Michael Stephenson believed Troll 2 would be a majuscule movie when he starred in it , and he was squash when he determine the concluding intersection . Now , years later , he talks about making a documentary embracing his furor - status , Best Worst Movie .
Did you know nilbog is hobgoblin spelled backward ? If you did n’t know that , then go directly to your Netflix waiting line and snag Troll 2 , so you could familiarise yourself with this hilariously big movie . After that , you’re able to learn more about nilbogs and go behind the scene to see what the actors of Troll 2 are up to in the present mean solar day withBest Worst Movie , a new documentaryfrom Michael Stephenson , also known as the child star of Troll 2 .
Is this whole Best tough Movie phenomenon keeping you reasonably busybodied ?
Yeah ! It ’s been really wild . It ’s been over four geezerhood now , and I ’m kind of trapped in this Troll tunnel . We started filming the documentary just after April 2006 . Here we are over four geezerhood afterwards , and we open in Austin and New York . We opened in Los Angeles last week , and we are continuing to spread out the movie in theaters throughout the summer .
Do you have any idea how many interviews you ’ve gotten over the past year ?
I have no idea . Quite a few , but it ’s bully because it really helps with a film like Best Worst Movie . So much of it is driven by word of mouth and citizenry talking about minor independent flick . We do n’t have these big ad budget and these prominent marketing campaigns . You just hope that people like it , and that they will talk about it and eventually that adds up to something .
Nobody could have forebode where this has become . Have the surprises leveled off or are there still raw surprises all over the position ?
There have been surprise that continue on with this thing . I do n’t even roll in the hay how to categorize it . The first part of May , we were showing the film to a lot of Lucas Films employees . latterly we just got invited to shield the film to all of the Disney employees . So there are surprises and good things that proceed to fare . It ’s still neat to go to a screening . I ’ve seen the movie I do n’t know how many time , but I enjoy going to the theater and feeling the outpouring of love for the plastic film . That feeling is very palpable and it still surprises me . Every screening I go to , I kind of think , “ This one ’s not run to be as good , ” but it ’s always a cocksure experience .
Well , I ’m glad it ’s been a very incontrovertible experience for you ! So where else is the movie go from here ?
We open in Salt Lake City on Friday . I leave from L.A. just a couple of day from now . Then we open in San Francisco the following calendar week , then Dallas . We have a list of city on the websitewww.bestworstmovie.com . We ’ve also added some metropolis that are n’t on the website yet . I would suppose right now that it ’s about 20 cities , but it ’s changing every week . What we have booked powerful now will take us through the first part of August .
Is it just you [ at the screenings ] or are there other cast members ?
George [ Hardy ] will be there . We will believably have some of the other filmmaker and producer . Sometimes the other cast will determine to amount at the last minute . It ’s hard to get it on . There ’s a website calledgordonandthewhale.com . It ’s a movie website and they are really unspoiled guys and I think they ’re going to help host it [ Dallas Screening ] .
How does it feel to be part of one of history ’s best bad movies ever ?
My posture on Troll 2 and being part of it has changed . I did the movie as a 10 - twelvemonth - honest-to-god . It was my first picture show , and I imagine I was making a really heavy picture . ( Sigh ) The result was something much different than I had imagined . I was really very embarrassed by it and my role in the plastic film . I continued to roleplay , but I just wanted nothing to do with Troll 2 . It was one of those thing I did n’t want to talk about , but it was always being seen . The people in my Ithiel Town where I grow up would always see the picture show and want to tattle about it . I was embarrassed though and wanted nothing to do with it .
Now all these years later , it ’s like a dreaming come true after a petty bit of a nightmare . As cliché as that sounds , it ’s an awing experience to have the opportunity to make my first celluloid around a subject matter that ’s very personal to me , very approachable to me , and being able-bodied to work with an astonishingly gifted team , and have all the creative ascendence in the human beings , and terminate up bring on something I ’m very gallant of and I ’m very glad with . I could n’t have demand for anything more . It ’s priceless . So I would have to say that I have this great deal of affection for Troll 2 . I really love it . It ’s one of these thing where it ’s part of me . It ’s part of who I ’ve become , and it ’s led me to where I ’m going . I ’ve grow nearer to that crazy picture show .
When did you recognise that Troll 2 was not so peachy of a film , and then when did you realize it was the ‘ upright worst picture ? ’
The first time I saw Troll 2 , it was in reality Christmas dawn . Backing up a little mo further , I had finished the motion picture and in my intellect I thought , “ Okay , we ’ll go and watch out this at the movie theater . ” That ’s what I imagined , but it never happen . Then there was this long silence . It kind of disappeared . We forgot about the picture show and did n’t be intimate what was go on with it . Then a year and a half had passed and on Christmas morning , I was unwrapping one of my last present tense under the tree and … there it was . It was my movie . We put it in the videocassette recorder and watch it as a family . It was not more than 20 arcsecond into it and I remember my daddy saying , “ Oh , Michael , this is a terrible movie . ” I think of looking at the TV thinking , “ Oh my gosh ! This is horrible ! ” I was 11½ at that fourth dimension , but I was old enough to know it was a really bad movie . That localize me off into that experience of not need anything to do with it . I was embarrassed by it really . I mean I continue to act . I continue to get piece of work in other production and other roles . With each role that I booked or each act job that I got I reckon , “ Okay , this will be more notable and more memorable . ” Then for some ground , Troll 2 continue to be see more , and it just would n’t go away .
That was my experience up until about 4 years ago when I actuate back to Los Angeles . And populate where I hold up now and continue to follow up on a career in the entertainment industry , I was in reality writing a book at the clip and I was working as a freelance shooter and a freelance editor . I was also continuing to audition and meet with casting directors . A few month after hold out here , out of nowhere , I started getting these messages on MySpace from kid who say they were lover of Troll 2 . I remember getting these message and at first thinking nothing about it . “ Oh man , this thing is never going to go away . ”
Then soon after that , I begin interacting with some of the fans online and answering their doubtfulness . The next affair I fresh , they started sending me these pictures of Troll 2 party they were give birth in their basements . The interesting thing is that this was happening in unlike parts of the country and none of these Troll 2 fans know about each other . I had this feeling that something special was materialise with Troll 2 . Up until that point , Troll 2 had never been in a theater or bet to a really magnanimous group .
I was really interested in attend at these flick of these party and at how much fun it appears they were having dressing up as trolls and rust green food . They were kind of champion this movie and having a expectant deal of play . I just recall looking at the pictures and cerebration , “ Why ? How did this befall ? ”
Being compel to look more into it , I start mark Kid all over the position heel Troll 2 as their favorite movie . On MySpace , there would be a list of 10 different moving picture , and most of the movies would be enceinte blockbusters . Then right after Shawshank Redemption there would be Troll 2 . I was very interested in how this happened by word of mouthpiece and it all started with the fans .
And so you decide to make a flick .
It was actually that same calendar month . April 2006 , I woke up one morning with a really warm flavour and I was smiling spike to ear . I was next to my married woman and I order , “ I am the child star of the unfit picture ever made … there ’s a fib here . ” Immediately I thought documentary and I thought Best big Movie . I started the next twenty-four hour period write stuff and think about it and dive into it . One of the first thing I did was creating the web site . That make for a lot of fans together and helped me as I was making the documentary .
There was no way I could have foreseen what was get to befall and how the phenomenon would finally blossom . I had this notion and reassurance hump how this Italian yield crew ended up in Utah and worked with actors who could n’t play and this guy who was a dental practitioner half the metre . He would come in on to the curing after fill up cavities . I remember thinking that there is great voltage for a good story here .
There is a rather eclectic group of people that was brought together for this moving picture . Who was the most difficult to get a cargo hold of to participate in the documentary film ?
Don Packard , the guy cable who say he wanted to belt down me as a child . ( laughs ) It was quite a process . When I contacted him , he sound out , “ That ’s a dazed idea . Why would you need to make a movie about a high-risk movie ? ” I could n’t convince him I just want to make this movie and it took some clip . He was one of the last audience I end up getting . Then the lady friend who played my sister , Connie , she and I had like view on Troll 2 before I had my awakening . I could understand where she was coming from . She was n’t unpleasant or anything , she just did n’t want to make any meter to mouth about Troll 2 . It have a little persistence . Over clip , everybody come together .
What was one of the most challenging thing you had to face up when creating the infotainment ?
The hardest matter I think was know when to arrest filming . I mean , even today , the phenomenon retain . The subject matter is very organic in itself . It ’s all over the Earth . There are documentaries that are border around one specific event or moment in time . This is a open matter that was happening everywhere spontaneously all at once . It was frustrative because a lot of the clobber I was n’t capable to get to , or there were times I feel like I could n’t terminate filming . For example , I got an electronic mail from some fans in New York one Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , and they had lift up to the roof top of a building . They hang a bed flat solid and had a projector . They were watching Troll 2 to lionize one of their Quaker ’s birthday . I was so frustrated because I missed it . I was thinking , “ I should have been there for that ! ” It ’s constant hullabaloo feeling like you ca n’t cover everything because it was all happening so quick . I recall turning the camera off , and then George would do something amazing or hilarious and I was like , “ Oh man , I missed it ! I should have been put down that . ” I guess overall that was the grownup challenge .
Are you going to do a follow up documentary , The Best Worst Movie Movie ?
( express joy ) No , I do n’t lie with what the next film will be , whether it ’s a narrative or a documentary . I ’ve been ask to direct a narrative written by one of the programmers of the Alamo Drafthouse . It is an awing playscript . I do n’t know if that will be the next task , but I desire to have the opportunity to help get that movie made . I ’m also consider some other projects that are in ontogenesis aright now . Whatever it is , I intend to find another task that resonate well with me and my team . I had such an amazing experience working with everyone on this pic that my intent would be to find another task where I can crop with the same team .
What was your most surreal moment while making the documentary ?
There were so many . I think actually making the movie was unearthly . We were making the film and I would be look at clips of Troll 2 with me in it , and I felt completely removed , like that was n’t me . I would say thing like , “ Oh we do n’t desire any longer of that fry , that ’s horrifying . ” Then I would think , “ Wait a mo , that kid is me . ” It was a very weird impression to see me as a kid . That was pretty surrealistic .
When we opened in New York City , that was really surreal because we were back in New York and that was the very first city I filmed in for the docudrama . John Gemberling , who hosted the original Troll 2 political party three eld ago , he host our premiere in New York . Believe it or not , this was completely by accident but he wore the exact same shirt that he tire out when I question him for the motion-picture show . That was really surreal .
What are some of your preferred bad movies ?
Before doing Troll 2 , I never watched bad movies . I ’m not a bad movie expert . Maybe after starring in one , it kind of traumatized me a footling moment . But , one that I really love and that I would recommend hold in out is called Carnival Magic . It ’s a story about a linguistically talented primate that is part of this carnival crime syndicate . It ’s astonishing .
Now for the million dollar question : Would you be in Troll 2 : Part 2 if Claudio asked you to ?
trust it or not , Claudio really call me today . He ’s very excited about doing a Troll 2 : Part 2 . I reckon that Troll 2 is unadulterated as it is now . I ca n’t conceive of a sequel working . However , it ’s a twice edged sword for me . If George was starring in this celluloid , Troll 2 : Part 2 , and I had a opportunity to act with him again on tv camera , I do n’t know if I could change state it down .
This post by Katrina Hilloriginally appeared at Action Flick Chick .
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