Gunnar Hansen, Leatherface, on creating one of the greatest horror films of all time

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Gunnar Hansen took the time to write out these answers for me to put in this article, leave comments if you wish as he will be recieving a link to the page, and send any emails that you may feel the need to send to: aarontellock@centurytel.net.

Interviewing Mr. Hansen was a very enjoyable experience and I sincerely look forward to his latest projects. Enjoy.

1.) What was it like making the Texas Chainsaw Massacre in a time when horror hadn’t really seen that quality of brutality?

I don’t think we were really considering that when we were making the movie. Myself, I never thought about the context -- where this movie would sit among other horror movies. Once it came out, though, my thinking was different. I was struck most with the pacing of the movie. So many horror movies at the time seemed to talky -- they took forever to set up the story. And here comes this movie that grabs the viewer right away. And then, after some creepiness, Leatherface shows up and drags the audience along for another hour. Its brutality was compelling -- and it was clear that in this regard the movie was very different from others -- not in the blood (you see almost none), but in the way the audience is made to suffer because of what they know is happening.

2.) How did you get yourself into the right mindset to play a character like Leatherface?

I always kept myself separate from Leatherface, so I did not have to establish a mindset other than to be ready to focus on what I was doing. On the other hand, I had to prepare by FINDING Leatherface, figuring out how he holds his body, how he moves, because that would be all I would have for tools. So I spent time at a residential school for retarded persons. It was an open campus -- people walked about quite freely -- so I watched people. After some time I had a character I wanted -- I could hold myself and move in a way that I thought worked. When staff people walked past and seemed to assume I was another resident there, I figured I had him where I wanted.

3.) Did you realize during production that the film would revolutionize the horror genre like it did?

No, not at all. I did not know how what I read on the page and what we did in front of the camera was going to translate to the screen.

4.) When did you realize the success of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre?

Soon after the movie came out I went to the filming location to show a friend. While we were there, a car full of teenagers arrived. One of them said, “You know, that’s where they made THAT movie.” At that point I felt the movie had done what we set out to do. Soon after that, Johnny Carson complained angrily on the Tonight Show that TCM should have been given an X rating. A few days later the movie critic Rex Reed said it was the scariest movie he had ever seen. Those two comments made me feel that the movie would also be a financial success.

5.) What do you remember most about making the film?

The miserable conditions. We shot long hours -- 12 to 16 hours at a stretch, seven days a week -- and we shot in Texas in August, so the temperature was 100 degrees, give or take, every day.

6.) What do you think of the recent remake (2003) and prequel (TCM: the Beginning)?

I did not like the remake. I felt it had really missed the point of the original. I did not bother to see the prequel.

7.) Beings that you have kept yourself in the horror genre for 35 years, what is your favorite film from your perspective?

My favorite movie overall is Chinatown. In it almost nothing is as it seems and some things are just never explained. At least this week it is my favorite movie.

8.) What is your favorite horror film of all time?

The Haunting -- the original from the early 1960s.

9.) What have you been on lately?

Primarily I write -- I have written some books, and several screenplays, and have written and directed documentary films. Also, I still work as an actor. Last summer I was in Iceland, filming the horror movie Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre, which will premiere in early September. In a few days I will be working on another horror movie, Won Ton Baby.