In the original Halloween, young Michael Myers was just a kid in a mask. In the new Halloween, we get to know him. Daeg Faerch plays the preteen Michael, bullied by his family and school kids. This is his first movie.
Daeg Faerch on Halloween
"I submitted and I got an audition and I surprisingly didn't get a callback," said Faerch. "I just got it. [The audition was] scenes that were actually cut out. It was kind of more backstory. They just told me to give them a scary look and read the lines."
His mother didn't even let him read the whole script. "I only read my stuff and then I couldn't read the rest. I have not seen the movie and I will not see the movie. Only the first 10 or 15 minutes."
Even if he didn't read or see it, young Michael has to do some pretty disturbing things. He beats another kid bloody and slashes four people on camera. "There was only one part where I kind of got chills. The house that we were filming in, the Michael Myers house, it was really close to the original. There's a scene that I did and I was in there all by myself. Between takes, I got so scared. I have a knife in my hand, it's bloody, I'm bloody, it's like this is creepy."
Wearing that mask was a similar experience that Tyler Mane, playing adult Michael, described. "Well, the first time I tried it on it was really tight. Then when I wore it, I was like, 'Ah, this is pretty cool.' Then after a couple killings that I did, it kind of got sweaty and stinky."
Even the young Faerch has a theory about what led Michael Myers to become the ultimate killer. "I'm sure he was a sweet kid in the beginning but after his mom's boyfriend being mean to him, his sister being mean to him and everybody just kind of pushing him to the side, that family's going downhill and he's going downhill and he just kept on going downhill after that."
Director Rob Zombie helped Faerch along his first role. "When I first knew it was Rob Zombie, I thought it was going to be really hard because he's a rocker and stuff. But when I got there and he started directing me, he was really low key and he was really open to ideas."
Costar Malcolm McDowell, playing Dr. Loomis, also provided a positive influence. "He's a really good actor. It's nice to do acting with somebody that's well known and good. Especially because we did improv sometimes."
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