Andrew Divoff Grants Us Our Wish for a Revealing Interview!
Twenty years have passed since Andrew Divoff’s ultra-eerie role in the first Wishmaster film, and with the recently released collection of films on Blu-ray from Vestron Video (review here), we here at Dread Central were lucky to grab a few moments with him to talk about his role in the first two, as well as what’s lined up for him on the horizon.
So grab a seat, and be careful what you wish for – but more importantly, enjoy the read!
DC: Take us back to the beginning (late-1996), and tell us how you were first approached to star in The Wishmaster.
AD: As it turns out, going through the casting process, I found out afterward that Robert Kurtzman was a fan of a movie I’d done called Toy Soldiers, so I guess it kind of grew out of that, and a friend of his, John Esposito, was one of the co-writers on Graveyard Shift, the film adaptation of the Stephen King short story. John had spoken to Robert about me, and it really began a sort of process of seeing where everybody’s head was at – our meetings together, and it was more of him gauging me, as with any sort of litmus test.
DC: You certainly brought a sense of creepiness to the character of the Djinn – did you feel that after the completion of the second film that you’d brought all you could have offered to the character?
AD: No, never. I’ve always said I was happiest about the fact that the franchise lived on, and that the production teams and the studios believed enough in the monster to continue it, but I never felt, and still don’t feel that the depths of what could be possible with a Djinn movie. I think that we catch ourselves at times (I do it too), and a lot of the Wishmaster fans will write down different wishes and ways that the Wishmaster might trick someone out of that wish, and that’s always fun – there is no end to wishes.
DC: Under the correct set of circumstances, could you see yourself reprising the role once again?
AD: I would love that – I think my having been around for some 30-plus years in acting would certainly bring a little more sauce to the stew, but I think the idea of this trickster/genie, which is in keeping with the Persian lore – no matter how you think you might have worded it, he’ll find a way to twist that around. I think that bringing Mr. Kurtzman back in would be a brilliant thing, and again the production team would really have to do it because they wanted to and they loved the genre – the genie has a few more issues in him, whether it’s me or not. He’s certainly eked out a place in the heart of the horror fans, and I hear that when I go to the different horror conventions, and with this being the 20th anniversary of the first film, I’m very proud of the fact that the character has been around for that long, and it’s still getting love from the fans.
DC: Over the course of your career, you’ve managed to align yourself more towards the villainous end of the character spectrum in your roles – do you find it more interesting to play the bad guy?
AD: I do, and let’s not forget that the villain is just a piece in the puzzle of a story, but a story that needs an antagonist to drive it forward, and a lot of times the antagonist’s job is to pull back on a story to keep it from going anywhere, whereas the protagonist wants to get to that goal. I think for me, playing the role of a villain is more exciting, and I say this a bit off-handedly, but I’ve played a few good guys in the past, and I’ve never been so bored in my life – I did something called Magic Island, and it was a Blackbeard story, and it was aged-down for kids, and I think that it was meant for kids under 13 to watch it, so I looked at it as a good-guy role. I love playing my villains, but I’m not going to take just any bad-guy role – it has to be a story that’s viable and something that I’d be interested in.
DC: Last one – what can all of your fans look forward to seeing you in down the road?
AD: Thanks for asking – I just did a guest-spot on USA Network’s “Colony,” and I was invited down to Sony to see a screening of a movie that’s now under the working title of The Hatred, and I was really pleased with the story. I did the flashback portion of the film – I was this creepy dude, and then there were the present-day events that take place in the film, and I must say that it pieced together well – the cast did really well, and I was lucky enough to work with Nina Siemaszko and Darby Walker, so keep an eye out for that, maybe around Halloween. There’s also another that I finished just before the holidays down in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and it’s one of those dark, inner-secrets types of tales – little bit of Southern Gothic/horror-in-the-mind, so I’m excited about that – it’s called Demons, and it was written and directed by Miles Doleac, and he was a pleasure to work with.
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