- So the first thing I would do,
I would take my taser,
(growling)
(electric buzz) (yelling)
and I would go for the scrotum.
- Okay, that'll put 'em down.
(chainsaw revving) (electronic music)
Hey, I'm James A. Janisse,
and some of you may know me as Dead Meat.
If you do, you probably already know
that I love to watch people die.
You know, like on screen.
I've always wanted to talk to the horror legends
who put those kills on screen,
and find out what scares them,
and also if they could survive
their favorite kill scenes.
This is Meat Up.
Today's guest, horror legend Tony Todd.
(piano music)
Hey everybody, welcome back to the show.
Today, we're here with legendary actor Tony Todd
in the heart of Hollywood, at this restaurant Jitlada,
which, you picked for us Tony.
- Yeah, I've been coming here for about the last six years.
- You're ordering for us today.
- Well, let me tell you just in case,
'cause you may overwhelmed when you see
all the goodness that comes out.
- Okay.
- We've got a little Tom Kha soup,
which is your basic coconut soup with shrimp in it.
I forgot to tell them, though,
whether how hot you could handle.
- Oh.
- I didn't tell them dragon heat.
I didn't tell them, like, little baby squirrel heat.
- Okay.
- So it's going to be surprise.
- Hopefully it's somewhere in the middle there.
- Yeah I want you to take your first swallow
in between questions, okay?
- Yeah.
- Then we've got a little Crying Tiger,
which is a Filipino treat
that they do with meat and spices.
- Oo.
- And I think we have a little,
what else do we have?
A Coco Mango Salad.
- Great, and you also got us some Thai iced teas.
- We have Thai iced tea.
- It's delicious.
- Delicious, and, it brings out
the seven year old in everybody.
(jazz music)
- Tony, you've been working for decades
with all different kinds of...
- When you say decades, it's frightening.
You make it sound like it's six decades or five decades.
It's been three decades.
- Three decades.
But you have worked in a variety of different mediums.
You've done theater.
You've done television, movies, voice acting.
And, you're perhaps best known for Candyman,
which is a seminal horror film.
I saw that you didn't actively seek out the horror genre.
- No.
- That it kind of came to you.
Are you fine being associated with it?
As kind of your legacy?
- To a point.
I understand fandom.
There's no filter on it.
Does it bother me?
It depends on the situation.
My daughter, Arianna, handled it brilliantly.
When she was about 4, Candyman had been out a couple years,
and people kept coming up to us,
oh my god, oh my god.
And she finally dropped her little shopping bag and said,
"That's not Candyman. That's my dad!"
(laughter)
And it made absolute sense to me at the time.
It was said so honestly and so directly
that I understood what she meant.
To not give in to that all the time.
You have to be able to say no, this is my private life
and, not in front of my family.
(jazz music)
- I looked online to see if
you'd answered this question before,
and maybe you have, but I couldn't find it.
- OK. I like new ones.
- It seems like an obvious question.
- OK.
- You're best known for Candyman.
What's your favorite candy?
Have you been asked that before
and I just couldn't find it?
- Never.
- No?
- Never been asked that.
- That's shocking.
- And I do have a sweet tooth.
Commercially, ah, I don't want to, cause I'm not,
I'm not a commercial person,
because I don't want them to take it as an endorsement,
- That's right.
- But I do like it when my fingers get buttery.
- OK.
- If you know what I'm saying?
- Yeah.
- Butter.
- Yeah.
- There you go.
- Yeah.
(lively music)
- Now what was the spicy thing
that you said was gonna be my quest?
- Well, you want to try this.
You want to stick your finger in that.
- Okay.
- Like any good movie, or any good script we actors get,
you gotta put your finger in it first.
- Okay.
- Just like your grandmother taught you.
(laughter)
When she made you that wonderful cake,
you gotta taste the batter.
Is it too hot?
- I think it's right at about my threshold.
- I'm gonna to do this.
- I feel like I'm going to cough.
- I'm gonna do this.
I'm going to go for it.
Now, this is a time to ask me your hottest question.
- Candyman, it's recently been discussed,
that it might be getting a bit of a remake.
- That's a very strong rumor, yes.
- With Jordan Peele attached.
If you were asked to reprise the role, would you?
- It all depends on the script.
I mean, at this point, I care so much about the character
that I want it to be done right.
If they don't use me, I want them to use the best actor
that appreciates the cultural significance of the role.
- Mhm.
- Or could bring something else to it that perhaps I missed,
or the script missed in the original.
- One of your first roles,
and I think I your first lead role maybe,
was as Ben in the Night of the Living Dead remake.
- It was my first lead role, which was important.
- It was, yeah.
- And seeing Duane Jones, who originated
the role of Ben, was an inspiration.
I grew up in an era where Sidney Poitier was in every film.
He was our sole African-American representative.
And, it was fine, but it felt a little goody-goody to me.
It wasn't necessarily real.
It was just refreshing, the way
George Romero created this character
in the background of a zombie apocalypse,
end of the world situation,
where your hero was this African-American man.
And I asked George, rest in peace.
- Yeah.
- I said, what made you cast Duane in the first place?
He said, I didn't think of the role
as black, white, Spanish, anything.
Duane was just the best actor
that came in the room at the right time.
But, because he was African-American,
I think it put a whole 'nother stamp
on the whole zombie apocalypse possibility.
- Yeah.
- You know, what happens if at the end
of the world there's only five people,
and three of them don't look like you?
And then we have to drop all of our pretenses
and learn how to get along together
for the good of the world.
And those kind of stories have always appealed to me.
(jazz music)
- Alright, now we've come to
the time in the show where
we're gonna play a game.
- Oh my god.
- It's called What Would You Do.
- What would I do?
- And I'm gonna put you in the scene
of one of your favorite horror movies.
- Yeah.
- And I picked Rosemary's Baby.
- Yeah.
- By Roman Polanski.
1968.
I'm interested to see how you would react
in one of these situations.
But first, before I put you in this situation.
- Okay.
- We got a bucket over here,
it's been sitting here the whole...
- I've noticed that bucket.
I didn't know if they hadn't
finished the stain job or what.
- Yeah, that's right, they're just finishing up.
(laughs)
No, this is actually my chum bucket.
- Oh, okay.
- Which is a disgusting name,
but that's what we're going with.
- Chum bucket.
- Yeah.
And in here are a bunch of objects.
- Should I see before?
- No.
You're actually gonna draw blind.
- Oh OK.
- They can be your tools.
- OK.
- In your reaction of how you would act in the situation.
- Okay. - Okay?
- Alright.
- So let's see what you get.
- A full bottle of champagne.
- Great.
- A taser with 2% battery left.
- Oh, so probably like one tase.
- A flare gun.
- A flare gun, Okay.
- Okay.
- So you got a little bit of variety here.
- Yeah.
- But we're gonna ask you
what you would do in the situation.
- Yeah?
- Of that last scene.
You've just had a child delivered
- Yeah.
- It was taken away from you.
They said that it died,
but you hear that baby.
- Yeah.
- Coming from the other apartment,
so you push through the closet.
- Right, right.
- And, here you are approaching.
What do you do?
- Okay.
So the first thing I would do,
I would grab a hanger from the closet.
- Okay.
And I would go for their eyes.
- Oh, okay.
(screaming)
- And then I would take my taser,
because I want to go for
(electric sizzle)
the first male character that comes at me, the burly guy.
(growling)
I would take the taser and I would go for the scrotum.
(electric buzz) (yelling)
- Okay. That'll put him down.
- Put him down.
- 2% or not.
- 2% boom.
One good healthy shot.
As he falls back, I take that bottle of champagne,
cause I have a bottle, I pop the cork, I take my flare gun,
(bottle spraying) (flare exploding)
and I make a on-the-spot flame thrower.
- Oh, fantastic!
- That was filled with grape juice.
(bottle spraying)
(laughter) (screaming)
- Some high proof champagne.
Okay.
- That's how I would handle that situation.
- So they're all subdued it sounds like,
but we've still got this baby crying, so...
- Well, the baby.
Since I'm maternal, no matter what it looks like,
or how many horns it has,
(popping)
or how many cleft toes it has,
I would swaddle it with the nearest clothing
from the people that have been hit on the floor
by the champagne and the flare gun,
and I swaddle it up and I jump
out the window with it, and hopefully we both
(glass crash)
(thud) (car alarm)
- Oh!
- perish.
- Oh, ultimate self sacrifice.
- That's it.
Cause I don't want the baby always, like,
peppered with questions of its intent.
- Yeah.
You don't want to raise it, have a Damien aspect?
- No, we're gonna go down together.
- Okay.
You know what, that's fair.
(sobbing)
It's sad, it's tragic, but you know what?
(baby crying)
It's for the good of humanity.
(sobbing)
So, I appreciate that, Tony.
As a human being, thank you.
So, Tony, what do you got coming up,
that people can look forward to,
as major fans of you as everyone is?
- Well, we got, there's a movie I did
called Immortal, that's really good.
It's a film maker from New Jersey.
It's a quartet of stories,
but it all deals with what happens
when people are dealing with immortality.
And also I just did a pilot for a horror reality show.
- Oo.
- Where I would be like a city traveler,
investigating tales of horrific events.
But I'm also writing.
I have this great script called Sekale,
that was commissioned by
the Dominican Republic Cultural Center.
About baseball players.
- It sounds like we got a lot
to look forward to, and..
- And I say unto you.
Congratulations to you - Oh thank you.
- for hosting Dead Meat.
And I hope it goes on for as long
as you need it to or you want it to.
- Thank you.
That's the best thing that someone can say, you know?
'Cause sometimes we're like I hope it goes on forever,
and I'm like, alright, maybe not.
- No, no, however you want it to.
- That's excellent.
- Yeah, make the most of it while you're doing it.
- Yeah, thank you so much Tony for joining us.
- Thank you.
Thank you James.
- And a wonderful conversation.
- Pleasure - Awesome.
- Fantastic
(electronic music)
(spooky ringing)
(dance music)
- [Narrator] Watch new scary vids
every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.