Vernon Wells is a busy actor, currently working on over a dozen projects, with almost 150 other film and TV credits under his belt. The versatile actor is beloved for his portrayals of several villains – Wez in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, Bennett in Commando, Mr. Igoe in Innerspace, and Ransik in Power Rangers Time Force. Wells recently took a break from his schedule to talk to Scoop about playing bad guys, funny convention experiences, what he’s working on now, and more.

Scoop: How did you get into acting?
Vernon Wells (VW): Oh gosh, it started a very long time ago. My mother was a songwriter and I sort of followed in her footsteps. I started off being a singer in rock and roll bands. That’s where I thought I would stay, actually, in Australia just working in that industry. But I got hurt in a bad car accident and couldn’t work with the band and while I was recuperating our manager sent my photograph around to modeling agents. One of them decided to take me on and get me doing commercials and things and that sort of started the ball rolling. I wasn’t really that happy about being an actor. I actually preferred being behind the camera. Eventually I ended up directing commercials and things myself.

But as fate would have it I was asked to do a stage play called Hosanna, which I really wasn’t that happy to be doing. It was written by Michel Tremblay a French-Canadian writer. It was based on the fact that at that time Montreal wanted to become a French-speaking autonomous area of Canada and the Canadian government refused to allow that, so he wrote this play about the government.

And from then I was seen by George Miller’s girlfriend and she suggested that George talk to me for Road Warrior. And as they say in the classics, that’s where it all started. Everything went from there.

Scoop: The Wasteland in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior is pretty rough looking terrain. What were the conditions like for the cast and crew while you were filming?
VW: We actually filmed it up in Broken Hill, which is a mining town in the desert on the boarder of New South Wales in South Australia. The only problem we had was freezing cold. I froze my butt continuously because everybody else was kind of rugged up but not me. Oh no, I had to be dressed practically naked. So I suffered in the cold. But, apart from that it wasn’t so bad. It was fun. We all enjoyed it. Everybody was out there having a damn good time. I think it shows in the film, actually, everybody was really into what they were doing.

I don’t think we really had anything to compare it with. Nobody was going, “Well, you know, the last film I did in Hollywood didn’t have this.” None of us had done any of that, so we had nothing to compare it to, so we accepted what we were doing and loved it.

Scoop: How did you develop the character of Wez?
VW: George did something very unusual. For a week before we went into preproduction he had table reads. He had us write a biography for the character from when he was born until the movie started, so we knew our history. But we did it as the character and then we would read and it would be critiqued and then we would go away and come back having rewritten the whole thing again. Over that week we got them down to exactly what the character was.

Scoop: You kind of resurrected Wez in Weird Science as the Lord General. What was it like playing that intense villain in a comedy?
VW: [Laughs] It took them a long time to convince me to come over and do it, actually. I wasn’t that thrilled about resurrecting the character or coming to America. Back then it didn’t really appeal to me that much. But, John Hughes was one of the things that really drove me to do it. I really wanted to work with him, so I was quite happy to come over and do the job. I thought it was a lot of fun. It was kind of that unique little thing of being able to set yourself up and enjoy it, without having people go “Oh my God, you’re doing it again?” It was more of, “Oh you’re doing a comedy and playing Wez. That was fun.” I looked at it that way as well.

Scoop: What did you think of Mad Max: Fury Road?
VW: I actually was invited to the opening in Japan. I loved it. I thought it was visually and every other thing you want to put on it was stunningly brilliant and I don’t think anything has ever been done like it. George is the master of the road movie. He just knows how to make that work. I loved it.

I was a little bit interested in the fact that Charlize Theron seemed to take over the movie, but then again she is a very powerful actress, so you would expect something like that. Apart from that I had no complaints at all.

I would’ve loved to have been in it. But as George said, where was he going to put me that people wouldn’t realize it was me. Which was true, because the character of Wez was way too big to just throw him into something.

Scoop: That’s true. It would’ve turned the movie into Wez vs. Immortan Joe.
VW: Yeah, exactly and that’s not what he was doing, which I agree with.

Scoop: In Commando your character Bennett seemed like the kind of bad guy who loved what he was doing. How did you want him to come across to audiences?
VW: I thought that Bennett was the usurper. It was more like doing a Shakespearean play where the son wants to kill the father because he wants to become the king. It was that attitude that Bennett always had. He thought he was the equal, if not better than, [Arnold] Schwarzenegger. So I sort of played it that he was always trying to be the better man, to be the leader, to be the top dog. Eventually when he got the chance it was the glory note for him that he was now one on one, mano a mano, to find out who lived and who died. I think that was the whole point in the character and the exercise.

Scoop: The end fight scene between you and Arnold Schwarzenegger is very intense. What goes in to creating and shooting a fight scene like that?
VW: A lot of pain [laughs]. It takes a lot of planning. The stunt guys do a lot, a lot of planning so that we don’t end up dead. But, Arnie and I are big boys so we really got into it. We just got out there and we went for it. We planned each sequence and then the director let us have at it. It was fun. I mean, we were both, at the point where we did that fight scene, so into the characters that we knew there had to be that intensity or it just didn’t work. I think it worked because size wise we both looked like we could fight each other. Neither of us was much bigger than the other, I think we looked like we could take each other on and be at that point of beating each other senseless.

I just loved the intensity of the fight scene, I thought it was one of the better fight scenes that had been done on film because it just didn’t stop. There was that drive. You knew it had to end, but there was that drive to get to that finish line. I enjoyed it.

Scoop: Something I really like about that scene is that both characters are both so passionate to win that fight for each of their own reasons.
VW: Uh, huh. It was just brutal. As you said, we both had a reason. My reason was that I wanted to prove I was better than him. His reason was that he wanted to rescue his daughter and that was all that was pushing him to destroy whatever was in front of him. So, of course, you have those two totally opposite reasons for going at it. Mine to prove I was better, him to save his daughter. The same passion from both sides.

Scoop: When I met you at a con last year you told me that you injured your arm doing that shoot.
VW: My elbow. I had to go through that wall where I go into the room and she’s escaped. I hurt my elbow there and then the end made it a lot worse. But, you know, thems the breaks. [laughs] As they say in the business. Arnold didn’t get off scot-free. He fractured his collarbone in one of the sequences we were doing. We were both very physical, so neither one of us walked away “Yahooing!” we were both sort of bruised and broken when it was over.

Scoop: And I’m sure exhausted.
VW: Oh yeah, but it was worth it.

Scoop: Let’s talk about Innerspace. Tell me about filming for that movie?
VW: I love that film so much, because it was just so much fun to do. [Director] Joe Dante is like a big kid. [Executive producer] Steven Spielberg is like a big kid. It was a wonderful cast and just such an entertaining film to do.

All of those scenes where I was inside Martin Short were done against blue screen. I was actually in the costume capsule then they just did the magic of cinema and put me inside Martin Short’s body. It was interesting and a hell of a lot of fun.

Scoop: You were pretty terrifying as Mr. Igoe. How did you make him so scary despite being restricted by the giant suit and limited range of motion?
VW: Well actually, they took everything of me that I do well – my eyes, my hands, and my voice. Mr. Igoe was just a presence, but he was something that you had to be aware of. If you pissed him off he was probably going to break things that belong to you [laughs]. I think it was just a malevolent presence is what he was. It’s more in how you hold your body and how you react to things that makes him a lot more scary. Inside the suit he was just terrifying because he certainly had this thing that he could use to destroy and he was happy doing it.

Scoop: You had a pretty long story arc on the Power Rangers Time Force TV show and subsequent movies. What was that experience like?
VW: I loved it. We are the only cast that has stayed together. This August at [Power] Morphicon for the first time the complete cast of Time Force will be together. My daughter will be there, she’s coming down from Vail – she’ll be attending that show. When we do conventions, we’re always together. Erin [Cahill] comes to my house for dinner. I go out and have lunch with Erin and her fiancé, Paul. All of us – Michael [Copon], Jason [Faunt], everybody – we all hang out together, we all are still friends. We all get on well. I think that says something about the whole series that we all got along so well.

Scoop: Power Rangers is often beloved by fans for being over the top and campy. Did you enjoy that aspect of the show?
VW: Yeah, I was able to do anything I liked. It was fun. I got to kick five little kids’ butts all the time. I thought that was really cool.

Scoop: Speaking of kids, since Power Rangers is made for kids did you have to tone down some of your bad guy impulses for the audience?
VW: You know what, we discussed that and we didn’t. The character himself wasn’t ultimately evil. All we wanted to do was get away from them in the future, come back to the past where they weren’t and control his evil plan and take over the world. But he wasn’t running around killing people or assassinating everybody. It was kind of more of an evil presence. A fun thing about that series was that for the first time they actually did a backstory on the villain character. There were like three or four episodes where you learned why he was like he was and you started to understand the whole thing. Whereas in other series, the villain was just the villain. We were very fortunate in that they actually gave the character a whole history and we got to see that history, which I thought was very interesting.

Scoop: You’ve played the villain several times over. What draws you to those characters?
VW: It’s not me. I can play the villain because it’s a character that I create and that’s created in unison with the script and the director. Though, it’s fun.

Scoop: Have you performed your own stunts?
VW: I perform some of them, as much as I’m allowed to. I have a habit of getting myself into silly places, getting hurt, and then producers are really annoyed that they have to not film certain things for a while because I got my leg in cast. Nowadays I’m kind of restricted from doing that, insurance and all that kind of thing. They don’t like it when leads go and do silly things.

But, I enjoy doing fight scenes and driving and things where I can have a bit of fun. But, the more adventurous stunts, no I’m not allowed to do them.

Scoop: What has been your most complicated stunt?
VW: There were a couple of things I did in Innerspace that were kind of complex. One was driving a Five Series BMW through a gate and doing an abrupt right hand turn so I didn’t end up in the canal, then driving along the side of the canal down in Los Angeles with a huge 35mm camera strapped to the window of the car. I had to get it through the gate without knocking the camera off and do a right hand turn without driving into the canal, all the while I had this whooping, great camera staring at me.

Some of the things in Road Warrior were pretty hairy. On the flip side of that, it was still very safe.

Most people that I’ve worked with are very safety conscious. The only time I’ve done scary things is when I’m overseas in Asia or Europe. They tend to do things that are a little more scary than here in the United States. We’re pretty well controlled – you don’t end up getting yourself hurt.

Scoop: Of all the movies you’ve been in, what has been your favorite acting experience?
VW: I could say everything that I do, which is really true because everything that I do is a really fun experience for me. I did a couple of films that I totally adored. One was called King of the Ants, which I really, really loved doing. Stuart Gordon was the director and I love Stuart madly. I had a lot of fun doing that part.

A couple of films I did last year. One’s coming out this year called, Lighthouse Keeper, which was such a great experience. I did another one over in Maui towards the end of last year, which was loads of fun. And then I got to play one of my favorite things, I got to play a cowboy. I got to be in a Western just after Christmas. It was in the snow, playing a Western. It was just so much fun. We haven’t finished. They did a twenty-five minute version of it and they got so much attention for it that we are doing another hour to make it into an hour and a half movie. Which, I think is amazing. Getting out there in the snow and wearing this cowboy outfit was just – oh yeah, love it!

Scoop: Have you saved any cool memorabilia from movies you’ve been in?
VW: Most movies that I do, I get a little prop or something because at one stage I was being given all kinds of stuff and it slowly took over my house. And I started giving it to charity. I would sign things and give it to charity so they could auction it and get money. What I do now is I have smaller things that I get.

I have sword from Power Rangers and the headpiece they gave me at the end. I have my full costume from Road Warrior, which is still in Australia. I had the Commando jacket, but I think it was Make a Wish Foundation asked me if I’d donate it. So I signed it and donated it to Make a Wish. I have another jacket that I had for one of my films, which the [101st] Screaming Eagles, I believe, has in their rec room. They came down and saw me because they were big fans of Commando, so I signed it to them and they have it in their rec room.

So I do things like that with the nice stuff that I have, because it’s nice to use what you get off the films for benefit. Just having it in my closet getting moldy is not really doing anything with it. But, I do keep smaller things that I get.

Scoop: You regularly attend comic and pop culture conventions. What have been your favorite fan interactions?
VW: I have some weird fan interactions [laughs]. I love my fans, don’t get me wrong, I adore them simply because if I didn’t have fans I wouldn’t be here. People like you, people that come to my conventions, people who like what I do – that’s what keeps me in business. I know it, and I do not for one minute forget it.

I had a family came up to me last year in Chicago. The convention had just started, and this father, mother, and their three kids came racing up to my table. They bought photographs and took photos with me and were, just, so happy to see me, so excited. I was talking to them and I said, “You guys from around here?” and the father said “No, actually we’re from Canada and as soon as we finish here we’re getting back in our car and driving home.” I went, “Excuse me?” He said, “Yeah, we drove down to Canada to see you and now we’ve seen you so we’re going home.” And I just thought that was so outrageous. These people had driven from Canada to come to Chicago for a convention that I was in and now that they’d come in, seen me, and spent time with me, were now going to leave and go home. I just thought, wow, that’s dedication, man. You know, you’ve got to really like someone to go through that.

I think sometimes it’s just amazing. I just love the fans. People give me the most amazing artwork they do of my characters. Their so excited to talk to you and be with you and in that moment be part of who you are, which I think is just amazing. I think it’s something you never actually get over. It’s very difficult to accept that people like you that much. It’s a little awe-inspiring to me that people are like that, but I just adore the fans. They are so incredible and so out of control.

Scoop: You mentioned having some weird and interesting fans. I’m sure you’ve seen some pretty wild Road Warrior costumes at conventions.
VW: Uh, yeah. I’ve seen some pretty wild everything at conventions. I always remember two very stunning girls talking to me at a convention. One was a lion, one was a tiger. They were just standing in front of me talking to me and I was looking at them and for some reason something about their costumes was intriguing me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it, so to speak. Finally the young lady in front of me said, “Do you like my costume?” I said, “You know, it’s amazing and it’s so bloody tight. I’m trying to figure out how the hell you got into it.” And she went, “Oh,” and sort of giggled a little bit and did a pirouette for me and I went, “Oh my God, you’re not wearing anything.” It was body paint. So, yeah, sometimes fans are interesting. Yup, they were both in body paint and it was, brilliantly done, but when you realized what it was, you were like “Oh my God!”

Scoop: [After several seconds of laughter] Do you have cons and filming throughout the rest of the year?
VW: In August I’ve got the big convention with Time Force at the Power Rangers convention. I have another one later in the year in Florida. I just do what I’m told when it comes to the conventions when I'm not filming. At the moment I’m filming on Death House, which is a horror film from the video game or online game. Oh yeah the other one is the Retro Con in Pennsylvania. Then I’m filming in May for a week in Lake Tahoe. Then I’m going to End of Days, which is a big Mad Max thing. I’m doing a performance for them, reading from the book of Wez. It should be hysterical. It’s actually the book of Road Warrior. Then I’m back to Australia filming.  

Scoop: Goodness, you’ve got a lot going on.
VW: Yeah, kind of. I’ve got some wonderful movies coming out. The Horde is coming out, which is just an amazing movie that I did. I think it releases very shortly. Bat Outta Hell releases very shortly. As I said, there’s Lighthouse Keeper. I have five or six films coming out this year, which I’m very, very proud of. I’m a lucky guy. I’m living the dream, as they say. This is my dream of what I wanted to do. Thank God I’m actually doing it and enjoying it. It’s so much fun. While people are happy to hire me, I’ll keep doing it.

I even got to do two Slayer videos, can you believe. I’m now the video boy for the Slayer band. My sister told me I finally made it, I’m in a Slayer video.

I’ve got a huge video game coming out later this year, called Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. It’s apparently the most anticipated major video game of the last five or six years. When the original came out it was a monster hit and now they’re doing the sequel.

So, yeah, life is pretty damn good, to be blunt. I’m having a ball. That’s just the way it is. You have to take it while you got it.

Scoop: I’m a big horror fan, so I’ve been following the progress of Death House. It sounds like it’s going to be really good.
VW: It’s going to be so much fun. I get to play one of the five evils, which is just going to be so outlandish. I believe they’re all spinning off, eventually, into different movies. So that could be fun as well.

Scoop: Well, that’s all I had for you…
VW: Oh fine, don’t talk to me, see if I care [laughs]. It has been wonderful, sweetheart. If you are at one of the conventions please come up and say hi again.

Scoop: Absolutely. I will definitely pop by and see you. When I met you last year, I was there for work, but of course, I slipped away to come down to meet you and get a photo signed for my fiancé. He was very sad that he wasn’t there to meet you. So, I need to bring him along next time.
VW: Oooooh! Well, did you tell him that I’m a total ass and that I accosted you or something?

Scoop: No, I told him that you were absolutely charming and that he better behave because I’ve got options.
VW: [Laughs] That’s a good one. I love it. That’s the way to do it.

Scoop: I had to. Well, thank you so much, Vernon, it was great talking to you.
VW: Thanks darling!

Vernon asked that Bloody Bombshell Entertainment be thanked for scheduling convention appearances and for setting up this interview.