Not everyone would jump at the chance to work with an evil doll, but not everyone is Brian Tyree Henry. The horror fan had to take on the part of Detective Mike Norris in Child’s Play – especially because of his past with the franchise.
“I am a child of the ’80s – an era where knowing exactly where you came from meant a lot. There are things that told what we should be and how we should be at that time, from TV to toys. I was the My Buddy era, a friend that you could purchase. I knew where I was from, I couldn’t afford it. Then this movie comes out about a doll that gets possessed by a white serial killer who knows voodoo,” he recalls in the latest issue of Us Weekly, on stands now.
“It came out during Christmas for me around 1988,” the star continued. “The next day, anyone in my neighborhood who was fortunate enough to get a My Buddy doll, saw this movie and threw these dolls in the trash because of how terrifying this story was. “But here I was being like, ‘How lucky you were to have this doll in the first place?’”
Because of his memory, the Widows star, 33, had to join the new movie. “The things we hold precious can often turn to be our demise in the end,” he said. “Chucky feeds off our carnal desires of what it really means to be human. Even if there is someone of flesh and blood in front of us, it still may not be enough, because who determines what humanity is?”
He also noted that Mark Hamill, best known for his work as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films, is “brilliant” voicing the doll: “Our Chucky will be heightened by the humanity Mark conveys. It’s all respect and homage.”
Child’s Play hits theaters everywhere June 21.
