Robert Englund, better known to movie fans as Freddy Krueger of the
”Nightmare on Elm Street” series, knows he could have plenty of top-billing options in the horror genre.
Instead, he is delightedly taking on a second banana`s role in
”Nightmare Cafe,” an hourlong NBC-TV series that makes its debut at 9 p.m. Friday and is due to run at least five more weeks.
”I could be a lot of places milking this horror thing,” says Englund, 42, who calls himself a character actor and sometimes likens himself to Walter Brennan. ”But I read this script and I absolutely loved it and I went and auditioned for it.”
Englund`s character in the new show is a lot like Dean Stockwell`s in
”Quantum Leap,” another hourlong NBC fantasy show. He`s not the center of attention, but a catalyst who makes everything else happen.
Englund likes the fact that he`s not always the center of attention and the convenience of not having to spend hours putting on makeup, as he did for the Krueger role.
”My real gift is as a second banana,” he says with a crooked grin. ”I like coming in and being the comic relief. That`s what I was in my two earlier series, `Downtown` and `V.` Also, as a second banana, the pressure is off. Jack (Coleman) and Lindsay (Frost), the other leading actors, have to pitch that sexy woo all the time every week. I don`t.”
But the show`s setting was what really appealed to Englund. The Nightmare Cafe looks a lot like an old-fashioned diner, with round stools and a few booths. But it could be anywhere or anytime. It`s a bit like purgatory.
”The cafe exists in a sort of limbo,” says Englund, whose Blackie character is its major domo. ”People who come in get a chance to just change things a bit that they did in their lives. Maybe they`ll finally take that special girl to the senior prom and finally get to rest in peace.”
Producer Wes (”Nightmare on Elm Street,” ”The People Under the Stairs”) Craven likens the new show to a cross between ”Cheers” and ”The Twilight Zone.” Englund sees elements of both ”The Twilight Zone” and a Norman Rockwell painting.
”I like to think of Blackie as a fallen angel who might work his way out of the cafe someday,” he says. ”His choice, the way I see it, was either be a bellboy in hell or work in the cafe.”
But audiences never find out whom Blackie works for. There`s an omniscient big-screen TV at one end of the cafe that periodically shows newcomers scenes from their own lives. Maybe, Englund speculates, it`s the TV that`s really running the cafe.
Whomever he works for, Blackie is a cynical sort on the surface, forever betting that folks will do the ignoble thing.
”He`s definitely not the uncle you want to come over and baby-sit,”
Englund says, chuckling. ”But I think that like most cynics, Blackie has a heart of gold under that exterior. After the pickup, I want to develop that side of him.”
Oh yes, the pickup. NBC has ordered only six episodes of ”Nightmare Cafe” and will wait to see how it does in the ratings before deciding whether to bring it back. Englund is convinced the show will make it and is already planning where and how to live after it happens.
He lives most of the time in Laguna Beach, south of Los Angeles, but he and his wife, Nancy, a set designer he met while directing ”976-EVIL,” will use the top floor of a friend`s house just three blocks off Hollywood Boulevard if the show goes.
”I couldn`t imagine being happier than I`d be if this thing takes off,” he said. ”I know a good thing when I see it. It`s also an opportunity to get Robert Englund`s mug before a lot of people and show them he can be very different from Freddy Krueger.”
But what about being typecast as strictly a fantasy actor? Fine, says Englund.
”I do horror because they ask me,” he says, smiling. ”I got into it purely by accident because I happened to have time during the hiatus of `V.`
But the `Nightmare on Elm Street` series proved there`s a groundswell of popular interest out there for horror, especially if you do it with some humor. So fine, I`ll stay with fantasy if they want me to, but I can do many other things too.”
