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Interviews

LANCE HENRIKSEN INTERVIEW

By • Jul 19th, 2008 • Pages: 1 2 3 4 5

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Lance Henriksen as Frank Black in the 'X-Files'

The road to securing an interview with actor Lance Henriksen was a painless one, thanks entirely to a man known as J.P. Henraux. J.P. is the hard-working and polite manager for Mr. Henriksen, as well as others. He’s also a film producer (SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER.). J.P. got word to me that Lance would be perfectly happy to do the interview, but showed a tiny amount of concern because his client liked to do such things from his home during the weekends– a time when most people were out of their office. My attitude from the start was one of excitement for three reasons: I got to speak with Mr. Henriksen, I got to write an article and… I got off my weekly yard-work duties!

I’ve been a huge fan of Lance Henriksen’s since I was twelve years of age, where I discovered him amongst the giant, talented cast of Philip Kaufman’s THE RIGHT STUFF. I’ve been following his career ever since and preparations for the interview took little effort. I simply waited for Saturday to roll around and showed the lady of the house the proper way a dainty little thing like her should hold a massive Bolens twenty-four inch, ethanol-fueled weed whacker. Over my most restrained imitation of R. Lee Ermy’s Sergeant Hartman from FULL METAL JACKET and her tears, I waited for the appointed hour to contact Mr. Henriksen.

Lance Henriksen is a journalist’s paradise. He’s a wild man; not unlike some of the maniacal characters he’s portrayed over the years in his remarkable career. He is filled to the rim with entertaining stories and happily supplies them, one after the other. My experience interviewing him is one that could be best described as braving the rapids of a vicious river on a homemade raft with a slightly effective rudder. In this allegory, my questions would represent the rudder and Mr. Henriksen’s answers, most certainly, represent the raging water. The rudder is giving some effective guidance, but then you realize the rapids are doing a much better job. So, you merely keep a loose hand on the rudder, hang on tight and let the rapids do their magic. In the end, you realize that the journey was a safe one and you feel exhilarated: it’s an experience you won’t soon forget.

Never have I had the opportunity to speak with a personality who has remained essential to mainstream films, as well as genre pictures– which is where I’ve had my greatest writing success. Lance has collaborated with some of the greatest directors in the business, among them: Sidney Lumet, Steven Spielberg, Stuart Gordon, James Cameron, Don Coscarelli, Sam Raimi, and Walter Hill, just to scratch the surface. A street kid from New York City, Lance was such a fan of films that he never abandoned his dream of performing for the cameras. It was a long, hard road that involved triumphing over his inability to read and tons of hard, unrelenting work.

Near the beginning of the month of June, I spoke with the charismatic, warm and humorous actor, and might very well have had one of the greatest experiences to date in my writing career.

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