INT: Tobin Bell

Last Updated on July 28, 2021

Horror
fans can rejoice this week as the badass Jigsaw returns for another go-round in SAW
II. Tobin Bell’s
performance as the misanthropic puppet master in the original SAW helped
establish Jigsaw as an iconic horror villain on par with Freddy and Jason.
It remains to be seen whether SAW will be an enduring horror franchise
like A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET or FRIDAY THE 13TH, but it’s already clear that
the film has helped invigorate the genre.

Check out
what Tobin had to say about Saw II.

Tobin
"Jigsaw" Bell

What
was the challenge of this role for you?

It’s the
same challenge as any other role that you play. 
I mean, all of you know what you’ve done since you woke up this
morning; it’s filed away inside you.  You
know the relationship with your mother, you know your relationship with your
significant other, you know how much trouble you had parking the car, whether
the shower was hot or not – it’s all just filed away. 
Well, an actor has to say things.  If
you don’t know what you’re saying, you can get away with that once or twice,
but you need to know what he means by everything that he says. 
When I say you can get away with it once or twice, suggesting something,
but you’ll go quite mad if you try to make a career out of not knowing what
someone means when they say they’re exhausted or they say they resent
something or they say they’re in love or whatever they are. 
What are they specifics?  Who
are they?  What are they? 
What do they want?  When do
they want it?  How are they going to
get it?  It’s that simple?

Do you
relate at all to your character?

Yeah. 
Jigsaw is a person who, like all of us, has some complaints about life
and about the way human beings are to one another. 
But he, for whatever reason, he’s a study in…we need to caution
ourselves to not let our own concerns, our own perspectives affect our behavior
in a way…whatever our perception of the world is and all that, you can take
that to the nth degree or you can have some sort of sense of yourself, some sort
of moral fiber that prevents you from crossing a particular line. 
That doesn’t mean you’re not disturbed by what people do to one
another or whether people appreciate their lives or people who throw their
blessings away.  You notice those
things and you see those things, but the way that you behave related to your
resentment of that, most people have a sensibility of where the line is and they
pull back from that line and realize that it’s not all about them and their
perspective, that there’s a whole world out there.

When
did you first realize that there was such a huge fan base for your character?

I don’t
really think about that.  I suppose
somebody said something to me like what you just said, like perhaps a producer
or an agent…

You’ve
never gone online to see what people say?

No. 
I try not to dwell on that sort of thing. 
There are some things that I have some control over and some things that
I don’t.  And one of the things
that I feel best about regarding this film is that when I was working on the
film, I was having a particular kind of experience working with Donnie Wahlberg
and that experience that we were having made itself into the film; it did not
disappear.  And that’s the only
thing I can do anything about.  The
rest of it is up to somebody else.  Whether
the film is a success or not a success – obviously I would like it to be. 
People ask me questions like how does it feel to be an icon, like Freddy
or this or that?  And that’s all
kind of the business end of show business.  I
don’t think of things in those terms; I think of things more specifically in
terms of what I can get my hands around and how I can make a different. 
Some of these things are fascinating; they’re certainly an interesting
part of the business if you’re gonna be a producer or…

But
does it scare you when fans come up and ask you about this role?

No. 
It’s no scarier than…fans in general are really nice. 
They are just great people.  They’re
enthusiastic, they’re happy, they’re warm. 
So I am grateful for their interest and affection. 
Beyond that….I’m not one of these guys who brings a character home. 
It’s not to say that that might not be appropriate in some
circumstances.  I studied with Lee
Strasberg and Ellen Burstyn at The Actor’s Studio in New York. 
There are different ways of approaching roles. 
Some people get involved in the emotional aspects of characters. 
Have I given a great deal of thought to…of course Jigsaw doesn’t do
any of this.  My subjects choose
their own fate.  If they play the
game by the rules, than they’ll survive.

How
much input did you have into John’s backstory?

John’s
backstory is entirely…there’s not a lot of discussion about that. 
It’s like when I played the Nordic in The Firm. 
You’ve got a long-haired blonde guy – the only non-lawyer in the film
– who’s a tail.  He stands out
like a sore thumb.  How does an actor
justify what that guy is doing in Memphis, Tennessee? 
It took me 130-something pages of hand-written notes to come up with why
he’s there and how he got there.  Did
that make it into the film?  Maybe
the actor doesn’t look insane because he knows.

Did you
do that for this film?

Oh, of
course.  A good place to start is
with the text, because you need to know what he means. 
You come up with one question and that gives you an answer to that
question, but it often actually gives you two answers. 
It’s either this or it’s this.  And
you choose one and that’ll pose two more questions. 
It’s like a multiplying factor.  You
start out with one question and it becomes two. 
That becomes four and that becomes eight. 
And so there’s never an end to the number of questions. 
The questions just continue until the camera starts to roll. 
And then you hope you answered enough of them so that you know where
you’re coming from.

Would
you want to do a Saw 3?

I want to
do anything that’s well-written, that reveals something of the human
condition, that provides growth for the material as well as the actors.
Great opportunity.

Where
would you like to see it go?

Well,
I’d like to get the hell out of the layer. (laughs)
Even briefly.

A road
trip for Jigsaw?

A road
trip. Jigsaw’s Road Trip – there you
go. Me and Ken Kesey. 

Questions? Comments?
Manifestos? Send them to me at [email protected].