Video Nasty Performance Art: An Interview with Laurence R. Harvey
If there’s one thing which can be said for the world of extreme cinema, is that it opened the gates for so much graphic imagination and created stars of all types. Men and women who may have been ignored or dropped to minor blink ‘n’ miss ‘em parts as directors or actors, are suddenly recognised instantly by the in-crowd and offered so much. If only small parts and convention seats, but that kind of stuff pays the bills and gathers more folks around.
Laurence Harvey, aka Martin of The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence), is a complete gentleman, friendly and chatty, easy going but very hard working in the world of horror and cult. Myself, my Partner in Gore, Willow, and my household met him at a convention last year. It was my second time meeting him, but many years ago I didn’t speak much because I was going through a really dark time in my life. We all talked for a while about various things. He agreed to do an interview on the spot, so we linked Instagram accounts.
Laurence’s career makes a wonderful CV, as you’ll read within the next few pages. Above all, he has a brilliant sense of humour.
Now then, it’s great to speak with you again, buddy. Let’s get straight into it with of course the most famous title of your career, and arguably one of the most famous extreme films of all time. It’s been a long time since Human Centipede 2 arrived, the film which kind of branded you forever to the world of horror and extreme cinema. When we met for the second time last year, I joked about the pics you had on the table just being from the Human Centipede. It did kind of spring you into the air when it came to acting roles, especially in the world of horror and cult. How do you feel about it now that it’s 2023?
Well, obviously, I’m still very proud of it. I think it remains the best showcase for me as an actor, because Tom (Six) took a big risk casting me, and I trusted Tom completely with what he wanted to do with the film and the character. I know I’m a character actor, with a specific look, so leading roles are hard to come by. It was an instance of the right role for me at the right time. Since then, I’ve done dozens of other film roles, but they tend to be smaller featured roles, or as part of an ensemble cast. But that’s not to say they aren’t beloved by me or the audience as much as The Human Centipede 2. I’m often recognised in the street after Adult Babies has been on the Horror Channel, and I cherish the Astron 6 movie, The Editor, and Mark Logan’s Rats, as much as The Human Centipede 2. When I auditioned for the role of Martin Lomax, the first film was still on the festival circuit. By the time of the shoot, it had started to become a pop culture reference, and Facebook photo trend. So, when The Human Centipede 2 came out, with all the attendant attention around its travails with the BBFC, it found itself at the centre of a discussion around extreme cinema, along with other films that emerged around the same time. (Films such as) A Serbian Film and The Bunny Game. I’m of the age that I was a school kid during the video nasties era, so a lot of the discussion was familiar to me, but also what I noticed happening was that it started to gain that schoolyard currency. Just as in the ‘80s kids would pretend they had seen The Texas Chain Saw Massacre or Zombie Flesheaters, they were now claiming to have watched The Human Centipede 2, when often they had watched the trailer on YouTube. As we have now passed the 10th anniversary of its release. It is gratifying to find that people are still discovering the film, and appreciating its dark comedy, now that its reputation as one of the grossest films ever has diminished.
(Laughs) Yeah, I was one of those kids in the ‘80s, but I’d seen all of those films. My Mum rented a lot of pre video nasties on Betamax tapes, so my childhood was doomed from an early age. Speaking of early ages, let’s take it back a few years… Laurence the Gnome?! (Yes, I’ve seen your IMDb).Yeah, I started out as a performance artist and whilst still at college worked on a few projects by the artist Stephen Taylor Woodrow. Stephen and his collaborator at the time. Peter Cocks was also developing characters for children’s television. They’d had some success on No. 73, and when they worked on What’s Up Doc? (Another three-hour Saturday morning magazine show with a mix of interviews, cartoons, comedy sketches, etcetera). I got roped in. I had worked with them when they did some characters for a charity event for the British Heart Foundation, where I had played a gnome, and so whenever they needed a (short) extra character to play Laurence the Gnome, a little boy, a Cheesy Ranger, etcetera, they’d involve me.
Sharing a series with Howard the Duck and Admiral Akbar himself, Tim Rose, plus a few other names like the one and only, Pat Sharp? That’s one way to get noticed. Tell us about it all.
As I said, I wasn’t a regular on the show, just occasionally brought in, several times over two seasons of the show. But yeah, I got to know Pat, Yvette Fielding, and Andy Crane who were the main presenters. Plus, there were a number of people from Hensons there, including Tim who were all great. I remember Don Austen at the time had the pleasure of working with Robert De Niro on Frankenstein. But for me the greatest pleasure was working alongside Frank Sidebottom. I was starstruck!
You remind me of the silent era of films when actors had a supreme look and could speak volumes with expressions. Those films were a staple diet when I stayed with my Grandparents back in the days. What era of movies would be your go-to?
Well, I grew up with Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd compilation shows being screened on the BBC in the early evenings and school holidays, so I do have a fondness for that silent/early talkies era of comedy, but for me Laurel & Hardy were supreme. Also, Peter Lorre is one of my favourites. He always manages to mix some creepiness, or sleaziness in when he is playing ineptitude or sweetness, and vice versa. Jimmy Stewart is also a terrific physically expressive actor whether he is playing comedy or more straight roles. Also, the French actors Michel Simon, and Raimu are masters of their craft, and it’s always a pleasure to revisit L’Atalante, or La Femme du Boulanger for their performances… and Anthony Wong is god!
Brilliant, you are quite a scholar of films, my friend. So, who is influenced you the most in the world of movies?
Influenced in what way? In terms my taste or view of what cinema can be, I’d say the films of Jodorowsky, Fellini, David Lynch, Guy Maddin, and Bela Tarr are directors whose films have all shaped my own preferences for cinema. But I am eternally thankful that I grew up at a time when television was the main reservoir for introducing filmmakers to the budding cineaste. It is sad that the days of the BBC or Channel 4 running extensive retrospectives of great directors like Goddard, Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, or Bresson are long gone. There’s no room for quirky programming of cult cinema in strands like Moviedrome. These were the things that were my education in film, and probably more of an influence than any specific director.
Which films made the greatest impressions on you?
L’Atalante for its experimentation of cinematic techniques, and how young Vigo was when he made it. Eraserhead, for how it is such a labour of love, shot at weekends, and in fits and starts over such a long period of time, and the fact that it such a great work of art. Bad Boy Bubby, again shot at weekends, with so many different cinematographers, over a long period of time, and yet it is a beautiful, and seedy work of art, and features an outstanding performance by Nicholas Hope. A Wonderful Life is my favourite film of all time. I love the great central conceit of seeing how one man’s existence affects so many others sentimental, it is so dark. And not an individual film, but rather the Mondo Macabro/Altered Innocence release of Apocalypse After – a compilation of Bertrand Mendico’s shorter (there’s a couple of features amidst the short films) works. In an era when it seems like more and more cinema is uninspiring, as films have an eye on streaming services, it’s a shock (and a relief!) to discover a contemporary director that is both defiantly art house, and at the same time fully embraces a heritage of eurotica and horror films
The Human Centipede 2 does feel like one of those old midnight screening in NYC films, where winos slump dead in the isles and working women go about their business slurping. Was that the intention?
I think Tom’s original intention was to have it feel like a British Social realism film. So, he wanted to drain the colour, but in adjusting the colour he liked how it played in black and white. But yes, I completely agree! I love how it feels like a midnight movie! I do think that it is to do with the decision to release it in B&W. It feels dirty and grungy. It echoes both art films and underground extreme cinema. Obviously, there’s echoes of Night of the Living Dead (it’s a visceral horror film after all), but also the industrial soundscape is similar to that of Eraserhead. And yet it feels as sleazy as Thundercrack! or Richard Kern’s Fingered.
How’d it all begin? What was the genesis of a young Laurence R. Harvey waking up and deciding that this was his calling in life?
Ever since I saw Star Wars as a kid, I wanted to be one of the weird aliens in the background of the cantina scene. I had high ambitions! Growing up, I was always interested in art and storytelling, and had an aptitude for drawing, so eventually went on to do a degree in fine art, but at the back of my mind, I thought perhaps I’d move into being a comics creator, or filmmaking. Quite early in the degree course, I realised I had no aptitude for the technical aspects of using a camera (it was all super 8, and 16mm, the video camera we had at college was U-Matic which was broadcast quality at the time!), but I discovered a love of performance art. The film, video, sound, and performance were all in the same area — under the umbrella term of time-based art, and as students working alongside each other, we were encouraged to collaborate, or assist in another. So, there was a lot of cross-pollination. As I mentioned earlier, I was working outside of college on projects for other artists, and when I left college trying to make my own way in the art world. I started getting work in television and decided to adult education classes in different aspects of acting. Initially the acting work was a means to finance the work in the performance art field.
You of course played the little green fella in the TV series, Parallel 9. I figure you were pigeonholed from back in the days, you didn’t stand a chance.
Yeah, again that was down to Stephen Taylor Woodrow & Pete Cocks. Any short character they’d give me a call. Leprechaun, Elf, Gnome, Little Green Man, the list was endless, but always under 5’3” (laughs).
Parallel 9 was a Saturday morning kid’s show that ran during the summer for three series, but each series was completely different. The first series had lots of interesting and eccentric ideas, but was rather dull, so writers from Maid Marian were brought on board, and David Claridge (Roland Rat) was brought in to create a new puppet character (Brian the Dinosaur). With the third series a producer from What’s Up Doc? Took over and brought in some of her team, including myself, and Peter Cocks (now as co-writer with Mark Billingham).
Obvious question: had you seen the original Human Centipede before going for the sequel?
As I’ve mentioned many times before, I was aware of the first film, but didn’t see it until the day of my audition. Tom and Ilona had arranged a screening in Soho for cast and crew that they were casting and interviewing that week.
What was the audition like?
It was just Tom and Ilona at a desk in a small room at the top of a flight of stairs. They were both very pleasant and easy going, and Tom talked me through his ideas about who Martin was, and the going through the film scene by scene (there was no script at this point), and we got on like a house on fire. As he’d describe a scene, I’d occasionally interject with “Oh, that’s just like the character in All Night Long 3!”, or “In a way it’s like the ‘shunting’ in Brian Yunza’s Society.” Then he asked me to re-enact a scene where Martin is getting picked on by a customer at work, and then the scene where Martin’s scrapbook is discovered by his mother and Martin dispatches her. And Tom and Ilona, seemed to enjoy what I was doing, and so Tom asked if I was happy to go through the rape scene, so I raped a chair. It was all jolly good fun.
(Laughs) That is the way to win the part in an extreme film — rape a chair! So, was Tom Six an easy guy to work alongside? I assume so since you returned for part three.
Tom is fantastic to work for. As he works alongside his sister (as producer). He gets her to do all the shouting and telling people off; he just concentrates on praising the actors or teasing something out of their performance in a gentle, but enthusiastic way.
Your next full-on movie I guess would have to be The Editor. How’d you like that one? Was it a good experience on set?
I’d met Adam Brooks and Conor Sweeney from Astron 6 at a convention in the US, and I was a fan of their shorts and the film Father’s Day, so I was really excited to work with them. Also, I’m a big fan of Guy Maddin’s films, and (as they are based around Winnipeg) they’d studied under him. Besides, Adam’s got an encyclopaedic knowledge of film, and they are all just great to hang out with. It was around April, and although winter was over, there were still mountains of snow around. The main part of the film had been shot, but they still had a few locations to shoot scenes in, including the scenes with the priest. The church was one that (I think) Matthew’s parents went to, and various parents did the catering and pick up from the airport, it was very much a family affair. It was just the scenes with me, Matthew and Adam, and a crew of three or four people, and I got all the stories of what had happened during the main shoot.
Was it exciting to be part of a throwback kind of flick?
Well, there was sort of a grindhouse revival going on at the time, but I didn’t really see the Astron 6 guys as being part of that. They were just incredibly, cine-literate, both Manborg and Father’s Day had been steeped in different genres of film. This just seemed to be their take on the giallo film. I was just excited to be working with them, the fact that it was a spoof of gialli was secondary for me, but it is a film I’m incredibly proud of, and even though it wasn’t the success that it deserved to be at the time, it is a film that fans seem to be discovering over time.
Frankenstein Created Bikers, like the ol’ Human ‘pedes is one of a kind. Did you have fun in that role?
Absolutely! I had a blast. There may well be the faint whiff of ham in my performance, but I think it was in keeping with the film.
Again, I’d met the guys behind Dear God No! at several conventions and they lived their characters, shall we say. They always hung round in a group, always wearing their Impaler’s biker vests, looking somewhat disreputable, so they were my kind of people. Dear God No! was obviously a labour of love, made on a shoestring, and audiences responded to it. So pretty early on I was invited to be in the sequel, along with my Call Girl colleagues, Tristan Risk, and Jill Gervargizian. There was a slightly bigger budget, and James Bickert, the director, had access to 35mm film stock. There were boobs and guns (I got to shoot a Glock), and working with friends, what’s not to like?
What’s happening with Boogeyman Reincarnation? Did it ever officially come out?
No, and I doubt it will. The shoot was completed, but Ulli wasn’t happy with the film as it stood, so there were plans to turn it into a Boogeyman TV series, using what we’d shot as the pilot, and I’d become a recurring character. Obviously, following Ulli’s death, that isn’t going to happen. Mind you, considering what Vinegar Syndrome did with New York Ninja, I guess you can never say never.
Did you get a chance to work alongside the late, Ulli Lommel at great length then?
Yes, I did, and I feel so blessed to have been able to work with him. He is such a terrific director of actors. And it was wonderful to hear all his tales of working with Fassbinder and hanging out at Warhol’s Factory.
He’d directed so much since the 1960s. Was he a machine even at his late age?
Yes, he was vibrant and full of life and talking about new projects he was working on. A few months before he died, he approached me about working on his Andy Warhol film. He always had so much energy.
Do you have to reach into dark places within yourself to breathe life to your roles? Or is it another day at the office?
I’ve managed to largely avoid working in an office, but it’s a job like any other job, and it depends on the role. I mean, with Martin, obviously, I went to some dark places, but in other parts I play nice characters. I’m not a method actor, but every character has an emotional journey; some and deeper and darker than others.
What’s your limits? Is there a cut-off point?
Actual physical harm to other people or animals, but then that’s not acting. In terms of acting, in which everyone is consenting to what is happening in the scene, and the scene is blocked out, then no, not really. I mean, a lot of my considerations around this would depend on context, the material of the scene, whether I trust the director or not, whether what is being asked makes sense for the character I’m playing within the story. If something doesn’t make sense to my understanding of the work, then I would be reluctant to do it.
The Witches of the Sands though, as we said at the convention, we both have roles in that — hell I think everybody has a role in that one! Are you looking forwards to seeing the finished epic?
Yes, I am excited for Tony to finish the film. It does sound like a low budget British horror version of 8½. And despite all the people involved with it, nobody has a clue of how the final film will feel like, apart from Tony and whoever he has editing it!There’s so many images that he has released that look utterly fantastic but is probably a fleeting moment in the finished film. Tony is taking the same approach to making his film as Lynch did with Eraserhead, and Rolf de Heer with Bad Boy Bubby. So, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it is similarly amazing.
Do you watch many of your own movies?
Yes, often I’ll attend screenings for promotional purposes. Other times I’ll pick up the Blu-ray release. As an actor, you’ll have your experience on set, which might give a completely different sense of the film from the final product. Film is such a collaborative medium. That colour grading, editing, sound design, and effects all done after the shoot can completely transform the final work. So, I’m always intrigued about the final result.
Have you always been a screen actor, or have you ever done stage?
After doing Parallel 9, I was mainly working on commercials, and theatre. Obviously, coming from a performance art background, I was more interested in experimental theatre, but I was cast in plays at The Gate, and worked with Ken Campbell on his daughter’s staging of the twenty-four-hour play, The Warp. I worked as part of the dance theatre company Bock & Vincenzi on their touring show Breathtaking, and Simon (Vincenzi) directed me in a one man play at the Young Vic, The Man with the Absurdly Large Penis (Laughs) I know, typecasting right?
Ever see yourself playing the romantic lead?
Yeah, but probably in a slightly twisted way. It would probably be something like the Philip Seymour Hoffman character in Happiness.
Like myself in films, I’m forever stuck with nasty buggers or weirdos as characters. However, what I do love about your career is that you’re instantly recognisable, horror folks know instantly. Ever feel like Martin will become what Ace of Spades was to Motorhead? No matter what you do, how brilliant you perform, the crowd will always want Martin at conventions, and such.
I don’t know. I haven’t played a character like Martin since The Human Centipede 2. I’ve played sleazy characters (like in A Little More Flesh II), the cartoonish villain (in Frankenstein Created Bikers), but also nice guys (in The House that Zombies Built). I think when I play a nice guy, the audience may be waiting for the moment when I grab the crowbar and start cracking skulls.Before The Human Centipede 2, I was recognised as the guy that played the Little Green Man. Now I’m recognised as the guy from The Human Centipede films. Hopefully there’s another role down the line that will resonate with the general public.
Your performance in both roles within Video Shop Tales of Terror (see review here) was fantastic, so much fun. A couple of folks from that gang have spoken so highly of you there. Was it a good experience with the team?
Yes, it was a hectic day. Up early and a train to London then over to Romford. Into costume, shooting the scenes in the Video Shop, then into make up for the “platter” shot that scene. Then back into make up to be painted green. Then Romford to Euston for the penultimate train back North! But what made it go smoothly was Alex and Singh knowing exactly what they wanted, and Andrew Boothby on camera, whom I’ve worked with so many times, so we already had a great rapport.
Of all your upcoming works in production currently, which one do you reckon is your fav?
Probably my personal favourite is a project for Cadabra Records that is in the works. I have a great relationship with them, with Jonathan who runs it, and the fans. Some of the projects are suggested by Jonathan, and some I suggest (yje Ramp and Akutagawa stories for example). And I’ll be doing a live reading event with them in the US later this year.
In terms of film projects, I’m excited to see what people think of Jason Wright’s, The House that Zombies Built. This past year I’ve really enjoyed working with Tony Mardon, on the aforementioned Witches of The Sands, and Michael Fausti on his upcoming film Burnt Flowers, (as well as the Vergessen segment of Video Shop Tales of Terror). So, I guess it’s a toss-up between them.
Away from acting, what goes on in the life of Laurence?
With auditions, conventions, work for Cadabra Records, and reading through scripts for potential work, I don’t get much time to do anything other than collect blu-rays, and fill in my job search, and monthly profit/loss accounts to keep the job centre at bay.
What genres of music do your ears crave?
I tend to listen to a lot of soundtracks, Showa-era G.S. and Kayokyoku, Hauntology, and I’m a bit of a Nick Cave fan, but I have fairly catholic tastes. I listen to a lot of Bill Evans on Spotify.
Kayokyoku? That’s something I haven’t listened to in a while. Nice. I would ask more about Nick Cave, whether early or later, or both, but I know you have to rush back into recording The Vampyre, for Cadabra Records. So, I’ll say a huge thanks for this interview, concluding with the most pressing question of all — who is Laurence R. Harvey? A man or a myth?
I’m just a jobbing actor, hoping that I’ve been involved in some projects that have touched, or affected others, that will be remembered after I am gone. “Myth is, after all, the never-ending story.” (Joan D. Vinge)