ROB ZOMBIE: 'I Never Try To Make Anything Extreme For The Sake Of Being Extreme'

Jay A. Fernandez of The Hollywood Reporter recently conducted an interview with rocker-turned-writer-producer-director Rob Zombie. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

The Hollywood Reporter: How do you know when you've gone just far enough with violence or depravity in a scene?

Rob Zombie: I never try to make anything extreme for the sake of being extreme — ever. It's a thing I always talk about with Wayne Toth, who's the makeup/effects guy on my films; we don't ever want it to seem like we're stopping the movie so you can stare at an effects gag. It has to be organic to what's happening. If it goes too far, it's not like it goes too far because you're crossing some moral boundaries. With violence in movies, there's a point where it feels real and there's a point if you push it too far it becomes like a Roadrunner cartoon. I try to keep it simple and gritty. Violence is usually fast and furious.

The Hollywood Reporter: Having come from the music world, do you feel like you've had to fight for respect in the filmmaking community?

Zombie: Maybe it would concern me if I hadn't gone through the same thing in the music business. There are just certain types of things that don't get respect and never will; hard rock music doesn't. You watch the Grammys, and every year there are records that sell millions and millions of copies, and they'll present the award off-camera. Then they'll present best spoken word album that sold 200 copies on camera during primetime, and you're like, "Really?" Movies like this are the same way. Critics can gush over it and everyone goes crazy, but it is what it is. I don't care. Hey, it's a long, lonely life if you're standing around waiting for fucking respect from people that you don't even respect in the first place.

The Hollywood Reporter: What's the most annoying preconception of you that you have to deal with from film executives?

Zombie: They learn real quick that they're wrong, but I think sometimes people think that I'm not serious and I'm not going to work hard. They can't distance the image from the person until they meet me, and then they realize, "This guy works so hard and is so serious, he's gonna drive me up the wall." Because I will bust balls really fucking hard to get shit done. I'm psychotically involved in every tiny little aspect. That's just the way I've been about everything my whole life.

Read the entire interview from The Hollywood Reporter.