Dreamy
Jay Hernandez returns to theatres this week when he stars in Eli
Roth’s much anticipated follow-up to CABIN FEVER, HOSTEL. Hernandez
burst on the scene four years ago in CRAZY/BEAUTIFUL, and most
recently drew acclaim for his performance in FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS.
In HOSTEL, he plays a young American tourist whose
drug-fueled Slovakian sexcapade soon goes horribly wrong. Last
week he stopped by the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills to talk about
his foray into the horror genre. Warning
– there are several spoilers
scattered throughout.
JAY
HERNANDEZ
How
were you approached for this film and what made you say yes?
I
was approached when Eli or somebody got the script to my agent and
he sent it to me. He
read it, actually Jim Toth and Kelly Tippon – they both read it. Jim
loved it and Kelly hated it. She was like, “Don’t do this.
It’s horrible, it’s disgusting, it’s not good for you.” And
Jim was like, “Dude, I love this thing.
You gotta do it. It’s
gonna be awesome.” So I read it and I responded the same way Jim
did. I was like, “He really goes for it.” Because
I had read a couple other scripts and they were, you know, it’s
what you expect, you know what I mean? So we set up a meeting.
I meet Eli and we talked about it.
After meeting him and reading the script and seeing his
excitement about it – he just had everything; it seemed like he
had every already shot planned out and cut in his head. I knew he
was very thorough and he talked about some of the locations that he
scouted. I knew Quentin
was involved and it just seemed like a really cool movie. It’s
something exciting to do, something different; it’s a nice
departure from all the nice guys I have played so I was like yeah,
I’m up for it. Let’s
do it.
As
an actor of your age, what percentage of the scripts that you get
are horror/slasher films?
Recently
there’s been a lot of them. I don’t know, as far as a
percentage, 30%. (laughs) But there was a lot, though.
Every studio is trying to get one out because it seems that
they’re making a lot of money.
So
what set this one apart, what made it more disturbing or f*cked
up than the other ones?
There
was stuff that got cut out, too, stuff that would have definitely
have pushed it over the rating that we got, which we didn’t
expect, maybe. I just thought that it was like no holds barred.
And then Eli told me, he’s like, “I’m sticking to it.
I’m not gonna change it. I’m gonna shoot my movie. I’m
not going to let them mess with me and try to take some of it out so
they can broaden the audience. I’m going to make a horror film and
gonna do it all the way. f*ck
that, I’m doing it.”
What
did you think about the original ending being changed?
I
thought it was good. It’s just the tone of it. You set the
audience up for that type of ending and when it didn’t happen, it
was kind of a letdown, I think, for the audience. And when we
re-shot it and I saw it put together, I though, “Nah, this works;
this is the right piece of the puzzle.
This is what it was missing.” I liked it better, actually.
What
was the original ending?
Well,
I don’t know, should I give it away? What do you think?
Yeah, it’s fine; it’ll be on the DVD, probably. Instead
of killing the guy, I go in and kidnap his daughter, the only thing
in life that that’s like pure and what he loves. That was like his
life, his daughter. So I
get off the train and follow him into the restroom and it makes you
think I’m going to do something to the guy, but I actually kidnap
his daughter. There’s a shot of me like on the train leaving with
my hand over her mouth. It’s
kind of ambiguous because you don’t know if I’m actually going
to hurt her or if I’m going to save her. So it leaves on that
note, is he going to kill her or is he trying to save her from this
monster, you don’t really know.
And
you shot that?
Yeah.
Will
it be on the DVD?
Probably,
yeah. Probably.
Can
you talk about some of the scenes that were cut?
They
were never shot. There was one scene where the guy was torturing –
it’s pretty sick – he was torturing and the level of excitement
was such that he had a pretty good erection going on. (laughs) How
do you feel about that, huh? Pretty
sick, dude.
Do
you think this guy will be ok in the end, like if we caught up to
him ten years later?
Who’s
that, Eli?
No,
your character.
No,
he’s twisted. He’s scarred for life, you know what I mean?
He’s killed a number of people.
Who knows what’ll happen.
So
why did you immediately think of Eli when you were asked the
question?
Because
he’s disturbed. I
figure ten years from now he may be locked up in a padded room.
What
gave you that impression?
The
script. Did you guys see the movie? (laughs) The hard-on under the
guy torturing. That’s
pretty sick.
Did
anything freak you out while you were shooting?
I
would say being in that institution, that psych ward, or whatever it
was. That was really
creepy because that was a real place the early 1900’s. There were
these underground rooms that hadn’t been lived in and inhabited
for 60, 70 years or something. Who
knows. I keep saying this, but it’s true.
It really freaked me out. There was this one room, I walked
off set, just trying to get some fresh air and there was this huge
room that had these hooks on the wall. I was asking some of the guys
what those hooks were for, and nobody could give me an answer. To
this day I still don’t know what those hooks were for.
Something was being hung up there, was it bodies? Was it
meat? I don’t know.
Do
you feel emotionally affected coming out of the whole experience?
After
the torture scene, I was glad it was done, that I got through it. I
felt like I had been tortured. Me and Derek talked about it and he
felt the same way; cause it’s like a couple days in that chair,
handcuffed, and you’re struggling and trying to get out, and
bruises develop. So with
every move, you feel pain. You’re yelling, and emotionally
you’re in this place where it hurts.
It was rough those couple of days. When that was over it was
like a huge weight lifted off my back.
Do
you have any stories about hanging out in Prague?
Yeah,
I’ve got a funny story about Derek.
It’s not a bad story. I’m not going to give all his
personal stuff away. We were on the street and we were trying to
exchange some money, and we go to the exchange place and there’s a
guy standing outside. He says “I’ll give you a better rate,”
with this cheesy Czech accent and so Derek says, “Ok, what’s the
rate?” He looks at me and says, “Should I take it?” And I say.
“I don’t know, I don’t care; if he’s giving you more money
for a $100 bill, as long as it’s cool, as long as it’s legit.”
He does it and the guy gives him a $2000 bill, which neither of us
had ever seen.
So
he’s looking at this thing, the guy walks off, but something is
still bothering him about it. He says, “I’m going to try to
break this,” and we go into the exchange place. He shows it to the
lady and asks if he can have change for it and she points up to a
sign on the wall that has the same bill and it says, “This is not
Czech money. Don’t
accept this on the street.” And so he looks up there, and says,
“Oh shit,” and so we run out of the door to try and get this
guy. Basically, he gets
one hundred dollars taken from him.
So
a few weeks later, about three weeks later, we’re walking down the
street and see that same f*ckin’ dude in front of a money exchange
place, and I said, “Derek, that’s the guy.” So I walk up to
him and he says, “Hey, do you want to exchange money?” And I
think, what am I going to do to this guy? I’ve got to get back the
money. So I just reacted and grabbed the guy by his shirt and
started cussing in his face – “You better give me back that f*ckin’
money,” and I’m shaking him.
(laughs) The guy must have been kind of freaked out. The guys
says, “I didn’t take your money,” and so I say, “Yes you
did, like three weeks ago.”
And
so he says, “No, no, not me; how much did I take from you?” I
say “If you’ve got to ask that question, than you did.”
(laughs) So he says, “Ok, ok,” and reaches in his pocket and
gives him this huge wad of money. And so I turn to turn to Derek and
say, “I got your money back!” True story.
What
does your family think of this film?
That’s
funny – everyone asks me that. My
parents were both at the screening. And I told my mom…I really
didn’t want them to go because of all the stuff that was in there.
I just didn’t know how they were going to react. I let her know
what was going on and she’s like, “Yeah, I had to cover my eyes
for some scenes, but I really liked it.”
For
the violence stuff or the sex stuff?
Probably
both. I’m her little boy, you know what I mean? (laughs) It’s
funny, cause my dad is a straight dude, he doesn’t cuss, really
straight guy. I asked him after we got out of the screening, “Come
on, Pop, what did you think of the movie?” He
looked at me and said, “It was weird.” (laughs) That was his
reaction. It was classic.
If
there was a Hostel sequel, would you do it?
Yeah,
I wouldn’t pass on that. I’ve already heard murmurs about that,
so it’s a possibility so we’ll see.
So
was Quentin on set at all?
No,
he was more involved in the script, developing the script and
reaping the benefits.
Can
you talk about the Oliver Stone movie you’re doing?
Yeah,
it’s about 9/11. It
follows Port Authority officers on the day of 9/11. I play a guy,
Dominic Bazulo. After
the first plane hit the Tower, the guys go in and try to get people
out of there, try to save them. It’s a sensitive subject, cause
there are still family members that are there, husbands and fathers,
so it’s pretty sensitive. The main person the story is about is
Will Jimeno. He was a
Port Authority officer. He was on set practically all the time,
advising Oliver and myself and Mike (Pena) and Nicolas (Cage) and
everybody else. He’s trying to make it as real and as true to life
as possible.
How
weird is that walking into a set looking at that?
It’s
really strange; we started off in New York and we did about a month
there, and then we came here. The first day that I drove up to set,
there’s this huge yard and when you see those images of the
skeleton of the Trade Centers and they’re sticking up, that’s
what I saw walking into work. It’s
really eerie seeing that, a strange sort of feeling, but it’s
really good what they’ve done to reproduce that hole. It’s
pretty amazing.
Was
that hard going from this to that?
No,
it wasn’t difficult. The time that we spent in New York was
invaluable. We talked to
a lot of guys. I
actually went down to the locker rooms of the people that passed
away. The guy that I play, I went down and looked at his locker.
They kinda left it untouched, and they have a picture of him
there. It’s like,
Hostel, at that point, I’m not thinking about.
I’m like, “Damn, this is some real serious stuff,” and
I just want to try and honor these guys the best I can.
Questions? Comments? Manifestos? Send them to me at
thomasleupp@joblo.com.