Ted Raimi Reveals Why He's Cool With Playing A Demented Character In The Quarry - Exclusive
The irony of actor Ted Raimi's career is that when fans have seen him in horror films or TV shows, he generally plays a good guy. Sure, Raimi suited up as the demonically possessed Henrietta opposite Bruce Campbell's chainsaw-handed antihero, Ash Williams, in the "Evil Dead" universe, but he's also done some lighter turns on the flip side. That includes a short turn as Ash's co-worker at S-Mart in "Army of Darkness" and Ash's high school buddy, Chet Kaminski, in "Ash vs Evil Dead," as well as a trio of roles in Campbell's meta horror-comedy "My Name Is Bruce."
As for the really scary parts, Raimi told Looper in an exclusive interview, he wasn't pegged for playing frightening characters until he started doing dramas.
"If you do follow horror, you'd see me play all these wacky characters, and then [I'm] doing this. But in [the] more dramatic stuff I've done in the last few years, I have played primarily these sorts of demented people — deviants and creeps," Raimi said. "It happens that way to character actors when they get to be a certain age — my face starts to crag out. When it does, they're like, 'Right. You're not cute and cuddly anymore. You look weird, so we're going to put you in weird stuff,' and that's absolutely great and fine by me."
Raimi is continuing his wicked ways in "The Quarry," a multiplayer, interactive video game where the actor plays Travis, a menacing sheriff in the small, upstate New York town of North Kill. Along with other terrifying characters in the game, Sheriff Travis threatens the lives of a group of nine camp counselors trying to survive the night in a remote wooded area.
The difference between Raimi's turns in his "Evil Dead" projects and "The Quarry" is that while the "Evil Dead" saga is a combination of horror and comedy, the latter is of the straight-up horror variety — and the actor feels right at home delivering the scares.
Raimi has always identified with character actors
The younger brother of director Sam Raimi, Ted Raimi considers himself a character actor, which is a label that some actors spurn. But if audience members were frightened of him manifesting his creepy characters in his dramatic work, Raimi said he is more than happy to strike fear in the hearts of fans in the horror genre with roles in horror games like "The Quarry."
"This is the first major horror thing I've done where I'm again playing these rather maniacal and frightening characters. It's a lot of fun and I love it," Raimi revealed to Looper. "I wouldn't have it any other way, because growing up as a little 10-year-old kid ... the stars of my day were Christopher Reeve and Bill Bixby and guys like that. They were very straight, handsome guys, and I knew I wasn't that person."
In a way, it's appropriate that Raimi is having the time of his life playing character roles, because a character actor is all he ever wanted to be.
"I always gravitated toward the character actors. I was the fan, in those days, of guys like Bill McKinney and Strother Martin," Raimi said. "I was like, 'I want to be like that guy. I don't want to be like Christopher Reeve, I want to be like Strother Martin.' Be careful what you wish for as a child because it will come to fruition if you're not too careful as an adult — but it's exactly what I wanted, so I'm very grateful."
"The Quarry" is now available in stores and online from Supermassive Games and 2K Games.