by
Paul Fischer
While he's never been a typical leading man, Crispin
Glover has distinguished himself 
as
one of the most intriguing personalities in the movie business. His unusual
characters and avant-garde hobbies have inspired a cult-like following
that has dubbed him both madman and genius.
The son of actor 'Bruce Glover', Crispin Hellion Glover was born in New York City and raised in Southern California. He picked up his father's trade while still in elementary school--by age 13, he already had an agent scouting out parts. A lead in a stage production of The Sound of led to guest spots on the TV shows "Happy Days," "Hill Street Blues," and "Family Ties," which in turn led to roles in made-for-TV movies. The adolescent Glover felt "confined" by TV work, however, so he opted to stick to movie parts. He made his big-screen debut as a sex-starved teenager in My Tutor, then followed up with a supporting role in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.
Glover's most defining Hollywood moment happened the next year, when he appeared as George McFly (Michael J. Fox's father) in the Back to the Future. Shortly after, the actor delivered one of his favourite performances around the same time--playing a small-town kid obsessed with Olivia Newton-John in the independent Orkly Kid. Glover did, however, receive critical praise for his next Indie role, a starring turn as a high-strung murder witness in River's Edge. Excited by the chance to explore more adventurous projects, he turned down an offer to reprise McFly in Back to the Future Part II. The producers brought the character back to life by splicing together archived footage and new scenes (using an actor in prosthetic makeup). Glover, who hadn't given permission for his scenes to be recycled, sued Future's producer, Steven Spielberg, and won. The case prompted the Screen Actors Guild to devise new regulations about the use of actors' images.
In 1990, Glover teamed up with fellow eccentric David Lynch to play the maniacal Cousin Dell in Wild at Heart. He filled the next decade with similarly quirky, peripheral roles, including a turn as Andy Warhol in The Doors, a cameo as a train fireman in Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man and small but pivotal roles in films like What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, and People vs. Larry Flynt. In 1995, Glover began shooting his directorial debut, What Is It?, a surreal film populated entirely by actors with Down's Syndrome. He later pulled footage from the film into "The Big Slide Show," a stage tour which incorporated snippets from his books and albums. The artist in Glover claims to be inspired by "the aesthetic of discomfort," a theme which has carried over into his public behaviour. During a guest stint on David Letterman's show in 1987, Glover emerged wearing a wig and platform shoes, then delivered a swift kick toward Letterman's head that prompted the producers to cut to a commercial. The actor has kept a relatively low profile over the last few years, but fans may have more wacky antics to look forward to as he slips back into the public eye. Late 2000 saw him hitting cinemas with roles in Nurse Betty and Charlie's Angels, and now he's back in the remake of the eerie Willard.
CrankyCritic:
How long have you been acting?
Crispin Glover: I started when I was 14, so 24 years. Long time.
I was in a film when I was 18, so that's 20 years in film. At 14, I had
done The Sound of Music at the music centre with Florence
Henderson. Then we went to San Francisco to do that, so that's
my first production.
CrankyCritic: How did you hear about the Willard project?
Crispin Glover: My agent, I was working on another film, and they
said they were interested in me for this film. And I thought it sounded
initially like something I'd be interested in. I had never seen Willard,
but I knew something about the concept. And it sounded like it would be
interested and so I got the script. I read the script and it was a really
great part, well written, and I said yes. I was willing to do it immediately.
Then, after I started negotiating for it, I watched the [original] film
and it was funny, because I already had an image in my head of the character
from what I'd read which is different from what the film was.
CrankyCritic: How much time did you spend alone with the rats?
Crispin Glover: Actually, I don't think I ever spent any time alone
with them. The trainers, they're very careful with the animals. They wanted
me to be with the rats, especially with the Socrates rats that I would
be working with, for them to get used to me. So, I held them and talked
to them or whatever, worked with them a bit. But there are rules and regulations.
I don't know exactly what they are, but they have to be careful that the
rats are safe and not injured Somebody said something before that maybe
they would want me to have the rat, and I asked them about that. They
said, "No, no, they take care of it."
CrankyCritic: Did they bite?
Crispin Glover: I don't think I ever got bitten by any of them,
no. If anything, it would be more of a test of anything, but I never got
bitten by one. They were very careful, nice creatures, and very well trained.
I was enormously impressed with the specific kind of training, because
rats scurry for food. I worked with a dog and I worked with a cat in the
film, and the dog and cat, they were harder to work with probably than
the rats because a dog and cat, they're just given food no matter what
they do, so they don't have to do specific things to get their food. But
rats 
have
to find their food. So, you can teach the patterns so each rat, or six
or seven rats, there were two that I worked with more than the rest but
they were trained. Some were trained to sit. Some were trained to run
down my arm. Some were trained to go into the coffin. It was all very
specific and it really helped. I have a lot of emotional scenes with the
rats so I was really grateful that they were trained so specifically.
They would do it right every time. It was equivalent to an actor. There
were not many more takes or anything. Sure, there were things I wasn't
involved in, there was second unit stuff that probably took time to do,
but things that were storyboarded out and things having to do with the
rats specifically, that was really perfectly done.
CrankyCritic: What scares you?
Crispin Glover: I suppose misunderstanding of thinking. That can
be genuinely frightening.
CrankyCritic: Did you like horror movies?
Crispin Glover: That's not a genre that I've ever sought out. There
are some horror films that I think are good films, but I'm definitely
a cinefile and I'll see a lot of old movies and all different kinds.
CrankyCritic: What horror films have you seen?
Crispin Glover: Frightening, there aren't that many films that
I actually find frightening. I always liked Repulsion by Roman
Polanski. I thought that had a very good - the psychotic element,
I thought was well illustrated. That had something genuinely frightening
about it.
CrankyCritic: You were in a Friday the 13th?
Crispin Glover: That would be the only one you would call that
genre, but River's Edge has probably a lot more creepy feelings
to it than probably Friday the 13th.
CrankyCritic: How does it feel to be part of that franchise?
Crispin Glover: It was funny when I did that film; I knew even
at that time that it would be something to look back upon with a sense
of humour on some level. So, it's fine. I don't regret any films that
I've done in my career. I've always been glad basically to be able to
work. I aspire to try to do things that I like, but there are certain
films that I really am proud of that I really like, and then certain films
that I'm just glad I did it because I was continuing my career.