Lou Perryman
Lou Perryman is the lovable L.G. McPeters from Texas Chainsaw
Massacre 2; that’s right, Mr. “I built ya a little
fry house” himself. Lou appeared at his first ever convention
at the April Cinema
Wasteland show, and hopefully he’ll be at many more
to come. I managed to snag him for a little interview at the
show.
-Aine
So this is your first convention?
This is my first convention, and it’s absolutely
amazing. I had no idea this was going on. It’s like a
big eye opener of a whole other way to live, or an opportunity,
or a side bar, and an indicator that there’s been something
going on that I was unaware of. I feel like Rip Van Winkle that’s
just come back to life; it’s excellent, most excellent.
Do you believe it’s possible
to beat someone to death with a fish?
What?....(laughter) Probably, if you had a good
hold on the tail.
Where are your ticklish spots?
Oh, under the arms and the bottom of the feet,
normal.
So where have you been since The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre 2?
Well, I’ve been working. I’ve been
in other movies, and plugging away with the world and being
with friends, and being Lou; living a semi good life in Texas.
I’ve got some dear friends, and people I care about, my
daughter, and all the sweet women of the world.
Did you have to practice making loogies
like you did in TCM2, or are you a natural?
Naaa, I’ve been practicing loogies all my
life. I’m a natural, that’s what we do. (makes a
loogie noise) That’s how we do it. And now it’s
going to be up to you to try to spell that.
Did you see the remake of the original
Texas Chainsaw Massacre?
No, I did not see the remake, I probably would.
I’m much more interested in this whole damn phenomenon
than I ever was before. I hadn’t seen either one of them
until about a week before I came out here, and I rented 1 &
2 because I didn’t own them. I just bought 2; I probably
ought to pick up the other one as well.
Did
we already talk about the little fry house?
(Goes into the L.G. voice) What about the little
fry house?
I want a fry house!
(Still in L.G.’s voice, pouting) You want
a little fry house? I thought it was cute about this guy that’s
so in love with this girl that he builds a house out of French
fries while he waits on the girl. I guess she’s upstairs
talking to the Texas Ranger (Dennis Hopper) or something, and
then she gets back and finds all this. I thought it was hilarious.
I built ya a little fry house. I never had any idea that I could
say “built ya a little fry house” and girls would
get excited over it.
Did you meet Dennis Hopper?
I got to hang out with Dennis quite a lot, he
was a nice guy. You know I got all of that out of my system
about being nervous around some major movie star. He’s
obviously a legend of American film, and acting, and it was
just excellent to be there. Tobe (Hooper) has been my introduction
to a great deal of the world, and Tobe was an old friend, and
so Dennis was just part of the pack, it was excellent. He had
a regular imagination and a regular sense of humor, he wasn’t
withdrawn or acting out, as some people do, and he was an excellent
fella to be around.
Do you have any idea what happened
to Caroline Williams or where she is?
No I don’t. She was in some real good little
films that I saw, I’m not sure what they were; if they
were television movies or I saw them when they played on television.
There might have been a little bit of type casting on her about
being an abused type of person, so I have no idea. I haven’t
followed anybody and it just faded away in my mind. I mean,
I barely see Bill Johnson and he lives right in Austin, or Paul
Partain, I don’t see those people.
It would have been great to have Caroline
here.
Oh yeah, people would have been crazy about Caroline.
This is my first trip and it is just absolutely amazing. Caroline
might have another attitude about why she would not come here,
I don’t know. Maybe she wants to move on or something,
but at a certain age, you get to where you don’t have
a bunch of 401Ks, or a huge retirement plan, so why not come
to a horror convention?
It worked for you didn’t it?
It damn sure did.
Do you like turtles?
Yeah, I saved a turtle not too long ago, crawling
across the road. A great big old turtle, and I met this sweet,
amazing woman when I was just moving the turtle out of the road.
This woman comes along and asks me if it’s hurt, you tell
by smelling them. She said she had land by the lake and that
she’d take the turtle. So she took the turtle, she was
just cool, and earthy, getting down and sniffing a turtle. If
he smelled bad it meant he was sick.
If you had the chance would you come
back to the role of L.G., if maybe they brought him back
to life somehow?
(Laughter) Of course. See, and with the turtles,
I grew up with a story, and it may be one that everybody tells
about their father, or their grandfather, but I think I heard
one about somebody like my grandfather carving his initials
on a turtle and letting it go, and then finding it twenty-five
years later, so I love turtles.
Wow, you went back to that one.
Yeah, I wasn’t finished with the turtles.
But yeah, I’d go back to L.G. It wouldn’t make any
sense. Maybe he wasn’t really dead…sure…oh
god, he’s gone, he’s not the same, he’s all
messed up. He’s not a pretty guy anymore. It would be
a lot of fun though, maybe they’d give me the rights,
and it would probably be a lot of fun. It would be a horror
film, or a sad film about a guy who lives in the country, with
a really horrible face, and Stretch’s daughter comes to
see him because she wants to make amends, so they take care
of him. L.G. in a nursing home, still making loogies.
