Even though his name might not be widely known yet, I guarantee you've seen David Dastmalchian on the big screen at least once before. In an acting career that's already bordering on legendary, the man knows how to pick a project that will enhance his idiosyncratic brilliance into something truly remarkable. Whether he's a supporting character or a leading man, Dastmalchian is always memorable.
I mean, this is an actor whose first film set was "The Dark Knight" when he played The Joker's giggling psychopathic henchman Thomas Schiff. Just some of his other film credits include multiple films with Denis Villeneuve, including "Prisoners," "Blade Runner 2049" and playing Piter De Vries in "Dune" as well as Kurt in the first two "Ant-Man" movies, "Polka-Dot Man" in James Gunn's "Suicide Squad" and, more recently, supporting roles in "The Last Voyage of the Demeter" and "Oppenheimer."
Dastmalchian's newest film has him front and center, carrying every single frame of the movie with what looks like an effortless confidence. The film is "Late Night with the Devil," a genuinely fun and spooky flick about Jack Delroy (Dastmalchian) a late-night talk show host in 1977 whose show is struggling in the ratings and very close to getting canceled. The structure of the film is that it's the master tape of the Halloween evening episode of the show, which just so happens to land on the first night of sweeps week. Delroy is desperate for good ratings and has an episode packed to the gills with psychics, skeptics and a young girl who is apparently possessed by a demon.
Without delving into spoilers, "Late Night with the Devil" is handily the best horror film of the year so far and the creepiest possession movie since 2013's "The Conjuring." Written, directed and edited by the great Cameron and Colin Cairnes, the film has delicious '70s vibes, a charismatic and complicated lead performance by Dastmalchian and such batshit insanity in the third act that make "Late Night" a ridiculously entertaining throwback to the best of Vincent Price and Bela Lugosi.
This is kinda the perfect movie to show to friends and family who are just starting to dip their toes into the horror genre and don't feel like getting mentally destroyed just yet. But, as fun as the film is, Dastmalchian gives Jack Delroy such an empathetic and heartbreaking center that "Late Night" never strays into disposable entertainment. Go see it with a room full of people and I can guarantee you an absolute blast at the theater.
I had 15 minutes to chat with Dastmalchian and it was a delight. Here's what we talked about...edited for space.
Source Weekly: One of the things I thought was so fascinating about your character of Jack Delroy was that he started in radio before becoming a talk show host. When you were going into building the character, did you start from a place of coming up with a radio voice or a different kind of voice first?
David Dastmalchian: That's really interesting. I didn't think about it that way. What I did think about, though was the Chicago roots, the fact that he was a local guy. But there's a musicality, there is a tenor to the voice of a late-night talk show host in the '70s that does come from that tradition of radio. So, I don't think consciously that I did that, but what I did do consciously was try to capture that jazz that I feel like those talk show hosts had in their delivery. It's like watching stand up from the '70s and early '80s, like watching Johnny Carson do his monologues or watching Dick Cavett talk to the camera. It's just a different style, right? Yeah, I didn't even think about that, but you're right. I do think I could do a decent job if I was like, in radio, you know?
SW: I know that you have a deep love of the old horror movie show hosts, and you brought that level of comfort and trust where you're like, "I know you're gonna show me something bad, but since you're with me, I guess it's OK."
DD: You know what's crazy, dude? If you, if anybody out there realizes the Cairnes Brothers let me throw a little improv nod to Svengoolie, one of the greatest horror hosts of all time, in the opening monologue. I give a shout-out to my parents back in Berwyn, Illinois, which is where Sven is from. I love horror books, I love that whole culture. I love that subgenre. The gallows humor and all that was stuff that I wanted to infuse into "Late Night with the Devil and Jack Delroy."
SW: I was trying to describe the film to somebody recently and I remembered back when "Drag Me To Hell" came out, Sam Raimi described the movie as a Spook-A-Blast and that was the first time I'd ever heard that description. I think "Late Night with The Devil" is totally a Spook-A-Blast because it takes you on a trip, but it's fun and scary instead of deeply wounding and psychological, you know?
DD: (laughs) Can that be your headline please?
SW: (laughs) That it's a Spook-A-Blast? I think it can be, for sure!
DD: 'Dave Dastmalchian is excited that people are calling this movie a Spook-A-Blast! I am so excited because it does all the things that I want to do with movies. I have my own company, Good Fiend films. We're co-producers on this film. I think that taking genre and giving an audience an opportunity to be scared, entertained, to laugh, to escape, but also to think about and wrestle with really complicated ideas is possible through the magical medium that is movies.
SW: Could you tell from reading the script that tonally it was gonna have those vibes to it?
DD: Yes, the Cairnes Brothers accompanied the script when they sent it to me with this beautiful look book that they had been working on for a long time, which they had cobbled together all this collaging of imagery and ideas from the '70s. They even made it look like an old TV Guide from the '70s. They photoshopped my face into stuff. I was like, oh, these guys get it, man. They get it. This is like one of those made for TV horror movies of the '70s, like "Burnt Offerings," you know?
SW: Right, that's great. Or, like, you've seen "Night of the Scarecrow?"
DD: "Dark Night of the Scarecrow?" Yeah, man. Charles Durning was that shitty mailman (laughs) Oh, what a monster. I love that guy. He also was an incredible Doc Hopper [in "The Muppet Movie."] I love Charles Durning. I wish I got to see him do "The Gin Game" in Chicago as a theater actor. He was always inspiring to me. I wanna play roles like that and I wanna make movies like that, and I think that "Late Night with the Devil" is an homage to that kind of energy.
SW: Going off what you just said...do you have a bucket list theatrical role that you wanna play in your career?
DD: You know, I would love to play Tilden in "Buried Child" 'cause I played Vince when I did it before. Oh man, I also dream of playing Jacques in "As You Like It." To give that 'all the world's a stage' speech and do it with like a long cigarette, maybe staring out into the audience (laughs). I dunno. I would love to play that. I'm probably getting too old now. That makes me sad now that I think about it. I always thought I would get a shot at Mitch in "A Streetcar Named Desire." I think that Mitch is one of the most beautiful, heartbreaking characters Tennessee Williams ever wrote. I always wanted to play Mitch, but I didn't, I didn't do it yet. Maybe someone will take a chance on me.
SW: I'd love to see you in the "Pillowman" playing Katurian.
DD: I love that play!
SW: I directed that play here in Bend and it was kind of the best experience I've ever had doing theater in my life.
DD: Let's make that happen. Let's make it happen. I need to do "Pillowman."
SW: I also wanted to thank you so much for making the film "Animals." That movie kind of hit me at a time where I really needed to see it and I would love to know if you're writing anything else because, since maybe "Withnail & I," I don't think I've seen a movie about addiction that felt so honest to me. I think you show fearlessness in your performances that I think is astonishing. I keep going back to "Animals" because that movie feels like a raw nerve that just gets stepped on over and over again.
DD: Thank you for saying that. I wanna always bring everything that I personally can from my own journey into every story that I tell, whether it's a genre piece or just a straight up indie drama. I have a new film that we're very close to pre-production on. I'm partnering with Fangoria Studios and an incredible director named Erica Scoggins out of Chattanooga, Tennessee called "Hide Your Eyes" and it goes back into the darkness and depths of addiction, but it also deals with the complicated times that we're living in; thinking about bodily autonomy and the shadow that lives within each of us. I'm excited to hopefully be getting into production this year on that movie with my company Good Fiend. So, keep your fingers crossed.
SW: Your first film set was "The Dark Knight," so starting with such a giant experience like that, when you're going onto a new set, do you still feel nervous and all the pressure?
DD: Oh no, I always get the nerves. I can never sleep the night before the first night of filming. I still get scared. And I think that's a good thing. I don't think anything is worth doing in this world, especially not art, unless it scares the living shit out of us. So, I'm just gonna keep trying my best to gather the courage and walk through the fear just like I did the first day I went to "The Dark Knight," just like I did the first day I went to "Late Night with the Devil," just like I'm gonna do on every project that comes up. It scares me and I think that's a good thing.
