Donald Pleasence Quotations

All the real work is done in the rehearsal period.

At the end of the first Halloween, when I shot 6 bullets into Michael Myers, John Carpenter said, Let's get a shot of you looking out of the window and seeing no one lying there.

John and I had a few meetings about what direction the sequel should take. I made some real insane suggestions. True to what you'd expect, he ignored them all and just picked up Halloween II where the original left off.

The idea of dying and coming back is what makes the Halloween films work.

I was offered a choice of a flat salary up front or a percentage of the film's future earnings. I took the up front money. Nobody could have figured what Halloween would ultimately become.

I think people have a tendency to read into more than there is.

At this point in my career, it doesn't bother me much that I'm probably hopelessly typecast. I like to work, and horror films definitely keep me working.

The first Halloween was very well made. The second one was also well made, though I didn't like it as well as the first one. The third one had nothing to do with the series at all and perhaps shouldn't have been made at all.

John Carpenter created the idea of Halloween, so his vision remains the most focused and intelligently directed of the series. The directors that have followed have kept the original intent of the concept.

I loved working with Jamie Lee Curtis, and I felt she was a wonderful actress even that early in her career.

I'm hardly physically right for the hero parts, now am I?

What can I tell you about things like Circus of Horrors except that I get killed by the bear?

I do think the story in Halloween 5 is a bit stupid, and there's a lot more blood. They're obviously going to take the Halloween series in a different direction.

I believe you can frighten people without showing their heads caved-in.

I do not use any set methods, not even The Method. The character after all is in the lines.

Continental directors, as opposed to British and American, tend to be somewhat high-handed in their approach.

I am not one of those actors who believes he has to live the part he is playing. I can turn it on and off.

I'm the sort of actor who likes to talk about what we're going to do.

It's gotten to the point where it's big news when I don't do a horror film.

The process of building a part doesn't really stop.

I don't really know how many films I've done, and I don't look at this as a race that I necessarily want to win. Nor is it a race that I want to stop running.

Loomis has always felt himself responsible for the fact that he did not stop Michael when he first murdered his sister, and so he's got that guilt to live with.

The play is on top of me all the time, and I am constantly thinking about it. Even when I leave the theatre, I'll mumble the lines to myself or think about the way the character walks or holds himself...

The process of creation goes on all the time. When I get through, I feel I know what the character will do in every situation. But the building up of the part is not mechanical or deliberate. It grows out of the text.

Ultimately, Halloween II was a little too violent for my tastes. It didn't have the intelligent quality and bloodless suspense of the original.

I don't know what I'm going to be doing after this film, but I'll be doing something before long. I just like to work, it's as simple as that.

John Carpenter liked my work, and he needed some kind of name for the picture. The script was good, and I immediately liked John, so I did it.

It's hard to play a continuing character like Loomis for nearly 11 years and simply wash your hands of him. It seems a pity.

I've taken some notes as I've gone through the years of playing this character. On the surface, Loomis appears to have been the classic nut case.

I have no problem taking their money and dancing their dance. I'm doing that on this film, right now. They just haven't realized it yet.

I had a feeling George Lucas would go on to do some wonderful things. Technically he knew everything about the business at a very young age.

I rather liked Death Line. All those zombies on the tube train thing was good fun, and it allowed me more of a comic turn than I am usually afforded.

I believe Halloween 4, despite the fact that I wasn't too thrilled with the makeup, was a return to the kind of thing that made the original so good.