Chuck Russell is considering making more Indian films

Chak made his debut in Indian cinema with the 2019 film Junglee starring Vidyut Jammwal and Akshay Oberoi. “I already wanted to work with Aamir Khan. He knows this, I have met him. And Shahrukh Khan. I got a chance to work with Akshay (Oberoi) and my cast in Junglee was great.

“I love working with different cultures and talents that are new to me. So, the whole of India is new to me. I am going to learn something new by working with Indian actors,” Chak told PTI in an interview.

The director was speaking on the sidelines of a masterclass at Film Bazaar 2024, which runs parallel to the International Film Festival of India (IFFI). Asked which Indian film he watched recently, Russell said, “I liked RRR, it was really good.”

On the shooting of The Mask

The 66-year-old also reminisced about the set of 1994’s The Mask. The superhero comedy that brought Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz to international fame celebrated 30 years of release in July.

Based on a popular American comic, The Mask stars Jim as Stanley Ipkiss, an ordinary man who discovers a magical wooden mask that transforms him into a green-faced troublemaker who can transform himself and his surroundings at will. Can be converted into a cartoon.

Chuck said one of his strongest memories of The Mask shoot was when the team filmed the Cuban Pete dance number with Jim, who also sang for the film. The director said that Jim came down with the flu the night they were to shoot the scene but the actor acted like a true professional.

“We were in the backlot of, I think it was Warner Bros., which was fun for me… It was a huge honor to work with the studio. We had to do this dance number and Jim was sick. He had the flu, he was I was like, ‘Oh my God, it was a night shoot, is it ready?’

Luckily, Chick said Cameron was next to Jim and holding his head.

“We were all friends. I told Jim, ‘I’m a professional, you’re a professional, we have insurance, you’re sick, we can take the night off.’ He said, ‘No, no, I want to do this.’… Playing The Mask gave him strength.

“He was tough. The old saying is ‘the show must go on.’ It was old-time showbiz. That dance number was about the 1940s, the character was vibrant and it gave it strength, I was very impressed (by it).”

return to horror

The director, who made his directorial debut with the 1987 horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and then helmed the cult classic film The Blob, recently returned to the genre with Witchboard. He said, comedy and horror are similar fields.

“I treat them the same way as a director. In a good story, it’s about setup, suspense and a good payoff. In comedy, we’re getting laughs, in horror, we’re getting screams. And it’s “What works on a large scale in the script and in small ways in the moments we filmed, where are the laughs, where are the screams, where is the tension and liberation?”

Horror is popular right now because “the world is in crisis,” he said.

“We are reading terrible stories on the Internet and in newspapers. Many of them are true, many of them are not true. We don’t even know what to believe. You watch a scary movie, you forget everything, You face all your fears.

“If you are on a date, it is very romantic, you can protect your girlfriend or wife. You know you’ll get out alive, no matter how scary it is. The catharsis, the danger, it releases endorphins. As soon as you walk out of the movie theater, you forget your troubles for a while.”

Chuck, who is also known for the action films Eraser with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Paradise City starring Bruce Willis and John Travolta, said he put everything into Witchboard that he didn’t get the opportunity to do in his previous horror films. He said, “Maybe this is my last horror film, I don’t know.”