david j. moore talks to Glenn “Kane” Jacobs about See No Evil 2 at the San Diego Comic-Con International…
A WWE superstar, Glenn “Kane” Jacobs has amassed a fan base by portraying a villain people love to hate. He made his crossover into films with the slasher picture See No Evil (2006) from WWE Studios, and his movie career stalled until he made a brief appearance in the spoof MacGruber (2010). He reprised his role as the killer Jacob Goodnight in See No Evil 2 (2014) from WWE Studios and the directing team Jen and Sylvia Soska, and his future in films is up in the air, as he is considering a career in politics (he’s a devout Libertarian supporter of Ron Paul). Whatever is in store for Glenn Jacobs, action and horror fans have more Kane to fear with See No Evil 2.
david j. moore: What can horror fans expect from See No Evil 2? Has anything changed that we should watch out for?
Glenn Jacobs: It’s beautifully shot, and also I think this time Jacob has … the story … even though Jacob’s mom is the villain, it delves a little more into Jacob’s mind. You understand why he does what he does. I think the characters are very well rounded. I think this one has a little more emotional depth than the first movie did. Even though the first movie was good, this one’s pretty great.
djm: It’s been awhile since the first See No Evil. Were you ever thinking that a sequel was not going to happen?
GJ: I didn’t really. I was surprised it took this long because the first movie was a commercial success for WWE Studios. It did pretty well. I was surprised when a year went by and then a couple years, and Oh, forget about it, they’re never going to do another one. Then I just got a call out of the blue. I was more than surprised; I was shocked.
djm: Would you want to steer towards doing more movies or politics?
GJ: (Laughing) I don’t know. Okay, earlier I was asked this question: “Which is scarier – Horror movies or reality?” Reality is much scarier, okay? I have a lot of fun acting, I really do. I find it rewarding in a different way than wrestling. At the end of the day, at WWE, what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to entertain people. We want people to have a good time, and that’s very rewarding to me, to have that opportunity. The politics deal … you’re dealing with scumbags most of the time. Yeah, so … I don’t know, I really don’t know. I’m probably just going to stick with acting. But maybe not, who knows? The door’s always open.
djm: Would you be down for playing different kinds of characters, say in an action movie rather than another See No Evil type of film?
GJ: I would. One of the things that the [Soska] Twins and I really lobbied for was for Jacob not to be more the silent type, who never says anything and just walks around and that’s it. We wanted him to have some emotional depth, and for him to have some dialogue, and to find out what’s going on inside his head. Not only does that make the movie much better, but to me it’s much better because he’s not just a stunt guy they stick a mask on. No offense to anyone. With Kane, he’s a very dark character often. But the most fun I’ve ever had as Kane is when I did stuff with Daniel Bryan. I went from being the meanest guy, the darkest guy on the show to being the funniest guy on the show. As a performer, or as a wrestler, it’s that variety that really keeps you going. When it gets to the point where you could almost do something in your sleep because you’ve done it so much, that’s not as much fun or a challenge intellectually. If they say, “Here’s something completely different that you’ve never done before: Can you pull it off?” That’s where things become interesting.
djm: Did anything strange or out of the ordinary happen on the set of See No Evil 2?
GJ: I think the set [an old abandoned mental institution] had a lot of history. Everybody on the crew who’d worked there before … X Files had filmed stuff there, and they all had a story. The creepiest one, was that one day there was a little girl on the set, and everyone’s talking to her and stuff, then someone goes, “Who’s girl was that?” She was gone, and it wasn’t anybody’s little girl. Yeah. You hear these stories.
djm: Can you talk a little bit about the differences between Gregory Dark who directed the first film and The Soska Twins, who directed you in this film?
GJ: Sure. Gregory directed the first movie, which was shot in Australia. We had a really great crew. I’ve been blessed to be surrounded by such great people in both movies I’ve done. Gregory was more of a behind the camera, technical guy. The difference with the Twins is, you have that aspect of that, but then you have one of them who is out there with you. At first, I thought, Okay, we’re going to have two people direct this movie – how is that going to work? It’s the kind of deal where they almost finish each other’s sentences. The one behind the camera is like psychically telling the other one out there on the set to tell everyone what to do because they’re so connected. They don’t have to say anything out loud! Seriously! You’d be getting notes from the one on the set with you, but they weren’t talking to the other one! The one behind the camera would say, “Okay that was perfect, let’s move on.” How does that work?! I think they’re great, and they keep telling me not to say this, but they’re great and wonderful. They’re great students of the game. Their enthusiasm excites me. Frankly, anytime you go on to a project like this … I think we shot for 15 days … so everything is (slapping his hands) like this, and you get behind schedule, but they were the ones who weren’t stressed, they were the ones who kept everyone going. They kept the ship afloat. I have nothing but good things to say about them. They’re huge WWE fans. When we met, they were freaking out, and I was like, This is not good. But then they got that out of the way, and they were great, they were fantastic.
djm: Have you ever entertained the possibility of directed a movie yourself?
GJ: I wouldn’t know what to do! Way down the road, maybe. It’s just a different way of expressing your creativity. Maybe at some point. I don’t think I quite qualify to do that. (Laughing.)
Thanks to Glenn Jacobs for taking the time for this interview.
david j. moore is a contributing writer to Fangoria, FilmFax, Lunchmeat and VideoScope Magazines. His book WORLD GONE WILD: A SURVIVOR’S GUIDE TO POST-APOCALYPTIC MOVIES was published this year.
