First Jason Ari Lehman Interview - The Crazy Ralph Podcast EP 14

The First man to ever play Jason Voorhees sits down with the Crazy Ralph Podcast to discuss stories only he can. The behind the scenes of one of the most beloved horror films ever, Friday the 13th.

Join the show as he shares some fun and juicy stories.

Ari also discusses his musical background and what led him to form his current band First Jason.

Show Link - https://youtu.be/uX1jmZbOJUM

Ari Lehman
IG - https://www.instagram.com/firstjason13/?hl=en
X - https://x.com/FIRSTJASON?lang=en
FB - https://www.facebook.com/ari.lehman/
FB - https://www.facebook.com/FirstJasonOfficial/
YT - https://www.youtube.com/@UCv6jHmCFHOYf8z3v4bR3pRw 
First Jason - https://firstjason.com/


Horror Slash
https://www.youtube.com/ ⁨@thehorrorslash8184⁩  

Uncle Pete YouTube 
www.youtube.com/@UCC5G19QYxCwOdW_ocLgmdXA

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:07

Hey everybody, welcome to a special episode of the Crazy Ralph Podcast. I'm Jason and I'm joined with my co-host, your friendly neighborhood, Uncle Pete. And uh we are here with the man who needs no introduction, but he's gonna get one anyway, as it looks like if he doesn't, we're in trouble. We're with Ari Lehman. First Jason to ever to ever that's right, to ever play the role. The first, and he's here. Thank you, Ari.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

It's me. Ari Lehman rhymes with Demon, the very first actor to ever play Jason Vohees. Yes. We shot we shot that movie in 1979. Can you believe it?

SPEAKER_03 0:52

That's crazy. That's amazing. And we're gonna and we're gonna talk a lot about that movie and the production, because I'm actually uh very interested in the production. So let's I mean, let's start off with how you how you got the role. How did how did Ari jump to the top of the pile and become Jason?

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Well, that's a nice way of putting it, but that's not that's not what happened really. Um uh there was no audition for the little Jason role, of course, because you know, how could you audition somebody to just splash around in the water? Um, so but to tell you the story, uh I was in the movie that Sean Cunningham, the director of Friday the 13th, made previously to Friday the 13th. And that film was called Manny's Orphans. It was about a rad tag bunch of orphans who win their uh orphanage back from the mafia in a soccer turn. Okay, because as a little kid, I was pretty good at playing soccer. In fact, um, yeah, director Sean Cunningham, when he um picked me up to to do Manny's Orphans, I was actually on the soccer field and and he asked uh Coach Chacho. He said, Coach Chacho, is it okay? You know, uh we're bringing Ari to do some acting. Uh, is this gonna ruin his soccer career? And Coach Chacho said, no, it's okay, you know. Ari's pretty good. He's pretty good, but he's in all the school plays, you know. So, so um, so I was, you know, uh and soccer was very popular then. So Manny's Orphans actually had Werner Roth and Pele in it, two big soccer stars. It was actually shot in Cosmos Stadium. Part of it was shot in Cosmos Stadium. So, you know, but but but nobody played soccer in 1978 in America. So, so Paramount Pictures passed on Manny's Orphans for feature distribution. And as often happens in the movie world, they said, Hey, we've you've still got a contract. Give us something else, they said to Sean Cunningham. And they said to him, you know, we like that movie you did with Wes Craven, Last House on the Left. So Sean uh turned to Victor Miller, who wrote Friday the 13th. Um, so as the casting process went along, they realized they're gonna need a little boy in the lake. And initially, initially, Jason Voorhees was only gonna be seen as a drowning child. That was supposed to be the only iteration of Jason Voorhees in all of cinematic history, but I changed that, and so what happened. They filmed the first sequence where little Jason drowns in the flashback scene of Mama Voorhees, where she says, he was my only son. Today is his birthday, he wasn't a very good swimmer, and little Jason drowns, and that was gonna be it. Paramount pictures again passed on Friday the 13th in August of 1979. They used the regular tests audience, was probably out of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and they didn't like it. Oh mama got her head chopped off, okay, and uh the little boy drowned. And that's not, you know, they want they needed an ending. There needed to be some kind of closure. So for two months it was up in the air. It was in August of 1979 that I got, uh, no, pardon me, October. In October of 1979, I got another call from Sean Cunningham. He said, We want you to come back to the set. And I said, Wow, that's amazing. Um so, so uh uh, you know, we got there and and it would it was revealed, of course, that Jason would kind of have his revenge. Actually, he said that to me on the phone. I said, when he called me up, this was the second time, you know, Sean called me initially and asked me famously, can you swim? And I said yes. But see, this time, uh, Sean asked me a different question because I had drowned. And being a kid, I was kind of like, man, this is a bummer. You know, I just play this little boy who drowns in a movie, you know. That's that's not very promising, you know. So when he called me up, I was so happy and he said, Ari, you get your revenge. He literally said that line to me. And I did juice bumps, and I was like, yes, you know, because he knew how invested I was being a kid. Director Sean Cunningham has to really be praised. He doesn't get enough credit. It was the way that he got the actors to kind of not overdo it and to internalize it, and so he knew I felt that way. And he said, You get your revenge. But that comes up later because um um, yeah. So, so so that's how it all happened. When Parano Pictures saw that final sequence, they were so thrilled that they distributed Friday the 13th in 800 theaters across the country on the very same day, gentlemen, because they didn't want the word of mouth to get out there about the little boy. What happened was people just started bringing their friends and and not telling them about the ending and waiting for them to be scared. So, yeah, that was the whole thing. That's fantastic. For for Manny's Orphans, the audition for Manny's Orphans happened at the YMCA in Westport, Connecticut. I just went in there, I didn't have an agent. I just, you know, brave little kid that I was, I had heard that they needed somebody to audition who could act and could also play soccer. The way that was because Sean had done another movie just before that, which was kind of a baseball comedy. Okay, uh takeoff on the on the bad news bears. It was called Here Come the Tigers. So, you know, I guess that's how he got the funding for Manny's Orphans.

SPEAKER_03 7:29

And uh that's amazing. That's a great story. Well, well told, too. Uh, because it's pretty in-depth, and just to kind of hear hear that. So, okay, so I you're you're you get the call back, you're heading up again. Um, I'm assuming you were you're based in New York at the time. No, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

I was living in Westport, Connecticut, the same town where Sean Cunningham had his base of operations. He had his full setup in Westport, Connecticut. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:57

Okay, so you're heading up from Connecticut to New Jersey to film that last scene. What did you know on the way up? Like what would did he he told you that you're getting your revenge, but did you know anything beyond that?

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Well, yes. Well, I knew that Jason was gonna look um he was gonna be all muddy and bloody and deformed, even more, uh, even more kind of awkward, you know, like like waterlogged, and and um because he had been underwater for so long, and we had discussed the whole aspect of you know, you know, it him being dead. And uh so at first he was he was um deformed, and then he was dead and deformed, you know. So um the thing is the reason why I say that I changed it is because in filmmaking, you never really know what the heck is gonna happen until it happens. And the only thing that matters is what's going through that that lens, you know.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

The great Catsy Palmer, you know, she was amazing because she created an entire backstory for Pamela Voorhees, and you can see that resonate in her character. They never should have opened this camp, you know, da da da. And you can she's really it's inside her, the story. So that's what's so amazing. But you see, for this ending sequence, it was largely based on how it came off. And Sean really wanted to scare the crap out of Adrian King. Okay. Adrian King, who played Alice Hardy, was sitting in the boat, great actress. She had done an amazing job working so hard on the entire movie. Now she had to come back and and you know and do this thing, you know. Um, and and you know, uh, I don't recall it being cold because I was just a crazy kid. Yeah, because it was a very cold day. So, you know, I would have done it if it I wouldn't have cared. I would have chopped a hole in the ice to do that.

SPEAKER_03 10:07

Yeah. I always I always knew that that last uh scene was shot as like an afterthought, but I had no idea that you had guys had rapped already. The whole production kind of rapped, and then it was you guys went back and shot that. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

That was it was Sean Cunningham. I had always wondered about the details. Sean Cunningham and I were at an event in Germany, he told them all the details, and um and and here's the best part because now you know an actress is waiting for the director to say action. You see where I'm going with this. Yeah, yeah. So Sean comes over to me and he whispers. I had all the everything on, you know, and you know, me and Tom and Toss over there and was like, how are we gonna scare her? How are we gonna get this scared? You know, it was like, you know, like you're waiting behind the bookcase, waiting to scare your kids hits like. I was gonna say, it's like kids in high school, right? Like, yeah, man. So, so so we were giggling, and Sean says to me, Okay, the cameras are rolling. You wouldn't hear me say action anyway, because you're underwater. So just go out in the water, don't let her see the mask, and go behind the boat and look up and wait for the bubbles to clear. And then he said something I'll never forget. He said, You're the director on this scene, Ari. Perfect thing say to little Ari Lehman. I mean, that's awesome. Yeah, what a director. It's what the director says to the actor that talk about so I was like, I'm the director. I'm the director, I'm the director. I went out in the water, I did just as you said, I waited for the bubbles to clear, but then I thought, what's my motivation? And I was like, am I gonna come out kind of playfully, like we're just playing at at camp, or am I gonna come out? I thought that maybe they thought that I was just gonna kind of flop over like a dead child, right? But then it occurred to me, bitch killed my mother. And that became my motivation. And I just grabbed the side of the boat and I come up out of the water, and I'm like, uh, and then I realized that this nice lady who I've literally not actually met. Like we had been on the set together, but we hadn't actually met. And this nice lady had no idea what was going on, and so she turns around and looks at me, and this is where they cut that edit. She just goes, ah, and her face, and she lost it, and then she went, Oh shit, and she fell out of the boat. So they had to very quickly dry, they put her, they had to dry off her shirt, they had to dry her hair, they brought out a blow dryer to dry her hair. So if you see, now there's so there were two takes. I was gonna ask. They sandwiched that first take. It's much more close up and it's green, okay. That first take is sandwiched in between the second take, which is a medium shot that's much more yellow because in the hack it was autumn, okay. So, so you see the medium shot, and this time they get so Sean didn't want to tell Adrian what he had done. Um they were happy they had gotten that reaction, but they didn't, you know, so so so they're doing another take. And of course, she says to me, You jumped the gun. He didn't say action, and I'm looking at Sean like you know, uh, so exactly. I was like, and there's even a picture like where I'm looking at Sean, you can see this picture, and she's going like this, and I'm like, and that's and Thompson there laughing in his waiters. That's a famous picture. So, anyway, you get all the behind the scenes here.

SPEAKER_03 14:21

So awesome, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Yeah, that was a crazy moment because I wanted to say, he told me to do that, but as a kid, but I was cool enough to know, you know. Like, you know, don't say anything. So, so in fact, he teased me. He goes, Okay, this time, Ari, we want you to just go like this, but this time, please don't manhandle our actress. Very die wit of Sean Shiningham. Yeah, of course, again, I thought, wow, like I was 14. Yeah, I thought I manhandled an actress, you know.

SPEAKER_03 15:00

Well, it's funny, funny because you know, and and this is you know common knowledge, and if you watch any of the uh uh back behind the scenes and stuff like that, she uh Betsy Palmer roughed her up, right? So she roughed her up in the fight scene than your. So maybe there's a little bit of sensitivity that uh that Sean need to needed to uh tend to with uh Adrian there.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Yeah, so in fairness, she slapped Adrian, and Adrian forgave her. Betsy slapped Adrian because it was in the script, and you know, Betsy's thing came from came from theater, and in theater, you know, you slap somebody, so you gotta do it.

SPEAKER_03 15:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Same as Adrian did complain to Sean, and then Sean told Betsy and whatever. But in the long run, of course, they made up. Um, well, I mean, mama slams her her head into the into the beach, remember, guys? Yeah, you know, that was a pretty rough scene.

SPEAKER_03 15:56

Yeah, no, for sure, and you see it, right? Yeah, so okay, so yeah, you it was a two-take uh jump then.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Yeah, so yeah, you see that when you watch that scene now, you'll see the second take. He's coming up like this, and then they go in close for the first take, which is cut hard cut on her reaction, and then it goes back to the and to her credit, in the second take, she looks like she doesn't know I'm there. Okay, that's acting. And again, yeah, watch A, you know, because she's she's um she lives in in uh the Pacific Northwest in the middle of the woods, and she is a c she knows how to canoe and everything. So she when she goes backwards, you know, she totally goes backwards through the dunk without moving, which is you know, I don't know if every every actress out there could do that.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

Yeah, well, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:53

Yep, great good for her. She's a trooper. We uh we love her in this uh in this world of Friday the 13th for sure.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

So I don't know if she's ever since forgiven me, but I love I love.

SPEAKER_03 17:10

We'll have to get her on the show and ask her. Um so you shoot it, it's a two-shot. How how long was that day? How like I'm assuming it was a one-day shoot for that uh that sequence. How long was it? Was it a lengthy sequence? That one was quick.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Oh, was that one was quick. As a matter of fact, um yeah, Tom and Tom said, you know, we don't have it's prosthetics. It wasn't waterproof, it was the alginate prosthetic. So uh, you know, if we had stayed in the water too long, it wouldn't have worked. And the other thing was uh they were shooting it like in magic hours, so it was like, you know, and I remember Sean saying, You got this is you got we did that take, and he even though he was happy with it, he was conveying to everybody, oh, we needed another take because we fucked up the first one, pardon me. But um, yeah, so so he says to me, you know, we gotta do this in one, you know, no pressure. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

Emerging from underwater.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

Well, because of my motivation decision, bitch killed my mom, and to come out of the water with that kind of aggression, yeah, that's what created Jason Voorhees. Because Jason Voorhees is just a drowning child, a a helpless drowning child. And I was thinking about my friends at the back of the class that everybody made fun of. My friends that I would talk to, that you know, whatever. I was the kid who would talk to everybody. So I would talk to, you know, I remember Jimmy in the back of the class, and I was doing it for him. And I was like, I thought about it too. I thought maybe people will think negative things about kids like that. But then again, I thought it's a movie. And and you know, all kinds of people do all kinds of things in movies, and and those kids need that kind of representation, you know, a silent nod to their validity. And and and I'll tell you what, throughout my life, um um I know that it definitely reached those people because a lot of of those wonderful people who have all kinds of different, you know, spectrum, whatnot, uh, they always come to my table with their mom, and it's always the mom and the little boy, and so they really relate to Jason or the dad and the little girl. And you know, you know, I always tell them it's a family story about a mother who loved her son so much she just lost her head.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

Exactly. Well, well put so so you never really work with much of the cats, it's mostly Adrian, right? You didn't really get to hang out too much with the others in the water, the first one alone, and the second one with Adrian.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

I was on the set with others, though. Um, while I was on the set, of course, Adrian was there, although, you know, she chose not to talk to me, but well kid, and then um, but also uh Harry Crosby was on the set, and Kevin Bacon was on the set, and all that whole gang was on the set. And um, those two guys took the time out, you know, seeing a little kid. I mean, I looked especially little, and you know, they were like concerned, you know, like there goes Ari. I mean, there's this story about when I was looking into the water to try to get into character, and Kevin Bacon had been taking a piss, and he comes out and he sees me, and I think he got concerned, like, oh, this poor child, you know, he's gonna be he's gonna get all messed up. And he looks at me and I'm like, all right. And he said, you know, what are you doing, Ari? And I'm like, I'm getting into character. He's like, oh my god, he just started laughing so hard. He literally fell on the ground laughing. That's here, he draws me over. He said, Tell him what you're doing, tell him what you're doing. That's pretty cool. And serious actor on the set, he told me that that they were all just trying to bang the actresses.

SPEAKER_03 21:26

Listen, that's uh look, hey man. That's you know, they're they're all young, they're all ready to go. Who can uh who can blame them, right? Um exactly, and uh so I just uh Pete, I'm gonna let you uh you get in there in a sec. I just wanted to kind of touch on Tom Savini. Obviously, you worked with a legend in the industry. Um already he had been um you know quite uh prolific in that uh world. Uh it was just after uh

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Dawn of the Dead.

SPEAKER_03 22:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

George Merrow. He came right after working with George Merrow.

SPEAKER_03 22:05

So yeah, so he comes in and he works with you. A couple of questions. One, I'm kind of curious. Uh well, obviously, you know, what was he like with uh with the whole thing? Because I I heard that he was very um he was involved with that ending. Um, so maybe you could kind of touch on that. And the other thing I'm kind of curious have never where where was the makeup done? Did you guys go in a cabin or like was there a question?

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Yeah. Well, it's a great question. Um working with Tom Savini was so amazing because as a little kid it showed me that you could you could have a career based on your imagination. The more imaginative that you could be, the more amazing things that you could come up with and make real, um, the more the success you would have in that field. And I certainly apply that to music. Um, and just he was very charismatic and so much fun to be around. And also, it wasn't just Tom, there's Tasso Stavrakis, and Tasso the two of them had these big mustaches, which is probably why I have a big mustache. The two of them had these big mustaches, and it was like the Cheechin Chong of horror. They're so funny, and you know, all the gals on the set just love Tasso and Tom. And uh my God, it was just it was just fun to be around them. Um, there was a lot of hard work, you know, we would wake up super early. Um, so director Sean Cunningham created a studio because it took four months to create everything. First, they had to cast my head, then they had to create the mask, then there's glass eye fitting and the teeth fit and all that stuff. It's a lot of work. And let's remember that Sean, I mean, pardon me, Tom Savini sculpted that mask. I mean, what he did that was done by hand. Okay. And uh, so the process, it took some uh trial and error. In fact, the first one and the first time that we shot the drowning sequence was rejected by Sean Cunningham for several reasons. But the main one was that they felt that the mask looked too realistic and too, too much like a you know, poor little boy that you'd sympathize with. So they didn't want the audience that to they wanted it to be kind of like half revulsion, half sympathy. So, so they they they flattened the nose and they changed the mouth and they kind of changed the way it looked, and and honestly, it's a good thing they did that. Yeah, came out looking much better, and um, and that's to Tom's credit as an artist, yeah. Purely as an artist. That's that's what he did, you know. And um, so uh yeah, so the second time we did it, though we did it in one take, and and that was great. But so yeah, it was in Weston, Connecticut that they set up this preliminary workshop, and uh so so it was out in the middle of the woods, and it was so fun um because Tom had literally brought all of his special effects gear there, and he had busts of like Lon Cheney and Bella Legosi and and Boris Karloff and Vincent Price and Oh, a pet chinchilla, and oh uh there was like severed heads and and limbs and and there was all kinds of weapons and prop explosives and you know uh yeah, we would have a lot of fun. And and Tom was known for, you know, if there was nothing to do, he would like he would throw a saber at you and say, Defend yourself, you know, like fuck off, you know. I remember jumping up on the table, man, you had to be on your toes. Let me do it. That's hilarious. When we were on the set, yeah, it was in, and they'll show you this if you go to the Camp Crystal Lake Tours. Um, although, I mean, you know, now I have been.

SPEAKER_03 26:09

I have been. I went, but I went in 2018, it was before it kind of exploded into what it's become now. Um uh, but yeah, I I I definitely want to go back, but I did go there in 2018.

SPEAKER_01 26:23

Did they show you the pizza oven?

SPEAKER_03 26:25

No.

SPEAKER_01 26:26

Okay, so the pizza oven, which is still the the oven, is where they they cooked mama's head when they had to do that, you know. Really? Yeah, for when you rolled the thing. And so behind the pizza oven, there's a room that's now being used as a storage room, but that room they had put in a barber chair and a bunch of mirrors, and you know, it was all cleared out, and that's where Tom had his workshop back there. And I remember when I first time I went back to visit Crystal Lake, um, it was amazing. I walked through that door and it was just like, whoa. So it was amazing. And uh one thing they did, um, as long as you're on that, which was pretty amazing and special, and I haven't talked about in a long time, is that again Tom and Tasso were about the acting, they really wanted to make the character something, you know. So the entire time they were working on the process, they did not allow me to see the mask the entire time. And I was in this barber chair. So they said, okay, Ari, we're gonna do something now. We want you to close your eyes and count to ten, and we're gonna turn the barber chair around so you're facing the mirror, and we're gonna leave the studio. So they turned the chair around, and I counted to ten and I was all alone, and it was probably like six in the morning, little birds chirping very early in the morning, and I opened my eyes, and I was absolutely shocked. The first thing I thought was, who the fu who's that? Who's me? I looked around like like that's a cool trick. I didn't even think it was me at all. And then I oh wow, you know, and so I looked at little Jason for the first time and and I and and and and I was sad. I was so sad. I saw and then and then I thought, oh, and then I got angry. That's where see they knew to let that the feeling come up. So it's the feeling that makes the mask real. If you get the feeling that the artist is intending, you know. That's awesome. Very, very cool. If you have the intention, then the audience will feel the energy.

SPEAKER_03 29:09

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, and uh that's all that these are great stories. Uh, was there any did you shoot anything that wasn't used in the film?

SPEAKER_01 29:19

Yeah, the first time we shot the um drowning sequence, it was not used in the film for several reasons. One was, as I said, because uh it looked too realistic and people Sean felt people would sympathize with it. Um and when they were just getting started, um, it was early in the process. Also, because there's a famous picture of it's always black and white, and I'm like this, and Tom is going like this from the side. Yeah, yeah. And you can see that neither of us is very awake because yeah, the night before, I guess it was 1979, and you know, there might have been a little partying on the set. Famously, I brought marijuana to the set of Friday the 30th.

SPEAKER_03 30:10

You did, okay.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

Because there was way too much cocaine on the set, and they needed my weed to, you know. So anyway, things that night might have gotten, and we were we were a little um, yeah, we were a little uh uh worse for wearing. So so so Sean said, you know, we're gonna shoot it again, and this time you guys get some sleep. I want to see you frosty on the set, which I guess I know what that meant for Tom, but not so you brought the weed, who brought the coke?

SPEAKER_03 30:42

Can you say that? No, probably not, they all did, they all did.

SPEAKER_01 30:48

Oh my god, they would all go into the kitchen and come back in, Ari Lehman, Harry Lehman, the Hari Christian channel. They were good. That was hilarious. We didn't even know Coke was bad back then. It was like it was like an energy drink or something, yeah. But yeah, the story about the weed is funny because when they picked me up in their car, it was Tasso and Tom. And you could see, oh, there's these cool guys, you know, and they picked me up and they're like, oh, you know, now we gotta babysit this kid, you know, and I look even younger than I was, and they were gonna be like, oh, what a drag, you know. So I didn't want that to happen. So I had brought a tin filled with the finest marijuana and a big chunk of blonde hash right on top. So so they go, they go, Oh, okay, hi, how are you? And I go, Do you guys party? And they look at me, what? And I go like this, doink, and the top of the thing opens up and it's filled with azure, and the two of them just look at each other, they go, This is gonna be fun. Oh my god, yeah, and so I was very popular on this ass. Who knew? Now, you guys, I don't know. I've often theorized that when they said, Well, what are we gonna do for a final sequence? We need to come up with a final sequence. And Tom Savini said, Heck, if I'm going back in the middle of those woods in the middle of New Jersey in 1979 when it was impossible to get weed anywhere, right? All he's gotta be there. So maybe this isn't just a thought. Maybe he said, I know, how can we write Jason back in there? Just a thought. You'd have to confer that with Doctor.

SPEAKER_03 32:39

Yeah, we have to see. We'll have to ask him about that one for sure. Uh, that's hilarious. That's a great story. Um, so was there any uh with post-production and stuff like that? Was there any kind of a rap party? I don't think there was, was there?

SPEAKER_01 32:52

Or yes, yes, there was. Yeah. Oh, okay. At Sean Cunningham's house in Westport, Connecticut.

SPEAKER_03 33:03

So who was there? Let's let's hear a story from this this party. I can't remember everything about that party. So it was that it was that good, eh? That's a good party.

SPEAKER_01 33:14

Free time. He had parties at his house, and then everybody would go swimming. Uh um, and yeah, and not always wearing clothes, but um, yeah. It was the 70s, you know.

SPEAKER_03 33:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

I remember being at Sean Cunningham's house, and one of the actresses fully disrobed and just jumped in the pool, and I was like, whoa. Um, well, there you go. There's something from there's something.

SPEAKER_03 33:40

You're not gonna tell us who, but uh specifically who it was, but um, but whoa.

SPEAKER_01 33:47

And uh but that was pretty normal back then, and it you know, nobody thought anything of it, and then um yeah, so so so from the film there was something else. Oh, oh, oh yeah, that's it. That well, I wasn't allowed to watch the movie when it came out because uh I think they had gone, I think that it was playing in in the Westport um um uh movie theater, but I wasn't allowed to go to the movie because I was only 15.

SPEAKER_03 34:13

But there's special privileges? Come on.

SPEAKER_01 34:16

Well, no, they knew. Like at the theater, they were like, we know, we can't let you hang. Sorry.

SPEAKER_03 34:21

But like, I mean, couldn't couldn't uh Sean have given you a special screen? Come on, that's well no, no.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

Well, I saw I saw rush takes at the beginning. I saw, I don't even know. I think they had it like, you know, I would see they would show me, oh, this is your scene. But uh the first time I saw the entire film was actually on a on a VCR. Oh wow. That was the first time I saw the entire Friday the 13th movie was on a VCR at a Halloween party, I think that the following year, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:56

Pretty sure.

SPEAKER_01 34:56

And what did you think? What did you think of it? I thought everybody's like, okay, let's watch this movie. Ari's in the movie, and so we're watching, we're watching, we're watching. They're like, When you come in, we're watching. We're like, what part are you in? Ari's not in this movie, he's lying. Why is he, you know, until the very end, and they're like, ugh, and then no one would look at me. They're like that's hilarious. Like, you know, in the 70s, in the late 70s, early 80s, horror wasn't hip and cool. It was like, I don't know, one step above porn or something. So people are like, oh, that's gross, you played that gross little kid. True, it's a good point.

SPEAKER_03 35:41

It's a good point.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

Um like part three, and then people were coming up to me and going, you know, and then part three when when hockey mask Jason came in, then you know it became something.

SPEAKER_03 35:56

Okay, we'll get we'll get into we'll get into that in a second. Um, I I just uh and and and I know Uncle Pete's gonna be asking you about your music. We'll get to that shortly. But Uncle Pete, is there anything from uh the production that you uh want to talk to Ari about?

SPEAKER_00 36:12

No, I you you covered a lot of it, but um, yeah, I think you covered everything, just like getting to meet all those Tom Savini and the little weed stories. I just I I love hearing those little stories about like that behind the scenes stuff, and like what I loved is how you told like Adrian didn't know you were gonna go, so you get that real shot fair, like, oh what the hell's going on? So it's stories like that that I just love hearing.

SPEAKER_01 36:35

Yeah, you gotta hand it to Sean Cunningham. Um, he took risks, and you gotta do that, and and it it was extremely low budget, you guys. You gotta understand for that time period, you know, wow, they were really pioneers.

SPEAKER_02 36:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

And um, I think that after all is said and done, and we've gone through all of this with AI and and CGI, and then kind of extreme gore, but then um recently there's been two films that that got a lot of attention, which I thought was amazing, and that's Obsession and uh Back Rooms. And both of those movies I think are similar in the sense that it's not all about a lot of of technical stuff, uh and it's also it's not all about you know extreme gore, it's more psychological. And um, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:32

That's awesome. Um so the uh in the in the short term, like you were saying, I guess. Well, got my my Jason's falling here. In the short term, um the movie didn't do anything, I guess, for you as far as like, you know, popularity in school with girls and all that stuff. I guess it was it was more the reverse, was it?

SPEAKER_01 37:56

Or oh, oh, okay. Well, you know, I mean there's always that that cachet of being an actor, you know, and uh but yeah, um it you know, it did not have like um massive popularity at at my school, and then um I went to New York University later, and um there were students there who knew they were like, Oh, you played the young Jason Boy's, but you know, it wasn't um, you know, it was just seen as something kind of trivial and something, you know. Um I don't because it as the years passed and Jason became, you know, this heroic figure, um, then it really captured people's people's uh attention.

SPEAKER_03 38:49

So you you effectively, you know, you disappeared for a couple of decades. You really didn't, you know, you were movies, you were kind of dumb with it. Um in that way disappear.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

Well, like I went into the music business. Yes, that's what I was I was segueing into that. So Yeah, I made a conscious decision after being on the set of Friday the 13th, although it was enormously fun. Um it's just that filmmaking is nothing like doing theater and it's nothing like rocking out in between a kick-ass band and a screaming crowd, which is the most amazing thing and the most visceral thing, the most instantaneous, gratifying thing. Um, and it's amazing because you know, when you shoot a movie, you say your lines, and then they go go back to your trailer and they move everything around and they say, come back, say the same line, and then they move everything around, and then you know, so it's it's not very spontaneous, and it takes a certain type of person who has enormous patience and a certain type of social uh behavior that you know it's is you know, it's it's it's a challenge, and I respect those who can do it. Um, I since I lived in West Fork, Connecticut, what happened was I met some amazing piano teachers. I got a scholarship from Dr. Billy Taylor uh for jazz piano. I won a big competition, and um, so I went, I decided I wanted to study in New York City because at that time, you know, I was playing jazz piano, and jazz piano was a thing at that time. Like for the price of a beer, I could go downstairs and hear like Hank Jones and Tommy Flanagan and McCoy Tiner and I saw George Coleman, I saw all the great players. Like, it was amazing.

SPEAKER_02 40:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:44

So I was studying jazz, and uh jazz was happening, and and that was an amazing thing. So, but then what happened was smooth jazz came out. Okay, the smooth jazz, and you know, which no, I wasn't, you know, that was like Kenny G, you know, Kenny G, smooth jazz thing. And so jazz itself kind of became either smooth jazz or academic jazz. And I didn't want to become a teacher, and I didn't want to become a goofball, so I um uh I started looking around for what to do. And people were like, you look like Kenny G. You know, look at the look to the Kenny G. Hey, Kenny G, I'd be walking down the street there, Kenny G. Oh man. So what happened was because there was an amazing community in New York at the time, and world music was coming up: reggae, African music, Latin music, music from all over the world was getting very popular. I happened to know a lot of people from West Africa, and I ended up auditioning for a band from Nigeria, and I got um, yes, I I started playing keyboard and singing for a band from Nigeria, uh, an artist named Majek Fashek, who was seen as the next Bob Marley, and he could also play guitar. It's like Bob Marley meets Jimi Hendrix from Africa, and he got signed to Interscope Records. I got a standing ovation at the Apollo Theater for playing a solo as you know, the only white guy in an African band. And uh we actually played together, we played um we played for Prince twice. Prince, I met Prince twice with this band, working in Minneapolis, playing at his club, Glam Slam, and uh yeah, we went all over the world. He also got signed by Tuff Gong Records, which is Bob Marley's label. So I actually traveled to Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa. So as an artist, I played in West Africa at the biggest umsplash reggae festival, the first reggae festival that ever went from Jamaica to West Africa. So good stuff. That's great. Hey, I was a part of the big world music scene, which is incredible, and it was really big, and then of course it died down. And just as it died down, ironically, somebody emailed me, because you remember it was email back in the day. So they emailed me and said, Did you sign this photo? And you know, it was like everything stopped, and I said, No, I've never autographed a photo. And he said, Because I just paid 50 bucks for this on eBay. You're Ari Lehman, the first Jason. I said, Yes, I am. So it turned out somebody was forging my autograph. Oh shit. And I found out who it was, and the guy was nice enough to return the money to people, and he said, been ripping off quite a few people, but he said, Oh, he got it from a third party, yada yada, bing bang. But whatever. So then I realized. Wow, what's this all about? Being an artist, you're always if you could get any kind of attention that people happen was um Tony Timpone from Fangoria magazine invited me to the Meadowlands where they did um it was a Fangoria Chiller Theater event. And Betsy Palmer was there, Tom Savini was there, Keen Hotter was there. It was incredible. And uh I had my reggae albums because I had my own reggae band too, and um and and you know, people were listening to that, but I looked around and I realized hey, you know, it's about punk, it's about metal. Um, because every horror, every metal head is a horror fan, every punk is a horror fan. So so um, you know, I kind of thought about it. Now, when I had been coming up at NYU, I was good buddies with the lead singer from a killer punk band called Reagan Youth. His name was Reagan Dave, Dave Rubinstein. This guy was amazing. This is a great band. Unfortunately, he passed away, and Polly, his guitar player, passed away just a few years ago. But Reagan Youth, an amazing band, an anarchistic band, totally punked um from a from a from a total uh super anarchist uh point of view, and it was a blast. And and so he would take me to see all these artists. Like I saw Bad Brains, okay, which everybody was loved bad brains at that time, and um, and uh I saw um White Zombie with Rob Zombie when he had Sean Ya Sault as the bass player, trick bass player, and of course we were all like, oh Sean's like you know, it was uh it was crazy, it was a wild, it was a wild time. So I started to draw upon what I knew and started to listen to more rock, and I was really drawn to um Motorhead, I was really drawn to Glenn Danzig's work, and so you know, I I put together what became First Jason.

SPEAKER_02 46:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:12

Um at first I had help from two musicians, one who had worked in the Crow Mags as a drummer, his name was Meat Cleaver, and he would often um sub for the drummer because the drummer and the lead singer had conflicts sometimes. So he toured with them in Europe. Then the bass player from a band that everyone should know about. Oh, by the way, Crow Mags just came out with a new song that everybody should listen to because it's killer, it's on Spotify. Um so I got to Chicago and I met an artist named Nefarious. He's the bass player from the band macabre. Okay, macabre, which is the original, thank you, the original, the original murder metal band, the Jeffrey Donald album, that just amazing, amazing musicians. They had a hiatus, and Chuck Nefarious, Chuck Leshkovitz, was able to play on my first two albums, in fact, and he toured with us for a little while, but then macabre came back together and you know he had to go back to macabre. So that was like uh, you know, that was a gift sent from hell, let me tell you, man.

SPEAKER_03 47:26

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 47:27

Chuck is the one who said to me, Ari, you need to bring your keyboard in. You've got to play keyboard, and it's because of Chuck that one day I took a um an Elise's synthesizer, and I like duct taped it to this giant cosplay sword I had, and I put a guitar strap on it, and I made the very, very first electric machete t-tar. Now, of course, as time passed. Now I play one created by Roland, and it's absolutely the the bomb. It's amazing. That's awesome. It actually looks very weaponized. So but uh but originally I would use a cosplay sword and a synthesizer and just duct tape, and then I would put it all through uh guitar distortion. So that's the key for my sound is taking is taking analog synth at first and putting it through guitar distortion and then emulating the sound of Lemmy Killmister because Lemmy, the way he plays bass, he doesn't play bass, he plays Johnson, John, Johnson. You know, he's playing like all this crazy stuff if you watch Lemmy. And actually, it's a little video about it where he's talking about it. So I was like, yeah, he's playing intervals, you know. So that's what I did. I just I just stole that from Lemmy, and then you know, I looked around myself at different bands that were here in Chicago and bands that I loved in uh in New York. There's there's a lot of killer bands here in Chicago, like Johnny Vomit, people don't know enough about. There's a great band called The Ugly, people should know about from Chicago, and another extreme amazing band called Maggot Twat. Everybody should check out Maggot. Please gotta check out the song Kill the Bitch. Maggot, kill the bitch. Gotta hear it. And as a matter of fact, the lead singer from Maggot has a new band out. They're called Fonzie and the Dago Tees. So we just we just got our R rating from R re and the Dago Tees are performing with us at the WC Social Club um together with Coyote Man and a bunch of other bands, and that's going to be on October 30th. That's in West Chicago.

SPEAKER_03 49:42

Beautiful, beautiful. Uncle Pete, Uncle Pete. I I know Uncle Pete's dying to get in there with the music stuff with you. So I'll uh I'll definitely throw it a hymn to to chat on you.

SPEAKER_01 49:53

Yeah, so alright, so in January those killer metal bands, yeah, and magazine like that.

SPEAKER_00 50:00

So in January, into the freight comes out. So I was just I've been listening to it. Like I hear influences of I hear power metal in there. I hear like some man of war riff stuff like that. Definitely gore. I hear a lot of guar influence, horror punk, the misfits. Uh, like you said, Glenn Daniels. So I hear that misfits, that Gore, that horror punk, but I hear groove and jazz mixed into it. So but also I think one of people know is like you co-did this album with the legendary Henry Manfredini. How did that come about?

SPEAKER_01 50:31

Harry Manfredini, the soundtrack composer of Friday the 13th, yes, into the fray, our first album on CDN Records, because we got signed to CDN Records out of Canada. The guy that runs um CDN Records is named Cannibal Cam Schwartz. And so Cam Schwartz said to me, why don't you ask Harry Manfredini, you know, because I know you guys are friends, why don't you ask Harry, see what he'll do? So I called up Harry. He was like, Yeah, Ari, yeah, you got it, man. You know, because he's the greatest person on earth. And by the way, he gives music to soundtrack composers. And you know, I mean, if you're making a movie, he'll give you Harry Manfredini music. It's amazing. He's got it online. So I thought Harry was just gonna give us one introduction for the whole album, like an overture, you know, if you will. So then one day Harry hits me up and he's like, check your inbox. And I'm like, what? And so he had listened to each song and created a one-minute introduction for each song. Thank you, bro. I appreciate you saying that so much. Because, you know, I love the idea of an album. And I'll admit to you, the album is it's like me, it's eclectic, it's eccentric. Okay. It definitely has a lot of different I mean, how about that machete mambo at the end?

SPEAKER_02 52:08

And yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:10

And that was the suggestion of Rob Ruccia, who's I don't know if you guys know non-point, but non-point is this killer new metal band, and they record here in Chicago. So Rob Ruccia is their engineer and and and he also is produces my albums. So he said, hey, come up with a come up with a a dance track. That's how that happened. But so back to the idea. Um, yeah, so so it became a collaboration with Harry Manfredini. Now, to me, that in itself is historic. The fact that the the the guy that played the little boy Jason in Friday the 13th and the actual soundtrack composer from Friday the 13th, 46 freaking years later, yeah, did an album together.

SPEAKER_02 52:58

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 53:00

So now if you listen to it, I mean it's kind of like a horror dark side of the moon, you know.

SPEAKER_00 53:07

You know, so you've also done a lot of you've done a lot of supporting acts. I was like, one that kind of blew me away, like Ice Nine Kills and stuff. But then I read the band on your website, and I'm gonna say Onward to Golgotha, Incantation. So like you actually worked with data. That's like this is going back to my childhood in the early 90s about beginning into death metal. That's why when you said macabre, I was like, oh yeah, Sinister Slaughter, the whole album dedicated to serial killers, and they had that Dahmer concept album. But like, you've got to work with incantation as a death metal guy. That's huge.

SPEAKER_01 53:49

Uh, not only is he an amazing musician and singer and band leader, so he put together an event called um um Carolina Chainsaw Massacre. So at Carolina Chainsaw Massacre, he had he had nuclear assault, he had incantation, he had some of the most amazing thrash metal bands. And I have to tell you, holy um they're the greatest musicians of the metal scene. You watch thrash players, their musicianship is so high, it's so it's just out the roof. And um, you know, first Jason isn't a slap a a thrash band, but they loved us and they accepted what we did. We came out there and we were pumped and we did a killer set. And in fact, I got I got the biggest applause. Well, they loved um You Better Run because that has that arpeggiated ding. They love anything, they they love anything with a lot of musicians. So, but then I played um at every show, I play the Bach Takata. It's like, oh, they love that. So I was just happy we had a blast at that show and incantation. Oh my god, you know, they're touring all over the world, and the level of musicianship, that thrash scene is it's is a thing unto itself. And if you love great music, yeah, you gotta check that out.

SPEAKER_00 55:20

So, like you've opened for a lot. If you could like I already put together, like I picked two bands that I think would be great if you like did a little tour with. I think they fit musically. So I'm gonna hit you with it, then I'm gonna like tell us like who'd you love to open for, like a dream, dream gig. But I think a Gore, Psycho stick, and first Jason show would be theatrical, it'd be a it would just be a like bombastic and just like a blast. And like for all three of you bands to do a song at the end, I'd be losing my mind. So, like, who who do you wish you could ever open for?

SPEAKER_01 55:54

100%. I I'd love to open uh for Guar, and I think we did open for Psycho Stick one time. Yeah, we did. Um and um also you know you can throw uh green jello into the mix and uh all those guys. Um, see now, I dig what you're saying, Uncle Pete. And and and nowadays the costume band thing is a big thing. Um, like you look at ghosts, and especially you look at Sleep Token. Oh, oh my god, they just came in and just blew the scene up. And still people don't even know who that guy is. And there's so many rock chicks just totally in love with this guy. They didn't even know who he is, which is amazing. But see, this is the thing in first Jason, the experience for the audience member isn't just that we're utilizing the horror realm as our our our storytelling um perspective, because there's that, but then there's also you are meeting the person who played the character of Jason Voorhees. So there's a different dimension wherein instead of me showing you a horror map, a facade, if you will, um, which is fine because that's definitely part of horror. Instead, with first Jason, I'm inviting you to come with me on a journey back in time to Camp Crystal Lake, where you become a Voorhees family member and witness the journey that began in 1979 when Sean Cunningham said action and Jason was born. I say that at the beginning of every show. So it's it's another level. So there is, of course, we're talking about horror, we're talking about uh kill for mother, um, we're all talking about put on the mask, take on the task.

SPEAKER_00 58:00

So and that's what I loved about it into the freight, because I love slashist was my favorite song. I just love the way slashists were going and lyrics and stuff. So that really fits in with that album, especially with Henry Manfredini working, because like you have introduction, like I have my notes like it's like a chase scene. Some of his scores, I could picture Jason stalking somebody through the woods, going for that kill. And then bam, him comes in this meta song telling a story about Jason, about being Jason and stuff. So it's not like a story album, but it it tells you, yeah, it does tell you a story.

SPEAKER_01 58:34

There you go, because it's coming from my my life experience. And I and and I'm so happy with that album. And I'll tell you one thing. I've decided that the next album is gonna be heavy from top to bottom. I've decided I'm just gonna go heavy. I was even thinking about incantation and thrash today. I I was just I was just saying that today. But um, yeah, um, um, you know, uh uh that's that that that's it's all about. What were you just saying? Because I wanted to comment on what you were just saying. Dang. I lost my train of thought. But um about what part?

SPEAKER_00 59:10

I lost my train too.

SPEAKER_01 59:11

I'm just gonna I see I said I had about about them the song Slashist. Yes. So the song Slashist that came up out of uh so there's a there was a punk band called the Screamers from from Los Angeles. They were the original punk bands, and they didn't like like if you ever see their logo, it's like it says Screamers, and it's the guy with it, the hair going straight up. It's a very famous logo. And um, they were from way back in this in the in the late 70s. So um the screamers, they they they did all this cool stuff. So um the lead singer was named Tomata De Plenty, and Tomada De Plenty was originally uh a circus mime and and clown, and so he did all this amazing like uh gestures and everything, and he came up with all this crazy stuff, which was later um um, you know, Jello Biafra totally, you know, was into that, but from from Dead Kennedy. But so Tomada Deplenty, I I heard him say there's they have no albums out, and there's like they only have live recordings and live videos where you can see the streamers. So one time tomata says, he goes, Your fascism makes me want to do some slashism, and I was like, Oh they came up with slashists, and the beginning it goes, Camp, he goes, Camp Crystal Lake, population one, okay, Camp Crystal Lake, population one. See, the screamers, Tomata De Plenty came out with a movie called Population One, which is about the end of the world, and the only person left is Tomata de Plenty. So, anyway, that's that's um a little bit of a oh, and then the other song that that refers to is um is a Ramon song. There's a Ramon song that that that refers to too. So there you go.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:21

The passion, the passion, you can hear it in your voice, man, and love it. Um I wanna I want to jump to um you know, years later when I when I had alluded that like you you um you kind of like disappeared from the scene, from the film scene. Years later, there's this giant world of conventions and cons that opens up and is around for you know you to be celebrated and you to enjoy and and to just really take it in. And you, by you know, all intents and purposes seem to be doing that. And uh, so I kind of want to talk about that, what those uh what those conventions and what they mean to you and and how much fun they are to do.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:06

Well, I definitely got my start on the horror con scene. That's definitely what propelled first Jason to get in front of a larger audience. Prior to The Walking Dead, now the horror con scene was much different. It wasn't as as I don't know, as expansive as it is now. And um, like I would go to cons and it would be Kane Hotter, Bill Mosley, Sid Haig, El Vatra, and me, you know, and um, you know, those are the the real people from the cons. And and an A-list actor, oh my god, they never would have considered being at a con of any kind. And um, they in fact would make fun of that, you know, oh my god, you know, oh are you going to like like and uh flash to today when now you have A-list actors at every con. You've got uh a totally different scene going out. So at the beginning, I thought to myself, wow, let's add to this whole thing, bringing the band in. It's funny because it's like full circle now, the way things go, because there's a lot of events doing this, you know. Let's do a smaller event where we bring the band in and people can all rock out with the first Jason Voyez and actually meet the guy that played the first Jason Voyez, because, you know, it would be like three to five hundred people, you know, just these small events, and you know, and and and I love doing that. That is where we all have such great fun. I can talk to everybody, meet everybody, and you set it up and it's it's intimate. And we usually work together with local bands, so you're bringing in all kinds of local bands and their families. I mean, gosh, you know, for example, you know, uh, we were just in in West Virginia. Uh, we did Oakill Con, which was in Oak Hill, West Virginia.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:58

That's great.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:59

Put together by my display from Retro Reset. And um, what an amazing event. There was people from 80, 80 year old to to eight months old. It was like everybody came in out of the woods, out of the everybody just came in and it was non-stop. Oh, who else was there? Uh uh Judy Aronson was there. Oh, nice four, and it it was great. It it went so well. Um, it went so well, and then at the end of it all, we got up on stage and rocked out for everybody, and it just it was perfect because the weather was so great, and and we were playing literally like into the hills, and I was like, at one point, I think I was like, Come on, Bigfoot, come on, come on, you fast wretch. Come on.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:46

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:47

So that that's my thing. I love going all over the country, uh, to all kinds of places, and um, it did start with cons. Now, I I would say now I'm playing at all kinds of different things. We sometimes do movie theaters, we do theaters, we do casinos, we do tattoo cons, we do a lot of you know, rock venues, especially if they're having like a horror scene night. You play at amusement parks, you know, we play it in like every kind of you're an alumni.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:19

You're you're an alumni at Blairstown Diner. We just interviewed Mike Rumsey uh not too long ago, and uh, and I mean that's like home your home's court, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:29

So Mike is is a genius because you see, everybody's trying to do this thing now of putting together something small and having people there because that's you know, sometimes the bigger cons are a bit much for people to handle. But he made the good move of making it a real music festival and bringing in a lot of bands from that region. He's got some great bands on the bill. Um, and uh he also has a bunch of uh uh of actors coming in. So he and then that's always a great event. I mean, because Because you can eat some delicious food, you know, and it's like you're meeting with all kinds of people who love Friday the 13th. The last time we were there, there was people from from all over the world that showed up. And uh first there on July 18th. We're really stoked about that.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:18

So at out of all the conventions you've done, what's the weirdest thing you've ever signed?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:23

Like weirdest thing I've ever signed. Okay. Well, um, one time I was at a convention at a uh a haunted attraction called The Haunted Pyramids, which is way in the middle of the woods in in North Carolina, I believe. And um, yeah, so um um afterwards we were there, and um, I think Courtney Gaines was there, the guy who played Maokai in Children of the Corn. Oh, know who else was there? You know the movie Deliverance where there's like that guy playing the banjo? Yeah, playing the banjo was there. No way, I'm not kidding. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:07

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:08

That's crazy. He comes up to me and he's like, Will you sign my shotgun? And I'm like, sure, I'll sign your shotgun. And they're like, they won't let me bring it inside. I told them I want you to sign my shotgun.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:21

That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:22

I had to go outside and you know, I signed, I signed a bunch of weapons, and then I signed, he's like, Will you sign my my pickup truck? And I signed this pickup truck too. But I'm gonna sign everything. I've signed babies, I've signed um, you know, all kinds of one of the big honor is when someone asks me to sign um uh you know, like a chicken tattoo and they're gonna get my autographs.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:46

Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, that's cool. That's a cool one, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:50

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:51

So I put all kinds of crazy objects and you know that's you talked about you sorry, you talked about um, you know, with uh you kind of hinted to like, you know, going back to uh the original filming location and you do stuff with Crystal Lake Tours. How cool is that, you know, all these years later to come full circle to not only just kind of like stumble upon the location, but uh a location that probably meant so much to you at such a you know pivotal age, but then also just with fans celebrating it with you, like how how great is that experience?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:29

Yeah, I mean, more than any other franchise, I think Friday the 13th owes its continued success to the fans because if you look like um Nightmare on Elm Street, you had the same production team, you had the same actor, you always had Robert Englund. Friday the 13th kept changing hands, you know? And so they would turn to the fans to determine what was the future of Friday the 13th. And in Friday the 13th, you mentioned the camp. I also think that uh Camp Crystal Lake is one of the characters in Friday the 13th. 100% director of photography, Barry Abrams, who hardly ever gets mentioned, and he was an amazing character, hilarious Texan, Barry Abrams, also a pilot, um, just a funny guy, and and but he loved shooting the nature and including the nature. And if you'll notice a lot of Friday the 13th purposely does not have a soundtrack, they just use the nature sounds. You'll hear wind, you'll hear rain, you'll hear the birds. And um yeah, there's that famous scene where where Kevin Bacon and his girlfriend are and and they're looking at that that rain's gonna come down like a son of a c you know. Like so nature they show the they show the lake getting all turbulent, and that's when the shit hits the fan. So um there's a lot of of great um nature scenes where the the the camp itself is a character. The first time that I got back to Camp Crystal Lake, uh which is years ago, um, yeah, I ran right in the water and just got right in the water and and and it was great. And you know, I love swimming there, of course. Um, but uh honestly, we first Jason does more work with uh Blairstown Diner because um because they let us play loud rock there, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:39

Yeah, yeah. They're they're pretty guarded still, even though they've opened it up, which is great, but they're still they still kind of hold to their voice coat.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:47

And they have a lot of rules in the case. Yeah, yeah. Just leave it at that.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:51

Yeah, you know what is funny, uh, and we will leave it at that, but I will say this if you read a lot of the comments these days, it seems like those rules are kind of like uh mounting. Uh, we'll just leave it at that. Like you said, I love that you shout out you gave a shout out to Barry Abrams because I Friday 13th, the first one, is my favorite. I know we we've talked about this before on on our podcast that like the the great thing about this franchise is there's a lot of people with different favorites, you know, and uh and that's the cool thing about this franchise. Friday is my first favorite, and it's because of the setting, it's because of the mood, it's because of the woods, it's because of the cinematography and everything else that kind of follows.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:32

And Walt Gurney.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:35

Yes, yes, there he is.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:38

Yeah, everything is bad. Yeah, but the ending one. Did you make that?

SPEAKER_03 1:11:43

Did you make no but you want to hear? Okay, I'm gonna tell you a funny story about this shirt. I would I got it and I wore it to an event, and uh there was this big giant bouncer, and he looks at me and he's like, I love your shirt, man. And I'm like, Yeah, Friday guy, I'm like awesome. Then later on, he finds me, he's like, Where'd you get your shirt? And then I just said that, like, you know, it's yeah, I I don't know where I got it, but uh I was kind of telling him he had no idea it was from Friday the 13th. He just liked the fact that it was an old guy with doomed on it. Here I am, here I am thinking I got like this buddy here that just that gets it, and no, he just liked the start.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:25

That's dark, man. It was funny. Yeah, we're all doomed.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:29

Yeah. It's too bad he's not around right now these days because you know it would have been great to see him at some of these things and collect his cookies, right? Um okay, I'm gonna think Ron Milky.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:43

Ron Milky. Ron Milky, who played Officer Dwarf, uh, lives in New York. Yeah, and he's he's great uh to talk to. And he has stories about Walt and about, of course, uh Rex Everhart, who played the uh truck driver.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:59

Yeah, yeah. He was there when I went. He was there when I went. Um, he was there, Adrienne was there, and um uh oh shoot. I'm gonna kill myself uh the for not remembering her name. Annie. Um oh the the actress that played Annie. Sorry? Oh her last name is Morgan. Yeah, uh Robbie. Thank you. No, thank you. You've you bailed me out there. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, so that they were there, and uh Robbie Morgan. Yeah, still and she and they were great, they were great, but again, this was like at the very beginning when they were just kind of getting their sea legs, and I think some of the rules were a little bit more relaxed from what I'm hearing, and uh so it was a good time, but uh but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:46

So but everybody should come see us at the Blairstown Diner. I agree. You know, if you're a Friday the 13th fan, you can just go to the Blairstown Diner anytime, and it's covered in Friday the 13th memorabilia and collectibles. You just, you know, it's just it's just a diner. You can just walk right in there and have a slice of pie.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:07

Absolutely. What they're doing is fantastic. Um, I don't want to take up too too much more of your time. I do have a couple of quick little questions, but Uncle Pete, uh, before we let Ari go, is there anything you wanted to No, just want to tie on what you guys were saying about the like the original Friday the 13th.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:23

Like, it's like top three for me, but it's that last scene that'll never get out of my head. And obviously, Ari is you. It's because when it's Crystal Lake, right? And she's in that canoe, got her finger in it, like her night is over. That water is so crystal, so just so calm and everything, and you think the movie's over, and one of the best jump scare movie endings in the history of horror. If you put together a top 10 list, you're gonna throw it at in there for just to be such a part of such iconic uh you know, iconography in horror. It's just it's just so wonderful. Like that last scene in that movie, without it, we may not have Jason today.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:04

Like, if you didn't do that, or it could have been a different movie, nor would have there have been a lot of the um the films which which which you know emulate Friday the 13th. And there's so many levels to that scene because um, first of all, why the hell did she get in a boat? She cuts off mama's head, then she gets in a boat, she does not have a paddle because mama cut the paddle in half. So she's just out on a boat, you know, and so it's it's it's very symbolic and evocative, okay? The first thing you see is the water and the light on the water, which always represents and it's the next morning, so it's like we've been cleansed, and the morning, and everybody was so reassured when they see the two policemen and that beautiful soundtrack that yeah, thank you. The strings are just reassuring us, and he says, Are you okay? And he tells her, and then even again, the second policeman's coming out. Are you okay? Everything's gonna be fine. Oh, here she is, she's feeling fine. She's she doesn't even regret that she just cut someone's head off, right? And then bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep. Oh my god, people were like instantly when they saw the shocking image of that muddy child, okay, just shatter their their their their tranquility. Yeah, they forgot, they completely forgot who's Alice Hardy, who's Pamela Voores, who's anybody, what's kidding? No, what is that? Who is that? Why? I'm not no more.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:53

Tell me about this muddy child, and then and then the movie ends, and she's in the hospital, and she's like, What about the boy? You're like, we didn't find any boy, and the movie's over. So you're like, uh uh. It's just so great. But I saw him!

SPEAKER_01 1:17:08

I saw him exactly. So it's like each wonderful blurring of reality and and fantasy, and then we've got to remember again. She wakes up in the hospital. Jason doesn't kill her. So what happened? What actually happened?

SPEAKER_03 1:17:27

I was just gonna ask you.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:29

Why didn't the policeman see two cops there? How did he not see? So the whole thing becomes uh suspension of reality, and it's up to you as the viewer to make the decision. And it's never been defined by Sean Cunningham or Victor Miller, and it will never be because it's leaving it undefined that makes it more symbolic and more meaningful.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:56

Just like the ending of the thing. He's not you don't know, and that's the way it's supposed to be. And that's what I love about it. It's how you interpret it. So I kind of love it. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:06

Well, that's that's that's an amazing achievement. I mean, that's that's you know, you're talking about the greatest movie ever. Oh, yeah, but comparing Friday the 13th to that.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:19

Listen, that's where we hold it, that's where I hold it high in that regard.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:23

So um so I'm gonna ask you, you know what people don't don't really, really realize is is Stephen King's it. The original it. Again, Stephen King strikes again, but the original Stephen King's it. Friday the 13th is amazing. It's a wonderful, fun film, but the photography, the symbolism, the use of shapes, the use of colors, the acting, the character development. Oh my god, the circle of friends. It's it's beyond belief. I didn't even talk about Tim Curry. It's you know, so whereas I'm so glad that Friday the 13th had the impact that it did, and I'm pretty sure it was because of that shocking final scene.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:05

It paved the way. It paved the way, right? Like, I mean, uh, yeah, a lot of those ones wouldn't follow after if it wasn't for that scene. Got a question for you, though, okay? Gonna put you on the spot. Other than your movie, which is your favorite Friday the 13th film?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:20

Honestly, that's part seven, directed by John Beakler, which is King Hotter's first um first foray as Jason Voorhees. Uh, I know not everybody agrees. It's a hot take. As you've heard the reason why I love it so much is that you've got um, you've got um you've got that, you've got the female character, okay. Tina. Right, thank you. You've got the the doctor and Tina. And there's this whole other aspect of of like a foil for Jason Voorhees, finally.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:59

And then the character, if you look at the special effects, it really reflects all the different wounds and all the beatings that Jason had prior to that. That's because John Beakler was a special effects artist, and he directed the movie and just an amazing person, a renaissance man. So his vision for Friday the 13th really begins with part seven with Jason, and then there's that there's amazing scenes like where where she she's she's psychic, like psychic Tina, man. It's the perfect foil for Jason because she's psychic and he's just absolutely, you know, physical. So she's like throwing, you know, farm implements at him with her mind, and then the mask blows off, and he's looking at her like you bitch, and then the whole the whole place is on fire. I mean, that's dramatic as hell. I just thought there was some real, some real drama there that added added more depth. And, you know, I think it it could have gone somewhere after that, but uh, you know, it did it, they decided on a different uh thing. But yeah, I had the great honor to meet and be friends with uh John Beaker, who was just a wonderful guy. At you know, he would come down to the table and he would be like singing, he was always singing opera. Good morning, everyone.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:22

I heard, I heard he was a great man, so that's uh I'm glad you paid tribute to him in that regard. Uh and that's one hell of a hot take. Um, but that that being said, honestly, like this has been a blast. I think some of the stories you shared I haven't heard.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:39

And uh get ready. We didn't even talk about the Crystal Lake TV series, which is coming. Well that's what we can get ready. Crystal Lake is gonna be on your TV set, and we got uh Linda Cardin Cardellini. Linda Cardellini, I just saw her speaking. She's been speaking, she spoke from the red carpet, she spoke, and it gives me a lot of confidence. Uh the director, what's his name? Caleb Kane. Um he seems like an amazing director. He did um, he directed uh Welcome to Derry, uh, which is a speak on it, which I was just talking about. So Brad Caleb Kane, that's the name of the director. So ironically, his last name is Kane.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:23

So there you go. There you go. So it's meant to be, right? Yeah, no, you're right. We got uh we got a lot to look forward to as Friday fans for the first time in a while.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:31

Um, but uh yeah, and I I I definitely you guys will have some of the actors from from the TV series on your show.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:40

Yeah, absolutely. We're up we're open to it all. We're open to it all. We just love the franchise. Uh we, you know, it's an unsung franchise, and it's uh pivotal one in my life, that definitely growing up. So I love I just love the whole environment that uh this uh these films have created. So and you, I gotta say, are you know really special for this uh this world. You you really embrace it. You you you know, you don't just answer questions, you you really, you know, you go for it. Yeah, you really give everybody the energy that they want when they talk to someone who's involved. So I credit you for having that energy that some people just you know can't muster up. So thank you, Ari.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:26

Well, thank you, Jason and Uncle Pete. And you know, let me say that when we make a movie, it's it's hundreds of people that come together and we work hard and use our imagination and and come up with this with this movie. And then when they say it's a rap, it's like dust in the wind, and some people you never see again. Yeah but when you watch the movie as an audience and you use your imagination, then you're bringing all those people together and our imaginations meet, and that's movie magic. And you know, that will never end the whole thing of storytelling, and it's just getting better and better. And I'm encouraged the way things are going now, and I really, really appreciate the time that you took to learn about my career and all the kind things that you've said. I really, really appreciate that, guys.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:15

Well, it's no, we appreciate it's just like as a horror fan, just I'll just think it to myself to have the guy, the first guy to ever play Jason, Friday 13th, you know, 1980, to sit down and have a conversation with you as just a fan is mind-boggling to me. I just and to talk about metal, it's just so much fun. I love your passion for it because we share it.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:39

I I like you guys and we're friends, so it sucks, and now I gotta kill you.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:45

We'll end it with that. Thank you, Arielman. Thanks for watching the Crazy Ralph podcast. We're gonna well, we might have to have him on again. I mean, look at this. This has been too good of a time.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:56

Sound the camp crystal late, we'll do a live one. Come on.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:00

That's right. Okay, there you go. There you go. Thank you very much for watching, listening, and we'll see you soon. Jason ever got a good thing.