Furlong, Edward (The Crow: Wicked Prayer)
Eddie Furlong has done it all in the genre from big budget James Cameron movies to little indie horror flicks. In his latest role as the new Crow — Jimmy Cuervo, the actor paints us a new picture. One that’s as different as it is familiar.
Uncle Creepy: It’s a pleasure to talk to you. I feel like I kind of grew up watching you starting with T2 and Brainscan. I had the opportunity to see Wicked Prayer, and you did a great job. The Crow is a very complex character, and up until your performance no one’s really nailed it other than Brandon Lee. What did you try to bring to the role?
Edward Furlong: First of all, I really loved the Brandon Lee one and thought he did such a fantastic job in that. So, though I couldn’t live up to it, I wanted to try to live up to that as much as possible. As well as the other two. This time I kind of wanted to be the pissed off Crow. He didn’t really want to be there. I didn’t want to come back from the dead. And I really loved that in this Crow versus the other ones, it actually showed the pre-story.
UC: We never really had any background on the characters’ stories before.
EF: Yeah. It just sort of started off and you’d see the background through the flashbacks. It’d just start off with him coming back from the dead. It added a whole other kind of action to the movie where it let me flesh out the character. You got to have even more sympathy for the character at the same time because you get to see why that love for him is so deep.
UC: One of the things you have a habit of doing in all of your roles is that you bring a real believability to the character you’re creating. Being that for the most part the Crow character has been a mysterious guy who clowns around in a most deadly fashion, was it your intention to make the character more three-dimensional this time?
EF: You always want to do your best that you can do. I hope that’s what I did do.
UC: What did you want to bring to the role?
EF: Ultimate rage I guess. It’s the first time I’ve ever played a superhero. Everything’s sort of supernatural; I come back from the dead and all that. As an actor, how do you relate to that? You can’t really, so I just figured it was like he wasn’t resting peacefully because he’s so engulfed in rage. That’s what I wanted to bring – a blind rage to get things even.
UC: Speaking of characters being brought back from the dead and how can you relate to that, you worked with David Boreanaz. He has a long history of playing a character who’s dead. Was he able to help you along a little bit?
EF: You know what? I never saw Angel or anything like that before I did The Crow. But David and I . . . It was awesome! Whatever scenes we had together – and when I saw the movie I think it stands out – he surprised me. He’s a great actor. The scenes we did together always felt like the most intense.
UC: You guys had quite a chemistry. David’s the kind of actor, especially in The Crow, who can go from sane to off-the-chart nuts at the drop of a dime. Have you guys bonded off the set? Would you like to work with him again?
EF: I’d love to. He’s a great guy, very nice. And talented too. He brought a lot to the movie.
UC: The Crow is such an iconic character with legions of fans, for both the movies and the comics. Was it intimidating for you to step into that role? Were you thinking about what you needed to do for the fans as far as your characterization goes?
EF: Yeah, it’s a little fucking nerve-wracking in the beginning.
UC: Since Salvation exists, you really don’t have to worry about that.
EF: We shot everything that came pre-Crow first. I don’t know . . . I just put on the outfit, and one of the first shots I did was walking out of the trailer with the crow landing on my shoulder. I felt pimping! I got to walk out. I had my trenchcoat on. I had the makeup on. Then to have that crow land on my shoulder. I was like, “All right! I’m the Crow, dude!” Kind of fun.
UC: Speaking of fun . . . Lance Mungia. What was it like working with him?
EF: It was cool. I liked Six-Strip Samurai a lot. Working with Lance was interesting because he’s very hands-on with the actors, especially me. We got together months before the movie. This is not something I usually do with directors. We went over the script with a fine-tooth comb and really talked about each scene and changed some things. We worked very well together. It was a mutual process of creating that character.
UC: One thing I can say about Wicked Prayer is that it kept the same feel of the Crow films but had a different flavor to it. There was sort of a spaghetti western feel, and I imagine that was due to Mungia’s direction as well. Was it always the point to go outside the box and not try to stick to the original Crow formula? You can’t outdo what the original did, but you definitely paid a great deal of respect to it.
EF: The goal was to definitely have a The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly vibe to it. With the setting, that’s what Lance always wanted – a very western feel to it. That was a cool idea because the rest of them took place in a city. From the very beginning, that was their intention, to have a different look to it.
UC: What was the biggest thrill for you on the set? Was it with Boreanaz? Mungia? Working with Dennis Hopper?
EF: Meeting Dennis Hopper was pretty badass. What was the biggest trip? You know the crow they actually used in The Crow was the crow they used in this one. I was a little starstruck over the bird. Every time it landed on my shoulder, it was just awesome! I loved the bird. I was really geeking for it!
*both simultaneously* “Dude, the fucking bird rocks, man!”
EF: Other than that, we didn’t have a very huge budget, so it was a lot of hard work working on that film, and it was long hours. We only had like five weeks. We had to shoot basically all at night, which is okay by me because I’m usually a nocturnal person anyway.
UC: I noticed you have another genre movie coming out, The Visitation.
EF: Yeah. That’s going to be coming out by Fox. It’s directed by Robby Henson. It’s hard to tell you the story, though, without giving it away.
UC: You’ve always managed to come back to the horror genre one way or another. Is that something you did on purpose? Do you like working in the genre?
EF: I do like it. And, you know, I like to pay the bills.
UC: Seed of Chucky was hilarious.
EF: I was laughing my ass off, dude!
UC: You know what I thought one of your most understated roles was – and you did such a good job in it: Pet Sematary II. That is one of the darkest, most disturbing films on the planet.
EF: Thank you. Wow! That was a long time ago. I was 14.
UC: Do you ever find yourself flicking through the TV and going, “Oh shit! I was in that!”?
EF: Yeah. I do. It’s weird. Especially as I’ve gotten older. I’ve been in this business for 15 years. It’s starting to happen more commonly now, and I’m like, “Oh shit! That’s me!” and I flip the channel pretty much as quickly as possible. Then I’ll flip back for a little bit and go, “Oh shit! I can’t watch it!” and just keep flipping.
UC: Well, you’ve definitely covered the gamut from being in a Terminator movie, which is probably just about one of the biggest things you could do, to this much smaller budget version of The Crow. It’s like here’s Eddie Furlong all grown up. He’s gone from this nice, kind of rebel teen character in T2 to this really dark, intense, rage-filled portrayal of The Crow. I think people are going to be pretty impressed.
EF: Thanks. I hope it does well. It’s pretty cool. Like I said, it has a pretty huge fanbase.
UC: People may or may not like the movie, but I can tell you from a fan standpoint that nobody should doubt or not respect your performance in it because it’s obvious you put a lot into that character. Some of your reactions are priceless! Like, “What the fuck? Can’t I just die?”
EF: I hope I did The Crow’s fans proud! That’s all we wanted to do.
Big thanks to Eddie for taking the time to bullshit a bit with us!
Categorized:News
