Henry Rollins first popped up on America’s pop culture radar more than thirty years ago, when he was the lead singer of the iconic hardcore punk band Black Flag. In the decades since, Rollins’ presence has spiraled and spread into a variety of veins and ventures. He’s a writer and journalist (with his own publishing house and regular bylines in L.A. Weekly and Rolling Stone Australia), a spoken word artist, political activist, radio host, documentarian, as well as a musician (of course). And then there’s the acting.

Hollywood took notice of Rollins in the 90s and began casting him in several small but noticeable film roles. He's played everything, from a criminal who finds himself on the losing end of a throw down with Al Pacino in Heat to a SWAT leader backing up to Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys II.

Currently, moviegoers can see Rollins in his first lead role in a feature, the just released indie horror-comedy He Never Died. In it, Rollins plays an immortal cannibal who has to deal with his previously unknown daughter and some local thugs.

We recently caught up with Rollins to talk about the movie, how he prepared for the role and his incredibly busy life.

Enstars: I’m curious just how you became aware of this project and got the part.
Henry Rollins: The script was sent to me by Heidi, the wonderful woman who's been bossing me around my office for the last 19 years. She said, “Stop what you're doing and read this. It's amazing. Read it and get back to me or I'll stab you.” And 24 hours later, I met Jason Krawczyk [the writer & director of He Never Died] and Zach [Hagen] the producer.

Did the fact that this is your first lead add any extra value or pressure to the experience?
No, but let me clarify. If you gave me a part in your film where I'm working for like four hours, I go at it with the same intensity that I'd do if you gave me the lead part. I don't take myself seriously, but I take any job seriously…So the only thing that was different for me was that I had less time in my trailer

Jack is basically like the anti-Henry Rollins. He’s violent, terse, lethargic, apathetic to others…I could go on. Was that what drew you to take the role or was it something else?
I just really felt it. Obviously, you're acting. I'm not a guy who rips people's throats out in real life. However, there are so many aspects of Jack's character that I could relate to. Kind of like his solitary nature, his weariness with humans. All of that I really understood or at least had an understanding of... I'm like, "Yeah, I've felt like that before."

It also seems like your character--and the movie itself--is kind of an example of iceberg storytelling, where there’s more to the story than what’s seen on the surface.
I don't think you could have explained it better. That is absolutely the case with Jack and Jason Krawczyk, who's really skilled...he puts little things here and there all throughout the film. Some are obvious, some not… And thankfully, I went over the script with a fine tooth comb and I asked him, so I could be informed, and nothing came out of my mouth where I didn't know why I was saying it.

Can you explain your thought process for portraying Jack and his overall presence?
A lot of damn work went into that, believe it or not. Imagine every conversation you've ever had with a person…you've heard many things over and over again with slightly different words, different relationships…It all kind of rings the same. What if you had centuries of that? You might be exhausted of the human experience and even more exhausted knowing that there's no "use by" date for you…And that's what informs Jack's physicality, his cadence, his monotone delivery…He's just done and he can't go. And that...informs every comma, every movement, the way he kills, the way he walks. It's just drudgery.

Which is more difficult, acting for a camera or performing for a live audience?
It might very well be different depending who you ask, but for me the acting is so much more difficult…I find it a great challenge and really fun when you can kind of get a basic overview, like here's what needs to happen and I'm not the thing that's happening, I'm a part of a thing that's happening…And when you can do that, now you're acting...instead of going "Okay, when he stops talking, I start talking," which is the first few films I did, because I just didn't know what I was doing…and it took me a couple films to figure out what the job was.

And I got there. I'm still working at it of course, but it was quite a leap to make that evolution.

10 years ago, I could never have been in He Never Died as Jack and made it work...
 


(Photo Source: Prodigy Public Relations)

Was there a specific role or moment that you helped turn the corner in that understanding?
I was in a film [Morgan’s Ferry] that's probably not all that great, but I had to use a southern accent. I had to be kind of a redneck prison escapee and it wasn't a small part…I felt it put me through quite a bit. It broke me through to another level of work….And after that I thought I started really being WAY more aware of what the job requires…You need to be hyper aware to the point of where it's excruciating. It's like 80 push-ups to do that. And now that I've got that, I think I can bring a lot more to the screen. 10 years ago, I could never have been in He Never Died as Jack and made it work like I did.

You do so many different things, from writing to acting and performing. How do you find the time to fit all that and something like this in?
Oh, because I don't really do anything else but work. I have no family. I'm not really close to anyone. My best friend is Ian MacKaye, the great musician…And I see Ian maybe once a year (If I'm lucky, twice maybe), for like three days…But mainly, I see hotels, airports, audiences.

So I just have a life of work without much distraction. I don't have a drug habit. I'm not chasing women. I don't have a Lamborghini...I don't work for money. It's not about fame. I just hate sitting around. So I'm just always on the move, which allows me to get a lot done.

Is that need to keep moving also why you’re so heavily involved with activism?
For me, it's just part of having an intellect and looking around, going "Okay, that shouldn't have happened to those people. That's not right." And so for me, activism is informed by my overall anger. There's some stuff I'm pretty deep in on, like Drop in the Bucket--it's a water-drilling NGO…A host of fundraisers, do the voice-overs for their PSAs, etc, for several years now. I work with a few different agencies. I contribute money. I raise money. I do benefit shows…I do a lot of that stuff, but it's all kind of on the way to other things…So that's kind of how I am…And over the year's it's accumulated into a fairly healthy body of not having my head up my a** all the time.

So what's coming up next for you?
If you'd like, I can give you the brief rundown of what's going on.

Yeah!
I stop promoting our wonderful He Never Died film on Friday. And then I have a few days off and 2016 starts and I'll be on tour. And I've got two main things: I'll be doing speaking days all over the world, there's also a film called Gutterdammerung, which I wrote the screenplay for, I'm also in. And that is a movie that plays live with a rock band at music festivals and I'll be out with that. So next year will be a ton of traveling…next year will be crazy vigorous. I will turn 55. I'm also working on three books...I'm kind of working all the time. So that's what's going on with me.

I feel really inadequate now. So I think we'll end it on that note.
[Laughing] Okay!

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