The first ScareAcon I covered for This Is Infamous led me to a slew of interviews in the horror industry. Most important was my Blair Witch Project 15th Anniversary feature. But I talked to a plethora of horror actors and actresses that weekend. Now it’s been nearly seven years, and prior to the release of CURSE OF CHUCKIE, I talked to Alex Vincent. The audio from this interview has been played on one of the early Necrocasticon’s as well. I figured with Alex being a guest at this year’s Scares That Care, why not reprint this oldie for your blog reading pleasure…

If you ran into Alex Vincent on the street, it’s doubtful you would recognize him.  In 1988 he was thrown into horror movie immortality as Andy Barclay, owner of the killer-possessed doll, Chucky, in the classic CHILD’S PLAY.  Vincent would revisit this roll in the first sequel in the franchise, CHILD’S PLAY II in 1990, and then, except for a few small roles, he disappeared from the movie scene.

During my visit to Scare-A-Con in Upstate, NY, I had an opportunity to talk to Alex.  He had me laughing throughout the interview as I asked him about his short film career, what the future holds for him . . . and the CURSE OF CHUCKIE.

Thomas R Clark:  Hi Alex, how are ya?

Alex Vincent:  Doing well. How are you?

TRC: Very good, very good.  Now you were Andy in the first two CHILD’S PLAY movies.

Alex Vincent:  Correct.

TRC:  It’s been quite a while since those movies came out and you’ve aged well.  I don’t recall you having quite that much facial hair as a child.

Alex Vincent:  Thank you. They wanted me to trim it, I had it, but they figured for the roll I had to get rid of it.  

TRC.  Alright.  What was it like as a child in a horror movie in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s?

Alex Vincent: Well, it was all against my will for one thing, which made it really difficult.  I mean I was just sent out there to do what they did and they’d tie me up at the end and I would have to get untied in the morning and they would put me back to work.  I’m, um, messing with ya. Uh, yeah it was fun, it was a fun experience for a kid ya know it was not scary, it was enjoyable and everyone treated me really good and I had fun with everybody.  It was a lot of fun. 

TRC:  Chuckie is an icon of horror cinema now, and that means by association you as a child actor are also an icon.  

Alex Vincent:  That’s a weird thing to hear or think of as myself.  But the movie has done really well. I think the movie’s relatable to people.  I think everyone’s looked at their doll thinking maybe that will come to life and try to kill me in my sleep.  So I think that’s why it really hit home with people, ya know.  

TRC:  Do you think that’s also why it’s continued to have longevity? 

Alex Vincent:  Yeah. I think people love to be scared.  And I think that when you have a concept that is in everybody’s heads already, ya know it’s eternal for that reason and it’s always gonna come back because people are always going to think these thoughts.  An inanimate object coming to life trying to kill you. That concept will never go away, so they can continue to make these movies and they’ll always have an impact on somebody, especially now that they’re going the route of making them scary again.  

TRC:  The CHILD’S PLAY reboot, might you be involved with that in any way?

Alex Vincent:  It’s CURSE OF CHUCKIE and it comes out October 8th, which is only three weeks from now, comes out on DVD.  It’s a new film, it’s not a reboot, I think it’s back to the original concept. From what I hear about it, it’s gonna be really good.  

TRC:  So you weren’t involved with it at all?

Alex Vincent:  No.

TRC:  What other projects have you been working on?

Alex Vincent:  I do a lot of writing.  I wrote a film called HOUSE GUEST and I act in it.  It’s just a low budget, independent horror film that we made down in Florida.  I wrote it, I act in it, I did all the audio work and original scoring for it so I’ve done that, I’m working on a couple more screenplays.  I have another horror film coming out next month that I’ll be able to start promoting closer to that time.  

TRC:  What are the difference between simply acting in a film and creating the actual product?

Alex Vincent:  For me it’s completely different.  I mean acting was something that I enjoyed when I was a kid, I wasn’t completely passionate about it which is why I pretty much stopped when I was 13.  But I’ve been writing and creating things my entire life. So I would continue to that whether or not I had a career that fit to it or not. If I never made any money as a writer I’m still going to be writing things, because it’s how I like to spend my time.  So now that some that I’ve written are actually getting people to help me with and work on and coming to life and I get to see a group of talented actors down in Florida bring my words that I wrote into life, ya know it was a pretty cool experience and inspiring to keep going and make some more of these things that I’ve written actually happen.  

TRC:  Now do you do horror by choice or is it because of your history?   

Alex Vincent:  I do it because of my access to fans.  I mean I do 15, 20 horror conventions a year where I meet thousands and thousands of horror fans.  It would be stupid of me not to get my foot back in the door in this genre, not necessarily as an actor.  There’s things about horror that I do like and I can relate to. I like killer stories, I like suspense. I like, ya know, serial killer stories and I like . . . I’m just not the biggest gore person ever.  But with suspense and stuff like that ya know I like it, so this is a perfect avenue for me to go right now.

TRC:  So say you have Sam Raimi’s success and you are able to make that movie that YOU can make, what would it be like?

Alex Vincent:  Porno horror? No, no, I’m just kidding.  I’d, uh, it would be comedy. I mean if I really had a choice I’d be making comedies.  It’s different, a totally a different thing to write a comedy. You know, in writing a horror film there’s a lot of set ups and a lot of character development and there’s a lot of, I don’t want to say slow parts, but you can build up a story line progressively until you to some sort of, you know, intense moment or something like that.  That’s kind of what I did with this last film. But with a comedy, you’ve got to be funny the whole time. There’s no . . . it’s got to be funny all the time and that always sounds like a fun thing to get involved with for me. I’ve written little sketch comedies, but I’d like to write a feature comedy and I probably will soon.  

TRC:  Well, both horror and comedy are based off timing and pacing, and they’re very similar which is why the two are so easy to meld.  

Alex Vincent:  I agree, I agree completely.  Pacing of it is what works, ya know.  Same thing with porno, for that matter.  It’s all about pacing and timing. You don’t want to give too much, too fast, ya know?

TRC:  Well, Alex Vincent, thank you very much.

Alex Vincent:  Alright, you’re welcome.