William Sadler is one of those actors better known for his face than his name. Appearing in over 154 productions, his cv includes parts in Die Hard 2, The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption and Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey. He’s also a popular face on television, starting out in Tales from the Crypt before starring in the full three-season run of Roswell.
With a career so extensive there was no way we could squeeze all our questions into the standard fifteen minute time slot so instead we sought out Mr Sadler, Bill to his friends, and took him out to dinner. Over the course of our meal we delved into pretty much everything he has ever done, finding out everything from how he found directing, to what it’s like to fight Bruce Willis and, of course, whether the Grim Reaper will make an appearance in Bill and Ted 3.
You’ve done a few conventions in your time, what is it that most people come up to talk to you about?
It seems to me the movie that is far and away most interesting to fans, whether the convention is a Star Trek or sci-fi or horror, the movie that people most want to talk about is The Shawshank Redemption. It’s had the biggest impact, it’s been seen by the most people, I think it’s my best movie. I think it’s better than The Green Mile. I can’t think of a movie that I’ve done that stands in that same class.
It took a while to find its audience, it wasn’t until it was released on VHS that it really took off.
Exactly. It opened and then closed in theatres. It ran for weeks and it was gone. We all thought ‘well that’s it’; ‘down without a bubble’ as they say (laughs). Then the Academy Award nominations were announced and it was up for ‘Best Picture’ and they put it back on in movie theatres for a little while, and still I don’t think; I think it made something like $18 million domestic theatre sales, something like that. Not a tremendous amount of money. It wasn’t Earth shattering. It wasn’t until it came out on video and Ted Turner’s network in the States played it over and over and over, that it got discovered.
No one in the film was that big, Tim Robbins had done a few films as well. But no one in the movie was a huge star and I think it’s fair to say that it’s a pretty ensemble piece which makes it work better. It’s part of what’s nice about that film. It doesn’t have one single star and then a big supporting cast.
You’ve worked with Frank Darabont a few times since, what is your fondness memory of working with Frank?
Yeah I worked with him three times… The Green Mile was the hardest job I did even though it wasn’t a large role. It was emotionally the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do on film ever. On top of that I had to run (laughs), which I’m not good at and I hate it. I’m surprised I didn’t fall over and have a heart attack while we were filming. I had to run over and over again. Frank had set up this huge track for the camera to roll down, to follow me like an antelope. When I see the two dead girls – John Coffey holding the two dead girls – just that little moment, the emotional part of it aside, which was not fun, not a pleasant place to be at all, the running very nearly killed me. In work boots on that uneven riverbed, The Green Mile was maybe the most difficult, and the most challenging.
The Mist was great fun. Frank was, by the time we got to The Mist, Frank said that if Shawshank was cinematic, this was like a piece of classical music. Every note was perfect, every shot was organised and composed and beautiful and planned out, by the time he got to The Mist he said it’s more like Jazz. He had directed an episode of The Wire, I think, and loved this two cameras, handheld, catching everything. Every moment of the film was sort of caught in this unplanned way. He actually brought the cameramen [from The Wire] down to Shreveport to film The Mist because he loved that style. It was easier, it was faster and there’s a more immediate kind of feel to it.
The Mist is easily one of my favourite films, I watch it every autumn without fail. The ending is incredibly powerful.
It’s extraordinary isn’t it? The studio didn’t care for that ending. There was a lot of controversy about that, but Frank stuck to his guns and said ‘No that’s how I want it to end’. If I’m not mistaken Stephen King likes that ending too. It’s awfully dark (chuckles). You’ve fallen in love with this kid and the struggle to keep him alive to the end and then…
And people expect that it being a film that everything will be okay.
Yeah. There was a fun moment on the set where Brian Libby, who plays the biker guy. We tie a rope to him and send him out into the mist, and he walks out into the fog and he disappears and we pull the rope back. I had this idea on the set. I was watching them get ready to shoot and I said to Frank what if he walks out and the rope stops and all of a sudden the rope goes like this (points upwards). The audience can’t see where it’s gone or what’s going on and then it just falls. Turns out that was a great idea. The thing could have been sixty feet tall and you don’t have to show it. All you see is this little link of rope.
It almost feels like a rep company working with Frank, because he uses a lot of the same actors over and over again. I appreciate that, and it’s fun to see the same faces in different roles.
Your character has one of the most dramatic changes, he switches sides from good to bad. Was that what drew you to the part, that you got to play both sides of the coin?
I don’t know. I’m often asked to play parts that either start off good and go bad, or it looks like they’re going to be bad and then it’s revealed that there is a human being under there and this is why he’s doing what he’s doing. It’s fun. I’m not sure why Frank chose me to play that part, but it was fun to do. I loved the idea of people grabbing onto religion like when they’re frightened, when they’re really frightened holding onto religion and using that as a cudgel to protect themselves. It’s like the Salem witch hunts. You don’t understand what’s going on so it must be evil, it must be the Devil’s work.
The Mist also has one of the greatest cinema villains or villainess’ in the form of Mrs. Carmody, Marcia Gay Harden is great in it.
But that’s who you want playing the evil force in your movie. You want the best actors, the people who are convincing in their evil intent. It makes what the hero is up against all the more frightening.
You also did the audio book of The Mist, but you played David in that. Was that before or after the film?
Before, well before. Yeah that was just a funny coincidence. It was an audio book, like a radio play, but completely unrelated and maybe ten years before we shot the movie. I also think that Frank puts together great ensembles, really wonderful groups of people to work with, it’s always fun to bounce off of the other performers. I think it’s most evident in Shawshank, but it happens in all of his films. He’s not interested in movie stars. It feels much more like the golden age of Hollywood.
I don’t know whether you’ll find this interesting or not but there was a moment early on in my career that sort of changed [my life], it was pivotal. There was a show called Tales from the Crypt, a TV series, and I did the very, very first episode. But I went into the audition for the cop at the end of the episode who goes in and says ‘you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say… ‘blah blah’, this tiny little nothing role. After the audition I asked Karen Rea the casting woman ‘What’s up with role of Talbot?’ who was the lead, The Executioner. She said ‘Oh they want a star, they’re going to get a star for that, they want a big name like Malkovich or Chris Walken.’ They were looking for a name. I said ‘Oh Okay’ and left. I got halfway across the parking lot and she yelled out of the window, ‘Bill, come back’. She gave me the sides for Talbot, she said ‘Come back on Monday, grease your hair, black out your teeth or something because you’re too pretty. We’ll put you on tape and see what they say.’ I came back in I put myself on tape, Walter Hill saw it and said ‘he’s great, he should play this role.’
There were four producers on that show, Walter Hill, Bob Zemeckis, Dick Donner and Joel Silver, those four gentlemen, this was their new show and this was their first episode of their new show. So I did it and it was successful, and it launched the series. The next thing that Joel Silver did was Die Hard 2 and I got the call and went and did that. I then did Trepass for Walter Hill. I worked with Zemeckis and Donner on other projects and Frank Darabont was a writer on Tales from the Crypt. He approached me on set a couple of years before we did Shawshank and said ‘I’m gonna do this movie and I’d like you to be in it.’ (chuckles), and he gave me a copy of this Stephen King novella which it was based on, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.
I also did for Silver Demon Knight eventually. So it was just this one funny little moment in an audition at Fox years and years and years ago where I asked about the bigger role, I asked about the lead, even that’s not what they were seeing me for and I can…it’s seldom in a career that you can look at a moment with such clarity and see that one moment lead to this, which lead to this, which lead to this. Most of what has gone on in my career was kicked off by that. It introduced me to a lot of good people.
The show became this funny thing in Hollywood where they started to get all the biggest names in town wanting to be in it. They all wanted to do a guest spot on Tales from the Crypt, or direct it. Everyone wanted to be part of it because it was so fun and kitschy.
Click over the page to hear about Sadler’s time on Roswell…
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