Pheaturing Brad Dourif

Hey kids, welcome to the Phile for a Thursday. Yesterday was a scary day in America. Packages containing explosives were sent to President Obama, George Soros, the Clintons, John Brennan (via CNN's New York bureau), former Attorney General Eric Holder, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and the San Diego Union Tribune. The bombs intercepted by the Secret Service were "rudimentary but functional," which as CNN's Jake Tapper explains, means "the intent here was mass murder." It doesn't take a brilliant detective to connect the dots and note that all these attempts at terrorism were directed towards people that the president has declared to be enemies. Whether it's been leading "lock her up" chants about Hillary Clinton for three years now, defending the white supremacists who murdered a woman in Charlottesville as "very fine people," or celebrating a Montana congressman body-slamming a reporter, these attempted attacks seem like consequences of the president's incendiary rhetoric. One person who is not reacting to the news with condemnation towards the White House's culpability is the White House's own Ivanka Trump, who would very much like to seem that she's on the right side of this.

It turns out that a Trump is the last person people want to hear from after prominent Democrats and media institutions are attacked, and the post was promptly ratio'ed.The consensus seems to be, "Why are you telling Twitter, when you can tell your dad?" Something about Ivanka's tweet did not seem genuine. It could be the whole "working"-in-the-White-House-that-chants-threats-against-Hillary thing. Or could it be the "cheering on attacks on journalists" bit? The cool thing about President Trump is that it could be a whole number of things that could be viewed as the inciting violence. We can certainly count on the president to comfort the nation during this anxious time.
Remember Paula Abdul? She was the nice judge on a little show called "American Idol," which is kind of like "The Voice." Now she's back in the public consciousness by generously contributing to the best, most important genre of viral video: performers falling off the stage. Abdul was in Biloxi, Mississippi on her Straight Up Paula! tour when she accidentally got up close and personal with her audience by full-on plummeting off the platform. With the stage dive, Abdul joins such legendary entertainers as a high school Helen Keller and Kelsey Grammer. Despite having played Dr. Frasier Crane for literally twenty years, Grammer's most magnificent comedy moment is not launching eloquent barbs at his brother Niles over a glass of sherry but failing to look where he was walking. Let me see if I can show a screen shot...

Paula Abdul, I hope you're okay, and from the bottom of my heart: thank you for your service.
Stormy Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti has been using some tips from the Trump playbook to fight Trump, from establishing his own hashtags (#FightClub #Basta) to tweeting dirty to appearing on cable news every seven minutes. Now new documents allege that Avenatti also has a bit of a Trumpian approach to doing business: evading taxes and not paying his employees! The Daily Beast reports that Avenatti has some Trump-sized debts from his former projects: Both the Eagan Avenatti law firm and a shuttered Seattle coffee chain, which Avenatti says he no longer owns, owe millions in unpaid taxes and judgments, according to court documents and filings with local recorder’s offices... Civil court filings paint a picture of Avenatti as a hard-charging attorney who enjoyed the luxe life... jetting around the world to race cars with a Saudi prince and treating his wife and their friends to luxury villas in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Yet he and his companies owed hundreds of thousands in unpaid taxes and in compensation to one former colleague, who claims Avenatti stiffed him out of millions in law-firm profits. On Monday, a Los Angeles judge ordered that Avenatti pay $4.85 million in back pay to a former colleague, which is a significant amount of campaign funds. A shameless self-promoter living beyond his means while owing the government millions? I can already hear "Hail to the Chief"!
Remember this?

Apparently the Australian mining tycoon, Clive Palmer, does not. Spearheading the creation of a five hundred million dollar replica of the RMS Titanic by the Blue Star Line, Palmer plans the maiden voyage to be in 2022. In a statement, Palmer described the project, “Blue Star Line will create an authentic Titanic experience, providing passengers with a ship that has the same interiors and cabin layout as the original vessel, while integrating modern safety procedures, navigation methods and 21st century technology to produce the highest level of luxurious comfort. Titanic II is a unique project that will generate unprecedented international exposure and public interest.” An "authentic Titanic experience?" Does someone need to tell him that the original Titanic ended up at the bottom of the ocean on April 15th, 1912 and killed 1500 passengers and crew members, only four days into its maiden voyage? It was called "the ship of dreams," that ended in a full nightmare-by-iceberg, and nobody wants that to happen again. Plus, why tempt fate when we have this?

In case you're planning on playing a game of poker to win a ticket, the ship will have 18 fully-enclosed, motor driven lifeboats, all with a capacity of 250 people. Can I point out the director of the project's last name is uh, NOT A GOOD SIGN. Yikes. Good luck?
A woman who fell asleep during her flight on Southwest Airlines awoke to find the hand of the man next to her groping her breast. According to The Washington Post, the assaulter cited the president's "grab them by the pussy" remarks in his defense, an even more disgusting riff on Richard Nixon's famous line, "Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal." Federal prosecutors allege that Bruce Michael Alexander, 49, groped the woman on a flight from Houston to Albuquerque. According to the criminal complaint, the man said after being arrested that "the President of the United States says it’s okay to grab women by their private parts." Alexander was arrested by the FBI upon touching down in Albuquerque and was charged with abusive sexual contact. The maximum penalty for the charge is two years in jail and a $250,000 fine, but he could also get a presidential pardon. It's not the first time that the president's words have been evoked by criminals. Last June, a woman called a Hispanic man from California a "rapist" while attacking him and his mother. A Philadelphia mob boss evoked the president and said that "flipping" in criminal cases should be illegal. A recent study found that counties that went for Trump saw higher rates of bullying as kids feel empowered to act "presidential." Careful the things you say: children (and criminals) will listen.
So, sometimes people get their asses saved by a total stranger. Not all humans are the worst, people. For example, these young women who gained a new friend...

Do you love dogs? I love dogs but some dogs are assholes...

He's thinking, "I thought your purse was a treat." If I had a TARDIS I would like to go back to Sweden in 1967 for no particular reason. Knowing my luck though I'll end up right in the first morning after Sweden changed from driving on the left side to driving on the right.

What a fucking mess. I was thinking of getting a new tattoo or two but someone else had the same idea as me.

Damn him. Hahaha. You know what else makes me laugh? Old people wearing inappropriate t-shirts such as this old dear...

She looks like she would as well, am I right? I stayed in a hotel recently and glad the room didn't have an avant-garde television placement like this...

This feels like a hazard. Today's pheatured guest, Brad Dourif is the voice of the scary puppet Chucky. Well, in the latest movie Chucky has a whole different look...

Hahaha. Speaking of Chucky, did you know he is in a band? No? Check it out...

Told ya. Okay, so, one of the best things about the Internet is you can look at porn easily and for free. The problem with that is if someone has a blog or website it could bore you and you might leave such site and go and look at porn. Well, I thought to keep people reading the Phile I would show a porn pic. The problem with that though is what about if you're at school or work, I don't wanna get you in trouble. So, I came up with a solution.

You are welcome. It's Thursday, people, you know what that means...

That's gross. Hey, wanna play a game? Let's play...

Well, what is it? Potato or Amy Schumer? Thanks for playing. Hahaha. Okay, so, do you know what's the best? I will tell you...

If you hold them in, they'll just come out when you sleep even if you clenched your butt and held them in all day, the gas will escape once you relax. What's more relaxing than sleep? Alright, it's Thursday and what I do every Thursday is talk to my good friend Jeff about football.

Me: Hey, Jeff, welcome back to the Phile, How are you?

Jeff: Hey, Jason, always good to be back here on the Phile talking some football with you. I'm doing alright. Had a good weekend and now back to work for me. How about yourself?

Me: I'm doing good. So, I was at the Giants/Falcons game on Monday. What a fun "urban" experience. 2 Chainz was the half time show, have you heard of him?

Jeff: Yes, I know who 2 Chainz is. He did a song a few years ago when I think it was Pepsi hired artists to do a song about each football team. He did the Steeler song actually called "Black and Yellow." Did you have fun at the game? Sorry the Giants lost but we will get more into that a little bit later.

Me: Yeah, the game was a lot of fun and the whole experience... except for leaving the stadium afterwards. That wasn't fun. I got to see Eli Apple play his last game with the Giants. He was "banished" to the Saints. The move comes just hours after the team fell to 1-6 in a disastrous first season for coach Pat Shurmur and GM Dave Gettleman. What do you think of that?

Jeff: I'm thinking that yes, the Giants are in trouble this season. You could see it after last year's disaster and this year looks to be worse. There really is no reason to be this bad on offense. They have two great offensive weapons in Odell and Barkley (who is on my fantasy football team and kicking ass). They made the right move weeks ago released former # 1 pick Erick Flowers but it hasn't helped the team at all. You say Apple is banished to the Saints, but he's definitely on a better team now at least from a record stand point.

Me: Did you see the story of Broncos QB Chad Kelly arrested for criminal trespassing after being found on couch in a random woman's home?

Jeff: Yeah, I saw that. Never a good thing when you get so drunk you wind up in someone else's house. I know he's a young player, but you won't be around in the league for long with behavior like that!

Me: Back to the Giants... it was obvious Pat Shurmur is frustrated at Eli when he yelled "throw it to Odell" on a failed 4th down attempt. Do you think Eli is in trouble?

Jeff: I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Manning got benched again this season. Not that they have anyone on the bench that they can bring in and provide a spark to the offense.

Me: Okay, what NFL news do you have?

Jeff: We've seen a few trades this week, not just the Eli Apple one. The Cowboys got former first round draft pick of the Raiders WR Amari Cooper for a first round pick. Many people think they overpaid for him but time will tell with that one. The Browns also traded HB Carlos Hyde to the Jaguars. So three trades in one week is quite a few. The NFL isn't known for a lot of wheeling and dealing, especially mid season.

Me: Did you see Britain has taken over another team?

Jeff: The Atlanta Swoopy Little Blighters has a nice ring to it. Especially with that eye piece on it! 

Me: Hahaha. They did beat the Giants by 3. How did we do over the weekend? Am I still winning? 

Jeff: We both went 1-1 this week with a Steeler bye and a Giant loss. So you maintain your lead of 6 points. Again it would be a bigger lead if it wasn't for the Steelers doing half decently lately. You have a four game lead over me in the actual predictions.

Me: Oh, yeah! So, here's my pics for week 8. Vikings by 5 and Jags by 2. What do you say?

Jeff: My picks are Bears by 3 and Chiefs by 6.

Me: Okay, see you next Thursday.

Jeff: See you next week!

If you spot the Mindphuck let me know. Okay, so, there are a few common expressions you had no idea were homophobic AF. There's one I use often myself and that is "on the down low." Well, someone wants to come on to the Phile and tell us the real meaning of it. So, once again here is...

Hello, people. That term "keep it on the down low" originated in the black community as a lifestyle practiced by men who have sex with women publicly, and men in secret. Being on the “DL” is different from being closeted, because people in the lifestyle do not identify as gay or bisexual. It is also seen as a hyper-masculine rebellion against the white-dominated mainstream LGBT culture. So next time you have a secret and tell someone to “keep it on the down low,” you’re referencing a cultural movement that’s about a lot more than just being secretive. Bye for now.

I've gone a full year, maybe even two, without thinking about the state of Delaware.

The 89th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club is...

Ethan will be on the Phile next Thursday. I mentioned the attempted terrorist attacks in he monologue. Well, a friend of the Phile has something to say about it. He's a singer, patriot and renaissance man. You know what time it is...

Good morning, humans... explosive devices sent in the mail to the homes of George Soros, CNN, The Clintons and The Obamas... what the fuck is wrong with people? What the hell are you thinking? Have you all lost your fucking minds? Seems our political hysteria has come to this Some lunatic trying to teach the left a lesson. This type of thing has to stop... on both sides. I don’t care how adamant you are about your political beliefs... to engage in this type of behavior is nothing short of sheer lunacy. Now... I want this to be fully investigated by all law enforcement agencies in a non partisan manner. I want to find out the truth about who was responsible and why they did it. I want whoever did this to be made an example of. I hope and pray that this ends without anyone being hurt or killed. I hope this isn’t some right wing nutcase, trying to kill people. I hope whoever did this is strung up by their shoelaces... and I hope this isn’t a well engineered publicity stunt, perpetuated by the left in order to frame up the right. I want the truth and I want justice to be served. Because that’s what’s best for everyone.

Phact 1. Kim Jung Il wanted to make his father a quilt from the softest material in the world so he, with the help of the North Korean populace, killed 700,000 sparrows for their neck feathers. 

Phact 2. A long-forgotten neon lamp that was switched on during the Great Depression and left burning for about 77 years was discovered hidden behind the dusty partition of a cafeteria in Los Angeles. The fixture had been walled off and forgotten in a basement nook, where it proceeded to rack up over $17,000 in electrical bills. 

Phact 3. Pepsi is actually bigger in terms of revenue than Coca-Cola because majority of PepsiCo’s revenues no longer come from the production and sale of carbonated soft drinks. More than 60 percent of PepsiCo’s beverage sales came from its primary non-carbonated brands, namely Gatorade and Tropicana. 

Phact 4. The largest Chinese restaurant in the world seats 5,000 people, employs more than 300 chefs, and goes through 700 chickens and 200 snakes in a week. 

Phact 5. The James Bond movie You Only Live Twice was written by Roald Dahl.

Today's pheatured guest is an American actor. He was nominated for an Oscar, as well as winning a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for his supporting role as Billy Bibbit in the critically acclaimed film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. He is also the voice of Chucky in the Child's Play franchise. Please welcome to the Phile... Brad Dourif.

Me: Hey there, Brad, welcome to the Phile. How are you? 

Brad: I'm good, Jason. Thanks. 

Me: I think my son would think it's cool you are on the Phile. He likes the Chucky movies and scary movies. Not me. Anyway, how did you first get the role Charles Lee Ray in Child's Play? 

Brad: Hi to your son. I had done a movie with Tom Holland and he liked working with me. He called me up when I was working on a shoot and asked me if I wanted to do it and I said, "Sure. Yes." That's how excited I was. 

Me: So, were you supposed to do the voice of Chucky as well? 

Brad: What had happened was they were trying to get it done very quickly. I was on another shoot and I couldn't come in and do it. 

Me: So, you weren't the original voice of Chucky? 

Brad: They got somebody else and he did this kind of comedic version. They showed it to an audience and the audience hated it. A jokester Chucky shouldn't be funny, but he just wasn't menacing enough. The way I put it the one thing on the bottom line that Chucky has to be is somebody that will turn a human being into a piece of meat. He has to be a monster. All horror movies require a monster. Somebody once defined that to me as somebody with whom you cannot negotiate. He didn't have that. So, we redid it, I redid the whole thing and of course I gave them that. From then on I did the voice of Chucky. 

Me: So, you guys had to do the whole film or just the vocals? 

Brad: Well, I had done the vocals originally. They used that for the puppeteering. There were cases where they added dialogue during the shoot and I had to vocalize over that. It was very difficult. 

Me: So, I mentioned my son, do you have any kids? What do they think of you being Chucky? 

Brad: Well, my daughter walked into one of my recording sessions and it freaked her out. She was terrified. I had to run out of the studio and let her see I was all right, get her to calm down a little. She was very young. 

Me: Did she ever get over it and learn to love Chucky or was she scared of him her whole life? 

Brad: Her older sister is a horror freak and she really looks up to her older sister. I think she made herself get over it. I don't think she ever loved horror film like her sister. She just went along and trained herself out of it. 

Me: Wait... wasn't one of your daughters in Curse of Chucky? 

Brad: Yeah, her performance is wonderful in that. 

Me: What was it like filming a movie with your daughter? 

Brad: Well, we didn't rehearse together, we just did the read through actually. That was the only time we did it together. Fiona wasn't around when I did the original vocal for that. She thought she wasn't going to work with my voice because she felt like it'll just be daddy. But nope, I was Chucky to her. 

Me: So, when you first started recording for Chucky and now is the process still the same? 

Brad: Well, Don Mancini is directing them now. I can go in and do Chucky in a day, the whole movie in a day. Then the whole process becomes going in and redoing things and so forth. He did a lot of rewriting during the shoot. When he was looking at things he realized he needed to do that. Now normally it goes back for me going back and doing Don Mancini's performance of Chucky. And all he does is apologize profusely again and again and we do the best we can. 

Me: Do you do anything special to get into character, Brad? 

Brad: Ummm. No. It's because generally there's quite a bit of time between doing it. It's generally me working to get the voice right first and then containing on. Chucky for me is a very easy read, I know who Chucky is. There's not a lot of preparation in that. Of course, doing Cult of Chucky there were several Chucky's. The problem about that was something I could when I saw what was going on. All I could do was to try and figure out enough of the difference of attitude and enough of a difference of vocal timbre to make those scenes sort of work, We went through it one at a time and laid the vocals down. That way I could react to what the other one was doing and try to be different and do it differently. We sort of worked through it that way. Have you ever seen any of the movies? There's been seven, Jason. 

Me: Nope. Not one. Did you use an inspiration for Chucky's voice? 

Brad: Well, the origin was Charles Lee Ray. In the original one we had a lot more Charles Lee Ray, but when they cut together it wasn't really all that usable. The story didn't work as well. They cut and made it what it is now. At the time he was from Chicago so I tried to use a Chicago accent. I had a rehearsal period with the cast and did scenes with them, working with them as myself, squatting down and being little. I end of had an idea. I always thought I knew what Chucky was. I played a LOT of serial killers at that point and my feeling was there's a thing about the event... and in the sense when we were doing that sort of thing horror films in that day and age were a little bit of camp and although they were not all self referential that was kind of the way the genre went. It was better I say to make him more specific and less generic. Not to get to deep but Charles Lee Ray was a sexual predator who went after women. Chucky sort of as a doll liked to murder, so there is an aspect to campiness that I definitely wanted to bring to Chucky. 

Me: If you had to explain Chucky to someone like me who hasn't seen the movies what would you say? 

Brad: The deepest thing about Chucky is that he's terrified of living. I always make that his driving fear, that's where his anger comes from. 

Me: After all these movies do you have a favorite Chucky movie? 

Brad: As an audience member Bride of Chucky is one of my favorite films, I really did love that movie. I liked it because of a lot of reasons. The bride of Frankenstein, the whole thing, the love story aspect of was beautifully handled. When Chucky and Tiffany had sex I was shocked. I remember thinking, "You can't do that, it's a doll." I was surprised I felt that way but I was really delighted so I think experiencing that as an audience member I just wasn't expecting it. I thought it was kind of cool. 

Me: So, you didn't know they were gonna have sex on camera? 

Brad: I knew it of course, because I play it. We did it in separate glass booths so that we acted the thing out with each other which was a load of fun. I did a lot of improvisation. But we just did it vocally. Seeing it developed was a whole other thing. 

Me: I'm sooo jealous you worked with Jennifer Tilly on that movie. What was she like to work with, Brad? 

Brad: It was blast and she was really really good at improvisation. Some of the best lines were improvisation. 

Me: Do you have any Chucky memorabilia that you snagged from the sets at all? 

Brad: I can not do that. I do have a small collection of the dolls that were released. I don't collect memorabilia from jobs, I just do the job and let it go and sort of move on. I like to be just me. 

Me: I can't believe that this is the 30th year of Chucky, Brad. I have been working at Disney since '88 as well. Anyway, I have to ask... what scares you? 

Brad: Everything. I don't see horror films because I can't handle it. After years and years and years of being an actor my shock absorbers wore down and things get to me. Chucky is the only bad guy I will play now. I refuse to do any more bad guys. I won't do them. I'm just tired of it and I don't like the feeling when I do it and I don't like to be at that place. I don't like looking at people in that way. It feels creepy inside... creepy is not even the word, it's just horrible. 

Me: Wow. I'm glad I am not the only one who doesn't like scary movies. Brad, thanks for being on the Phile. Please come back again and we'll talk about some of your other roles. 

Brad: Sure, Jason, this was a good interview. Now go watch the Chucky movies. 

Me: Maybe. Haha.

You may feel a little prick. Hahaha. That's funny. That about does it for this entry of the Phile, Kids. Thanks to my guests Jeff Trelewicz, Laird Jim and of course Brad Dourif. The Phile will be back on Monday with Kelly Keagy from Night Ranger. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye.

Not if it pleases me. No, you can't stop me, not if it pleases me. - Graham Parker