna be shooting ‘til the middle or late part of this year. Dealing with 3D test and creature design and all that kind of stuff right now which takes awhile.

Okay. Cool.

We’re looking at a 2012 release.

Sounds good. Looking forward to it. It seems like directing is your favorite aspect of filmmaking. You’ve been involved in every aspect of filmmaking. You’ve been a director, writer, editor, and producer. Is there one aspect that you prefer over the others?

I mean I see myself as a filmmaker. The way I studied at NYU … the way they run that department, you do everything. You edit, you write, you light, you do everything. So to me directing … the reason I like filmmaking so much is that it is the … it’s a hyphenated job by nature. You have to know what each department is doing. It is still your job to let those departments do their job. You don’t want to run every department but you certainly want to manage every department.

I’m a director by nature. That’s what I do. It’s what it all boils down to. I certainly have spent a lot of time acting too and I like the work I’ve done as an actor. But in terms of my filmmaking fundamentally my favorite thing to do is get on a set and make a movie.

You have two decades in the industry at this point. To what do you owe your longevity in this industry?

Insanity! [laughs] There are two things that I think keep people going in to this business without being silly about it. I think one is that for whatever it’s what you do. I know that sounds kind of vague but it’s just what I’ve always done. I don’t really know how to do anything else. I’ve been in show business since I was really young and it’s really what I know. I wouldn’t know what the hell else to do with myself. For a lot of us it’s literally we do it through the ups and downs because you love it but because it’s what you do. It’s kind of how you identify yourself.

And then secondly for anyone who’s stuck it out for any length of time has just a psychotic amount of tenacity. Yeah, it’s tenacity bordering on unhealthy mindset. So I certainly possess that.

That’s a great answer. Where do you look for inspiration when it comes to your work?

I really look from everywhere. I like high culture. I like low culture. I like going to the symphony. I like going to see punk rock bands. I’ll go to museums. I’ve got a lot of friends who make really whacked out comic book art that I love. For me it’s really personally … I mean I have very specific tastes so there’s certain things I like and there’s certain things I don’t in each of those areas. But I’m very broad in terms of what interests me which can be confusing to people because I will go from a movie like “Freaked” to a movie like “Fever” quite happily. I’m actually putting a documentary together now.

I always see the link. There’s always something thematic that compels me. There’s always some human story there. Whatever the genre that I think is worth telling. And “The Gate” is like the idea this kid in jeopardy and the sort of duality between what we have going on with his family and what he unleashes into his family. That, to me, is a really compelling story and is a reason to make the movie. And the genre kind of becomes irrelevant.

You’re getting to the point in your career where you can look back and see some pretty big milestones, large and small. What has been the most exciting thing for you thus far?

Man that’s really hard. It’s really hard. I think that rather than isolate it in an event, I think that I would look back with a lot of gratitude that I’ve been able to work in every field that I’ve wanted to consistently. After “Freaked” I really wanted to explore commercials, I wanted to explore short form content and that would allow me to work with really high end crew and start to play with much more complicated technology and I did. I was able to form a company and work successfully in commercials for a long time.

I’m sort of moving into another area now. I’ve kind of transitioned into a new phase and so I’d say more than … to be able to look at some of the key relation of some of those milestones, the work I’ve been working in advertising and some of the screen writing projects I’ve been working on over the last two years, being able to do “Freaked,” being able to do “Bill and Ted,” being able to do “The King and I” with Yul Brynner and what an incredible experience that was. There isn’t really any one that sticks out as much as kind of the gratitude that I’ve been able to have those experiences.

Do you feel that there are any misconceptions about yourself out there?

Not really. People ask me that. A lot of times people ask me are you bummed out that given how much time you spent as a filmmaker people will always know you as Bill. I’m not because the reality of it is, sure, everyone in show business is narcissistic so I don’t want to, like, sit here and do some kind of BS, false modesty thing about, “I don’t really care what anyone thinks of me.” That would be BS. But the fact of the matter is that I can’t expect everyone to know what I do. I mean they’ve got more important things to do with their time! [laughs] It’s like, the fact is a lot of the acting stuff that I’ve done before, like playing a dimwit in “Bill and Ted,” is what the majority of the population has seen me do! So of course that’s what they’re gonna think of me. So for me to take that personally, like as some kind of personal affront, would be kind of insane. It’s like when little kids run up to me and play air guitar I think it’s awesome. It’s really cute. And it’s really sweet! And given how difficult and intense this business can be there’s a lot of levity for being known for comedic roles. I’ve always found it very refreshing. Sometimes you’re killing yourself on a project and you’re dealing with financiers and you’re flying around trying to get a movie off the ground and then some 9-year-old comes up and plays air guitar. It’s like … you basically feel really good. So I don’t really have a negative impression of that perspective. What matters to me, what generally matters to me, is I get my work done, that I can get it done, that I can get it off the ground and have people get to see it. Whatever medium that is.

Well you’ve mentioned it quite a bit and I’ve kind of ignored it at this point. But with “Bill and Ted,” obviously fans are out there clamoring for a third film. Is there any status update about that? Is there a possibility that we could see another sequel?

You know that’s a possibility. Reeves has been pretty vocal about it so there’s no point in me lying to people at this point! [laughs] We are working on a script with Chris and Ed, the two writers. And it’s really … it’s pretty low-fi. We’re gonna have a look and see what we all think and see if it’s worth pursuing and we’re really happy with what they’ve been coming up with so far. I think it’s pretty great and could have a reason for being. And if it does have a reason for being we’ll go about trying to make it happen!

Awesome! That’s really good news.

It could be!

Cool. I noticed that you and Keanu have been seen out together and you guys looked pretty close. Did you guys originally meet on that set and do you guys still hang out?

Yeah we met … we met on the first one during the audition process really early on. And then they auditioned a lot of people and then we kind of drifted apart and then were paired with other people and then we were paired with each other again and we became really friendly, really tight on the first one and we just … it’s the kind of franchise where you’re really glued at the hip. So either you’re really gonna be friendly with that person or you’re gonna hate them. And in our case we’ve always just gotten along … there’s just a simpatico there that’s been nice.

I think part of that shows on screen. I think with any successful kind of partnership franchise I think 99 percent of it is the chemistry and I think that’s the chemistry between Keanu and I think that’s the chemistry between Chris and Ed, the writers that made that script pop.

What was your most fond memory of that original film and did you actually get to keep anything from the film set at all? Do you have any memorabilia?

You know what’s cool? I had, for years I had my head, the head that blows off the evil robot me at the end … not evil robot because that … it was my identical head I guess from the makeup part. I had that as a doorstop for years until eventually it rotted.

What bums me out because after so many years I don’t have any copies of the screenplays anymore which really sucks because when you’re a young actor you mark up everything with all kinds of notes and I would have laughed my butt off to see what my hyper-serious thespian notes would have been scrawled in the notes of “Bill and Ted.” But there are so many great memories from that.

We were … the fun thing about making a movie like “Bill and Ted I,” even though I love the second one, I may even like that one more than the first, but the fun thing is you’re just young and there’s no … the kind of fun of the pressure and no one knew what it was gonna be and we were all kind of innocently bashing … hacking our way through some kind of weird jungle. So it was a really fun experience.

Cool. I love the movie. Both of them actually. We also mentioned “The Lost Boys” earlier, you played “Marco” in that film. What can you tell us about the experience on that set? That had to be something else.

That was a trip. The thing is when I made that movie I was a really poor NYU film student. I was living on the lower eastside, NYU is really expensive and every penny I had and beyond was going into getting to school and you had to pay for a lot of your filmmaking gear in those days. There was no video, there was no HD camera. It was like big, expensive cameras, film transfer and edit days and just a very different universe than those students have today.

So I was just broke as hell. Suddenly I was co-staring in this big Hollywood movie and we were shooting and, let’s face it, I don’t do a whole hell of a lot in that movie other than stand around and pout with some really funky hair-do. So I had a lot of time on my hands. So it was actually one of the most fun experiences I had on a job because I didn’t … it was like when I was working I was getting on a motorcycle, driving around and trying my best to look cool and not the nerd that I actually am. And when I wasn’t working I was watching Joel Schumacher and Mike Chapman and some of the greatest people in Hollywood do their work. And I was a film student so I was just soaking it up. It was an amazing, amazing experience!

Gotcha. You got wrapped up in that two Corey’s phenomenon too – that had to be a treat.

I loved those guys. They were really sweet. I felt kind of parental because I had been in the business since I was a kid and you know they were in a tough spot. They got too much exposure, too fast in a very, very decadent and wild and wooly era in Hollywood. The ‘80s were pretty hardcore. So I spent a lot of my time on that set chasing those guys around and trying to get them to go to bed. [laughs]

I wonder what Corey Feldman would have to say about that?

I think he would admit it!

Did you see the sequels and do you have any thoughts on them?

You know I haven’t. I kind of feel bad. I feel like I would like to see them. I just haven’t. I’m not like a huge, huge straight horror guy. It’s fun to act in those things, it’s fun to get blood spewing out of you, but I’m more of a comedy guy or like a comedy or thriller guy. I’m not so much a horror guy, like straight horror. So I just haven’t really had the impetus to watch. I think “Twilight” has kind of burnt me out of ever wanting to see a vampire do anything ever again.

That’s a good point.

Yeah.

I’m not too in to the “sparkly” go outside in the day type movie.

Yeah, the vampire movie as basically the romance novel book cover, yuck.

If you see one of them I suggest just going right to ‘The Thirst,’ which just came out. It feels like more of a true sequel than the one that came before it.

That’s what someone told me recently. They said just go right to that one. And I mean I like a good movie. However it’s made. So I will check it out. I think it’s cool that Corey stayed involved and actually I know some of the guys that made those movies. I need to get off my butt and watch them but I haven’t yet.

There’s a rumor going around that you’ve also been involved in writing “Rock n Roll High School” for Howard Stern’s production company. Is there any truth in that?

Yeah. I wrote it. It was an assignment. I went in and Howard bought two titles out of the library. He bought “Porky’s” and he bought “Rock n Roll High School.” I both love the original “Rock n Roll High School” and I’m a big Roger Corman fan so I pitched those guys a tape that I thought was really fantastic because it wouldn’t try to replicate the original at all. It would leave the original alone. I just wanted to create a modern Corman high school movie. So that was my take. It was like don’t try and replace the Ramones because it’s impossible because they’re one of the greatest bands of all time. Don’t try to, like, take that same story with all of its elements, it’s like what I did with “The Gate” … I wanted to do a remake try not to crap all over the original. Like, leave the original alone. And if you can’t come up ideas that are as fresh and modern as the original, then the remake is gonna stink. That’s your barometer.

So I thought I had a pretty great, fresh take. They liked it. They paid me to write it. I had a great time writing it but it is an assignment. I have absolutely no control over what they do with it. So far he hasn’t … as far as I know he hasn’t gone out and made “Porky’s” or that movie so I don’t know if it will ever get made but it’s completely out of my hands. But it was an enormous amount of fun to write.

Knowing that Howard just signed a new five year deal with Sirius, I think he’s got his hands full. So who knows.

Yeah I mean he certainly got other things going on in his life other than making movies and frankly in this climate making movies is … if it’s not your first love it’s like you’re gonna get burnt pretty fast because it’s a very, very hard market right now.

Okay, one more hard hitting one. What advice would you give to a young filmmaker or young actor just starting out?

You know I would say frankly that it’s … this may sound kind of wacky but I actually think that this is one of the greatest times to dive into this business in its history because there’s never been a time when the tools of distribution and manufacturer have been in the hands of the people so easily. I mean up until now film was a really elusive, expensive medium. And you know we used to do crazy stuff in order to try and make our movies when I was a kid. I started making movies in high school, like most filmmakers, if not in grade school. And then in college we were killing ourselves to make our movies. Making “Squeal of Death,” which was our first big short film, we couldn’t even get a grade in class. It took us two years just to assemble the money to finish it. By the time we were done we had a great show piece. It helped us to get into Hollywood but we didn’t have anything for our class.

My point is nowadays there’s no excuse to not make a movie and I think it really forces the young filmmaker to do what’s always been important, which is learn how to tell a story. Because once you’ve got a great story, you know, pick up a frickin’ HD camera, get final cut or hell, iMovie on your laptop, cut it and distribute it. And if it’s good enough it will cut through the clutter!

I think it’s a really, really exciting time. I think that unfortunately the power base, meaning the establishment, is really scared of the technologies and of their accessibility so it’s not … the business model hasn’t caught up yet. But from the artist standpoint they have no excuse not to be making movies all the time.

Thanks for your time, Alex! We look forward to talking to you again very soon!

Absolutely. It has been my pleasure!

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Check out the official website for Trouper Productions at
www.trouperproductions.com. Be sure to follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/alxwinter!