By Fred Topel | Image property of Universal Pictures
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Ron Perlman returns as the title character in Hellboy II: The Golden Army. The world is full of more fantasy creatures, but Hellboy is still the same smartass tough guy. Even the new makeup house recreated a similar costume for Perlman.
Ron Perlman on Hellboy II: The Golden Army
"It moved from being a Rick Baker make-up in Hellboy 1 to a Mike Elizalde Spectral Motion make-up in Hellboy II but everything remained the same except for some slight alterations," said Perlman. "I think he looks a little younger, a little bit more energetic, a little sexier."
He may also be funnier in Hellboy II, with more one-liners. "That's simply the way Guillermo writes. I mean, it sounded like I was making the whole movie up in Hellboy, and yet I think there was maybe one improv in the whole movie. You know, he's got this idiom down, this kind of like longshoreman guy who's raised in New Jersey, eastern kind of barroom American slang for a guy who English is his second language. It's kind of remarkable."
Even with four years in between films, Perlman slipped right back into Hellboy. "It's probably the least adjustment I make from like the conversation I'm having with you to action that I've ever had to make as an actor. I didn't make any alterations behaviorally or voice-wise, or this or that or the other thing. Guillermo kept reminding me, 'When you start acting, you're going to screw up, because I've done everything in my power to make Hellboy you, and you Hellboy. Don't make any adjustments. Just do it.' That was very freeing, actually, the most freeing direction I've ever been given. There's no real adjustment, either for Hellboy 1 or for Hellboy II. The only thing that changes are the circumstances of which scene we're shooting on any given day."
Even the smart alec tone fits with Perlman's real personality. "My favorite aspect of Hellboy is the trash talk. The cynicism and the humor is real east coast. I'm a New Yorker by birth and spent almost my whole life there. I know that humor. I know that kind of gamesmanship that jocks have. Guillermo somehow captured it in a way that was hard to believe and too good to be true all at the same time."
Hellboy II: The Golden Army opens to theaters on July 11th.
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