A biography for Robert Englundhasn’t been written yet.
“The modern horror audience is wise to our tricks this lets it in on the gag.”
“Death by plane crash scares me. I travel a lot, and when you hit turbulence, and post 9/11, that's in the back of my mind a bit.”
“I always serve the writer first because I'm English trained, even though I'm American.”
“I'm a big fan of Brian De Palma's 'Sisters,' and I also love 'Let The Right One In.'”
“While I still do a lot of horror, it doesn't feel to me like I'm repeating myself. I like to stay interested. I'm kind of turning into one of those elder statesmen, like a Vincent Price or a Donald Pleasence. I like to think of myself alongside those guys.”
“Halloween starts earlier and earlier, just like Christmas.”
“Horror does better when it's bubbling under. It's a niche. It doesn't like the limelight.”
“The roughest make-up I ever wore was for 'Phantom of the Opera' because the phantom's face was all disfigured, and he's trying to pass in public so he can attend his beloved opera. That was make-up over make-up.”
“As a result of playing Freddy Krueger, I can remember having to look at some medical books, and at some of the disfigurement that fire can cause on people, because they were the source material for some of the prosthetic makeup that I wore. That aided and abetted this fear of death by fire. Which is sort of what happened to Fred Krueger.”
“Some actors get by with behaving, not acting. You've got to sell the effect. I act more in the 'Nightmare' movies because it's not like me. I'm acting, not reacting.”
“As a jobbing actor, you can't afford to be choosy; if you're typed, you're generally working. I still feel that way, and the thing is, even within the horror genre, I now get to play all kinds of different roles.”
“The truth of it is when you get an audience to laugh and camp along with you, it's much easier to scare 'em again because they're using two sides of their emotions. It's much easier to set them up for a good cheap thrill scare again.”
“I think superheroes today are like whistle blowers.”
“I'd rather be Vincent Price than a red-neck character actor. You can't predict what will happen.”
“I always get inspiration from whatever characters say about my character.”
“My dad worked as an executive at Lockheed Aircraft and worked on the U-2 and things like that. My mother was a homemaker, and she was vice-president of the Democratic Council of California back in the '50s.”
“I wouldn't want the pressure of a Six Feet Under or the pressure of improvising like Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
“Kids today don't watch a black and white movie.”
“I actually sing horribly, but I used to dance pretty good. I was a gymnast, and you can usually use those gymnastic tricks with dance. Plus, they're so much fun to do. That wasn't really a big part of my career. It was just a phase.”
“I'm a Hollywood kid, and I know that there are only so many stories. Only so many tales around the campfire that we have to tell. Then we have to regurgitate them. Our grandparents' movies were all remakes of silent films - we forget that, but it's true.”