Christopher Howell: Breaking into Bracks with Serial’s Amazing Lead. By Brian Kirst

As Trenton Bracks in Kevin Jamison’s moody, potent Serial: Amoral Uprising (and its full length counterpart Serial), Christopher Howell is an icon of intensity. Deviously charming and forcefully commanding, Howell’s performance as the vicious killer should soon put him on the map. Before a street (or spooky looking alley) is named after him, though, Howell recently took some time off from slaughtering the innocent (or semi-innocent) to answer some quick and relatively bloodless questions for Horror Society.

Brian: Who were your first performing influences – Bruce Willis making the baddies die hard – Sylvester Stallone causing the Italian grannies to quake with laughter in Oscar – a sock sucking, banjo-thumbing neighbor?

Christopher: Oh wow, I’ve been a movie nut since before I can remember. This is one of those questions where picking a genre from a certain decade would make it a whole lot easier. Let’s go with the 80’s right off the top of my head…Chevy Chase playing the piano while taking pseudo shots in Caddyshack, Paul Hogan sacrificing a croc to protect his she-la in Crocodile Dundee, Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase defining what’s a dickfer? in Spies Like Us, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis defending the red, white, and blue in Stripes – you see now you’ve got me going. I could do this all day!

Brian: I hear ya’! – What was the most difficult scene for you to pull off in Serial and/or Serial: Amoral Uprising?

Christopher: Hands down…that notorious rape scene. When they yelled action!! That was a mindset I don’t care to revisit… Heather Mingo was astounding!

Brian: She definitely did a great job! – So, what steps did you take to get inside the head of your Serial character? And – how did you ‘come back down’ when filming is over?

Christopher: Before production, I was given a seemingly harmless homework assignment by Amoral Uprising’s fanatic brainchild, Kevin Jamison. I was to watch Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Kalifornia, Maniac and footage from serial killer documentaries on Bundy and Manson until I wanted to peel off my own skin. On set, it took about an hour or so to work up to Bracks’ persona, which I rode out until days end. As far as coming down, I mentally ran from Bracks at days end…the accent was usually the last to leave me. What a grimy bastard…

Brian: Hey! Oh – well, as long as you weren’t talking about me!!! — If you could create the perfect project for yourself, what would it be? A science fiction comedy where you could play an alien grave robber – A grizzled detective story reeking of the evil streets– others?

Christopher: Think Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys meets Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man incorporating the personality contrasts of Keaton’s Multiplicity. For this one I’m not so interested in the genre as long as every time I come on scene people will go WTF was that all about??

Brian: Dude, I ask that all the time! (Usually it’s about my boss, though.) – Lastly, any words of advice (IE: Don’t make friends with a recently paroled nut job with mommy issues) or future projects that you’d like to tell us about? And thanks- this has been as sweet as spending the day chomping apart arrant bartenders — well, almost.

Christopher: As far as advice goes, whenever your told last minute that your going to film a “sex” scene… what they are actually saying to you is you will be portraying a rape in a very uncomfortable situation. You might want to get your head right before you audition for Amoral Uprising’s sequel, just a thought. – As of now I am considering three scripts and I can say that I won’t be a deviant in any of these three! Still looking to fit that perfect character of mine in a film though… any takers?

Brian: You never know, man. You never know! Thanks, again!