An Interview
with Eric Balfour
Eric
Balfour, best known for his recurring role of Gabe on the acclaimed
HBO series “Six Feet Under” in which Balfour plays
the drug addicted troubled boyfriend of Claire (Lauren Ambrose).
Additionally Balfour was seen on the FOX hit series "24"
as the character Milo. Joining the series in the fifth hour, Milo
is the smart and eccentric resident computer expert at the CTU.
In The Texas Chainsaw Massacre he plays Kemper, the groups natural
leader. Here is what he had to say about the movie and the horror
genre.
 What
was the attraction for you for this specific part?
Eric: The attraction
for me, besides getting to work with Michael [Bay] and Marcus
[Nispel, Director]. I like that he was the leader of the group,
I liked that he was different from Gabe on Six Feet Under and
he got to be sort of the strong iconic man of the house kind of
guy. I thought it would be fun to do that. All right, I’m
lying. I just wanted to be Jessica Biel’s boyfriend. [Laughs]
You talk about Gabe
and you talk about this film, what’s the attraction being
in roles that are ultimately morbid?
Eric: I probably
wouldn’t think of it that way. I didn’t see this character
as morbid. The film is dark. But other than that I don’t
see Gabe as morbid either. Gabe is lost, Gabe is like a lot of
kids. It’s not that he doesn’t see the light at the
end of the tunnel, he just doesn’t know there is one. I
just think the film is dark, I guess you can say.
Did you see the original
Texas?
Eric: Yeah, I
had seen the original one growing up. I grew up watching horror
movies. The “The Exorcist” is one of my favorite films,
but yeah I’d seen the original one.
Are horror movies
a good way as a particular genre for young actors to make the
transition for TV to movies?
Eric: No I wouldn’t
say so. Up until ours I think the genre has sort of been tainted
a bit. It’s been made fun of. All the I Know What You Did
Last November With My Scary Movie Up Your Nuts whatever, it was
a wink. It was this poke poke make fun of the genre, everyone’s
in on the joke, isn’t it funny? What I liked about this,
whether you want to call it a thriller or a horror movie, it was
a serious piece and you were working with people who took it very
seriously. Marcus Nispel is an amazingly talented man, he’s
an artist and he acts like an artist and he’s the real deal.
Michael Bay, whatever people say about him and criticize him,
he knows how to entertain people, and he really does.
So how do you avoid
the typecast of teen horror movies?
Eric: Everything
about this movie is the antithesis of that. We’re not on
the posters. We’re not doing the GQ poses with our faces
in everything. There’s no pop soundtrack with Eminem doing
Sweet Home Alabama, which I’m sure someone discussed. I’m
sure it came up. But I don’t feel like we run into that
category. Everyone was conscious of that when they were making
the film. They wanted to pay homage to the original and be remembered
hopefully as a Poltergeist or an Exorcist or The Shining. I’m
not going to say that I’m better than Jack Nicholson…but
kind of. [Laughs]
Have you seen the
other films that came out this year like Wrong Turn, Freddy Vs
Jason and do you think the horror genre is back?
Eric: I think
it goes in cycles like everything else. I actually wouldn’t
say that it is yet. I don’t think there’s been a whole
lot of good ones. Like I didn’t like the remake of THE RING,
I didn’t think that was scary. Freddy VS Jason…again
its poking fun at the genre. I don’t really think that’s
a true classic horror movie. Wrong Turn, I didn’t see that
one. I think its still broaching the subject a little bit. People
saw…there’s that movie Cabin Fever, people laughed
“Yeah it was really funny” and I’m like “It
was funny because you were laughing at the movie or was that the
desired effect?” They didn’t really give me an answer.
The thing about this movie is that it starts dark and gets darker,
darker, darker and that was the idea. It was meant to be a scary
movie, It was meant to be a thriller, It was meant to be unsettling.
So you can walk in the theater and experience all those emotions
and you walk out and go “Thank God it’s daylight,
I like my life, it is much better than that movie.” [Laughs]
That’s the appeal of these, it’s good VS evil and
it is dark. I think we’re still fighting to get back to
those you know? There was a time when these movies were made,
there was no pulling punches with them and I kind of feel that’s
what I’m really proud about this movie, we didn’t
do that. We didn’t pull any punches.
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
OPENS OCT 17
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