Craig Sheffer is an actor known for the period drama, A River Runs Through It, as Keith Scott in One Tree Hill, and teen villain Hardy Jenns in Some Kind of Wonderful. To horror fans, he is Aaron Boone, aka Cabal in Nightbreed, and he is known for his roles in Hellraiser: Inferno and American Horror Story. During his appearance at Creature Feature Weekend, Sheffer talked to Scoop about Nightbreed and its impact on the horror genre.

Scoop: How are you doing?
Craig Sheffer (CS): I’m good, thank you.

Scoop: Nightbreed portrays the monsters as the good characters and the humans are the villains. It’s a nice allegory for how misunderstood people are treated. Is that something that appealed to you?
CS: Oh yes, definitely appeals to me. You know, as an actor you’re pretty much a weirdo when you’re in high school and you’re an outcast when you’re in college. You’re not the cool guy now. I happened to play sports at the same time, but even so, they thought I was weird for being in plays and being in football and baseball. So, yeah, I think the great thing about this movie is it really takes the outcast and shows their vulnerability and their normality, compared to the anger, negativity and the judgmental aspect of what we call normal people.

Scoop: I think that, and the makeup are my favorite parts of that movie.
CS: Yeah, the makeup’s incredible. What’s really incredible about it was when we were making the movie, my makeup took six hours, which was very hard. And then you had to work all day, in all that stuff. But what was amazing, if anybody could have been on the set, we had, I don’t know, maybe 30 makeup artists, maybe more, working on 30 actors and we would all come out in the morning right before shooting and we would have this whole family of monsters. We had all just gone through our transformations and it was so cool. We had so much fun and enjoyed it so much and that was before, you know now, so much is done with special effects. These were all practical makeup. Where we all had four-, five-, six-piece prosthetics glued down and we’re wearing them on our bodies. It was amazing.

Scoop: Nightbreed has become a cult classic favorite among horror fans. What does that legacy mean to you?
CS: Well, it’s really cool. As an actor, you always hope there’s something you do that will last, and I’m lucky enough to have Nightbreed as one of those. A River Runs Through It is a classic, great movie that will probably certainly survive me, and I hope Nightbreed does the same thing in the horror genre. I think it will. I think it’s a special movie that stands on its own.

Scoop: You mentioned A River Runs Through It, between that and Nightbreed, Hellraiser: Inferno, One Tree Hill, and many other movies and shows, you’ve covered the gamut of genres. Do you have a favorite genre?
CS: No, I actually like all the genres. When I was doing theater, I actually got to do comedy and then once I started doing a lot of dramas, people didn’t see me as that. I’d like to do a few more comedies, but I like all the genres for what they are. I love doing drama. I love doing the horrors. But you know, Nightbreed was great, and even Hellraiser was one of the most challenging roles I’ve ever had, and I love to have the movie turned out. Scott Derrickson who directed the Black Phone and The Exorcism of Emily Rose – that was his first film. So, it launched his career, a great filmmaker. So yeah, it’s nice to be part of those legacy movies.

Scoop: Do you have any projects coming up you can tell me about or any convention appearances?
CS: I’m just about done writing… I can’t really tell you what it is. I did a movie last year called Jump. It’s a western. I don’t know when it’s coming out. Now everything’s sort of made and then they sell it. It’s not like the old days where Paramount makes it, and you don’t know who it’s going to go to. So that’s what I have going right now. A lot of writing stuff.

Scoop: Well, thank you so much. 
CS: Thank you.

Read about Creature Feature Weekend in last week’s Main Event coverage.