Interview With Ron Perlman? [Archive] - Cigar Asylum Cigar Forum

SmokeyJoe

03-12-2010, 07:36 AM

Maybe this one...

SMOKE Magazine... Fall, 2008

From Hell...
To the Highway

Know this face? If not, that’s because it’s usually under monster makeup. Well, now Ron “Hellboy” Perlman plays the head of a motorcycle gang in FX’s Sons of Anarchy, proving this Golden Globe–winner needs no help in scaring up a character. - By Tim Coleman

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Perhaps the strangest thing about Ron Perlman is that he’s…not strange at all. Sure, there’s the gruff voice that immediately conjures up some dark pit lined with gravel and swinging chains. And granted, one look at that blocky, mustachioed mug and you might think he’s the offspring of Tom Selleck and Frankenstein’s monster.
But Perlman is actually one smooth actor. Smooth and Regular Joe-y, in fact, so it may come as a shock to learn that the titular star of the Hellboy franchise golfs, plays jazz - and enjoys cigars. “I start smoking them pretty much the minute I get out of bed, after my first cup of coffee - I don’t do anything until I have my first cup of coffee - and I don’t stop smoking them the whole day,” he says.

Now the Golden Globe winner is part of the ensemble on FX’s latest hard-hitting drama, Sons of Anarchy. He portrays Clarence “Clay” Morrow, the iron-fisted ruler of a Hell’s Angelsian motorcycle club in Charming, California. As underhanded as he is vicious, Clay hassles everyone, Tony Soprano-style - from local sheriffs to rival gang members to his own crew. And the actor isn’t basing Clay’s rough-and-tumble behavior on “research,” either. He’s digging from within.

“I had no time to prepare,” Perlman explains. “Everything happened so fast. I’d been away filming a movie. I got home, got the part and we were shooting the next day.”

Clay isn’t invincible, though. Far from it, he suffers from severe arthritis. That’s a real problem when your mode of transportation is a heavy machine operated with handlebars. Worse yet, Clay is emotionally handicapped. While he is one of the “Redwood First 9,” the founding members of the club, he’s also the insecure stepfather to young biker Jax, the son of another, long-dead Redwood First 9.

One of Perlman’s co-stars feels the multi-faceted role is a perfect fit for him. “When Ron came aboard, we’d really met our match,” says Katey Sagal, the actress best known for her sitcom work on Married…With Children. “There was one name the producers had in mind for this part, and that was Ron.”

The show itself is “Hamlet set in a motorcycle club in the 21st century,” Perlman adds. Right down to having its own Gertrude in the form of Sagal’s character, Gemma Teller-Morrow, wife of Clay and mother to Jax. The former Mrs. Peg Bundy insists Gemma is only trying to preserve the club, but it’s as clear as the roar of a Harley exhaust pipe that Gemma aims to transform the once-communal group into a full-blown criminal organization. “She is Clay’s kryptonite,” as Perlman puts it.

“I don’t know if I agree with that, but behind every strong man is a strong woman,” Sagal laughs. “No, really, Gemma knows her place in that world. She knows how to work it and she knows how to get people to say and do the things she wants them to say and do… You know, it’s always fun to play the dark side. We all have one.”

Perlman hopes to bring every side of Clay to life. “I’m trying to make him as complex as he can be. If the motorcycle club is a sovereign nation, then he’s the strong-arm, bad-ass leader. His only allegiance is to the club. In all the characters I’ve played in my career, he’s the only one who doesn’t have the ability to make fun of himself.”

Which is not the same as saying Clay isn’t funny. In one scene, the newest member of the gang - an Iraq War vet whose manhood was wounded in battle - is showing off his injury to his biker brothers. The minute Clay sees what’s going on, he growls, “Jesus Christ, put that deformed nutsack away!” Then he sparks up a Cohiba.

What would Hellboy smoke?
In his 2008 Movie Guide review of Hellboy, film critic Leonard Maltin writes, “Perlman is terrific as the cigar-chomping, emotionally vulnerable Hellboy.” That enjoyment of cigars runs deep onscreen and off.

“My favorite cigar now is Joya de Nicaragua, the torpedo,” says Perlman. “It’s got a beautiful roll, a beautiful draw, a very robust flavor, and the blend is spectacular. It’s also priced pretty reasonably - that’s important when you smoke as many cigars as I do.”

In addition to Joya de Nicaragua, he likes a range of others from Partagas, Arturo Fuente, and Davidoff. His passion began long ago and hasn’t waned despite the ups and downs in cultural trends.

“I’ve been smoking cigars since college, which was decades before the cigar frenzy of the ’90s,” he says. “When the frenzy went away, I was still smoking cigars. I still smoke two or three a day.”

Beyond cigars, Perlman finds inspiration in working with some of the same world-class filmmakers. His first film, 1981’s striking Quest for Fire was directed by frequent collaborator Jean-Jacques Annaud. “It’s my first movie, you never forget it,” Perlman says. “It’s like your first love.” The actor played Amoukar, a caveman, in the prehistoric adventure and his performance earned him a Genie Award nomination (Canada’s equivalent of the Oscars). Five years later, Annuad cast him as the hunchback Salvatore in The Name of the Rose

Another collaborator, Guillermo del Toro, directed both Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, as well as others starring Perlman––from del Toro’s feature debut, the 1993 horror flick Cronos, to the 2002 vampire sequel Blade II. When the comic-book series Hellboy was being adapted for film, del Toro and Mike Mignola, the creator of the comics, actually envisioned Perlman in the role. Studio execs had wanted a bigger name, but the filmmakers stuck to their guns, and both films in the Hellboy franchise struck box-office gold.

Gold or not, the gig was anything but easy money.

“It took an average of four hours to apply the makeup for Hellboy,” Perlman says. “And it took about an hour to take off. Not including taking a shower.” The role took other tolls as well. “I broke a rib on Hellboy and a toe on Hellboy II. But I was lucky. You know, you get careless, people make mistakes. Sh*t happens.”

Life for Perlman can also be unpredictable off the set. Having appeared in Alien: Resurrection and other genre fare, he has been a mainstay of comic-book and science-fiction conventions for years - and has the war stories to prove it. “I was asked to sign a woman’s breasts one time,” he recalls. “Which was hard because I’m a lefty, and to sign things that are so soft and nubile, going up over them, that meant I would have had to use both hands.” He pauses, chuckling. “I didn’t do it.”