Episode 137 - Todd Tucker - The Creature Designer Who Worked With Spielberg Spills It All!

Join us for an exclusive 4K technical retrospective with Hollywood creature/monster creator and practical FX master, Todd Tucker (Founder of Illusion Industries). In this deep dive, Todd shares the behind-the-scenes secrets of working on legendary film sets, from Steven Spielberg’s Hook to the creature design of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the iconic transformation of Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire.

We explore the "Golden Era" of the 1980-90’s filmmaking, the technical challenges of the Alien franchise to Jurassic Park, and what it was really like on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean. Todd also breaks down the making of Jim Carrey’s mask in The Mask and gives his unfiltered advice for anyone looking to break into the modern Hollywood industry – Along with his own film directing secretes on his films like Monster Mutt & The Terror of Hallows Eve!

DMR (Digital Media Retrospective) is a high-fidelity archive dedicated to preserving the technical history of cinema.

Chapters:
0:00:00 Todd Tucker Intro
0:03:39 Tucker Goes to Hollywood
0:04:59 Alien Franchise & Creature Design
0:07:10 Hook & Working with Steven Spielberg
0:09:00 The Evolution of Movie Cinema Magic
0:11:15 The Future of Cinema: Will Going to The Movies Survive?
0:13:40 The Practical FX of Bram Stokers Dracula
0:17:45 The Mask: Jim Carrey and Prosthetic Challenges
0:20:48 Mrs Doubtfire: Transforming Robin Williams
0:25:51 The Jim Carrey Hoax!
0:28:26 Audible 30-Day Free Trial
0:29:51 Blade: Creating Vampire Monsters
0:33:02 Why 90s Films Hit Different: Practical vs CGI
0:37:55 Pirates of The Caribbean: Action & FX
0:40:37 Van Helsing & Hugh Jackman
0:41:42 The Passion & Mel Gibson: Authentic Realism
0:43:15 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
0:44:23 The Terror of Hallows Eve & Monster Mutt
0:47:26 Tucker’s Hollywood Advice for Creators
0:54:36 Outro

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to DMR Kee's moving review The Red Carpenter.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Alright, so welcome back to DMR. I hope you enjoyed that interview from Professor Lloyd Auerbach. Some amazing paranormal investigation stories. If you haven't checked it out, go back and watch it. Amazing stuff for the first interview for 2026, The Legends of the Land series. So today, have a listen to this gentleman's resume with you. So Todd Tucker is one of Hollywood's leading masters in the FX game. He's also an actor, producer, and a director as well. What a list of titles he has there. So reading some of his work that he's been involved with, we've got Hook, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Mask with Jim Carrey. You've also got Blade in 1998, Hirats of the Caribbean as well. We've got Charm he's worked on, and in Van Helsing 2, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and he's also directed his own film, which is The Terror of Hello's Eve and Monster Mutt as well. So this is a real treat because Todd basically worked on a hell of a lot of films that were smack bang in the middle of the 90s when myself and a lot of other people that are out there grew up. So he is the man behind a lot of these films and when it comes to FX and the puppetry and also the face masks and all that jazz. It's an amazing hour. So buckle up. This guy has got some very cool Hollywood stories, and as soon as you see him, he looks like a rock star. So enjoy. Here we go. Alright, alright, alright. So welcome back to DMR. Thank you for tuning back in as always. Much obliged. And tonight or today, we've got a real treat coming in all the way from LA, Mr. Todd Tucker. Hello, sir. Welcome to DMR.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Thank you very much for having me. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

All good, all good. So you're in LA at the moment, yeah?

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Yeah, it's uh about eight o'clock ish at night here in Los Angeles uh on a beautiful Friday night.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

And how long have you lived in LA for?

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Um I moved to Los Angeles in 1990. Um I I I was here when I was a kid and moved around a little bit, but ultimately spent um pretty much the majority of my life uh here. And I live in Santa Clarita, which is a little bit outside of Los Angeles. Um and uh yeah, I I really enjoyed here.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Awesome, awesome. So let's just go from the top. So you're an FX master, you're an actor, and you're a producer and director as well. Is that correct? Yes, a lot of hats. Jeez, man, you do wear a lot of hats. So a lot of hats. Let's let's rewind the clock. So let's go back to the early 90s or might have been the late 80s, whenever you started in Hollywood. So how did you know, I suppose, you wanted to get into the FX scene or the acting scene? Like where did you basically start from? What was your kickoff?

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Um, well, uh I was actually a musician and I was in a band and we were signed by our label and we were actually actually touring, and and um I was uh it was right around the end of high school when I I started really getting into uh special effects makeup and wanting to learn about it. And I was always a big movie buff, big time, loved monsters, loved all that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Um and but it was very kind of new at that time, so there wasn't a lot of um schools or things that taught it. And um I went to a Star Trek invention, and I would I would say this is like 1985 and uh 1984-ish, and I saw these masks on display, and this was in Northern California where I was living at the time, and um uh there were two cards and business cards, and I grabbed them both and I called the first one and I said, Hey, I'd love to come learn special effects makeup. If if I can come, I'll clean your studio, I'll do whatever. And the guy literally told me to take a hike, and I was like, Whoa, okay, that didn't work. So I took the other card and I thought about it and I went, okay. So I called the second card and I said, Hey, I have a puppet that I drew that I would love to have you guys make, and I'll pay you to make it if I can come over and watch. And they were like, sure, come on over. So I met these guys and I ended up becoming best friends with them, and they taught me all this great stuff, and they were amazing artists, a guy named Steve Wang and a guy named Matt Rose, and we all became friends, and they spent about a year and a half teaching me all this, all this stuff, and then they moved to Los Angeles and started working on their first film, which was Aliens, right? All the the prequel. The prequel, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

So oh man, man, that's that's one of my favorite movies.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Seriously, it's all could it's such a great movie, and then they went off and and uh created uh The Predator. They both uh worked on that and designed it and made it, and so they became rock stars in the effects world very quickly. And then I ended up uh uh doing my music career for about four years and went back and forth getting lessons from them on the weekends when I would fly down to or drive down to LA and uh they basically taught me everything I needed so that in 1991 I decided to make the shift from music to movies, and I packed up, uh didn't put music behind me, drove down to Los Angeles and started working immediately.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

How cool is that? Yeah, so Ailey Yen's. I remember because I'm a 985 baby, right? So I was that's when I was born. So I came up in that era of the VHS, the video store, which unfortunately is now extinct, as we know. Well, there's probably I think there's one left over in the States, which might be one blockbuster video in I can't remember exactly where it is, but there could be one left. Anyway, I I remember watching the movies like Alien and Aliens. It was early 90s, so I was probably about seven or eight. And the Aliens movie, it was it was horror, but it was in it was weird watching as a kid. It was like it was it felt very adult. Like when you watched it, you the dread that you feel in those movies with the puppet, puppets or however the special effects, it still holds up today. It's amazing. It's one of my favorite movies because it it's when you know a movie is good and you watch it and it still feels fresh, that's when you know you've got magic, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:46

I truly think Aliens, this the sequel is the greatest sci-fi movie ever made, and it still holds up. It is it is just so well made, and those creatures look great, and the filming. I mean, it is a great, great movie.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

It's unbelievable. That's good stuff. Yeah, look, we're not here to talk about aliens, it is about you. So uh Hook. So you worked on Hook, is that right? Is that in '91 with Spielberg, is that correct?

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Yeah, yeah. I was a huge Robin Williams fan and a huge Spielberg fan. I mean, those were my two, my two favorite people in the world. Yeah. And uh I I started working with this company, and one of the first jobs we got was Hook. And here I am doing a headcast on Robin Williams and and and going on set uh at the Sony Studios and and watching, literally watching Spielberg do magic. And I knew I knew that I wanted to direct movies down the road. So I I literally, when I was on set, I sat there and just studied Spielberg and watched everything he did so I could kind of absorb whatever it was that made him great.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

So you actually met him. What's he locked as a person?

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Uh you know, for me personally, my experience with him was was minimal as far as like one-on-one. But I did get to work uh and and talk to him a little bit, and uh and I got to work with Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams and a lot of the cast because we did all the makeup effects for the film. And um he just knows what he's doing, he's so smart and has just such great instincts. And as a director, one of the things that I really pulled from him was the way he would interact with the actors and motivate them and get them excited about what they were doing. Like he was really uh personable with with his actors and it it shows. That's why he got that's why you got movies like ET and and all these great movies where the performance is so intensely great.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Yeah, 100%. Like that came out in the early 90s, so I'm pretty sure I saw that at the movies, but you know, all these films that you worked on, like they'll smack bang in the middle of my childhood. So there was a lot of that, there was a lot of that magic, and that's what it felt like as a kid, and that's why I've been a movie buff my whole life since I was five, and now I've got two little boys as well, and they're you know, they're coming up into the movie game as well. Axel, my eldest, is five. Him and I love movies, you know, maybe we'll sit there and punch him out. I've got another little boy Bodie, he's only about eight eight months, but still I can see a lot of myself in my eldest because of the influence that film has on the imagination at that age.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

So you know, I totally agree with you, and the thing is, is it's it's kind of weird because you know, when we were younger, especially me because I'm a few years younger, I mean older, I mean, um, you know, there wasn't a lot of distractions with phones and and all this different stuff, and like there was movies and television, and that was kind of it. So when you went to the movie, it was an experience. Like you walked out of there affected by, especially as a kid, you know, because you didn't have a lot of other things going on. It's a little harder nowadays to get attention and get that effect, but younger kids, they they still are affected by the great movies because they they just feel instinctually the you know the spirit of these movies that are just amazing. You know, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

And you you tapped on something interesting there, like movies today, unfortunately, like I uh here in Australia, right? So I'm 41-year-old dad, so I don't go to Friday, you know, Thursday, Friday premieres or whatever it is because it's usually you know juggling the kids and whatnot. But yeah, back in the day in the 90s, like when I was like 10 years old, mate, the lines for the movies like during school holidays was out the door. Like it was nuts, right? You know what I mean? And like you'd walk into the cinema and let's use an example like Independence Day. This one sticks out for me. So I remember walking into the cinema and everything was ID4 and the massive cardboard cutouts of the huge ship coming over New York, and as a kid, you're walking into this thing going, This is insane. Like, you know what I mean? You haven't even stepped foot in the movies yet. But all that all that smell of that popcorn and the build-up to it, and then the trailers as well, I feel unfortunately now, especially with streaming, like I go I might catch movies and go and review them on like a Sunday afternoon. And again, the crowd's not always big, but I've got a feeling that I feel that going to the movies, the actual event of it might be a thing of the past, especially how streaming's going, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

I hope not, man. I hope not.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

I hope not either.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

So the you know, the thing is too, and this is this is really something that people don't think about, but when you go to the movies and you watch a comedy or a horror movie or something, you know, that has some driving emotion to it, the audience feeds off each other. There's an energy in there that, you know, when it's scary and you hear people scream around you, I mean, that's way more effective than just sitting in watching it at home on a quiet, you know, nice big screen. It just doesn't have the same effect, you know. Um, I actually was an only child growing up and I was obsessed with movies, and I just wanted to get the hell out of my house. So I would every single weekend go to the movie theaters and literally watch one movie after another after another and sneak from one theater to the next to the next or watch the same movie over and over. I literally saw Jaws in the theaters like 42 times as a kid. Oh wow. And Star Wars was like 60 times. I mean, I was obsessed with this stuff. So the experience of the theaters for me is such a special thing that I just hope it never actually goes away.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Look, I'm I'm probably, you know, I'm probably pushing it a bit when I say go away, but it just if I could feel the shift from the audiences when I was a kid versus the now and what people have got access to, especially with streaming. Don't get me wrong, it's like streaming is incredible, but the whole event going, and that's why I take my son to the movies so he gets that feeling, you know, when he goes there, sitting in the dark with dad, you know, it builds those core memories of a childhood, you know what I mean. I want him to have that same thing. It's actually quite sad. We there's a local cinema here, there's a place called also called Beverly Hills here in Sydney, and I remember seeing Aladdin at that cinema, and it was actually the first movie I took my son Axel to, and it closed six months later. You know what I mean? But again, when when you walk in there, there's there's not that many people, and yeah, it's it was a bit sad, you know what I mean? But um, yeah, we'll see. Hopefully it doesn't.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

I I I think you're doing a smart thing by taking your kids at an early age to experience that because hopefully that'll sink in and become a thing.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

So Dracula in what was it, 1992. So yeah, tell me about that again, if you could.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Yeah, that was uh that was an amazing experience. I mean, I would say that's one of the top five greatest onset experiences I've ever had. Uh, working with Gary Ullman and and Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves and uh under Copeland and getting to watch all these amazing makeups that we created for the show come to life. And um, Gary was great because when I first met Gary uh and he came in for his headcast, I didn't really know who he was. Um and he he was a little shorter and I didn't really realize that he was Dracula. I wasn't sure which character he was gonna be playing. And then uh when he said Dracula, I was like, interesting choice. But then when we got on set and he played that character and we put him in those different makeups, he was just like he he was amazing and intense and scary, and he was like literally a 10-foot-tall monster. So yeah, uh, Gary was by far one of the greatest actors I've worked with, and uh just a lot of great stories from being on set of that movie. There was some crazy stuff that went down.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

I agree. And did you say you made that bat monster?

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Yeah, the the uh shop that I was working for, uh, we uh created, uh we designed it and created it. It wasn't actually even in the original script. Um we went to a meeting and we were talking to him, and originally it was going to be a sword fight with Gary Oldman just as Dracula, and uh and the head of the studio basic said, you know, what if we uh did a Bat Creature character? Um and uh Coppola was totally into it, and we sculpted uh a guy named Mitch Devane, who was the head sculptor at the studio, sculpted this McKedd of the Bat Creature, and uh Coppola loved it, so we made the Bat Creature and the studio um uh actually the makeup artists uh who were on set who were applying it um won the Academy Award for Best Makeup um that we had created for the film. So it was a really cool experience to be part of that and and and uh see all that come to life.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Yeah, man. I remember again as a kid going to the video store and seeing the cardboard cutouts of Bram Striker's Bram Stoker's Dracula. And then I file I finally watched it, I think it might have been around age eight or nine. And again, the there's these hard-hitting and the the way that the movie shot, especially back, I think it's the 1800s, right? So it's it's and then you see um Keanu Reeves' hair go from black to gray because he's been through some shit, you know.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

You know, there was a couple things in the movie that were a little weird. Uh, and we all thought about it when we were watching, we're like, is that supposed to be that way? And I I Keanu at the time struggled with his accent, and a lot of people were making comments about that. And but at the end of the day, um, you know, it's it's not a perfect film, but man, visually, it just is amazing, and and there's some really awesome moments in that film for sure.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

Very much so. And did you have you seen the recent uh Nosferatu?

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Um, I did. I did. Um it was a good movie. I just for me it was a little a little slow. Um and honestly, and I'm probably gonna get a lot of feed, you know, a lot of flack for this, but I wasn't a fan of the mustache. It really threw me off of what I thought a Nosferatu should look like personally. Um it took me out of the character for for a lot of the movie. I just didn't feel, you know. I kind of personally, my favorite look for a Nosferatu is is like what they did in Salem's Lot. Remember the original Salem's Lot?

SPEAKER_00 17:22

I don't think I've seen that. I don't think I've seen that one.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Um look at it look at online and see that vampire in that. That vampire is literally the scariest version of a Nosferatu I think you'll ever see. Um super cool, but yeah, I I just wasn't a fan of the design personally, but that's just my own opinion.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Yeah. We'll jump on to vampires with Blade shortly, but I'll stick in chronological order. So The Mask with Jim Carrey. Talk to me about your work with Jim and on that film because he had, what was it, '94, he had Ace Ventura, Dumb and Dumber, and The Mask all in one year. I don't think that's ever going to be done again in terms of like hits.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

You know, it's funny because when I remember when I I flew to um to Florida to go do a headcast of him in a hotel room because he was shooting a movie at the time. And I remember telling people I was going to go do a headcast on Jim Carrey, and they were like, Who's that? And I was like, the white guy in the living color. Um, he wasn't, I mean, he was a name, but he wasn't like Jim Carrey yet. And when I got to the hotel and I met him at the hotel room, and we did this headcast on him, he was super cool, super chill. And um, I asked him what he was working on. He goes, Oh, I'm I'm filming this movie called Ace Ventura Pet Detective. And me like an idiot, I'm like, oh well, the mask will be good. Like, right? And he goes, No, no, you understand, dude. Don't let the don't let the title fool you. He goes, I threw the script out the window and I'm just going crazy. I don't even know what to do with me. And I'm like, wow, right on, let's see that. And we uh we did the headcast on him, and then we had already made a set of teeth for him to try in as a test fitting, and we put the teeth in him, and it was like turning on a light switch, man. He just started bouncing around and going crazy in the hotel room, and it was just like it was amazing. I we got to see the the mask come to life before our very eyes. So such a cool movie, too. Um, and he just killed it as that character. No one could have done what he did with that character.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

Nah, and he's again, he's like Robin Williams, like he's one of my childhood heroes, you know what I mean? Because seeing age 10, and then I saw him, I remember going to watch Batman Forever in '95. Now I went with my mate and his older brother who had a car at the time, so we saw it at nine. I hadn't I don't think I'd really been to a cinema at nine before, and despite the critics on that film, that's a childhood like guilty pleasure for me because the experience that I had with him as the Riddler, you can see the Riddler in the background. Like that's that's the suit that actually made with the question marks, not the actual suit, but all the question marks. I had a fancy dress back in like 2007, and you know what I mean? Like that just um, yeah, seeing him in just the way he can contort his face, and I'm sure he would have seen that in the mark, just it's insane. It's like it's absolutely wild.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

He's uh he you know, Robin Williams and and Jim Carrey are two people that I've never met anyone like either of them in my entire career. Like no one has ever even come close to their level of of just energy and and and what they did as comedians that no one else had ever done, in my opinion. I mean, they just I don't know, it was super cool to be part of movies that they were doing, you know.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

Yeah. And I actually jumped a year. So Mrs. Doubtfire, so you worked with Robin on that as well with the with the face, the mask, is that right? What was your role there?

SPEAKER_01 20:55

Yeah, so the company, uh so I was with the same company for about 15 years, and we just were going from movie to movie to movie, which was so cool. And uh all of a sudden the master uh Mrs. Doubtfire came up. So we, you know, um uh we created the uh uh the face that he wore, the prosthetic makeups that he was wearing, and we hired people and they came in and created the wigs and the bodysuit and and pretty much his his look. And then uh uh I did not go on set for that one, so I wasn't actually applying that makeup. I was um only in the build of it, but I did get to um watch some of the uh some of the footage and some of the things, and I and I was told that when Robin went into makeup, like he never broke character for the entire day until that makeup was off. And I as an actor really respected that because I've been in a lot of makeups myself and I played a lot of characters, and um and I kind of took on that same philosophy, and it's super cool because it really transforms. You into that character when you don't stop being that character for the entire time you're in the makeup. Like you never stop, you know? And he was just amazing, man. He was just that movie is probably one of the movies I'm most proud to have my name show up at the end of it in the credits. Like that just was a groundbreaking movie, and Robin was amazing. No one could have played that part. Just like just like The Mask with Jim Carrey, no one could have played Mr. Doubtfire other than Robin.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

When he's at the um the pool and he pitches the lemon or the lime at Piers Brosnan's head. Yeah. As a kid, and it's still it still cracks me off. The noise that it makes, it's just oh, I'm sorry. You should have seen him. He was just run over.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

Oh, just yeah. Yeah. I remember when he came into the studio, we were trying on some of the makeup appliances on him and stuff before we went on set. And I remember he was putting it on, and as soon as he put the appliance on, and he looked in the mirror and he was like this, and he goes, Oh, it's so soft. And I was like, Oh, that's what he's gonna do. That's the sound, that's the voice. And he was he was like kind of playing with it and stuff, and it's you know, when you sit there and you see the actor discover the character right in front of you before they even film the movie, it's such a cool experience that you never forget. I tell you, it's super cool.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

Yeah, yeah, it was un really tragic when he passed away, wasn't it? It was um was it 2014? So like you you obviously met him and and knew him. Oh, I didn't know him from BarSide, but when you grow up with all of his movies, like hearing that news, like it sank, it sank deep, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 23:40

Dude, I'll tell you, there's only been a couple people in my career that when I when they passed away, it really like affected me really bad, and he was one of them for sure. And I can I worked with him on like five or six different movies. I did a movie called Licensed a Wed with and I didn't do anything on him. I created these baby puppets, but he was in the movie, and there was, you know, we were we were cross crossing paths, and we did another movie called Nine Months, where we did an animatronic baby that he delivers as the doctor, and you know, so I was in a I got to be around him a lot. And um, the very last time I saw him, we did a teeth cast on him because we made him up as a bronze statue for one of the night at the museum movies, and and um I saw a difference in him, I saw a difference in his energy and his spirit and everything. It wasn't too too long after that that he passed away, and I was like, yeah, I felt a difference in the last time I saw him.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

So yeah, you you would have, man. You would have. He was did he have the onset of of Dement or Parkinson's? I can't really rec I'm a bit fuzzy on that detail.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

Uh I don't I don't remember exactly what it was. Um I just remember when I would normally come across him on a movie or whatever, his his, you know, his the way he talked to me was always very sweet and very warm and and he had a he had a certain energy to him. Um and then when the light you know when it was time to turn it on, all of a sudden he would explode and he would turn into this much bigger, louder guy. But you know, behind the scenes and everything, he was very calm and very sweet and caring. And you know, he just he felt he when I saw him that last time, he was kind of quiet and a little lost. And you know, it's almost like when you go and you see an older person who's kind of like just lose you know, not there, like he just felt like he wasn't quite there, and I was like, Oh man, I hope he's okay. And yeah, but what a great talent man, that guy was amazing.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

Yeah, and back to Jim Carrey, like gotta wrap him in cotton wool, right? Like, um, yeah, because he's he's a he's a big trophy for Hollywood and the world. So did you see that thing recently um where everyone the internet was going nuts with him appearing at the awards in Paris and people thinking that it was a hoax?

SPEAKER_01 26:00

Oh, really? Um no, what was it? I didn't know about that.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

It was it was probably about a month ago, and he was at uh accepting an award at some festival or some awards night in Paris, and the internet has gone Billy Bananas because they're looking at his face and his eyes differently and the way that he was talking, and everyone's like, This ain't Jim. This is not Jim Carrey, and then there was uh an in another person called Alexis Stone that does all prosthetic um face masks and stuff like that. That jump on their website, and there's a mask of Jim Carrey, it's a very murky and and convoluted, and no one kind of knows what's what the story is.

SPEAKER_01 26:43

Huh. You know, I did see those pictures actually, and it I I it looks like he had maybe had some plastic surgery or something, because he definitely looked different, but yeah, no, you I don't know. I've now that you say it, I remember seeing those pictures, and it was really odd. I couldn't tell you.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

I think it's him. Well, this is the thing, right? The guy's a master chameleon, and it's like, is this Jim playing a version of Jim? Because he's been on plenty of talk shows. I think he was on Jimmy Kimmel. Remember when he's going like that, like the Illuminati and stuff like that? Like he's all he's you see, he's his demeanor has shifted towards um Hollywood over the last you know five or ten years and whatnot. He's very vocal about it. Yeah, so I don't know. I don't it is it all a gag, is it him? Is it somebody else?

SPEAKER_01 27:28

I'll tell you what, though Jim, Jim is super smart, like like super smart. Like he went and I think he got a I don't know what he did, but he went to college for the hell of it and got a degree. And I mean, he's a really super smart guy, so he might be too smart for his own good, you know. Maybe it's I don't know. He I know that he uh when he did that one movie where he was playing um uh the actor that played Lodka on blanking um Is it Andy Kauf? Not Andy Kaufman. Oh Andy Kaufman. Andy Kaufman, yeah. I know that he kind of lost himself in that character and got a little crazy.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

100%. Well, there's that whole documentary on Netflix about the filming of it, and people people were.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

I don't know, it's hard to tell though, because he's such a smart dude. He could, you know, he might just do that just to just to mess with people. It's hard to tell with him because he's he's a really talented guy, so and smart, so it's hard to know what he's pulling, you know.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

So there you have it. Some wild stories from Mr. Todd Tucker himself. And now's a good opportunity to remind you that DMR is part of the Audible Creators program. So, what does that mean for you, the listener, or the viewer at home or in your car? You can simply jump on the link in my show, will take you over to Audible, and you can start a 30-day free trial. That's right, 30 days for free. And can I make a suggestion whilst we're on the topic of Hollywood? The Book of Sheen, written and narrated by none other than Charlie Sheen himself. I tell you what, I could not put this book down. The shenanigans that this kid got up to in his career and his life, all the way from when he started in Platoon, basically, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. That was an absolute crack of a roll. Then into the early 90s, Hotshots, and of course you got two and a half men, and the winning phase. We cannot forget the big winning phase. So, great book. Make sure you download that one. You will be supporting DMR as well. Terms and conditions do apply. We stick around past the 30 days, but let's get back into the rest of the interview with Todd Tucker. He's got a few more stories to tell. Good stuff, man. Good stuff. So now we're we're getting into the back end of the late 90s, and a little film called Blade came along. This is where I I got wind of yourself when you were talking about working on was it Pearl the Vampire?

SPEAKER_01 29:59

Yeah, it's funny because um I do all these TikToks and stuff on my Todd Tucker movie magic TikTok and and uh and uh YouTube channel. And um I was talking about being uh we created all the characters for Blade, the first movie, and we created the Pearl character, and in the TikTok, I was talking about how um I was the right hand. You had to crawl underneath the platform of this giant body, and there was an actor in the middle that popped up, had a makeup on that was the head, and then there was one guy on the left that was the left arm, and I was the right arm. And and uh while we were shooting and he was getting burned, um, the actor was farting because he was reacting and everything, and he was a bigger, heavier guy at the time, and he was farting, and we were stuck inside this hot, stinky ass, you know. And I said that on uh a TikTok, just not even thinking twice about it, and it got 2.3 million hits um because because I was talking about the guy farting, and everyone thought it was super funny. But um, yeah, we we created the makeups, we created that Pearl character, which was super cool, and I got to go on set for that and puppeteered that that part of the character, and um, yeah, it was a it was a lot of fun, man. That was a great movie, and and uh Wesley Snipes was uh was great and um yeah, it was a blast. It was a blast.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

I didn't see that at the film, uh sorry, at the movies, but it came out on cable, and cable only just got here to Australia around about 96, so we were late to the party in terms of like cable TV. Oh okay, yeah, but uh it was one of the first films that came on cable TV, and it still holds up today. I love that film, right? Especially the energy between Wesley Snipes and Stephen Dorf as Frost. Yeah, it is it is um it's intense. Like they absolutely the way they portrayed the hatred toward each other, and there was one thing that I've seen a few people pick it up, and I I don't know if too many people realise, but The Matrix came out a year later in '99, right? Right. In Blade, there's a scene where Blade and Stephen Dorf, or sorry, where's the time Stephen Dorf are in a park and he's holding a little girl as ransom under his claw.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 32:23

And he basically picks her up. No, before that, I think he picks her up. I'm a bit fuzzy on the timing, but Blade basically shoots at him and he's it goes into bullet time like the Matrix, it goes slow mo and he dodges the bullets.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:37

And I'm not I realize like it wasn't probably about 10 or 15 years later, it seems like Blade kind of started that bullet time before the Matrix came out.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

Uh yeah, you're right, because that whole that whole slow motion thing um is what you're talking about. Yeah, I you might be right there. You might be right. Yeah, because that did come out before.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

But just on that on that era, 98-99, there are a hell of a lot of good films that came out just before the millennium. A hell of a lot.

SPEAKER_01 33:12

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there was there was quite a few films that uh that held up, you know, because there's so many good from good films from the 80s that it was hard, you know, it's hard to compete because there was such a great, you know, uh output of of product during that time frame and some of the best movies ever. So the 90s had a lot to live up to, but yeah, some great movies came out. I mean, I remember when we first when I first moved down here and I started working at the studio that I was gonna be at for a while, and we all went and saw Jurassic Park and went, oh no, we're screwed. And I was like, wait, wait, I just got here, wait a minute. Um, but you know, and that was like that was Spielberg, and that was, you know, a great movie. And I'm such a Spielberg fan. I was just like, yeah. Um, so there's yeah, there's so many good movies, and we got to work on some really good movies that that uh, you know, when I was on set, you know it's gonna be one of those movies that you're gonna talk about years later. You could you just know it because you the cast and and the nature of what the movie is, and uh it was yeah, there's some great movies in the 90s for sure.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

Yeah, I remember Jurassic Park was an absolute game changer for film. I remember saying in the early 90, 94 that came out here, I think I was on it was in the cinemas for ages, for ages. But I remember sleeping with my dad in early '94, and I was shitting myself with because you no one had seen proper animatronic dinosaurs. And yes, there is some some CGI in it, but the CGI in it still stacks up. Yeah, it's better than some of the CGI out there today.

SPEAKER_01 34:49

But you know what? That movie works so well because they had the combination of animatronic characters and CG. So it so you went back and forth, so it wasn't just one or the other. And they played up on the on the limitations of what one could do and the other couldn't, and it just worked so well when they brought it together. And the CG held absolutely holds up to almost everything that's out now.

SPEAKER_00 35:12

Yeah, 100%. And of uh there's a story as well on that film that the T-Rex, the animatronic T-Rex, when it was writing, or like used to malfunction and come alive and jerk and scare the crap out of the crew, apparently. It's one of those film set stories.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

Well, you know, you know what? I mean, really, when you think about it, that T-Rex is just a giant great white shark.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:35

Yeah, you know, and it's had and and the problem with that shark is the exact same problem they had with the T-Rex, where you know the water affects all the mechanics, and all the mechanics are going crazy and fighting the water. Two different things because you got the shark in the water, but that shark went through hell just trying to get from point A to point B in that film, you know. So and I'm sure that that Spielberg learned one of the greatest lessons of his life on one of his first, you know, big films by dealing with that damn shark. But yeah, the T-Rex was just so cool. And I saw the T-Rex, I've seen the T-Rex in person, the the puppet, and it's just beautiful. It's so cool. Where's it at? Um, I saw it in a in a display um setup, but I don't I don't know where it's at now, but uh and it's probably no longer around because it's it was a I think it was a big giant foam thing, and the foam doesn't last too long. But they yeah, it was it was pretty cool when I saw it in person.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

That'd be awesome, man. That'd be cool to say.

SPEAKER_01 36:30

Hey, by the way, I actually came to Australia and shot a movie in Melbourne um right literally two months after 9-11 hit here in the States. And we I was in Melbourne for three months, um, and we shot uh at the time the movie was called The Tooth Fairy, but it ended up turning into a movie called Darkness Falls.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

And uh so I I unfortunately and I really wanted to get to Sydney, I never made it to Sydney because we were in Melbourne for the entire time. Um, but uh yeah, I I uh it was it was it was great to to uh get a chance to be uh in Australia and check it out or check out the area I was in. But uh it was it was cool to be there for a little while.

SPEAKER_00 37:17

Yeah, if you get back, if you get back to Sydney, it's the Sydney Harbour's it's nuts. Like I'm not being biased. Like every time you go in there, it's a spectacle, especially now with all the modern buildings and whatnot. It looks like I call I Nick now I'm working the city, so I my office overlooks all of Sydney Harbour. So I call it I call it the Emerald City because like it's it just glistens from the water to the skyscrapers, it's it's blue all the time, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 37:40

It's very beautiful there. Yeah, I've seen I've seen so much footage and and it's just yeah, it's a really beautiful city.

SPEAKER_00 37:45

Yeah, it's cool, that's cool. Yeah, so it into the early 2000s, so just mindful of your time. I know it's was it Friday night there? Yeah, Friday night. So early 2000s, pro Pirates of the Caribbean, yeah. Is that where you did you work on that? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:59

Yeah, that was what was that was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

That was good, man. That and what what did you work on there? Like that when when that came out, that was a bit of a game changer. Personally, I the the second one I remember seeing that at the drive in when I was still around, and that was nuts. And and that I think was in terms of CGI with David Jones. Yeah, that was intense. That was nuts.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

Yeah. Um, you know, it was super cool when we got the job. I I was uh really excited because the you know, I was a fan of the ride back, you know, at Disneyland, and yeah, and it was interesting because what we did was we we designed and created all of the looks for the pirates. Um but uh and we and all the pirates came in and we did headcasts and face and teeth casts and all that and created um the teeth for them and and all their scars and their their looks and all the tattoos and all the different cool stuff. Um, but it was interesting because the one person that was supposed to come in that we were waiting for was Johnny Depp. And all of a sudden we got a phone call that the whole project was on hold and to stop everything. And we're like, what's going on? And they're like, uh, we'll let you know, we'll let you know. And then three days later they called us back and said, Okay, we're back on, but just so you know, uh Johnny won't be coming in. And we found out later on that basically they wanted Johnny's look to look very regal and very captain hook and very royal and all that. And Johnny's like, No, I want to look like a dreadlocked uh you know, Keith Richards. And they're like, absolutely not. And he goes, Well, then, you know, then I'm out. And he walked out of. I apparently what I heard, and this could be wrong, but he walked out of the office and said, Then forget it, I'm out. And I don't know what the discussions were, but uh they said, Okay, you know what? Actually, you're right. That's a great idea. And God bless Johnny for sticking to his guns because that character and the way it looks and the way he played it is, in my opinion, one of the reasons why that franchise is as big as it is, because he just created the the greatest pirate character potentially in the history of pirate movies. 100%. And he's so good. And and I actually now, years and years later, uh actually do um uh play Johnny, play Jack Sparrow uh for big corporate events and host and do stuff like that. So I've got the full Jack Sparrow costume with the teeth and made it all and oh good, oh good.

SPEAKER_00 40:35

So you've also been uh worked on Van Helsing and Charmed as well, is that right?

SPEAKER_01 40:41

Yeah, uh for Van Helsing, we did uh the Frankenstein makeup, um, we did the uh Igor makeup, uh we designed the vampire girls, we did the vampire bat characters that were in the pods. Um, yeah, so we did a lot of fun stuff. And I'll tell you what, man, um if if there was ever a man crush uh when Hugh Jackman walked on on set, I was just like, that guy is the badass, most coolest guy of all time. Hugh Jackman is by far one of the greatest actors I've ever, ever, ever worked with. That guy is super talented, super nice, and as charming as a man could ever be.

SPEAKER_00 41:25

Yeah, we'll climb he means the shrine, so we'll we'll take credit for that.

SPEAKER_01 41:28

You should absolutely run with that one. I met and I worked with Mel Gibson quite a bit too, and Mel was a great for me personally, and Mel was a great, uh, a great inspiration for me as a director. Uh, I learned a lot from Mel personally. And uh another. Was that the Passion? Was that it? Yes, I worked with him on The Passion of the Christ. Um and uh I played the Judas Demon in the movie. I was a Roman soldier, I did all kinds of different characters in post. Um and uh I had worked with him on Man Without a Face and Forever Young. We did the makeups for him on those and and had worked with him on a few different movies. So I was and I was working on a movie with him in uh called The Singing Detective that uh he was doing with Robert Downey Jr. through his production company. And he said, Hey, I'm thinking about doing this Jesus movie. And I was like, Yeah, man, you should let me uh you know let our studio do all your effects, but you should let us do all your your digital effects too. And he goes, Why? You know, you're not a digital company, and I go, Yeah, but you trust me. And he laughed, he goes, All right, smart ass, you're on. So we opened up a digital company and we did all the digital effects and the uh practical effects for the Passion of the Christ. And uh for me as a filmmaker and as a director, I learned so much on that movie how to uh create visual effects and combine practical and visual to come up with new ways of doing stuff. Um, and we had a bunch of really talented uh guys, a guy named Ted Ray came in and headed it up and uh for the visual effects company, and it was really super cool, really good learning experience and and one heck of a movie.

SPEAKER_00 43:10

Heck good's that very, very cool. And curious case of Benjamin Button, 2008.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

Yeah, um at that point I was the I was one of the company owners, uh, me and two other guys, and um we uh we brought in uh Brad and did you know did all the the appliances for him for all the reverse aging. We actually created the animatronic baby that was Baby Brad. Um and uh we the company uh won the Academy Award. Actually, again, it's the makeup artists that actually apply it on set that win the Academy Award, but the company that makes everything, you know, is tags along too. But it is the actual makeup artists that win. Um but the but that one best makeup. Effects uh that year for the Academy, and and it was super cool. And Brad was really, really cool to work with. He would show up every day on a different motorcycle by himself, no, no, you know, yes men with him or anything. He was just a just a kind of a badass cool guy.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

His name is like it. His name is like it. So fast forward to what have we got here? When you're a producer and a director in 2022, we got a couple of films with Monster Mutt, is that right? And the Terror of Hello's Eve. And then you're also involved in the Check uh Texas Chainsaw Reboot. Is that right?

SPEAKER_01 44:34

Yeah, yeah. I um I uh got really excited and started uh writing and directing and producing uh my own projects. I then got in and started uh got in the union uh as a DGA and started second unit directing a lot of the effects uh for some of the films we were doing uh because I could shoot our our makeups and our puppets and whatever we built really well. And a lot of directors didn't know how to shoot this stuff, so it was easy for me to come on as a second unit director and just take over scenes and direct it and make it look really good and let them take the credit for it. Um and uh so I did that on a few uh on a few films, and then I wrote uh Monster Mutt, which is kind of like a Harry and the Henderson's type storyline. It was kind of my homage to Spielberg and Henson. And uh we made that movie and it won uh Best Comedy at the International Family Film Festival and got worldwide distribution. And it was very much a Muppety character, it was meant to be a kid's, you know, kids' project, a kids' movie. And then after that, I did another uh movie that I wrote um called The Terror of Halo Ziv. And uh that had Doug Jones in it playing my lead creatures and had a bunch of monsters and cool stuff. I had John Carpenter actually uh let me use some of his music for the film. So I had John Carpenter music in the film and and uh Eric Roberts and Juliet Landau and some great actors that really made it super cool. And that one won all kinds of uh awards. It was featured at uh Stitches in Spain and and Frankfest in London, and it won a bunch of really cool awards. So that did really well and was and got worldwide distribution. And then just recently, a couple years ago, I uh I did a movie that had no makeup effects, no monsters, creatures, nothing. Uh it was a rock and roll hairband comedy called Rock Bottom, um, kind of like Spinal Tap, but yeah, a little, you know. And uh that one got worldwide distribution also, won a bunch of awards, very different from my other two. But um so I've been very fortunate to get to to direct these. Rockbottom, you can find on Prime Video and Apple TV. Uh The Terror of Halo Z you can find on Roku and YouTube and Monster Mud. I don't know where the hell that is right now. It's too old. I think it's in my collection over here. But um, so yeah, I got really lucky being able to uh write and produce and direct a lot of my own projects and help on a lot of other projects too.

SPEAKER_00 47:13

So uh that's awesome, mate. Well, mate, you've you've got a massive list of accomplishments, so you must be pretty proud. But what advice in closing, because I know it's getting late over there, but um in closing, what would you give advice or how would you give advice to someone who might be looking to get into acting or the FX side of things, especially in 2026 where everything is like CGI heavy? Like, yeah, how how or let's let's put it another way. What would the version of Todd Tucker in 2026 give advice to the younger version of you in the 989 is now you knowing what you know now that might help people like who's aspiring to be an actor or getting the FX, you know, fast track their momentum.

SPEAKER_01 48:02

You know, here's the thing. Um uh as far as acting, um, you know, if you are there's so many outlets for acting, uh, because you know, you could be do you could do um things online, you could do commercials, you could do movies, television, theater. There's so many great options. So if you are an aspiring actor, the best thing for you to do is go out and do it immediately. Go go work on independent films, go do uh acting classes. Make sure you take some classes so that you can train yourself to be really good and give yourself the opportunity to actually make a living at it if you are gonna take it serious. Um, but you got to take it serious and really you have to be passionate about it because it's a lot of work, it's really hard sometimes. The payoff when you do work and when you get to do stuff is really cool, but you you've got to be passionate enough about what you're doing to make it worth it when you're not having a good time at it. And it's not always fun, you know. So, and the same thing is true for makeup effects. If you're really, really into makeup effects, you know, there's so many things online that you can find that will teach you, you know, certain aspects of makeup effects, and you can get materials online um sent to you. So it's much easier to get access to the information and the materials than it was for me when I started because there was no internet. Yeah, exactly. So um, so you know, if you want to be a makeup effects artist, depending on where you live, um uh just start making this stuff. Get a setup in your garage and just start making stuff, learning and putting together a portfolio of your work so that at some point in time when you feel confident that you are ready, you can submit the images of your work to a potential employer, whether it's an effects company, whether it's a movie studio, whatever it might be. Um you need to package yourself so that, and this is the same for acting. You need to basically package yourself as something that you can hand over to someone or or email to someone that is a package that explains what you are, why you're valuable, and why they want to hire you in a very simple way. Um you can use AI to do a lot of this now. Uh, they can help package you and stuff once you have elements to put into the mix. Um, but again, it's like you know, the film industry and the entertainment industries is one of those things where, you know, if you aren't really into it and willing to put in the hard hours, it's not something usually that you just fall into and everything goes easy. You know. Um, but I'll tell you, if you get in and it's something you are passionate about and you're lucky enough to open doors and be a good person so that people want to hire you and you're motivated and positive, uh, that's the best way to get people to want to bring you on their team. And then it's up to you just to stay super, super positive and and really always learn. Uh and and um and it's a great job. I I love what I do, and I am so happy that I've gotten to do all the things and meet all the people I've met. So um, so you know, if it if that's your dream, then figure out how to make it happen, come up with a game plan, and then just start doing it.

SPEAKER_00 51:39

Mate, great advice, and that's probably across any industry, right? It's just like my me personally, like I'm commercial real estate age, I've been doing for 22 years, whilst I'm not reviewing movies, but I'm an auctioneer, right? And it you trigger not trigger me, but you go to my memory when you mentioned about when you're first trying to get into the industry, and someone says, Look, mate, no thanks, go and get some experience and stuff like that. It's the same with auctioneering, right? And I had to basically go to all these different auctions, record them, went to three auctioneers, and then I used to do auctions by myself in the mirror, in the mirror, over and over and over and over and over, and created this version of myself, and I went to a few state finals and then I got picked up by one of the judges and I did it for four years part-time. Still an auctioneer, but it's not trading at the moment because you know of all the stuff with family and whatnot. But again, it's it's the same with your industry, right? It's like you got the passion, you got the drive, and eventually, if you keep pushing at it, you're gonna land something.

SPEAKER_01 52:41

Yeah, yeah. And and yeah, just just keep pushing and and uh and find avenues. There's find avenues and start going those directions that are going to elevate you to where you want to be.

SPEAKER_00 52:54

Yeah, 100%. And even like with what I'm doing with the movie reviews, like they've been in in existence since 2021. But yeah, you know, I've I'm learning and going down this route of being in the studio and filming and editing and all that stuff, and it's awesome fun. Like I'm 41, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, I this has got nothing to do with property with my normal day job, but I'm just I'm in that space because my creativity, it's like when you hit mid-40s, and for some reason you've got the two little boys, and that creativity is just like exploding, you know what I mean? Because you know that we're not here forever and you might as well gotta make your mark somehow, right?

SPEAKER_01 53:27

So hey, what are the chances of you reviewing uh my movie The Terror of Hallows Eve?

SPEAKER_00 53:32

Man, I'll do it, no problems. I'll go back and watch it 100%.

SPEAKER_01 53:35

I I would love to hear what you think.

SPEAKER_00 53:37

Yeah, no, mate, consider it done. I'll get it done in the next couple of weeks.

SPEAKER_01 53:41

It's a fun it's a fun movie. I think you'll enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 53:43

Awesome. Well, mate, thank you for coming on, Dmar. It's uh Todd Tucker, much appreciated. Awesome stories, man. Really do appreciate you coming on. It's gonna be a cracker in a couple of weeks on we go live.

SPEAKER_01 53:53

I appreciate it. And if any of your audience wants to check out uh more stuff, you can find a lot of stuff at my YouTube channel, which is Todd Tucker Movie Magic, also TikTok, uh Todd Tucker Movie Magic, and my Instagram, which is uh Todd TuckerOfficial. And uh yeah, I've got some uh some stuff to check out. It'll be a lot of fun and any anything, reach out to me. I'd love to talk to you guys and get your opinion on what I got putting out there.

SPEAKER_00 54:20

Awesome. I'll throw all those links in the in the show as well so people can get in pretty easy. But thank you so much. Appreciate it. Have a good night, and hopefully we'll talk soon in the near future. Very much appreciated.

SPEAKER_01 54:30

Have a good one.

SPEAKER_00 54:31

Thanks, buddy. You got it. So there you have it. Some amazing Hollywood stories from none other than Todd Tucker himself. He's had some serious wins over the past couple of decades, worked with some massive nines in Hollywood actor producer, director United. He's done it some good stuff. So thank you so for coming on. We really do appreciate it during Demon Stop over the next couple of weeks. We are very good, some very good talent that's out there in Movie Land. And we've also got some very good PR companies that are good enough to park Demon with the clouds to come on the chart to Tycoon, and we're gonna have a very well-known cinematographer that's gonna come on the chart and discuss some very well-known movies, famous movies that he has been involved with. So we're very much looking forward to that particular gift. So buckle up. Right, just getting warmed up. 2026 is gonna be a B for the brand. And as always, it is on the experience and off the stuff.