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| Daniel Bernhardt as Deathstalker |
If you haven’t seen a Steven Kostanski film, it’s difficult to explain quite what you can expect from Deathstalker. If you have, you’ll know exactly, and will be waiting eagerly for your chance to see it. A legendary warrior. A magical amulet. A badly drawn map and a generous supply of rubbery monsters. For people who don’t take their sword and sorcery too seriously, it’s a joy from start to finish. And following in the wake of the Red Sonja remake earlier this year, it is, I suggest to star Daniel Bernhardt, perhaps the start of a revival for the genre.
“I love those kind of films,” he says, grinning. “And I saw Red Sonja, by the way. It was directed by a good friend of mine. I love those kinds of films. I was the luckiest guy to be part of it. So when Stephen called me and he said ‘Hey, Daniel, I got this movie called Deathstalker,’ I was a big fan of the franchise. I was like, ‘I can play Deathstalker. I can run around with a sword, show off my muscles.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, absolutely. I'm in.’ And he goes ‘Yeah, I want you to fight these monsters, and I want you to be crazy, and I want you to have long hair, and I want you to wear this beautiful costume.’ I mean, come on. It's a dream come true.
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| Daniel Bernhardt as Deathstalker |
“I love his work. I know how his movies are insane. I knew exactly what Deathstalker was going to be. I knew that he was going to do everything practically, and he told me ‘I'm going to build all the monsters that you’ve got to fight. You’re not going to fight some CGI monster. You’re going to fight a real guy in a suit.’ And that's what we did. I think that's what makes this movie so special. And this. And I have to say, all the credit goes to Steven. That man is a bloody genius. He created something so special with this movie. I keep saying the same thing. He built his puppets. He found me as a puppet. You know, I'm his puppet as well. He just told me what to do, and I did what he wanted me to do.
“You know, it's. It's so funny. I mean, he created an incredible world. He wrote an incredible script. For me, the director is always the most important part because he is the top. He's the captain of the ship. He creates the world. So like I said, I'm just his puppet. So I just show up, I do my thing, and it just worked out, but it's his. He puts a little pepper here, puts a little salt here, he puts a little paprika, a little cayenne. That's what Stephen does. He's just such a genius. He's such a great director. So I'm the lucky guy to be part of it.
“The great advice I got was from my friend Bob Odenkirk, who I worked with on the Nobody movies. He read the first 15 pages of the script. He gave me his advice, and the advice was: ‘Daniel, people love these kind of movies. Do not play the joke. Play it serious.’ So what I did is I took this movie very serious. The situation is funny, so I don't have to be funny. So I'm playing the situation. I have Doodad, this little guy, come after me, and I'm going like, ‘What are you doing?’ The situation is funny, so you just react.”
He’s done a lot of fighting in the course of his career but, I suggest, it must be trickier when fighting irregularly shaped monsters which might be at risk of coming apart.
“I knocked every monster out,” he jokes. “I'm kidding. No, I brought in two of my good buddies from 87Eleven Action Design, Lee and Shane. They're two Shaolin monks, extraordinary sword fighters, so they taught me a lot of different styles of sword fighting. And I mean, I've been doing martial arts the last 45 years. I've been sword fighting forever. But I really wanted somebody else to come in with a different experience. They taught me. We choreographed the fights. We showed them to Steven. Steven loved everything we did. We pre shot it and then we did it on the movie.”
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| Daniel Bernhardt as Deathstalker with Doodad (voiced by Patton Oswalt) |
There’s also the challenge of relating to the various different creatures and interacting with them naturally without a conventional eyeline.
“It was actually a positive for me, because that's Steven's world. He works with people who work with it. They call them suit guys, they're actors, they realise they're inside the suit. So for example, when I fought the two headed monster, he had a little peephole like this.” He holds up his thumb and index finger, about four centimetres apart. “So he could only see this much. He had to do a whole fight like this. He did such a good job. I believe his name was Mark. And for me it's a big plus because instead of fighting a CGI monster where I go like this” – he waves his arms at empty air – “I'm fighting somebody for real.
“I have a lot of energy. I always do. I really gained a lot of weight for this movie. I really trained hard. I would get up at 5 o'clock, I'm at the gym at 5:30, I'm on set by 6:30. But every day before I went to set, I went to the gym. And then, you know, they do their job, they set up the monster, they set up the shots and I come in and do my thing. It was a tight shoot. We had maybe 27 or 28 days, but I think we killed it. I'm very proud of this movie and I really would love for everybody to go see this movie in the theatres. So I hope the movie's going to make it to Scotland and your audience can see it in Scotland in the movie theatre. It opens in the states October 10th. I'm not sure when in Scotland, but I hope your audience goes to see it as well.”
We’re running out of time, so before we part I ask him, quickly, what it was like working with the film’s executive producer and musical contributor, the legendary guitarist Slash.
“Slash was so amazing,” he says. “Slash came to set on the scene with the witch. He was there the whole day and he gave me some advice and he was an amazing guy. I'm a huge fan of his music and he's such a great artist. And I said ‘Hey, Slash, do you have any notes?’ He goes ‘Yeah, that was really cool, but maybe try this?’ And I tried something else. And then, you know, he always wears his glasses. He took off his glasses. And I go, ‘You have beautiful eyes.’ Such beautiful eyes, you know? And it was just an honour to be around him and have him in the movie. It was awesome.”
