UP CLOSE WITH SELMA BLAIR
The ‘Hellboy II’ hottie talks about her flame-throwing role in the sequel, shacking up with the Demon of the Apocalypse and the rumors she’s playing Neil Gaiman’s Death!
WIZARD: Four years have gone by since the first movie; did you think you’d get to play the pyrokinetic Liz Sherman again?
BLAIR: I hoped that I would. I kind of thought that it was never going to happen, but ["Hellboy" and "Hellboy II" director] Guillermo del Toro just didn’t give up. When he gave me a call at 11 o’clock one night to tell me that they had the financing, I was really relieved. It was something that I had been waiting and hoping for and this does feel like we’re back with family even though it’s a whole new amazing experience. The first one was such an introduction to Hellboy that I always thought the meat would be in the second and third, at least for Liz, because in the first one she was afraid to take a step. She was a zombie, not wanting to own up to her power and not having the memory of what she’d created in her life. So I was really eager to come and play Liz with a little more vibrancy.
How much has she changed since the first movie?
I thought I would get here and already know this girl, but I realized that I don’t know her at all because I don’t know her as a woman. It seems like such a straightforward role, but it’s really been a challenge for me not to suck the energy out of Liz because that’s kind of how I played her in the first one, like she was in a vacuum.
Was the haircut something that Guillermo suggested, or something that you came up with together?
It was together. My hair, I basically went nuts and shaved my head. There was actually a girl who wanted my hair and I’m a giver. So I gave her my hair. [Laughs] I did that to make a wig for a child, but then I just made it a fashion thing that I had this strangely shaped head. But I thought, “Oh, God, Guillermo is going to kill me.” But he saw the short hair and I think he really wanted it. I think that it’s a little anime inspired.
How has Liz’s relationship with Hellboy developed since the first movie?
Well, it’s worked out about as much as my marriage in real life. [Laughs] [EDITOR'S NOTE: Blair divorced musician Ahmet Zappa in 2006.] That’s terrible to say. We’re very good friends. It’s difficult living with someone, especially a guy that takes up as much room as Hellboy, with as many cats as Hellboy has. So we are very happy together, but there’s trouble with spending so much time with someone that you love after you’re used to being alone and having your way. Between my fire and his little-boy sloppy behavior, we’re a mess—a lovable mess.
You’re packing heat in addition to your fire powers this time around; why are you carrying a gun?
Talk to Guillermo about that. It’s really embarrassing too. I wouldn’t pull this out if it weren’t completely rubber, but it’s really embarrassing. I spend so much time in this movie holding this gun up and I’m like to Doug [Jones, aka Abe Sapien] next to me, “Jesus Christ, don’t I have fire for this?”
You did the voice of Liz in the animated movies; has there been talk of any more of those?
I know that one was nominated for an Emmy, and I’m glad that that one person who nominated it bought it because that’s about the only copy that I know of. I don’t know if anymore are going to happen, but one of them was really beautiful. [Laughs].
Has the cast dynamic changed with the addition of psychic Johann Kraus?
I had just one scene with Abe Sapian that was really touching in the first one. That was actually really my only scene where I felt like a person communicating with someone, and in this one, he’s my buddy and we’re together all the time. So I feel closest to Doug in this and always Ron [Perlman, aka Hellboy]. I live next to Ron in real life, so he’s just someone that I’m really close to and have kept in touch with. Then John Alexander and James [Dodd], the couple of people that play Johann, I think the more the merrier—the more people that can suffer in their costumes and I can make fun of them because I don’t have one. I bedevil them. It’s awful. They’re sweating and dying and can’t breathe and I’m like, “Oh, my God, this cotton tank top is just really too much. I don’t know how you guys do it.”
Del Toro is also producing the film adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Death: The High Cost of Living. That seems right up your alley. Are you jockeying for that?
I’ve wanted to play Death for a long time. On the set of the first ["Hellboy"], people would see me and say, “You have to play Death. Oh my God, you have to do it.” I didn’t know he was doing “Death” at the time. He knew for sure that he’d be teaming up with Neil on that and he said, “Yeah, you’d be good for Death.” Then it’s been crickets. I think he definitely has his eye on someone, and I would know if it were me and it’s not me. [Neil and I are] good friends, and that still didn’t get me the job. [Laughs]
From Wizard Universe
