Jackie Earle Haley Talks ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ Trailer

With the release of the trailer for A Nightmare on Elm Street came a slew of reactions; some positive, some negative. Fans were going back and forth on almost every aspect of the film. There was so much debate that Nightmare on Elm Street producer Brad Fuller stepped in to respond to fans concerns. The only person we’ve yet to hear from is Mr. Krueger himself, Jackie Earle Haley…until now, that is.

While at the 2009 Scream Awards last night our friends over at Shock Till You Drop caught up with Platinum Dunes’ newest dream-master to ask him about his thoughts regarding the recently released trailer and his take on the fans’ reactions.

“I think the trailer looks really good. I know there’s a lot of people out there that wished it was Robert (Englund) and I get that, I completely understand that. He really made the character incredibly iconic. He’s iconic as well, so for me, it’s just such a real honor to get to step in and have a go at that character. I think it’s looking pretty good.”

Haley continues by describing his thoughts on the Freddy Krueger character.

“I look at Freddy as a mystical boogeyman, the guy you hear the camp fire story about that we love to hate. As fans, those stories make us giggle. It’s wonderful to do something with this kind of hyper reality in the genre. People like to enter that in a Nightmare film, to be entertained, but I don’t think anybody would want to be there in real life!”

I understand Haley towing the party line with the whole “trailer looks really good” remark. While the Nightmar on Elm Street trailer wasn’t bad in the slightest, it more or less had me more apprehensive than eager to view the finished product.

I’ve come to the decision that I’m going to look at this film as its own entity and not try to compare it with the previous films, but it’s not exactly easy; after viewing that “very good” trailer it appears they’re remaking the original film rather than “re-imagining” the story as they previously stated. Sure, they’re tweaking the story – was Krueger innocent or guilty? – but when you throw almost identical shots at me from the first film don’t get upset when I start lamenting about days of old.

Also, I don’t necessarily agree with what Haley said about how Freddy is the guy “we love to hate” or that “those stories make us giggle.” If we’re talking about the original Nightmare on Elm Street film, I didn’t giggle at all. Whatever the opposite of giggle is, that’s what I was doing. I was ungiggling.  It wasn’t until the third film (skipped the second film out of respect to everyone) that Freddy became giggle-worthy, IMHO.

Kind of makes me wonder… if those are his thoughts about Freddy, did Haley bring any “giggle” to his performance?

A Nightmare On Elm Street opens April 30, 2010 (giggles or not)

Source: Shock Till You Drop

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