Anthony Michael Hall knows the importance of being punctual, something he learned growing up on the film sets of John Hughes and Tim Burton.
At 2 p.m. sharp, the 54-year-old actor, Gen X movie icon, and busy producer called The Blade, ready to do business, which was to promote the upcoming screenings of the Hall-hosted films Halloween Kills and Sixteen Candles at Maumee Indoor Theatre, 601 Conant St., on Monday and Tuesday.
It would be too easy to just talk about the ‘80s and early ‘90s. That’s when Hall became a child and teen star thanks to appearances in movies such as National Lampoon’s Vacation, Edward Scissorhands, and the John Hughes coming-of-age classics Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. But before he was a Brat Packer, Anthony Michael Hall was just a skinny blonde kid from New York City, who was cast in the atmospheric Edgar Allen Poe adaptation The Gold Bug, which frequently aired on Showtime in the early days of cable TV.
“[The Gold Bug] was a great experience,” said Hall, who said he doesn’t get asked about his first film much these days. “I was just a pup when I made that film. I was 12 years old and working with Roberts Blossom and Geoffrey Holder. They were great actors to work with, and it really helped me hone my chops as a kid. It’s a trip watching yourself grow up on screen.”
What: Two Nights With Anthony Michael Hall
When: Halloween Kills is 7 p.m. Monday, Sixteen Candles is 5 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Maumee Indoor Theatre, 601 Conant St., Maumee.
Admission: $30 per film
Information: maumeeindoor.com
In 2021’s Halloween Kills, Hall played the character of Tommy Doyle, a survivor of slasher Michael Myers’ bloody rampage in the original 1978 horror classic Halloween. No stranger to the horror genre (Hall played the starring role in the Stephen King-based series The Dead Zone in the early 2000s), Hall said that acting in horror is different from acting in comedy.
“My only game plan for Halloween Kills was to bring as much intensity and focus as I could to Tommy and to meet [Michael] Myers head on,” Hall said. “In a horror film, the villain is the hero so you’re not going to win. So I just really wanted to engage and take it seriously. That’s always the task of the actor, to make it come to life and be real. Acting is about being as real as you can be.”
Hall praised his Halloween Kills director David Gordon Green and his co-star Jamie Lee Curtis for making the film shoot so enjoyable.
“Jamie Lee Curtis has a total kind of hippie mama maternal, great vibe about her. She’s very loving and very supportive, and that’s how she presents herself. She really is that way and that’s wonderful,” he said. “She’s got this fresh-eyed look at the world, she’s very cool to work with. She’s a great communicator, not just obviously as an actor, but as a person; I respect her ability to really connect with people. When we’d come to the set, she’s super chill with everybody, from everybody doing background work to the crew to the actors. She was wonderful.”
Sixteen Candles, which Hall is hosting on Tuesday, is considered a 1980s teen comedy classic; however, the film has attracted some accusations of racial insensitivity and questions about consent in the post-#MeToo age. Molly Ringwald, who famously played the lead in the movie, wrote an article in The New Yorker examining how the John Hughes film holds up today.
When asked if he thought Sixteen Candles was “dated” in today’s cultural climate, Hall said it was a “dicey question,” but that the film could still be enjoyed by a 2022 audience.
“I think some things age better than others and certainly there are some aspects of the film that don’t age well,” he said. “Some people are concerned with how the film depicts Asians in the film. In fairness to John [Hughes] and in the spirit of people trying to enjoy a comedy, it certainly was not his intention to be offensive. I think it’s to be acknowledged and it’s important. How do we look at this? Through what lens?
“But at the same time I don’t think it should ruin the movie. I don’t believe in canceling a film or canceling aspects of culture because then we’re not a free America anymore. But I think it’s important to address it.”
Though Hall appears at film screenings and comic cons all over the country, he stays busy running his production firm Manhattan Films and Media Company. He recently produced and acted in a coming-of-age film called The Class, starring Debbie Gibson and a cast of young actors that Hall calls “a reimagining of The Breakfast Club.” Hall is currently working on another project called Roswell Delirium with Sam Jones of Flash Gordon fame and Dee Wallace Stone from E.T.
Maumee Indoor Theatre executive director Sara Eiden said anticipation is looming for Hall’s northwest Ohio appearances.
“He is very sweet and he’s excited for this event,” Eiden said. “Everyone can expect Anthony Michael Hall to introduce the film, then he’ll do a Q&A afterword. He’ll be in the lobby beforehand for autographs and photos. It’s been a lot of fun working with him.”
Contact Jason Webber at: jwebber@theblade.com.
First Published October 28, 2022, 11:00 a.m.
