Posted in: Movies | Tagged: brad dourif, Danielle Bisutti, don mancini, fiona dourif

NYCC: 25 Years Of Chucky

From BC Correspondent Ian Jane via the liveblog:

25 years of Chucky at NYCC 2013.

In honor of a quarter century of horror and to celebrate the release of the latest entry in the Child's Pay saga Curse Of Chucky, director Don Mancini joined cast members Brad Dourif, Fiona Dourif, Danielle Bisutti and Jennifer Tilly for a panel discussing all things Chucky.

Before the panel started, NYCC staff gave away a pass to the cast and crew signing event to the attendee with the best Chucky laugh. Three people entered and were judged by their peers. It was an amusing and engaging way to get the crowd warmed up for the panel. The winner? Chucky Laugh number one, a guy in a superman jacket. A lovely female Chucky cosplayer was also brought up to the stage, her costume was pretty great.

The panel was moderated by Harry Knowles, who came out first and introduced Chucky, who appeared via video conference, rambling off stats about how many people he's killed, how many times he has come back and how many times he had sex with Jennifer Tilly. From there, we got a greatest hits reel called The Chucky Megamix.

Not listed on the panel list but in attendance was Alex Vincent, and as they all took their places on stage, the crowd responded with plenty of cheers and applause. The discussion started with how the popularity of the series has exploded over the years with Mancini talking about how and why he originally created Chucky in the first place, noting that the idea came when he wanted to write a dark satire on how marketing affected children, the Cabbage Patch boom in the eighties being the impetus.

Dourif talked about how he created the voice of Chucky during rehearsal and well after the doll had been designed and created. When Knowles asked about how he had the character evolve in the later films, Dourif notes that it took Chucky falling in love to REALY change the character. He expresses his admiration for Tilly coming on board and helping him to bring more to the character. Tilly talks about how acting opposite a doll is a much more rewarding experience when you are actually acting opposite someone like Dourif. The two also talk about improvising and ad libbing.

Alex talks about his initial audition process for the first movie, noting he was up against two other kids with his mother in tow, and how as a young child actor he didn't want to say the word 'bitch' in front of I his mom, which lead to him locking himself in a closet and crying. Mancini talks about meeting Dourif by auditing a class that he taught long before they made the movie but gives Tom Holland credit for casting him.

Mancini goes on to talk about writing each of the movies! offering some insight into how he tries to keep the character fresh, while Tilly takes pictures of him on her phone. He talks about working in the comedic elements that work their way into the movies while at the same offering more insight into Chucky's psyche than most other horror movie villains. Fan response was what made him bring Chucky back to his scarier roots in the latest film.

Fiona talks about what it was like growing up with Chucky as a dad, noting that the family never hide from it and how she embraced it as a teenager. She then talks about her nerve wracking it is to audition for a movie that your own father is such an integral part of. She initially read to play Barb but it went well enough that they cast her in the lead role of Nica, which she describes as great but also 'fucking terrifying.'

Danielle is up next, talking about the insanity of Chucky's universe and how she grew up as a fan and how some of her relatives worked as producers and set decorators on some of the earlier movies. She also talks about how creepy it was when what you read in a script happens to you in real life!

From there Mancini talks about the work that the puppeteers do on the move, Tilly talks about how it does take some getting used to having puppeteers around on shoot and how the puppeteers tend to keep the ll in character even when the cameras aren't rolling. Busti talks about working with Fiona, describing her as both hot to look at and generous, which made it entire to play sisters. Fiona responds in kind, talking about he everyone in e cast and crew was having a good time which made things a lot more fun.

Bringing things to a close, Tilly talks about the complications of playing Tiffany and Jennifer Tilly and how they are and are not the same person, describing Tiffany as a fame whore. She does state, however, that at this pint she has no idea who she is. Mancini explains it all in a pretty logical way but we won't spoil that here in case you haven't seen the newest movie. She also talks about the do's and don'ts of doll sex and how animatronic tongues can be used pretty effectively in the ,lives so long as the sound effects are right. Dourif notes that Chucky has managed to get him to be a little less serious about things, and to have a blast doing your work and how it's important to be like Chucky and enjoy your work. A quick audience Q&A from the audience finished out the event.

All in all, a great panel. You definitely get the vibe that everyone involved in the shoot really and truly enjoyed working on Curse Of Chucky. Given that it turned out as well as it did, here's hoping we get another one soon.

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