The man behind the mask
November 18, 2017 9:06 PM   Subscribe

 
He's been great to watch on ST:D. I'd love a rerelease of the first Hellboy movie with his voice reinstated.
posted by Catblack at 9:17 PM on November 18, 2017 [8 favorites]


Best of luck on his campaign against Roy Moore, as well.
posted by Merus at 9:25 PM on November 18, 2017 [42 favorites]


Yeah, he's great.
posted by mikelieman at 9:26 PM on November 18, 2017


Best of luck on his campaign against Roy Moore, as well.

He has irons in a lot of fires.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:45 PM on November 18, 2017 [3 favorites]


Meet Doug Jones, One Of The Biggest Movie Stars You’ve Probably Never Seen

I suspect Frank Welker is the biggest movie (and TV) star that you have never seen.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:46 PM on November 18, 2017 [14 favorites]


As a long time horror and science fiction fan, I’ve been aware of, and appreciative of, Doug’s work for a long time, even if I’m still learning that he played parts that I didn’t know were him at the time. BUT! My favorite DJ performance was in “John Dies at the End,” a fun if uneven, extremely surreal film, in which he wore no prosthetics at all. It’s a brief role, but he plays an otherworldly character in such an earnestly emotional way that he seems like he’s visiting not just from another dimension but another movie altogether. Any Hollywood producer or critic who doubts he can actually act needs to watch that scene right now.
posted by ejs at 9:58 PM on November 18, 2017 [1 favorite]


Meet Doug Jones, One Of The Biggest Movie Stars You’ve Probably Never Seen

I'm pedantic (It's my job, now!) but he is truly one of the tallest movie stars I've never seen.
posted by alex_skazat at 10:01 PM on November 18, 2017 [3 favorites]


This is the second time this week I've seen a story, thought "Ooh, this would make a good FPP" and come here to find you've posted it. Get out of my browser, dude!
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:11 PM on November 18, 2017 [2 favorites]


…but he is truly one of the tallest movie stars I've never seen.

I'll see your pedantry and raise you one scoff of indifference. He's only 6'3". I mean don't get me wrong, it's somewhat tall—I'm six-three too and enjoy having a bit of height on most people—but it's not tall. Hell, I'd kill to be 6'5". Being tall is fun and useful, but this height is just middlin' tall.

I know, I know. Tall is relative. But the point is, 1.89m is not freakishly tall, just a little over average.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 10:29 PM on November 18, 2017 [2 favorites]


Another actor in this vein is the 6'6" Javier Botet, whose Marfan's syndrome has given him unusually long limbs and flexible joints. Horror movie directors adore him because once you slap some makeup on him, *bam*, instant uncanny valley. Rig him up like a marionette and holy shit never sleep again.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:33 PM on November 18, 2017 [5 favorites]


Seeing how many people were loving on Mystery Men in the ALLEGED Top 50 Superheroes movie thread, you HAVE seen him.

For he is PENCILHEAD!

I'll see your pedantry and raise you one scoff of indifference. He's only 6'3". I mean don't get me wrong, it's somewhat tall—I'm six-three too and enjoy having a bit of height on most people—but it's not tall. Hell, I'd kill to be 6'5". Being tall is fun and useful, but this height is just middlin' tall.

I know, I know. Tall is relative. But the point is, 1.89m is not freakishly tall, just a little over average.


No, 6'5" and up has a lot of difficulties. My stepfather (rest his soul) was 6'7" and places like Disneyland and his Datsun B-210 were nightmares. (Even young Sami would sometimes have his imagination come up with us coming off Space Mountain (with one of his legs in my safety bar and one in his as he hunched over the car) to discover he had sat up and been decapitated...
posted by Samizdata at 10:45 PM on November 18, 2017


What do you mean I've never seen him? Dougie Jones was in all 18 episodes of Twin Peaks season 3.
posted by adept256 at 11:23 PM on November 18, 2017 [3 favorites]


Huh. I saw a trailer for The Shape of Water before Lady Bird last night and had a little moment of "I wonder who plays the creature?" when he first was shown.

Looks like a fun movie. Don't burn me again Guillermo!
(with the exception of Pan's Labyrinth, all of his movies have looked/seemed conceptually better than they turned out, ymmv)
posted by mannequito at 12:13 AM on November 19, 2017


I suspect Frank Welker is the biggest movie (and TV) star that you have never seen.

I would think a large majority of non-Brits have never seen Dave Prowse.
posted by biffa at 12:34 AM on November 19, 2017 [4 favorites]


I'm pedantic (It's my job, now!)

what is ur job and how can i get one
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 1:13 AM on November 19, 2017 [5 favorites]


Yeah, he's been MVP for me in Star Trek: Discovery. His character was jamming almost straight out of the blocks. He's finally starting to creep out of "that guy" territory for me.
posted by Start with Dessert at 3:09 AM on November 19, 2017 [2 favorites]


I'm a very sociable person, so when I'm in a group of people and I can't interact with them as easily as they're all interacting with each other, it's isolating and lonely.

Awww!! I never thought of that part of the job. And Doug Jones always seems so nice.

(To anyone who enjoyed this article, I recommend the documentary Men in Suits. Jones is in it a lot, but it covers a lot of creature suit acting going back to Godzilla or so. Trailer here.)
posted by heatvision at 3:12 AM on November 19, 2017 [2 favorites]


A good read. Thanks.
posted by Cyrano at 4:31 AM on November 19, 2017


Mac Tonight. Now there’s a blast from the past.
posted by double bubble at 6:04 AM on November 19, 2017 [7 favorites]


> "I would think a large majority of non-Brits have never seen Dave Prowse."

A Clockwork Orange is a pretty well-known movie, though.
posted by kyrademon at 6:10 AM on November 19, 2017


Good point.
posted by biffa at 6:19 AM on November 19, 2017


Mister Jackpots, in the flesh.
posted by dr_dank at 7:15 AM on November 19, 2017


I thought he was a tulpa?
posted by panama joe at 8:52 AM on November 19, 2017 [1 favorite]


I've met him, albeit briefly, after a screening of one of his movies. He is extraordinarily nice. He's also very religious, which created a problem when he started playing monsters and demons, but he seems to have worked it out.
posted by maxsparber at 11:44 AM on November 19, 2017


"I wilted at that news," Jones recalled. "I had the foresight to know that if I'm voiced over by somebody more famous than me, the thought [would be], Oh, okay, he must not be able to act. I was fighting that stigma. … It was a big deal and a big character, and now I'd have to explain that for the rest of my life."

I have to confess, this is exactly what I always assumed about Jones -- that he was some sort of mime or dance artist with the right physique for monster costumes. So I learned something from this article.

Actually, two things -- David Hyde Pierce has gone way up in my estimation too:

Two weeks later, del Toro called Jones to tell him that David Hyde Pierce would be performing the voice of Abe Sapien. Jones burst into tears.

"I'm not going to try to act like I was bigger than I am," he said. "I was crestfallen."

[...]

Regardless of the reason, Pierce ultimately declined to take a credit on the film "out of respect for Doug," said del Toro. The director even recalled Pierce saying during his recording session, "I want to try to sound like Doug."

"People don't do that," Jones said, still clearly touched 13 years later. "I never would have expected it or asked for that."

posted by rollick at 12:46 PM on November 19, 2017 [10 favorites]


Buy me a beer sometime to hear my pitch for a father son comedy starring Doug Jones and John Waters.

Tell me you can't see it. You can't do it.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:47 AM on November 20, 2017


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