Casey At The Bite

Let Me In’s Elias Koteas talks unlikely inspiration, and his days as Ninja Turtle ally Casey Jones.

He may be a cop-with-no-name type in Let Me In, the upcoming vampire flick starring Kick-Ass's Chloe Moretz...but he was once an ally of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Meet Elias Koteas...

GeekChicDaily: Since your character in the movie doesn’t have a name, as an actor do you come up with one in your head, or does it inform playing it more as a cipher?

Elias Koteas: The way I remember it...it almost feels like he’s a ghost, bearing witness to events, so the fact that he’s nameless is perfect, you know? It almost seems that he’s somehow retracing steps in a life that he had, trying to figure out what happened...that’s the approach that I took. So to me it was kind of fun that way, the fact that I was “The Policeman.” The funny thing as actors is that the little things that open doors might not have anything to do with the story. I was reading a lot of Abraham Lincoln, and fell in love with Abraham Lincoln, and the fact of malice toward none, and compassion. There was just something about that life that somehow allowed me to observe. I don’t even know how to make the connection, but there was a connection. You can use anything as long as it grounds you. It was fun wearing a mustache and the glasses too.

GCD: Looking over your filmography, there’s stuff like LET ME IN, CRASH, SHUTTER ISLAND, THE KILLER INSIDE ME, that’s not just dark material but kind of pushes the boundaries of what we consider to be allowable by Hollywood standards, whether it’s kid sexuality or having a protagonist who’s a sociopath...is there a conscious effort on your part to do that?

EK: I don’t think about that, you know, I don’t. It’s what comes in front of me at the time. I wish there was a rhyme or reason. You could think about, you know, the universe provides you with what you need to work on, so is there something subliminally about my energy that I need to be a part of the story? It’s a question I ask myself. But they’re a lot of fun, you know what I mean? A part of myself, deep down inside I feel like I’m a freak. I fell in love watching Dracula, Frankenstein, Hunchback of Notre Dame, King Kong, Cyrano de Bergerac...there was something about these guys, these energies.

GCD: On the opposite end of the spectrum, what was it like acting opposite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

EK: It was a lot of fun, man, it was very liberating. The one thing I remember is that it was such cutting-edge technology at that time that you’d do as many takes as you’d have to, to get the mechanics right. You’re doing it 16, 20 times, and then finally the mechanics begin to work well, so you had to pace yourself. But it was a hoot, it was fun, a great bunch of people, and there’s always a high-level of make-believe, you know? Swinging through trees, fighting giant turtles, and you know what? I get stopped in the street more for that than for anything else, and it’s so sweet. It’s a beautiful thing.

GCD: And you got your own action figure as a result.

EK: Yeah. Six foot two, 235 pounds, that’s what it said on the bottom of the package.

GCD: Did you see the CG sequel with Chris Evans doing the role?

EK: No, I didn’t. Chris Evans? Good for him. I guess he had the right voice and timbre. Can you believe that was twenty years ago? Back when the hair was flowing down to the shoulders. Seems like a different person when I watch that. But I remember it clearly as if it was yesterday; what a time it was. The first one, the [turtle] suits were much heavier and bulkier, and the wiring was more visible, so it was just learning as we were going along. And then they honed it, and moved it along, and by the third one, it was like, whoa, they considerably advanced the technology. But it was great, getting in shape for the first time in my life.

When I see clips of it, I still think it’s well done, it’s really true to the comic book, it was dark. It didn’t feel cheesy. I just think they should get the original people, and see how they’ve evolved, get the original April (Judith Hoag) or Paige (Turco), see what Casey Jones is doing now…

Let Me In opens Oct. 1, 2010.

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