Lance Henriksen's Cool Quotes

On Joseph Campbell:

"To me rites of passage through life, that's a wonderful, beautiful thing. [Joseph] Campbell didn't sit there and say, 'You're bad, you're good, you're bad.' What he was doing was saying that all men go through this and then we die. And he finally died. But he lived it the way he saw it and his philosophy was so much to me like what Frank Black was. 'Cause i had scenes to do with guys that were slime. And i would look at them and say, 'Is there anything redeeming about this guy? Maybe it's in his philosophy, maybe hidden in the abuse.' Even though I don't go along with the idea 'cause the guy had a bad childhood, you let him off. I had a bad childhood and I'm not killing anybody."

Videoscope Winter 2002


About Working:

"You know something, if you're not acting, you're not an actor - you've gotta work. No way around it. I remember Andy Garcia - we had done Jennifer 8 together. And Andy, i think was probably making a couple of million for that movie, and he looked at me one day and he goes: "Hey Lan, you work too much, you shouldn't work so much." And i said "Alright Andy, if i was making a couple million a movie, i wouldn't work too much. I wouldn't need to work 'too much'!" Everybody has their own life to live, and i love doing the work, so what I am I gonna do? He hasn't done the same kind of roles i have .... But it's lucky for me, because I'm really having a good time."

Videoscope Winter 2002


About being considered to be a Star:

"I appreciate the idea that anybody would think of me as a star. But I'm really not career oriented in the sense that I want to be a star. It's not in me. It's not what I do. In fact, I'm amazed that I've even gotten this far."


About Extremes:

"When I first read the script for Hard Target, I thought, "I'm gonna glue my ears back for this role,' and I had no idea why at the time. In my mind's eye I saw the character as being linear, sleek; he looked like a Doberman. So I got my hair cut in a certain way. The thing I hate most in acting is asking permission to do things. What you really want to do is say, 'This is my need; this is what's going to get me further; this is what's going to be alive. I don't ever say, 'Do you mind if ... ?' I just come in and do it."

"SFX Magazine, May 1998 Book", Copyright Future Publishing 1998


About Sci-Fi:

"Anybody who writes science fiction is doing a morality play. When dealing with androids [Aliens] , they often involve fulfilling the machines as if they were gods. But what we really find out is that they're really talking about love for each other. Even though its all hidden and becomes - well - mechanical!"

Interview from "Aliens Official Movie Book", Copyright Starlog Press 1986


About Acting:

"I won't do slasher movies, and I won't play child molesters or men who beat women. I can't rationalise Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday 13th films because they're too one-note. And besides I've been killed in so many movies in so many ways over the years that to be dealing out that kind of death would be terrible. I'll play a bad guy, but he has to be a character with a purpose."

"When I do a horror or a fantasy film it all boils down to something in the script that surprises me. It could be a big thing or a small moment. If it's there I'll do it. "I did Pumpkinhead for just one reason. It was the scene where my kid sits up and says, 'What did you do, Daddy?'. That scene jolted me, it scared the shit out of me. I didn't care who was directing, what I'd get paid or anything. I just immediately had to do that movie."

Interview from "Fangoria Magazine", #129


About Children:

"Whenever you're talking about children, I take it very seriously because it's the best thing that ever happened to me. As they write these things I'm always asking for more. I don't want any cliches. This little girl is too honest and I like being honest with children. "

"Dreamwatch Magazine, #54 ",


About Tilting at Windmills:

"But tilting at windmills is not a bad thing because, even as Cervantes said, you can either get thrown into the mud or up into the stars. It's the risk we really all should be taking. It's what he meant by that. If we don't start living by those things I think we're gonna end up in a lot of trouble as a planet. We have been - we've had wars. Corporate nationalism to me is a little bit like what would have happened if Hitler had won. It's scary stuff. It's totalitarianism in a different from, under a different flavour.""

Interview from "Dreamwatch Magazine", #44


About Loyalties

Horror and sci-fi films will always hold a special interest for Lance. "The Aliens and Terminator imitations will eventually fizzle out. But there will always be room for a new phobia. It's the uniqueness of the horror genre that will keep it alive because it's endless."

Fangoria #129


Acting Lessons:

I've always known from the beginning of my acting career that you only get an acting job if you've got something to learn about it. If you don't do it well, you'll be condemned to doing the same role over and over and over again. If you do it mediocre you'll have to do it again. Once you've done the role really well, you don't have to repeat it , you don't have to go back there."

Interview from "Dreamwatch Magazine", #44


On B Movies:

"I realised, this is my life, make the most of it. Even if the people around me are bullshitting, I'm not. You do your work as fully as you can, and the ones who hear the sound join in. And some of those B movies turned out pretty good" [hear hear Lance!].


On 36 hours of Frank Black:

"Man, it took me a year to get out of that. With effort. The first thing I did was go to Hawaii and get two tattoos. One is a shark, the other dolphins. I felt attacked, and I felt like a beast. It was dark stuff. I think if we had gone on another year, it really would have taken hold."

Interview by Nick Hasted in Uncut, May 2001.


About being world-weary:

"Look, there's an element in acting where they hand you a script, and you know everything there is to know about this character. You know what's going to happen at the end of the movie. That in itself gives you a sense of world-weariness. It's like knowing your own death, every time. There must also be a world-weariness in me that people pick up on." Lance adds. "I'm nothing like that - I'm really not, man! But there are things that we see in each other that we never talk about. And they must see that in my soul."

Interview by Nick Hasted in Uncut, May 2001.


A parting shot at critics Siskel and Ebert:

"They've become as generic as Heinz Ketchup. They offend so many people, you know? They're like Laurel and Hardy. The skinny one is like a manic depressive. Every one of his reviews is like the point of view of a guy on Prozac who forgot to take it that morning. They ought to sew him into a camel's stomach. And Ebert, that guy, his mouth. Everybody's out to get those two guys. There's not an actor I know who wouldn't like to review their show."

Interview in Film Threat, June 1995