AVC: Did you ever try to make things more extreme so that you'd have something to cut back on?
RZ: Well, I mean, that would be the ticket, that would be the key, but I really didn't have enough time or money to waste shooting things that I knew would be cut. Although when you do submit your movie, you do submit the most extreme version, because you know they're going to attack something. There are certain things you do that you know are going to get sacrificed.
AVC: The characters in your movies are ambiguous at best, and downright evil at worst. Do you feel like the audience needs to identify with any of them?
RZ: I don't think so. I think that movies can function any which way. Some people identify with one character or another, but I never wanted it to be so black and white, like good guy/bad guy. Because nothing's ever like that in real life. And I just thought that makes it more interesting. I want people arguing about who they really identify with and who they don't. That's why the lines between good and evil are a little blurry.
AVC: Your films and albums are loaded with allusions to movies, not just horror films, but classic comedies, German Expressionist movies, and, in The Devil's Rejects, even Otto Preminger movies. When did you start looking at film seriously?
RZ: When I was a little kid. I mean, I've always watched movies like crazy, but somewhere in the early '70s, I started really becoming fanatical.
AVC: How did your cinephilia develop?
RZ: Mostly through television. The early '70s was pre-VCR. It was just a couple of stations, and the local channel where I lived showed a lot of movies. Back then, it seemed like they only showed great movies. Every time you turned on the TV, it'd be like, "Okay, The Great Escape is coming on. Willy Wonka's coming on, and then we're going to show Frankenstein and then The Wizard of Oz!" Just great movies all the time, and there were also all these great movies at the theaters, too. That was like the heyday of great films. So as a kid, you just feel like you're being bombarded with amazing movies.
AVC: What are some films that people might be surprised to hear are your favorites?
RZ: As far as directors, I'm a big fan of any kind of Billy Wilder stuff. Anything he does. Big Howard Hawks fan, big John Ford fan. I love Westerns. I really love John Wayne. Frank Capra, any of his movies I love. I really love anything that's good. I don't sit around watching gore movies at all. That stuff bores me to death. If it's good, great. The original Dawn Of The Dead, I've seen a hundred times. But I only like good movies. I don't really like watching bad movies.
AVC: Do you ever see yourself departing into different genres?
RZ: Yeah. The next movie that I do will be something different.
AVC: What do you imagine?
RZ: I'm not really sure. I got a couple different things going, but not in the horror vein.
AVC: Do you feel like, given your reputation, people have certain expectations from you that you'd be betraying in some way?
RZ: Well, I don't know. You really can't worry about that. Once you feel like you're being dictated by other people's expectations, it usually backfires. You just have to do the thing that you feel is true to your vision, and then the audience will make the decision. But as soon as you feel like you're creating a product to just cater to what you think they want, it never works. It always feels phony. And the audience can tell immediately.
AVC: This upcoming show at Ozzfest, it's the first time you've played in quite a long time—
RZ: Three years, yeah.
AVC: Are you at all nervous or feeling rusty?
RZ: I never feel nervous. I actually played last night. We did a warm-up show in Albany, New York, and that was the first time in three years. It went great, but you know, it's weird, because before the show started, I was like, "God, what are we going to do when we get out there?" You feel so rusty. But there is some bizarre thing that just kicks in as soon as you get out there, and it becomes like you never took a day off. It's very strange.
AVC: Now that The Devil's Rejects has made it to theaters, do you see yourself returning more to focus on music?
RZ: No. I'll do this tour and then I'll probably finish an album that I have started, and then I'll go right back into the next movie.
AVC: In the long term, do you feel like it's going to be a balance?
RZ: Nah, I think it'll mostly be just movies.
AVC: Why?
RZ: Because that's what I want to do. I've been doing music nonstop for like 20 years. I can't do both, because there's just not enough time and because movies are very time-consuming, as are making records and touring. As soon as you commit to one, you're locked in for two years. And I don't really want to have that much time in between projects, so probably once I get into the next movie, if I can, that's where I'm going to stay.
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