News Archive August 2009
From: Slashfilm.com
Posted: September 10, 2009
Slashfilms recently interviewed Extract producer Mike Judge. Mike discussed many of the stars of the film, including this excerpt where he talked about Gene Simmons.
Obviously Gene Simmons is known for his humility, but I'm also sure that he's had his fair share of run-ins with lawyer to prepare for this role. And these greedy characters appear in your work. Gene's character, he reminded me of one of Hank Hill's friends on King of the Hill, who is a car dealer and he’s been swindling Hank on cars for years.
Mike Judge: [big laugh] Oh yeah, I like that one a lot. [laughs] Yeah, that was [producing partner] John Altschuler's idea, that that guy has been ripping Hank off for years. That was a fun one. Gene Simmons had done King of the Hill, but I had never met him in person, that was over the phone. But I'm so out of the loop that I thought people wouldn't recognize him [out of his KISS makeup]. I didn't know how huge his reality show was, I was just thinkin', "Oh, this will be cool, people will go, 'who is that?'" But instead they go, "Oh, Gene Simmons!" That's funny.
I had scene Gene on Politically Incorrect, that was the only time I saw him without his makeup on. And I thought, he kind of has that sleazy business man quality, and that he should play one. [I say, "He does sell his own coffins."] Yeah, yeah. [laughs] I remember in that movie Bugsy, Billy Graham, who was a concert promoter, he played a mafia guy [Charlie Luciano], and I thought Gene had some of that quality. And then, during casting, we thought that maybe we should see if he'd come in and read for it. (Note: The lawyer character is described as looking like Gene Simmons with a pony tail in the script.)
So, he came in and he just said [super low voice], "I'll do whatever you ask." He's got that great voice, just so severe. And I think I had put at least two KISS videos on Beavis & Butt-Head, and I talked to him a little bit about that. But he's obviously a really smart guy and a piece of work. You know when he's on set, just a total pro. No musician-time, no entourage.
Read the entire interview at slashfilm.com
