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The Thunder Child: An Interview With Conor Timnis
The Man Who Would Be Karloff
Actor Conor Timmis has recently finished filming and acting in Kreating Karloff, a documentary about Karloff which he hopes will also serve as an extended screen test to persuade Universal to do a biopic of the legendary actor...with Conor in the starring role.
Kreating Karloff will be seen at film festivals later this year. See the trailer here: http://www.myspace.com/uncannyfilms
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Actor Conor Timmis was driving down the road several months ago when his cell phone rang. He answered it:
"A man with a slight Irish brogue says 'Is Conor there?' I say 'yes it's me, who is this?' He says 'It's Patrick McGoohan!' I almost drove off the road! All I could say was 'Wowww!' I totally lost it. Once I collected myself he said 'How an I help you, son?' I said 'Well, its Boris Karloff, The Mummy. You would be Dr. Muller, playing opposite me as Ardeth Bey.'
There was dead silence for about one minute. I thought 'Oh no! He's gonna unload on me with a Number 6 tirade for wasting his time,' but instead he laughed for about five minutes and said 'Conor, I don't do that stuff anymore, I've been retired for six years!'
Before the call was over he gave me wonderful advice which I will never forget, he said "Stick with it baby!" I thought that was great. It was incredibly kind of him to call me and hear me out. I have a great memory for the rest of my life!"
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While Patrick McGoohan declined a role, Liesl Ehardt, the cousin of Zita Johann - Boris Karloff's leading lady in The Mummy, did not. Read on....
Describe your childhood. Parents, siblings.
My first exposure to Boris Karloff was not from his films, but from having kids on the playground tease me by calling me "Karloff" of "Frankenstein" due to my high forehead, heavy brow, slightly bent posture, big hands and feet. When I was little being called "Frankenstein" hurt, but now I consider it a compliment! I was born in Middletown, CT. My mother is a nurse and my father is a social worker. Growing up I was a lonely kid, very shy, so movies were an escape for me. Being creative I dabbled in drawing and music until I found my true calling for acting in college.
Boris Karloff inspired you to become an actor. How old were you at the time?
Watching Boris Karloff in The Mummy(1932) and Edward Woodward in Breaker Morant inspired me to become an actor. I was 21
when I started acting.
Are you a fan of horror films in general? Sci-fi?
Yes. I am a huge fan of Val Lewton's films. They have incredible atmosphere. Other films I love are: Godzilla: King Of The Monsters(1956), The Time Machine (1960), The Thing From Another World (1951), The Wicker Man (1973), White Zombie (1932).
My favorite Karloff films are: The Mummy, The Black Cat, The Walking Dead, The Ghoul, The Man Who Changed His Mind and Isle Of the Dead.
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You studied Acting and Theatre Manchester Community College and voice with Lisa Brailoff at The New England Academy Of Theatre. Did you pick up any techniques from watching Karloff films?
I took some basic acting classes in college which gave me the confidence and fire to start performing in plays and student films. For the most part though, I learned my craft from watching Boris Karloff, Patrick McGoohan and Edward Woodward. When you watch great actors something rubs off. As far as technique I just learn my lines
and go. Acting is something your born with. It's mysterious that way. I
don't believe in "method acting" it's complete nonsense, mumbo jumbo.
What I learned from watching Karloff. Boris was a master of subtly. He could convey so much with just a slight smile,a sideward glance, using his voice to add layers of meaning to everything his characters said. He had an infinite array of facial expressions and looks which are so fascinating to watch and gave his acting an unpredictable quality.
When did you come up with the idea of Kreating Karloff
The project started back in November 2005. The idea for Kreating Karloff came from watching a behind the scenes featurette for the 1993 film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. The director Rob Cohen, pitched his Bruce Lee bio-pic to Universal by making an elaborate screen-test which recreated a typical Bruce Lee fight scene from a film like Fists Of Fury or Enter The Dragon.
I thought to myself, why not do the same thing for Boris Karloff. |
Since The Mummy and Frankenstein are two of Universals biggest franchises I thought it would be best to replicate scenes from those films since they would be most interested in their own product.
I also wanted to test in a straight Karloff makeup in a mock interview, but my $20,000 budget and Starbucks salary didn't allow for it.
The Mummy establishes that I can speak and look like Boris so it kinda of covers that end of things. The scenes picked had to do with budget and casting considerations. My Boris Karloff screen-test as Ardeth Bey/Frankenstein runs about 8 mins 30 sec. Audition tapes are meant to be short and to the point. The documentary Kreating Karloff will be about one hour and 15 minutes with the screen-test footage included.
Scenes from both Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein were also shot. Which ones?
Here are all the scenes:
The Mummy
1. Ardeth Bey choking Sir Joseph Whemple through his "psychic viewing
pool"
2. Helen meets Ardeth Bey for the first time
3. Confrontation scene between Ardeth Bey, Sir Joseph Whemple and
Dr. Muller
4. Helen's visit to Ardeth Bey before and after Ancient Egypt flashback
Frankenstein
1. The Creature reaching for the light (One of the classic scenes, very
emotional)
The Bride Of Frankenstein
1. The Creature breaking his chains and escaping from the dungeon (for
an action sequence)
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|  | Have you met Sara Karloff? Did she have any input into the script? Do you have a script written for the entire biopic?
Getting to know Sara Karloff and speak with her at great length about her father and "Kreating Karloff" has been a great honor. She's the nicest woman on the planet. The first time I called her I was intimated but she puts you completely at ease with her humility and down to earth personality. She kinda reminds me of the Oracle character in the Matrix movies who gives Neo advice. Talking with Sara is like visiting your favorite grandma. She has been impressed with everything she has seen so far. I will be sending her the screen-test this July and the finished documentary Kreating Karloff in late August. She is very excited to see the finished product.
I do have a treatment for a possible feature film written by Karloff's key biographer Scott Allen Nollen. My best chance for pitching a Karloff bio-pic to Universal or a smaller, independent studio is if the documentary Kreating Karloff is a big success. Otherwise, I will just have to wait until my acting career gains some more muscle.
You’ve got quite a line-up of production people for this film.
Getting Makeup-Fx artist Norman Bryn was what made this all possible. Without Norm there would be no Kreating Karloff. I knew that in order to do this right I needed someone who was one of the best makeup artists in the world and an expert on the likeness of Boris Karloff. Basically I needed Jack P. Pierce! Norman Bryn is our modern day Jack Pierce. I found his website off of Sara Karloff's website and knew he was meant to resurrect the classic Karloff monsters. I called him up, told him my dream and he said yes. After that getting everyone else was easy since Norm brought enormous creditability.
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One of Norm's childhood friends is an incredible cinematographer named Scott Sniffen who shot my screen-test dirt cheap on his Sony CineAlta HDW-F900 one of best HD cameras money can by. To direct the documentary I hired my best friend Vatche Arabian, a talented up and coming young director who won best podcast of Boston for his "reality" show "Hello Simon". He brings a hip energy to "Kreating Karloff" and will make it appealing to people of all ages and walks of life. I found actress Liesl Ehardt completely by accident.
| I was searching for parts for my "Ardeth Bey" costume online and came across a wonderful Zita Johann tribute page. Scrolling down the page I saw a picture morph of a beautiful young blonde woman "morphing" into Zita Johann. She had Zita's eyes and the likeness was uncanny! Reading further I discovered that she was Zita's cousin and a talented up and coming actress. I said to myself, I HAVE to get this girl to play Zita opposite my Ardeth Bey. Liesl accepted the role with great enthusiasm saying that playing her famous cousin has always been a dream of hers. I hope she does get to play Zita again in a Karloff bio-pic someday!
The coolest pre-production experience though was pitching a role to another acting hero of mine, the great Patrick McGoohan. I thought he would be amazing playing Edward Van Sloane's character Dr. Muller from The Mummy. Plus I was hoping to play a scene with one of my acting heroes. I left a message on his answering machine pitching my project telling him that I was a young Irish Catholic actor asking him to come out of retirement and play opposite me in The Mummy! Of course I never expected to hear back from him in a million years! But I firmly believe that it never hurts to ask.
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Although McGoohan turned down the role, the project went on.
How do you pass the time while you’re being made up (five hours)?
It was exciting and surreal getting transformed into Karloff's two most famous characters "The Mummy" and "Frankenstein". It's a tremendous honor. The makeup application was so fascinating to watch that time really flew by. Norm is a complete master of his craft and it was amazing to watch someone so advanced in his art its effortless and they don't question themselves.
Storyboards were mounted onto tables and chairs, along the outer edges of the set, covered with sequential frame blowups of Karloff in character.
I decided to make photographic storyboards taken from the films so my cinematographer would know exactly what I wanted and could replicate
the lighting. We only had 2 days to shoot this so preparation was crucial. I had my still photographer Tad Sattler use a computer program to capture every frame off the DVDs which I then printed out and pasted to poster boards. Lots of rubber cement and patience.
You were a triple threat: Executive Producer, Director and Star.
Yes. I really bit off more than I could chew. I wish I had some more help in some regards. But when you produce a film you kinda
want to avoid having "too many cooks in the kitchen". Thank God for Rick Broderick is all I can say! He is a good friend of Sara Karloff who was a lifesaver on this project! Driving cast and crew, running millions of errands, keeping Sara in the know, he was my point man! He also played Sir Joseph Whemple in a scene from The Mummy
The nice thing about going it alone was that I was able to ensure the highest standards and respect for Boris. The name Boris Karloff has tremendous respect in the entertainment industry, it opens every door it knocks on. It's a name like Christopher Reeve, you can't mess around. You have to take it very seriously.
That's one reason I was able to assemble so many talented people. Everyone knew they were working on something beloved and respected by millions. No one's done anything on Boris. That was part of the appeal to I think. This is a very unique project that really defies category. There is nothing you can compare it to. I expect it to make waves when it hits the festivals. | "The nice thing about going it alone was that I was able to ensure the highest standards and respect for Boris. The name Boris Karloff has tremendous respect in the entertainment industry." |
I directed the Mummy and Frankenstein scenes mainly because I've have seen the films a million times and wanted to make sure we stayed as faithful as possible. One of the funniest things about Kreating Karloff is seeing Ardeth Bey say "Cut!" and "Action". Or the Frankenstein monster explaining a scene to Colin Clive (Justin Granchelli). Giving direction in full makeup really threw the cast and crew for a loop I think.
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The lighting, costumes and acting had to be exact representations of the original films for any of this to work.
Yes, everyone in the production had enormous respect and awe for what we were trying to do. We were doing something which hasn't been
attempted in 75 years. As far as being exact, I did the best I could with $20,000 (all unsecured personal loans), a Starbucks salary and only two days to shoot.
The makeup was a tricky balance between making me look like Karloff yet at the same time have my face show through. For a screen-test you want the actor to shine through and not be buried in a mask. I mean, Norm could have made me look exactly like Karloff but the makeup would have become a mask and the actor would be lost. The whole point is to show why Conor should play Karloff. If you just make an exact mask you could put it on any actor really.
Steve Vertlieb, in his article on the filming of this documentary, wrote: “The most difficult part of the shoot that day had been his refusal to blink, while enduring torturous pain as the lights pierced his eyes for that difficult sequence.”
Exact reproduction is all very well, but wouldn’t it have been safer for your eyes if you’d had this effect digitally added?
To replicate the famous closeup shot of Ardeth Bey's eyes glowing, a square of black material had two eyes holes cut into it with which high beams of light passed through to light up my eyes. It was very painful because it was like being forced to stare at the sun without blinking. It was well worth it though, the shot looks incredible! No Pain, No Gain. I believe we utilized the same technique used to light Bela Lugosi's eyes in Dracula and Boris Karloff's in The Mummy. |
Estimated release date of the DVD?
Hopefully late 2007. I plan on having Kreating Karloff spend 2006/2007 hitting every film festival possible to build an audience,gain exposure and hopefully court a decent distributor who can take it off my hands for wide release. Kreating Karloff will start
screening this October in a couple horror film festivals on the East coast and then move on to mainstream festivals, like Sundance and Tribeca (hopefully). My production company, "Uncanny Films" has a Myspace page which will post all festival screenings and updates for the fans. Here's the link: http://www.myspace.com/uncannyfilms
 
All photographs provided by Conor Timnis.
External resources
http://www.conortimmis.net/: Official Conor Timnis website
http://www.lieslehardt.com/home.html: Official Liesl Ehardt website
http://www.tripegstudios.com/: Independent studio where Kreating Karloff was filmed
http://www.redhotplanet.net/a_kreating_karloff.htm: Steve Vertlieb's articles on Kreating Karloff at RedHotPlanet.net.
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