To horror fanatics and zombie enthusiasts, Ken Foree is best known for playing the indomitable Peter Washington in the original Dawn Of The Dead. However, Ken has been working steadily for nearly three decades in television and film. From playing Roger Rockmore on “Keenan and Kel” to Leroy Brown in Stuart Gordon’s From Beyond, he’s done it all. Recently, Ken landed a role in Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects as Charlie Altamont. Luckily for me, Ken took the time for an interview with Doomed Moviethon.

Doomed Moviethon: Who is Charlie Altamont?

KF: Charlie Altamont is one of the Firefly family. He’s Captain Spalding’s brother. He is a character who is not violent or at least not murderous. He is a more of a scam man than anything else. He’s a jackleg business man, in other words, he moves from business to business, all of which are on the edge of illegality. He usually ends up going to jail or gets his brother in trouble and they go to jail. Or get caught in a scam he can’t get out of or a scheme that doesn’t work out but they have a lot of fun. He’s that kind of guy. No one you want to bring home to family dinner. No one you want to introduce your mom to but he’s not going to slash your throat either. That’s Charlie.

DM: It looks like he’s running a strip joint or a whorehouse in The Devil’s Rejects.

KF: Charlie’s big idea was that it was supposed to be a frontier fun resort. He was going broke so he thought, “What can I do to bring up revenues?” He says, “Hey, what about a whorehouse? A whore ranch? A whore town? Oh that’s it.” And that’s how he came with it. They have the little town that’s full of whores and little interesting things. Quite disgusting but quite humorous if you’re a guy and you can laugh. And hope your wife doesn’t smack your face.

DM: What kind of research did you do for the character or did you just channel your inner pimp?

KF: My inner pimp! [Laughs] Well, I guess we all have an inner pimp somewhere. I don’t know where mine is? Charlie is not necessarily a good pimp. Even though he ends up being a pimp for this period of his life, this is probably a five year deal before he’s out again doing something else. Maybe an insurance agency or selling bibles door to door. In terms of research, I really researched it as a guy that is a marketer, does scamming, and has a background like Charlie has. That gave me plenty of choices to make on how to form the character and then get into it.

DM: How was the Devil’s Rejects shoot? Any difficulties?

KF: No, absolutely not. One of the best times I’ve ever had on a shoot. Great caterer, great crew, and just nice people all the way around. A classy group of people and it was a joy to come to work everyday. I wish it could have gone on and on and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

DM: Recently, some excised gore footage from the R-rated version of From Beyond was recovered. Also, I’ve seen the censored scenes from Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III. What’s your take on film censorship, especially in horror movies?

KF: It’s kind’s of crazy when you talk about censorship in horror movies. When we came out with Dawn Of The Dead, the censors went wild. They came up with an X-rating, or an un-rating, or something like that. It was a big brouhaha. I think censorship is important. I think we can’t just let just anything on screen influence those who may not be ready to digest what they’re seeing visually. I’d hate to have an eight year old or a five year old kid see some of the stuff that I’m famous for. You don’t want kids exposed to certain kinds of material. It’s not time for them yet. But yeah, the censorship goes a little crazy.

I know they’ve got to have it, I know that everybody goes through it. I know that depending on how well you fight, the lawyers you’ve got, how long of a fight you put up, what you might be able to sneak in, and how much they let you get in, they’re going to hold strongly against things that they have absolute objections to. I think it’s a necessary evil. I think censorship is something we all have to go through. I don’t think they’re always right and I think they can demand a lot. It’s politics. You get a guy on a great day, his kid got an A in school or he got a raise, he’ll say “Okay, I’ll work with you on this and we’ll work it out”. If they guy has a horrible day or a horrible week, you might end up on the short end of the stick. It’s like a civil servant’s job. Just hope that you get the right civil servant. [Laughs]

DM: Any experiences from your work on From Beyond you’ld like to share?

KF: I was in Rome. My first time overseas. Brian Yuzna and Stuart Gordon had just finished Re-Animator. Barbara Crampton, Jeffrey Combs, and Ted Sorel, we were all there. It was one of the more interesting shoots of my life. We had a fairly good time. I went through every motion you can imagine from getting a very bad cold to injuring my back. A lot of stuff happening during that shoot that was crazy. Fell in love with Rome, of course. Yuzna took very good care of us. Stuart owes me a bet for 3,500 lira and one day I’ll collect from him.

DM: You played Benny in Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III where I heard there was a lot of producer interference with the film. How was the shoot? Any tension?

KF: Jeff Burr covered that up very well while we were shooting. He just made sure that we were doing what we were supposed to do, getting shots out, and getting the job done. I didn’t hear about the real problems until much later on when they went into editing and that kind of thing. First thing was that they spelled my name wrong in the credits. Instead of Ken Foree, it was Ken Force! That was one of the first things that I noticed. Then I heard about all the people having problems and wanting their names taken off of it. Then people changing it. I had to go back as a matter of fact, I had to come back and shoot another scene.

DM: Yeah, Benny just comes back at the end of the film.

KF: I was in the pool with R.A. Mihailoff getting my head cut with a chainsaw then the next thing I’m back driving the car to save Kate Hodge from the maniac killers. It was an interesting shoot. We killed a lot of rattlesnakes up there behind Magic Mountain. Kate Hodge I really liked and one of the nicest ladies I’ve ever worked with. Bill Butler was in it and that was fun having him in it. Viggo Mortenson was in it and he’s a gentleman and a good guy. One of the best guys I’ve ever met. Clu Gulager’s wife, Miriam Byrd-Nethery, played the mom of the crazy family in the movie. Joe Unger and I knew each and he was in it. It wasn’t bad and it was fun. A lot of people I knew working together and trying to get a job done.

I heard about the politics of that thing only afterwards. I knew something was going to happen but I didn’t know what it was. I thought “What can I do?” They paid me and they told me to leave. [Laughs] As an old acting friend of mine told me once, while he was working in Vancouver, that he called the producers to get an extra day in a hotel because he thought he was owed it because of his contract. The guy in L.A. told him “We’re through with you, get out!” But that’s what being an actor is about. Unless you helped produce a film or run a studio then you don’t have any power what’s going to happen to a movie. How it’s going to be cut, etc. So yes, I heard some things about what happened to TCM III but only after it was already out.

DM: Do you have any aspirations to write or direct?

KF: I have been told that my true talent is writing. I first wrote something as a joke. A Christmas present for family members using their names as the characters. Along with the other presents, I would send this horrible script. Next thing, I got into the story development thing and all of a sudden, one of the vice presidents of HBO said it was one of the five best scripts they’d read. The Twentieth Century Fox head of development said they wanted it first when it was finished. I was getting writer’s crazy, writing 8 hours a day so it went from a joke, to a bigger joke, to a mini-series. I took it around to a few people. The former head of CBS and NBC, about ten different people I took it to. About 99.9% of the people said “Yeah, this is great, you could do this as a mini-series.” But that’s when I got the big head and said, “Well, I really want to do this as a movie.” When you get the opportunity, bite. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, just go ahead and get on the ride. I wrote a situation comedy to see if I had any talent outside of the docu-drama. It was also well received. I’ve written an action adventure and a police story.

Then a restaurant opportunity came into my midst and it was such a great deal. If I told you what the deal was, you’d say “What is it, I’d like to invest?” It was that impressive and that alluring so I put the scripts down for a minute thinking I’ll come back to my acting career. Well, three and a half years later, after I’d been beaten and mauled by the restaurant industry, I came back.

At this point I’m writing [Sighs] a zombie film. It’s a particular piece that I want to get out there that’s zombie related. Hopefully, you know every time I turn around somebody’s got the same idea I’ve got. I’m sorry I’m just going to have to put it out there. They can accuse me of plagiarism or whatever, I’m tired of changing mine. Mine starts on an island and I read the script of the remake of Dawn Of The Dead, which ends on an island. So I was very upset by that since I was already on my way. There were zombies plotting and zombies able to launch campaigns and I hear that George Romero is coming out with that in Land Of The Dead. [Laughs] What can you do? I have my ideas and I just didn’t get mine out first. I’m glad that they have theirs out there, the Dawn Of The Dead remake, and certainly George’s as well. Very happy about that. I’ve just got to get mine out there. So there’s your question, yes, I am writing.

DM: I was familiar with your work on “Keenan and Kel” but I had no idea about the extent of your television appearances with everything from “Kojak” to “Matlock” to “X-Files”. Do you enjoy working in television or are you just trying to pay the bills?

KF: Oh no, I always enjoy working in television. Like being on the stage, you really feel the feel the charge, the electricity, and the creative juices flow and the audience helps you make that happen. There’s something different about being in front of the camera. You don’t have the audience there but you’re still looking for that creative connection with your fellow actors that make a scene very special. Some of the work I had to do because I had to pay my mortgage. Some things I wish I didn’t take, some things I’d like to burn. But some others like an episode of “Hunter” I did where I only grunted “Guilty!” because I’d had my vocal chords cut. And they nominated that for an Emmy and I enjoyed it. It was one of my better performances. I enjoy television and I would still like to get involved in a long series.

DM: What was “Report To Murphy”, a sitcom with Michael Keaton?

KF: There were a lot of good people in it. I did four episodes, one of which revolved around my character, which I thought I was very good in. [Laughs] We had good people behind it but it just didn’t go. So, I’ve been around. I’ve done Soap Operas, Comedy, Dramas where I’ve played cops and robbers. I’ve even been a voice on Sandra Bernhard’s “Without You I’m Nothing”. I’ve been around and I don’t think they even know where to place me. “Where do we put this guy?”

I haven’t been typecast to one genre. Everybody says, “Oh, you’re always the bad guy.” No, not really. I’ve been the good guy as much as the bad guy. They say, “Oh, you always do horror films.” Yeah, but I don’t always do horror films. I do comedy sometimes and sometimes I’m good at it. I do sitcoms. It’s not like I do horror films and sci-fi as the staple of my career. I wish it had have been. In many cases, where many people had it as their staple, it has been very good to them. Like Kane Hodder and Gunnar Hansen, they were Jason and Leatherface but they’ve been able to carry that on throughout their career. It’s nice to be the hero but I’d like to be a monster once.

DM: Your voice is now forever captured in the world of video games with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Did you enjoy voice acting and would you take more video game or animation offers?

KF: Oh, absolutely. Two of the fields I think I should explore more. I’ve been often told that I should do voiceovers since I have the pipes, or rather, the timber, for it. I want to get something ready for animation, I certainly would like to do one of the Anime characters. Voiceovers are fun and doing San Andreas was fun.

DM: If you chose the right Anime series, you’d be set. Some of them go for years with 50 or 100 episodes.

KF: Well, put in the good word for me. [Laughs] I certainly am looking for one. That would be great.

DM: What kind of upcoming projects can we expect to see you in?

KF: That’s what I’m starting to work on now. People are talking to me now and want me to sign letters of intent to a lot of stuff. There’s nothing that I can say definitely right now. There are people that say they have money here and there. As of yet, I’ve seen no bonded money yet. As an actor you learn not to count anything until the first check is cashed. So, I hear a lot and there are things that are circulating. Things that I can’t really talk about now because they might not come together. Most of them are horror but there is an American revolutionary thing there as well. I can talk about The Darkness Between The Stars because we were practically there. If we can get that done, it will be great for sci-fi and horror. I’m working on so many other things like getting this script written. My hands are full and my head is swimming. So many things in the works. My next project is to find my next project.

DM: Well, Ken, I really appreciate you talking to me today. Good luck on getting the next big thing together.

KF: Thanks. I appreciate that and it’s been good talking to you, Richard.

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A huge Doomed Moviethon thanks goes out to Ken for granting us our first interview for the site. Be sure to check out Ken Foree’s website for more information on one hell of a career and one hell of a nice guy. Don’t forget to check out the Devil’s Rejects site as well.