While we weren’t exactly expecting Robert Englund to put on the fedora, the jumper and the knife fingers again for another turn as Freddy Krueger, the fact that he has said that he’s officially done playing the character feels like a bit of a landmark for Elm Street.
Speaking to EW about Freddy Vs Jason (because why not?), Englund said that he’s done playing Freddy but he’s happy with how he went out: a severed head in the hands of a lumbering Jason Voorhees, winking at the camera.
“I’m too old to do another Freddy now. If I do a fight scene now it’s got to be real minimal because I can’t snap my head for eight different takes and different angles. My spine gets sore. I can still be mean and scary, but I’m mostly relegated now to sort of Van Helsing roles, old doctors and s—. So it’s fun that the last moment of me ever playing Freddy is a wink to the audience.”
“It’s like, I had a good run, I had a good time. And no one plans for this in your career. When I was wearing tights and doing Shakespeare, I didn’t say I wanted to be famous for playing this boogeyman. Careers happen and one of the pieces of advice I give to people is I’m sure you’ll do a great pilot or you’ll do a little independent art movie and it won’t go anywhere and then you might do your Intern No. 3 on Grey’s Anatomy and that’s the one that becomes the huge hit. People just don’t know. And when you’ve survived as long as I have and you see that, you can be real happy that you got 20 years as Freddy Kruger, you know?”
This doesn’t come as the biggest surprise, but very few actors have been as closely associated with a role as Englund has been with Freddy. Sure, we suffered through that terrible remake (sorry, Jackie Earle Haley), but for all of us who grew up watching the Elm Street movies, Englund IS Freddy Krueger. That being said, we can’t help but think if someone offered him the chance to do it again…And if Halloween can get a surprisingly awesome sounding new movie…
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