Michael Myers in New ‘Halloween’ Will Be Very Physical with Cat-Like Qualities

The upcoming sequel to John Carpenter’s original Halloween features the return of Nick Castle, the performer who portrayed the masked Michael Myers for a majority of the film. Now that Castle is in his 70s, actor James Jude Courtney was also recruited for the film, due to the actor describing Myers as having a much more physical role than featured in previous films.

“[Director] David [Gordon Green] was also really sensitive and generous when he said, ‘We’re inviting Nick Castle to come back to do a little work. Do you have a problem with that, because you’re the Michael Myers now?’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God. Are you kidding? What an honor it would be, first of all to meet the guy, but secondly to work with him. How good does that get?’” Courtney recalled to Halloween Daily News. “I can’t remember if it was the second or third week that Nick came in and did kind of a cameo. He did a couple of scenes, and I’m in the scenes with him, which is really beautiful. He and I were hoping that would happen, because he even said, ‘This is the passing of the torch.’”

Castle helped define the physicality of the character in the original film, which Courtney attempted to recreate in the upcoming sequel.

“David called me actually prior to rehearsal, and we talked about the character and we talked about movement,” Courtney shared. “He said, ‘Look, I really see a certain – yes, The Shape moves a certain way and Nick Castle was the one that created that iconic sort of presence, but – I have this idea that there’s a certain cat-like quality to the efficiency and movement.’ I said, ‘Well oddly enough, David, I have a cat in my lap right now.’”

Luckily, Courtney was able to have a reference available to him, studying his own pet to inspire his physicality.

“I think cats are the most perfect hunting, killing machines on the planet. And the beauty of it is we don’t judge a cat for what a cat does,” the actor pointed out. “A cat does what a cat does because that’s a cat. So I sort of carried that movement and the non-judgmental approach to the way I moved as The Shape, which I learned from my cat Parcival. He’s a little Grail Knight. He’s a badass.”

Fans will see Courtney and Castle as Michael Myers when the upcoming Halloween sequel hits theaters on October 19.

Are you excited to see a more physical version of the killer? Let us know in the comments below!

[H/T Halloween Daily News]