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Joel D Wynkoop (Part 2) Go back to Part 1 of this long interview.
“Well, I am a Christian. I argue with myself sometimes about this. I'm a Christian so am I bad to do this? No, good vs evil has been around forever: look at The Bible. Sometimes to tell a cool, uplifting story you have to battle evil and you have to show the evil because it makes the story so much better when the evil is destroyed. How could you make The Exorcist without showing the evil? What, the priest just shows up to exorcise the girl but you don't show why? The hero takes down the vampire with a cross but you don't show why? If you skip the evil parts no one will know why your hero is killing the bad guy or bringing him to justice. “Great example: there was an episode of The Brady Bunch where Bobby makes Jesse James his hero. His teachers are upset and show his parents so they let Bobby stay up and watch Jesse James to show how evil Jesse James was and how he killed many people... except they cut out all the killing and Bobby said at the end of the scene: ‘Wow, Jesse James is great - he didn't even kill anybody.’ Point made: the evil has to be shown as well as the good to tell a good story. “I've done slasher movies, sci-fi, comedies, dramatic pieces, martial arts and Christian sci-fi. I don't think an actor that just does Christian movies would get anywhere very far, just like I don't think an actor that just did slasher movies would get very far. I think you have to take on all roles and decide what you think you can get away with. What I mean is, for example, on Rot the director Marcus Koch wanted me, in the script, to call the toilet ‘God’ (purely for shock value). I told him no I would not do that. He asked if I was a Christian and I said, ‘Yes, I'm a Christian and I'm not going to call the toilet ‘God’. I'll talk to it but I'm not going to call it ‘God’." (Also this was not in the script that I had received so it's not like I backed out of doing the scene, it was added later.)
“Another thing is that when we started I wasn't thinking in that vein, I was a kid that loved Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street and Chuck Norris and I just wanted to make a movie. I guess I never thought about it like: ‘Oh, this is blood and gore’, I just thought this is my chance to make a movie or be in a movie. I will always say - and have said - ‘It's just entertainment.’ Others will argue: ‘Well then, so is a snuff film.’ What I mean is if you can walk away saying this was just entertainment and no one got hurt and it wasn't too far over the edge, it's just another part. “I think it's funny though that a lot of people will question me about my actions in a movie but if it's a big star like Michael Keaton who does a questionable flick, it's okay. Point being Batman and Pacific Heights. Even with Batman you have the people saying, ‘It's too violent.’ Well let me tell you something: that's the real world. If there were a DC world with the criminally insane Joker killing people we'd want a Batman to kick the crap out of him. Forget the DC world, look at our own world. Every time you turn on the TV you see that someone killed somebody, Hell, we need a Batman. Sorry, in Batman Micheal Keaton plays a good guy and cult icon that stands for truth and justice; in Pacific Heights he's an out-of-his-freaking-mind psycho. He had a role where he had to play a sick, twisted character. If he really looked at the moral implications of it he would have turned it down and probably every movie he has ever done. Even Nightshift: someone out there would say, ‘That's terrible - they are promoting prostitution.’ “Okay, let me get off this soapbox. There, that's better. “Also an actor does what the script calls for. Like I said, you wouldn't be a working actor if you kept turning everything down because you found something you didn't like in the script - because that could go on through your entire career (like this answer). I guess to sum that up, I don't look back and say, ‘I'm evil because of the movies I've been in (Wicked Games, Creep, Truth or Dare, Screaming for Sanity, Rot...). They’re entertainment, they’re just roles an actor plays. When the role goes too far I'll decide if I'm going to do it or not. I think my friend Joe Davison sums it up the best: ‘It's just acting.’ The actor must decide how far he wants to go with the role.
“Ya see, it's much easier to bash somebody than it is to pay a compliment. If someone says, ‘You swear too much and kill people in your movies. You're evil.’ and I say, ‘But look at these movies where I do good and witness to many people through the movie,’ they answer, ‘Yeah but in that other movie you kill people.’ I can't win. Of course no one will bring that up (the good I might portray in a movie.) because they just want to knock the horror part of me. “As a writer and actor you have to be flexible I think and cover all avenues (and I don't mean pornos, there's someone out there right now going, ‘What about pornos man?’). Also Lost Faith and The BIte are two movies I wrote on my own so I was able to control what goes into the story. A lot of people think too that you should not raise your fist to another man, however if you are threatened or you have to defend yourself you may just have to fight. I knew a guy once and he is a Christian and it came up about defending yourself and he said, ‘I would let the guy beat me to a pulp before I tried to fight back." Wrong! I can guarantee you God does not want you to get beat up. “The Bite it was a vampire/martial arts movie which pitted my character Nick Hazzard against vampires and evil in general. A lot of times I feel like God is tapping me on the back as I write and saying, ‘Where's my part?’ This happened on The Bite. As I was writing the characters of good and evil came out which created conflict for Nick and then he met Madame Ora who questioned his faith and gave examples of the evil on Earth and it was up to Nick to destroy it. Simply saying, ‘Hey, all you vampires are doing bad things, you guys go away now and be good,’ wasn't going to cut it. “To destroy evil sometimes you got to get a little medieval yourself in your story writing, not to mention it makes a better movie. Did anyone ever question The Bible and say go back and take out all the evil and mean stuff in it? I don't think so. That's life! Even though The Bite was martial arts and vampires I still worked God into the story because I wanted to. I thought in Fright Night it was so cool when the vampire said, ‘You have to have faith in that for it to work on me!’ and when he knocks down Peter Vincent because he didn't have any faith Charlie grabs the cross and puts it right in the vampire’s face who then cowers away. I thought that was great! Charlie had faith but Vincent did not.
“On another note, I was asked by John Martin to do a short called The Survivors of Rimec for his anthology movie called Not of This Earth. It is a sci-fi about a starship crew going to the planet of Rimec to search for survivors. Upon finding them, the crew have found that they have lost their faith in God and have forgotten all what was taught to them in the past, but in the end it is clear they had never lost faith. You know what I'll get for this? ‘That was boring, it needed more action, you should have hit somebody.’ See, I can't win. “Rimec is a cool little ‘uplifting’ story but I'll still get those same people saying, ‘Well, it's not a true Christian story because there's a spaceship in it.’ But I wanted to do this kind of story, the script really spoke to me as well as many of the cast members; also it was the first time I got to play a ‘Captain Kirk’ role, and what actor hasn't wanted to play Kirk? “Summed up? I guess to the Christians that say, ‘Those are violent and have too much sex in them," ... actually I can't even say ‘just Christians’ - there are plenty of people that are not Christians that don't like violence or nudity, it depends on the person. So to the people that don't like it: I'm sorry but that's what happens in real life. There's sex and there's violence and it's just a movie when you come right down to it. I had a guy tear me apart on our Twisted Illusions site saying, ‘Wynkoop needs to find God and get his mouth washed out with soap.’ This was because of my performance in Dirty Cop No Donut. My character Gus used the F-bomb like a million times. Well that's the way Gus spoke, not me. Do you think that guy ever wrote me and said, ‘I saw Lost Faith and it was a fun karate movie and the message it carried about God was great to see in a movie and it really spoke to me and changed my life...’? No, that guy will say, ‘You hit too many people and that was not nice of you. You are a meany, Mr Wynkoop.’ Okay I'm being funny now but you get the point. “I try to change every character I play so they don't all come off the same. Some swear, some don't, some swear a lot and some swear a real lot, like Gus Kimble and Angus Lynch. It's just part of the character. If I said the same about Pacino where he uses the F-bomb, that same complaining guy would say, ‘Well, he's a genius the way he uses it,’ so I can't win either way. It's just a movie. From a family standpoint? My sisters do not like my movies, nor my Mom or my brothers but they know I have a passion for it, they don't condemn me for it (at least not that I know of.) My sister loves me and wishes I would just stick with TV commercials. Oh, one thing I did learn long ago: you can't please everybody.” Go back to Part 1 of this long interview where Joel discusses his expereiiences over twenty years in the low budget film industry. | ||
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It's clear from the trailers and reviews that many of the films you have appeared in are not what one might call 'morally uplifting'. Is there any conflict between your work and your faith? Have you had any criticism from other Christians about appearing in sexy, violent movies?
“I am not judging the witting or Marcus, it was just me personally that I did not want to do this. Marcus is very cool and very talented and I have very much respect for him as a person and FX man and movie maker. In fact I'll be working again with Marcus in June on a movie called 
“Now on the other side of the coin. have you seen 
“If I can work God into one of my stories I will, that's my way of witnessing for the Lord. My dad did it on a pulpit, I'll do it in the movies. I don't force it down someone's throat, I just make it part of the story. But like I said, no one mentions that like, ‘Oh, that was cool how you mentioned God in that story," they just go for: "Ya, but you ripped that guy’s head off in