Interview: Actor Bill Moseley for 3 FROM HELL

Bill Moseley is one of the most easily recognizable faces in the horror movie realm. His career has spanned across the decades over 100 films, with many of them attaining a cult-like status. His first big role was as Chop Shop in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, but he has gone on to play roles in The Devil’s Carnival, Repo! The Genetic Opera, and Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects. Now he will be reprising his role as Otis in the upcoming film from Rob Zombie titled 3 FROM HELL.

During our chat, we got some insight into what it was like stepping back into the role of Otis and work with the gang a third time around in 3 FROM HELL

First things first, what was it like to once again step into the shoes of Otis after 14 years? 

Bill Moseley: I was a little psyched [out] at first because that’s a long time in-between. It took almost a year and a half, a little bit more, to grow that beard, so there was kind of a slow osmosis going on as the beard grew. When I got to set I was still Bill Moseley, the insecure Hollywood actor, for maybe a day or two. [At one point] I was doing a mini-monologue and I kept tripping over the lines during the first couple takes and Rob [Zombie] was looking at me and I just said, “Give me a second here.” We were sitting down and I was just kind of telling myself to take it easy when all of a sudden I heard this voice saying, “Get out of the way Bill, let me do this” and it was basically the voice of Otis just saying “Hey Hollywood actor, get out of the way, let Otis handle this one” and that’s exactly what I did (laughs). I had that moment of just kind of saying you’re right to the character and after that everything went rather smoothly.

Bill Moseley as Otis Firefly in the horror film, 3 FROM HELL, a Lionsgate/Saban Films release | Photo courtesy of Lionsgate/Saban Films

Early on we see Otis having a rather significant run-in with an enemy of his, Rondo Chavez, played by Danny Trejo, from The Devil’s Rejects. What was it like to link up again for this film?

Bill Moseley: That was a ball! I actually had a lot of fun doing that. I’ve worked with Danny a bunch of times so we are certainly familiar with one another. The fact that I get to finish off Rondo – you know, the one thing that motivates the Driftwood’s and the Firefly’s, if nothing else, is revenge. The idea that here’s that son of a bitch, along with Diamond Dallas Page (played by Billy Ray Snapper), who put a hurt on my family, and me for that matter, that was all the motivation I needed. Working with Danny, he’s a total pro, so it was a lot of fun to work with him. It was two guys out there in the middle of nowhere just having some fun.

I recently got to speak with your co-star Richard Brake who mentioned that he did a lot of improvising to try and make you laugh. How was that experience for you and were you able to do a lot of improvising?

Bill Moseley: I remember two great scenes we did. One is when we are in a motel room as Baby (played by Sheri Moon Zombie) is going off to find her fun and I suggest that Foxy (played by Richard Brake) and I play Go Fish, so we played that game. Then we were just talking and Rob trusts us and likes us both so he just let us go for it. Richard, as Foxy, with his ambitions of being some kind of a porno guy, that was so funny. We were all just cracking up, it was really the funniest thing I’ve ever heard (laughs). Then of course, the second instance was when the Bounty Hunters surprise Foxy in the wood and he starts going off on his weird riffs. The female bounty hunter, played by my real-life wife Lucinda Jenney, was so funny because Richard was so weird in his weird rap, that she started improvising to her partner “Shoot him, just shoot him” (laughs). He really added such a great dimension, he was so funny, just really right there. He was the perfect 4th wheel for the Driftwood and Fireflys.

(L-R) Richard Brake, Sheri Moon Zombie, Bill Moseley and Director Rob Zombie on the set of the horror film, 3 FROM HELL, a Lionsgate/Saban Films release | Photo courtesy of Lionsgate/Saban Films

Lastly, what was it like to reunite with Rob Zombie again? 

Bill Moseley: Oh, it was great, it’s a lot of fun! Obviously, we did some prep work and [we] had some dinners and discussions and read his script a few times up at his place. So we had all of that in place. I hadn’t worked with him in awhile and it just absolutely fell right back into place, it was very comfortable. I love working with Rob because he’s a writer/director so he’s not trying to interpret someone else’s ideas, he knows what he wants and that makes it a lot easier in terms of if we improv stuff and if we have questions about the scenes. It’s not so much what’s my motivation, you know the actor cliche, but just where are we going with this, what are we doing, etc. he’s just very easy to work with. That actually makes the actor’s job a lot easier. Sometimes there’s a typical director that might add to the tension and it’s a tense story and then having to work with a director that’s making you feel a certain way but with Rob it was smooth sailing. We’ve done this now for a long time and we know these characters pretty well.

Tickets for the September 16th, 17th, 18th nationwide release of 3 FROM HELL are available at FathomEvents.com/3FromHell.

Shannon McGrew
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