ARTS & ENTERTAINMEN T

KING ston of

Move over, Freddy Krueger; there's
a new blood-thirsty freak in town,
and his name is Bobby Jones.

Eric Kingston is ready to prove himself as an actor.

STEVE HARTZ

Staff Writer

F

first, there was Jason;
sporting a hockey mask
and carrying a knife, he
tortured "unlucky" individ-
uals in Friday the 13th.
Then, Freddy arrived.
With razor-sharp nails, he
delved into people's dreams,
giving them a Nightmare on
Elm Street.
And now, a new blood-
thirsty freak has come to life
— Bobby Jones, played by
Detroiter Eric Kingston —
in the yet-to-be-released
horror flick, Them.
As Jones, Kingston por-
trays a homeless person who
gets involved in a cult. After
receiving a drug injection,
Jones turns into the chief
mutant and obedient ser-
vant of an evil professor,
played by John (Nightmare
on Elm Street I and III) Sax-
on.
"My character just wants a
sense of belonging, and he
gets that from being in the
cult," Kingston said.
Kingston, 25, went from
studying business at Mich-
igan State University and
then acting at Cranbrook
and the Attic Theatre to ap-
pearing in his first movie.
He now wants to pursue ac-
ting as a career.

Them was shot on location
at the Clinton Valley
Center, a state facility for
the mentally ill, in Pontiac.
"We used a part of the
building that's been closed
down for about 20 years,"
Kingston said. "The
building is more than 100
years old; knobs were miss-
ing from the inside of some
of the doors; the whole at-
mosphere looked very cruel
and cold."
From the time he was a
child, Kingston aspired to be
a writer. As a hobby, he
wrote about and. analyzed
plays and movies.
"I could always get inside
a character's head, and
that's what acting makes
you do, so that you can make
the character real," said
Kingston, who wrote about
half his lines in Them.
"I used to watch movies
and impersonate some of the
characters played by Al
Pacino, Laurence Olivier
and Marlon Brando. I did
this for writing — not acting.
I wanted to capture the
character's aura. That's why
acting came natural to me,"
he said. -
Kingston heard about the
Them role from his sister's
friend. When he went to
audition, Kingston was
given part of the script and
had 30 seconds to look it over

before he read in front of the
camera. Impressed with
Kingstoh's first audition,
the producer called him back
three more times.
Eight months later,
Kingston learned that of the
1,500 people who auditioned,
he received one of the few
main parts. To prepare for
his role as Bobby Jones,
Kingston watched Frankens-
tein. "I thought here's a
chance to make a new
monster," he said.
On the set, Kingston wore
an eight-piece mask that
took about four hours to get
into and another two hours
to remove. A mold of his
head had to be taken to
make the mask. "I felt like I
was being buried alive be-
cause they covered my entire
head and left a little hole for
my nose, so I could breathe."

Kingston frequently arriv-
ed at the studio at 2 p.m. and
worked until 10 a.m. One
day, he had to wear the pro-
sthetic makeup for 18 hours.
He shed 12 pounds during
the filming, which took
about 3 months.
Not only is acting in front
of a movie camera new to
Kingston, but performing on
area stages is also a recent
endeavor. He said he has en-
joyed taking on the roles of
Stanley Kowalski in A Street-

"I thought here's a chance to make a new monster."

car Named Desire and Mark
Antony in Julius Caesar.
"I like Shakespeare and
live theater, but I just love
the whole medium of film —
behind the scenes and in
front. It's really fascinating

and a constant challenge,"
he said.
Kingston doesn't want to
limit himself to just acting
in films; he also would like
to help out on movie sets.
"The more you do, the

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