RON PERLMAN

Since his 1981 debut, Ron Perlman’s carved out a career in movie monsters – most famously in Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy. But after swapping prosthetics for producing, he’s now unleashing a very different beast. As he brings us his conflicted oilman in The Big Ugly, Total Film meets an actor on the ride of his life.

- JAMES MOTTRAM

Should I start the video?” says Ron Perlman, his sonorous tones booming through Total Film’s speakers. Ah, the joys of lockdown Zoom interviews. But, suddenly, there he is – the actor famed for playing Hellboy. Wearing a black T-shirt, with a silver chain around his neck, Perlman sports a crop of white curled hair and a neat goatee around those rock-solid jowls. Looking lean and muscular, it’s hard to fathom he turned 70 in April.

Behind him, on his walls, are some artfully framed pictures – tasteful, though nowhere near as cool as the career TF has come to discuss. Ever since Perlman made his big-screen debut in Jean-Jacques Annaud’s 1981 prehistoric tale Quest For Fire – gaining a Genie nomination for his tribesman Amoukar – he’s been a unique presence in cinema. “Playing a role is like solving a crossword puzzle, taking abstract words on a page and breathing life into them,” he smiles. “I dig it.”

Born in New York, Perlman’s mother worked at the Department of Health, while his father was a repairman after a brief career as a drummer with swing musician Artie Shaw’s band. While he was inspired by his father’s foray into the arts, he didn’t have the discipline to become a musician. “I had to find an outlet that required no discipline and no real talent, which was acting,” he smirks. Those early years were tough, until Annaud’s offer of the hunchback in 1986’s The Name Of The Rose gave him hope.