sondramedia Senior Editor Brandon Schreur spoke to The Poisonous Avenger star Kevin Bacon in regards to the new, ultra-violent reboot film. Bacon mentioned what drew him to the mission, how his character is completely different than different villains he’s performed up to now, and extra.
“In The Poisonous Avenger, when a downtrodden janitor, Winston Gooze, is uncovered to a catastrophic poisonous accident, he’s remodeled into a brand new sort of hero: The Poisonous Avenger,” the official synopsis reads. “Now, Toxie should rise from outcast to savior, taking over ruthless company overlords and corrupt forces who threaten his son, his buddies, and his neighborhood. In a world the place greed runs rampant… justice is finest served radioactive.”
The Poisonous Avenger hits United States theaters on August 29, 2025, from Cineverse.
Brandon Schreur: To start out, I’d like to ask the way it was that you simply obtained concerned with this mission. What’s the story of how you bought solid in The Poisonous Avenger, and what made you most excited to play this character?
Kevin Bacon: You realize, I sort of knew Macon Blair. I’m making an attempt to assume — it’s humorous, while you do these interviews, you sort of go, ‘How did that really occur?’ It’s laborious to recollect. However he hit me up, mentioned he was doing this, and that he had this half. I learn it. I believed, ‘That’s humorous. That’s going to be enjoyable.’ The concept of getting Peter Dinklage play that position, I believed was improbable. And all of it simply sort of fell into place, and we discovered ourselves in Bulgaria. It throughout in the course of the pandemic. A spot I’d by no means been earlier than with a Bulgarian crew. And we’re making this bananas film. I feel it got here out nice.
I completely agree. Bananas is an effective strategy to describe it, too, which leads into what I used to be going to ask you subsequent. The Poisonous Avenger has been a franchise for the reason that Eighties due to Lloyd Kaufman. I’m questioning when you had been a fan of those motion pictures earlier than this, and you probably have seen them, was any a part of you nervous in any respect about how a Poisonous Avenger film would play within the 2020s? Simply because these originals are so gory, off-the-wall, and there’s a lot wild stuff that occurs. What was your strategy to doing Poisonous Avenger now, in modern-day?
Properly, to reply your first query, I’d after all heard of the film and heard of among the different Troma movies. However that wasn’t the time in my life once I was actually watching these sorts of flicks, I suppose. Perhaps I used to be too outdated. So I sort of missed that complete factor. However, after all, I went again and revisited, and I used to be actually sort of knocked out not solely by the films, however by the mixture of impartial filmmaking versus popular culture. Or not versus, however together with the juxtaposition of popular culture filmmaking.
Loads of instances, you consider low-budget indies as being severe dramas. And but, what Lloyd was doing was going out and making these motion pictures for a worth in New Jersey. And actually simply going excessive in a means that, to me, first off, is dangerous. As a result of lots of people would say — in all probability lots of people did say — that that is undoubtedly not for me. However, additionally, it’s so basically what I really like about motion pictures: that individuals can work in all types of zany worlds and make one thing cool and fascinating.
When Macon got here to me with the script, clearly, I went again and I believed, okay, the candy spot, right here, can be to not disappoint the followers of the unique Troma stuff, but in addition make one thing that holds up now. And to not again too distant from it and make it extra accessible. However to lean into all the craziness that was within the authentic motion pictures. On the similar time, simply give it a recent look. And I feel he did a very, very nice job when it comes to that.
Oh, for certain. I talked to Macon a few week in the past about this film, and we talked loads about that bicycle scene from the unique film. You do not forget that second, it’s so vivid and graphic. We talked about whether or not you may adapt a second like that in 2023, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, we are able to. It was an indie again then, however there’s nonetheless an viewers for it now.’ I believed that was a cool take to have — possibly it was dangerous, however individuals nonetheless like that sort of stuff.
I feel so. Clearly, it’s not precisely horror, however clearly, horror nonetheless finds an viewers. I feel that bloody comedy — I simply made one myself. I’m completely into that. I really like style, and I really like filmmakers like Macon who’re working inside style, however doing it with a lot talent. And, additionally, emotional complexity. These characters, the Poisonous Avenger, he’s obtained a very sort of deep disappointment and wrestle that, to me, form of feels just like the hook of the film.
Completely. Kevin, you’ve performed villains up to now — I’ve seen you in X-Males: First Class as Sebastian Shaw. You had been the dangerous man in James Gunn’s Tremendous, and only in the near past starred in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. How does your character on this film, Bob, evaluate to these villains? Is it extra of the identical factor, or do you need to hit a sure completely different stage for the reason that tone of this film is so up there?
I’d prefer to assume that I hit one thing completely different every time, however possibly I’m dreaming. However, if I strategy a nasty man, I don’t consider him first as a nasty man. I consider him as, ‘Who’s he?’ The dangerous half is simply sort of just like the byproduct of what the character does. There’s no actual strategy to play evil, ? You may play hungry, unhappy, indignant, confused, lonely — there are 1,000,000 issues you may play. However evil, to me, is just too undefined to actually sort of sink your tooth into.
On this strategy, yeah, the tone is actually massive, and I feel Macon inspired me to go massive. We went massive with the look and the physicality of it and all the things. However I used to be considering loads about televangelists. I used to be excited about self-help gurus. Individuals who promote shit that’s ineffective and bleed harmless individuals of their cash.
However I used to be additionally excited about the billionaire class. These days, billionaires, we all know who they’re. They’re very in our face; they’re very public personas. However that wasn’t the case years in the past. They had been hiding in darkish rooms. No one may inform you what so-and-so regarded like. These days, that’s not likely the case. As a result of we reside in a society the place individuals are so excited about your personal private model — the model is the particular person versus the model is the stuff that you simply’re promoting. So that you see quite a lot of these billionaires come entrance and heart. However these had been the issues I used to be excited about once I was enjoying Bob.
Positive. One final query for you, there was a time period after The Poisonous Avenger screened at a number of festivals the place it was having bother discovering a distributor. There was a minute there the place we didn’t know if most people was ever going to have the ability to see it. Cineverse picked it up and now it’s popping out as an unrated film, which is tremendous thrilling. How thrilling is it for you that individuals are lastly going to have the possibility to see this on the large display screen?
I like it. I really like motion pictures, and I’m going to the films. That’s what I began out eager to do, to be on a film display screen. I actually had quite a lot of nice instances and quite a lot of nice alternatives on the small display screen or on the display screen that you simply’re watching at residence. However, to me, motion pictures are probably the most thrilling factor. Look, when you work actually laborious, as everybody did on The Poisonous Avenger, and it by no means sees the sunshine of day, that’s fairly miserable. Particularly when the film is superior. So, I’m thrilled. I’m thrilled that it’s popping out, and I’m thrilled that individuals are going to see it. I feel it’s nice that Cineverse picked it up, and good for them. Clearly, they know what they’re doing. I couldn’t be happier.
Because of Kevin Bacon for taking the time to debate The Poisonous Avenger.