Listen, folks. We all loved Ron Perlman’s performance in Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy movies, but it’s high time we accepted that there’s a new Hellboy in town and his name is David Harbour. You might have heard about him. Nice guy; he’s got quite the dad bod. Or at least he did until he had to start Hellboy training.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter at the Dubai Film Festival, Harbour recounted the time he met up with Perlman and comedian Patton Oswalt to discuss taking on the hellish role.
Perlman, Harbour said, was more than understanding of the fact that sometimes, roles get recast – especially for film reboots – and gave the Stranger Things actor his blessing. Confident that there’s no Hellboy beef between them, Harbour now has a simple request from fans: Stop asking Perlman about the Hellboy reboot. Said Harbour:
“[Perlman’s] an amazing guy and super sweet, was wishing me well. And then he says something like, ‘Just have fun.’ Which is something I need to remember when I work because I’m so intense. And the other thing is I will say for reporters everywhere, in honour of his request: stop asking Ron Perlman about the Hellboy reboot, please stop asking him about that. I get it. He’s answered the questions. Leave the man alone!”
Harbour also reiterated how he sees his take on Hellboy as being driven by a Hamlet-like sort of existential introspection, but also described the upcoming film as more of a classic monster film akin to Dracula and Frankenstein. He also mentioned it’s been a physically difficult shoot: “There’s tremendous prosthetics and makeup, and on top of that there are these stunts that are totally outrageous for a 40-year-old man to be doing!” But don’t worry, he added, eight different people are playing him for the stunt work.
While he didn’t give away any details about Stranger Things‘ future, Harbour did muse about what the burgeoning romance between Hopper and Joyce Byers might end up being like in the future seasons. Put simply – it will probably be messy, like all passionate relationships:
“But Bob just died, so I’m not slipping into her DMs anytime soon. But I will say that there are two things: I love Winona Ryder and I love mess. And I think the mess of Jim Hopper and Joyce together, the romance, the mess, the tragedy, the drama, would be really fun to play and really fun for an audience to watch.”
God bless this mess.