What Do I Know?

Hey all,

Today, I’m doing something a little different. I have invited Kyle Hoskins, the fine young actor set to play Raymond in our upcoming slasher film Raymond Did It, to write a guest blog.

Take a look at Kyle’s thoughts on playing a slasher:

Good morning, evening, afternoon horror lovers. My name is Kyle Hoskins and this fall you will come to know me as your friendly neighborhood slasher, Raymond. This is not my first time participating in a Travis Legge brain child. I was most recently in his zombie short “Kept” and prior to that I was the lovable loser ‘Dexter’ in “Skeet Shooting”.

Obviously this latest role is a bit of a departure from the victim or from the comedic lead, this role provides its own unique challenges. I always wanted to be a villain in a movie, I rooted for Darth Vader, I thought Hannibal had a good point, Freddy Krueger was just misunderstood. So when Travis asked if I wanted to cut people up on camera I couldn’t possibly say no.

However, this wasn’t exactly what I thought I would be doing when I dreamed of standing side by side with Vader on the Death Star. I always pictured myself as the insidious evil genius, the manipulative psycho, but Travis couldn’t possibly make it that easy.

My usual prep for a movie, the way I get to know a character, is I find a piece of him that I have in myself and than I form his personality around that. Playing a developmentally delayed killer is not the easiest head to get into but I’m making my strides.

I think the key to understanding any villain is to realize that they don’t think they are the villain. Raymond feels totally justified in his actions, he is pissed, he is slow, and he isn’t going to take it anymore. The wonderful thing about this villain in particular, I feel, is that he is driven by love. Raymond loved his brother and I feel that the source of his rage isn’t that he was wrongfully punished but that no one else was.

We might want to distance ourselves as much as possible from the guy with the knife but the truth is he is so much more like we are than any protagonist. If put in the same situation who among us wouldn’t consider taking our bloody revenge? Raymond doesn’t come to the conclusion that it’s killing time because he doesn’t have the mental faculties to understand that it’s wrong…he comes to that conclusion because he is human.

Aside from understanding the character’s motives the other obstacle you have as an actor is to genuinely portray any distinctive traits your character may have. The hardest part about this is going to be playing someone who is developmentally delayed and not have it come off as fake or insulting. The key to all this, however, is that Raymond is a child. He is an angry child who lost his brother. As long as I stay focused on that I am confident that I’ll be able to create a murderous, yet sympathetic villain for you all to love and fear.

-Kyle

You can see some of Kyle’s previous work at http://www.aegisstudios.com/film.html

Thanks,

Travis

1. Dolly says:

   February 11, 2010 at 5:27 pm

   Hi,
   blog.aegisstudios.com – da best. Keep it going!
   Dolly
2. What Do I Know? » Blog Archive » Guest Blog 2: A Word from Mrs. Rourke says:

   March 20, 2010 at 1:31 pm

   [...] Raymond Did It, joined us to offer his perspective on the challenges of portraying a slasher in a guest blog. As we draw closer to production, I have asked other members of the cast to join us in discussing [...]
3. payday loans says:

   August 28, 2010 at 6:38 pm

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