Make up designer Rick Baker said it was especially hard to transform Benicio into a wolfman because even if he was showered and in a suit, he'd still look half wolf. To take him visibly way beyond his normal state was an effort.
Benicio has a very intense—and some people might even say animalistic—look to him. But the raw Benicio is so far from what he becomes as a wolfman that it's not like we have a head start or anything. He is completely transformed. The great thing about Rick's makeup is you can see Benicio under his makeup. His personality comes out—it's not like somebody putting on a hockey mask and you're not sure it's them in there or not. The makeup was built in such a way that it didn't restrict Benicio as much as some makeups do. He was able to express himself and give a very convincing performance even while barely recognizable as Benicio Del Toro. You can see his eyes—he's got very distinctive eyes—and they stare through at you.
Is it true that Gene Simmons does his howl?
Well, when we were designing his howl, we were going off in a lot of different directions. We tried a lot of things to see what would work and be interesting. We listened to every wolf howl ever done on every film. We listened to all of them. And you'd be surprised how unconvincing most of them are. Some were just wolves, but some were men going, 'Aoooooooo!'
Like a choo-choo train.
We didn't get a lot from our research in what's been done before. We were looking for this great pure tone—we knew we were going to process it and overlay elements to it, but we wanted that great foundation. We tried Gene Simmons and one of Gene Simmons' howls is in the movie. I don't think Gene Simmons would recognize it, but it's in there. We had David Lee Roth come in and do a few howls...
No way!
That was a blast. We had opera singers come in and howl, we had animal impersonators. Gene Simmons and David Lee Roth were pretty near the end of the process. By then we knew what we were looking for, we were homing in on it. And their stuff became the most useful stuff that we did. Like I said, I don't think they would recognize it after what we've done to it because we've digitally processed it and added cool overtones and all that stuff. We were basically just looking for a wolf howl you'd never heard before. What we realized is that everybody in the audience knows what a wolfman sounds like. Even if it's from their imagination, it's all pretty much the same thing. We just wanted our howl to be the best version of that howl. And I think we've come up with something that's definitely spine-tingling, and at the same time it's familiar enough that the audience is going to recognize it—it's what they expect, with enhancements.
My mental image of your howl auditions is amazing.
It was great. These guys, they're not only singers—they're comedians. Hilarious sessions. You can imagine Gene Simmons and David Lee Roth in there howling with the picture on the screen. And they would do it, crack a few jokes, and try it again. Even if it hadn't been useful, it would have been fun just to do it.
Did they know they were competing against each other to be the signature howl?
I'm not sure if they did, actually?! They came in on different days. I'm not sure if they knew there were other rockers coming in? I guess they'll read about it somewhere.
The internet is freaking out that there might be a Jurassic Park IV.
Wow, when did that happen?
November—you mentioned to Ain't it Cool News that there might be a good script.
Did I tell him? Was it me?
You said that there was no way to get people back on the island for a fourth time and have it make sense, but that 2001 was the last installment and we're due.
Well, there is going to be a Jurassic Park IV. And it's going to be unlike anything you've seen. It breaks away from the first three—it's essentially the beginning of the second Jurassic Park trilogy. It's going to be done in a completely different way. That's pretty much all I can tell you.
A second trilogy?
If you think of the first three as a trilogy, number four would be the beginning of a second trilogy.
That's big. So not to lock you in, but there's a possibility there might be a total of six films?
Well, you never know. If they keep working—and if audiences keep going to them—there's no reason why there wouldn't be. We just want to make them justified in their own right. We don't want to make sequel after sequel just because there's a market for it. We want to tell different, interesting stories. You don't want to just sell hamburger.
What can you tell me that people might not have already heard about Captain America?
It's not going to be a Captain America that you expect. It's something different. It is influenced by the comic book, but it goes off in a completely different direction. It's the origin story of Captain America. It's mostly period—there are modern, present-day bookends on it—but it's basically the story of how Steve Rogers becomes Captain America. The great thing about Captain America is he's a super hero without any super powers. Which is why this story, among the hundreds of superhero stories, appealed to me the most. He can't fly, he can't see through walls, he can't do any of that stuff. He's an everyman who's been given this amazing gift of transformation into the perfect specimen—the pinnacle of human perfection. How does that affect him? What does that mean for him emotionally and psychologically? He was this 98-pound weakling, he was this wimp, and he's transformed instantly into this Adonis. You'd think he got everything he wanted. Well, he didn't get everything he wanted. The rules change at that point and his life gets even more complicated and dire. For me, that's the interesting part of the story. It's got some great action sequences in it and some incredible stuff that we've never seen before. But at the heart of it, it's a story about this kid, who all he wants to do is fit in. This thing happens and he still doesn't fit in. And he has to prove himself a hero—essentially go AWOL to save a friend. Eventually at the very end, I don't want to give away too much, but he does fit in. But it's the journey of getting him there that's interesting. And it's a lot of fun.
Like the wolfman, it's a classic character where you have to find the human element underneath him.
Well, I figure humans buy tickets to go see the movies. We might as well make stories about humans. After all, robots don't buy tickets.
http://boxoffice.com/featured_stories/2010/01/exclusive-captain-america-jp4.php