Fifteen years ago, the horror fan community was shocked to hear that four-time Jason Voorhees performer Kane Hodder had not been hired to reprise the role in the crossover event FREDDY VS. JASON – instead, the filmmakers chose to cast Canadian stuntman Ken Kirzinger (who had doubled Hodder in FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN and gets manhandled by Jason in that film) as the slasher. Even though the project was something they had been following the progress of for a decade as it made its way through development hell, there were some fans who said they were going to boycott FREDDY VS. JASON because Hodder wasn't in it.
Although I had fully expected Hodder to be the Jason who would throw down with fellow icon Freddy Krueger, I wasn't one of those outraged fans. Hodder had never been my favorite Jason, and after four movies with him in the role I was open to seeing how someone else would do behind the mask. When I did see FREDDY VS. JASON after all the folderol (and I saw that movie in the theatre twelve times), I thought it was amusing that Hodder actually was in it, just not as Jason.
Like Tom McLoughlin pitching Jason Meets Cheech and Chong and Adam Marcus's back story for Creighton Duke, this is information that has been out there for a while – in fact, fans on message boards were talking about Hodder's cameo during FREDDY VS. JASON's opening weekend. But it's information that's worth spreading even more, a fun piece of trivia that's good to have at your disposal. While doing an interview with We Got This Covered at the Astronomicon, Hodder brought up the fact that he is in FREDDY VS. JASON and pointed out where you can see him in it:
They say I wasn’t in Freddy vs. Jason. The filmmakers didn’t even know it, but I was in that movie. There was a scene where they’re at the insane asylum or whatever, the hospital, and there’s a movie playing on a TV set – and it happens to be Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3.
And there’s a scene of Leatherface doing something, and that’s actually me as Leatherface. I was the stunt double for R.A. Mihailoff for that movie and I was stunt coordinator. And so, they’re trying not to to put me in the movie, and I was still in it and they didn’t even know it.”
Yes, the movie that's spotted on a TV screen at the Westin Hills mental hospital during one scene is LEATHERFACE: TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE III, allowing Kane Hodder to show up in FREDDY VS. JASON as Leatherface. So if you hadn't spotted that cameo before, look for it next time you watch the movie.