Doug Jones: It's Just a Bunch of Hocus Pocus
October 2013
You may not know his name. You may not know his face. Yet you've met Doug Jones before, and he's spellbound us for the last two decades.
From left: Billy Butcherson, Gentleman, Abe Sapien, Fauno, Pale Man, and Silver Surfer
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He first made our acquaintance in the.greatest.genre.film.of.all.time Hocus Pocus. Doug Jones is none other than Billy Butcherson, Winifred Sanderson's (Bette Midler) exhumed ex-lover. Years before "The Walking Dead," we had an affinity for the undead in our foe-turned-friend, Billy the Butcher, a sometimes creepy but generally "good" zombie suffering from three-century halitosis. Then, he scared us silent as a nightmare-inducing Gentleman in "Hush," the only "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episode ever nominated for an Emmy. Doug also embodies Abe Sapien of Hellboy, Fauno and Pale Man of Pan's Labyrinth, and the Silver Surfer of Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and he's an actor who's spent the majority of his career disguised by movie makeup, prosthesis, and green-screen illusion. Recently, you may have seen him as alien Cochise on TNT's "Falling Skies" and unmasked alien Dominique Wilkins on ABC's "The Neighbors". In short, this tall, talented, very tall man is movie magic incarnate. In honor of Hocus Pocus Season (sometimes referred to as Halloween) and in celebration of the Disney film's 20th Anniversary, I present my interview with the delightful Mr. Doug Jones: |
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In case you need a visual understanding of what it's like to stand next to 6'4" Billy Butcherson in person, I present this scale comparison:
I'm 5'5", his head nestles directly on top of mine, and still he's bending down to fit in the frame. Also, at the time, I had no idea if he held me this way as a seductive zombie chokehold or the sort of affectionate wraparound usually reserved for wizards and hobbits. Your guess is as good as mine, but either way, it was a pretty epic encounter.
Thank you, Doug, for that marvelous introduction of Hocus Pocus to our childhoods and especially for teaching us it's ok to befriend creatures running amok, amok, amok, amok in questionably witch-proof cemeteries.
I'm 5'5", his head nestles directly on top of mine, and still he's bending down to fit in the frame. Also, at the time, I had no idea if he held me this way as a seductive zombie chokehold or the sort of affectionate wraparound usually reserved for wizards and hobbits. Your guess is as good as mine, but either way, it was a pretty epic encounter.
Thank you, Doug, for that marvelous introduction of Hocus Pocus to our childhoods and especially for teaching us it's ok to befriend creatures running amok, amok, amok, amok in questionably witch-proof cemeteries.
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