ANAHEIM, Calif. — Actor Robert Englund is best known for portraying one of the biggest horror icons of all time, Freddy Krueger, in Wes Craven’s massively popular “A Nightmare on Elm Street” film franchise.
When he was approached by directors Gary Smart and Christopher Griffiths and writer Neil Morris a couple of years ago about being the sole subject of a documentary, he was hesitant at first. While he’s appeared in many horror documentaries, he wasn’t interested in taking a deep dive into his villainous character, but rather sharing how he got to that place and what his life and career have been like since.
Luckily, all parties were in agreement, and they began interviewing Englund about his life on film at his home in Laguna Beach. They also filmed interviews with several peers including his “A Nightmare on Elm Street” co-star Heather Langenkamp, “Candyman” actor Tony Todd, “Insidious” star Lin Shaye, and “Friday the 13th” actor Kane Hodder. “Hatchet” director Adam Green and “Cabin Fever” director Eli Roth also weighed in, as well as Englund’s wife, Nancy, to talk about his impact on the horror genre.
The project, “Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story,” will be available on the Screambox streaming service and digital on June 6.
“I look at this film as being more about an actor’s survival in Hollywood,” Englund said during a Zoom interview from his home earlier this month.
He’s got a jam-packed schedule that has him filming projects and making appearances at horror and sci-fi conventions around the world.
Englund is not shy about discussing Freddy. He says he’s grateful for the role and has embraced the fact that it’s what he’ll be associated with, even joking in the documentary that Freddy will undoubtedly be mentioned in the first line of his obituary.
But he didn’t set out to be a horror icon.
“I never planned to be a genre star or a horror icon — well, I’m not the icon, Freddy Krueger is — but I wanted to be James Dean when I was a kid,” he said. “I wanted to be Marlon Brando and I fell in love with English actors and wanted to be Albert Finney. I wanted to be one of the cool guys like Peter O’Toole and a character actor like Warren Oates and Strother Martin.”
There were also plenty of parts Englund auditioned for that he didn’t get. He read for the role of Han Solo in George Lucas’ “Star Wars,” which was sort of sprung on him upon leaving an audition for Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now.”
He didn’t get a call back for either one.
In the mid-’80s, Englund got the role that would completely change the course of his career. In 1984, he starred in “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” a supernatural slasher about a man who murdered children as they were dreaming. The film had a young and relatively unknown cast, and it marked the acting debut of Johnny Depp.
Freddy was everywhere. The character was plastered onto lunchboxes and T-shirts and even had his own short-lived television show. Englund made appearances as Freddy on daytime talk shows and showed up in music videos.
A new generation of horror fans are discovering his past movies thanks to his role on the fourth season of the Netflix show “Stranger Things.”
Tribune News Service
