Legendary horror actor Tony Todd appears in the new anthology horror film Immortal, which has been making the film festival rounds recently. The Candyman star took time out of his busy filming schedule (he has eight films currently in the can!) to talk to LRM Online.

We chatted about his new movie and his TV influences growing up, and we tried our best to get any details we could out of him regarding the upcoming Candyman remake.

LRM Online: Can you tell us about the premise of Immortals and how you came to be involved?

Todd: Sure. Well, Robbie Bryan is a good friend of mine. We’ve worked on two projects so far over the course of six, seven years. We’re both New Yorkers, and I trust his opinion. One day he says “I got this script” that his friend, another Rob, wanted to check my interest on. I read it, and I immediately was drawn to it because it was basically a quartet of stories, each roughly a half hour composing the two hour film. And it presents the question of what if in any relationship, one person could die unexpectedly, or another person might live forever. So with that, particularly with my segment, my wife is allegedly dying of cancer. And it’s about care taking and assisted suicide. Deep, important subjects that are brought to life by Robin and myself. I thought it was wonderful.

LRM Online: That sounds like deep subject matter.

Todd: The other stories, some of them are more light, so it’s a nice mixture over the course of two hours. One of them is very fantastical, and the other one is more comedy-driven. Ours is the most dramatic. I think we come in third, for the hard lifting. I had a wonderful time working with Rob.

LRM Online: Are you a fan of anthology films?

Todd: Well, I grew up on Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Yeah, I am, if they make sense. And if there’s a linking commonality between all three, or four in this case. I actually just signed to do Tales From the Hood 3, but in that one I played a storyteller as opposed to an individual case study.

LRM Online: In Immortal, is there a wraparound story?

Todd: No, there isn’t, they all stand alone. They all have different directors and different styles and completely different casts. But the link I think, which you get after watching all four, is that idea that I mentioned in the beginning. What if someone you truly love in a relationship, one of you can let the other go and the other cannot.

LRM Online: Anthologies have pretty popular recently in horror. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the V/H/S films or Portals is a new one that’s coming out and XX is also an anthology. Things been going strong for them the past five years or so.

Todd: Well, I guess that has something to do with our sinking attention spans. Huh?

LRM Online: Maybe. It’s easier to digest a watching on your phone.

Todd: You sit through three and a half hours of Avengers, with all due respect, that drives the money making machinery in Hollywood. But, if you can handle that, you can certainly handle our four short stories.

LRM Online: Have you ever been to Screamfest before?

Todd: Yeah, I’ve had a couple of films pop up here and there. I haven’t always attended, you know, cause I hate the location, but I’ll definitely be there for this one. I’m really, really proud of this.

LRM Online: You’ve popped up in some other recent horror films. I saw you in Candy Corn, Josh Hasty’s film. That’s had a lot of buzz from the festival circuit and just recently came out.

Todd: His whole inspiration is John Carpenter. He wanted to make a love letter to Halloween.. I thought what works for it, for me is the atmospherics are really well done. The intentions are very strong. I love the carnival sequences and, I think if he continues with the sequel that there’ll be more of that, of what’s really going on in that traveling circus. And we’ll see. I don’t think he should make his second film be a sequel, I think he should do something else before. That’s just my personal opinion and then come back to it. But we’ll see what happens. Sometimes Hollywood shakes a stick that you just can’t duck. But, I love working with young, independent filmmakers. Working in the mainstream allows me to be able to pick and choose. I want to be defined as a character actor and not just in the horror medium, although that’s a significant part of my resume. But it’s not the majority of my resume.

LRM Online: I know people love, seeing you in horror, but it’s great to see you also spread your wings and take on other roles.

Todd: You’d be surprised how many similar scripts we get across the table, and we’re very careful. We try, we don’t win them all, but we try our best in the first step of selecting. So, when I read Immortal I knew I had to do it. I had a health scare the year before, so it was very close and personal to me. Anytime an actor can glom onto something, and it’s right there beneath the surface, it’s perfect.

LRM Online: That’s great, having something that you could bring your own experiences to.

Todd: Yeah. My truth. My truth is all about the truth, and if you don’t have the truth you need a strong imagination

LRM Online: So I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you about Candyman. There is the new remake that’s coming out, which I believe you’re involved in somehow.

Todd: I can’t fault you for asking, you would be remiss as a journalist, not to ask, but according to the corporate ladder stretcher, my lips have been sealed. I’ve actually been sent talking points. I can no longer say anything except no comment.

LRM Online: Ok.

Todd: They get a summer blockbuster release. June 12th, 2020, which happens to be my aunt Clara’s birthday who raised me. So, whether you see me or don’t see me or feel me, do you feel me? It’s spiritual connection.

LRM Online: Ok, cool. The one thing I was thinking to myself about it was just wondering why it took so long. They had been remaking all these classic horror films for awhile.

Todd: I’ve been questioning that for the last 25 years. I can say I have single handedly carried that character through cons and conversations and discussions and interviews through the finish line, 25 years of hard lifting. I feel like whatever happens, I’m partly responsible for it.

LRM Online: Oh yeah, you’re definitely responsible for a lot of the success of that and the power of it.

Todd: Shout outs to Bernard Rose who created the original, had the genius to take Clive Barker’s work The Forbidden and transpose it to Chicago and make it into something even more frightening, particularly for Americans.

LRM Online: Yeah, he’s had an interesting career since then. He just had a new movie premiere at Beyond Fest called Samurai Marathon 1855.

Todd: Right after he made Candyman he did the Amadeus movie. So that’s what he does, we’re dear friends. We’re actually be working on a new project called Fingers, which I hope to shoot in the beginning of the year, and the challenge for me and that one, even though I’m the title character , I say one word in the entire script.

LRM Online: Oh wow. That sounds like it’ll be a great challenge.

Todd: It’s great, as he’s basically an exonerated man that was on the edge of death row. Did you see his version of Frankenstein?

LRM Online: I haven’t seen that yet.

Todd: Oh man. We were rated 100% on rotten tomatoes, but nobody knows about it. So it’s on Amazon Prime. Please check it out.

LRM Online: I would love to see any sort of take on that story.

Todd: It’s one of the most well told stories of all time next to Jekyll and Hyde.

LRM Online: One last question to wrap things up. You mentioned Twilight Zone earlier, and I was wondering if you have any particular film or television series that you hold dear?

Todd: I have lots of them. My aunt and I grew up watching the original Star Trek, and when I went on to finally be on three Star Trek series, it made her world. I mean the whole Frankenstein legacy. The first Frankenstein, the Bride of Frankenstein, some stuff in between. But Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein is by far my favorite.

I also love TV shows like The Rifleman, Leave It to Beaver and Beverly Hillbillies. Those are the things I grew up with.

LRM Online: That’s awesome. I don’t know if any of those helped influence for you wanting to become an actor, but those are very diverse choices.

Todd: Just seeing actors having fun doing their job. I think that was the thing that stuck in my head, because I knew I didn’t want to do a job I couldn’t stand. I straightened up in late high school and got complete scholarships to some great schools. I ended up getting my masters at Trinity Rep, and here we are. Well, some time in between, but here we are. Without those incredible teachers, and incredible classmates I had, I wouldn’t be here.

LRM Online: Well, we’re all glad you’re here.

Todd: Immortal was one of the eight films I have in the can, and this month I’m filming Tales in the Hood and another top secret mainstream film. Famous director, producer. That’s all I can say.

LRM Online: Sounds like they’re keeping you busy.

Todd: Yeah. They are. All of a sudden the phone is ringing off the hook. I mean, it’s always been steady, but lately it’s crazy.

LRM Online: Well, if anybody’s deserving of it, it’s you.

Todd: Thank you, Daniel.

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