Though his most recognizable role is no doubt that of mad scientist Herbert West in the Re-Animator films, Jeffrey Combs has had a long and varied career: from stage, to screen, to television, to cult icon. We chatted with Combs in the Microcinema of the Somerville Theatre—where he will bring his one-man show, “Nevermore: An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe,” in which he embodies the famed writer—in celebration of the unveiling of one of the two statues dedicated to the author in Boston. This man has a professional’s insight and an artist’s way with words, and no opportunity to hear him speak should be missed.
On the film that made him famous …
I didn’t even know who H.P. Lovecraft was when I auditioned for Re-Animator. No idea. No frame of reference. It’s ironic because I didn’t grow up reading him. I’m an actor; I didn’t say ‘I want to be actor’ so I can do Lovecraft movies. That was the farthest thing from my mind, so it’s funny how things come together that way.
On film versus theater …
I heard a long time ago something that I think is quite right: People that have come from the theater can do film, but people that do film can’t necessarily do theater. I think that’s probably pretty true. It’s all one, but they require adjustments and different skill sets. With film you can kind of get away with what a lot of people have, just being very natural and just being a persona of themselves, but if you threw them into a play, where they had to convey their persona to the back row, they might fail miserably. I think someone that comes from the theater, since they have the skill set to emote outward, they can also calibrate it down. It’s a matter of dialing down, but if you’ve never dialed up, how do you dial down? How do you trust it? Recently, I’ve been getting into voice acting, like animated characters, so that’s a whole other skill set where you would think, “Oh, well it’s just talking.” But let me tell you, it’s a completely different avenue of ability. It’s like another tool in the chest.
On what he hopes people will see in his Poe …
Right when he died there was an awful, scathing obituary that perpetuated really bad myths about Poe. He was many things, and he had many interests. He was prolific, an acute intellect, and he was tortured, and he was soaring creativity, and he’s … there’s not a word. It’s uncategorized. You can’t categorize him. It does him a disservice if you think he’s just The Man of the Crow, because he did soaring, beautiful poetry, he was a Renaissance man. He wrote a play, not a very good one. He wrote a novel. He saw himself as a poet, first and foremost. He is just far more complex than people might think of him and I hope, if they come to my play, they’ll see those colors.
On Poe’s boozy disposition …
There were stories of Poe being in the gutter, literally. But he always pulled himself up and tried to not do that again, but he had a lot on his plate … There’s a famous quote of Poe’s that says, “What no one understands and what no one will understand is that the drink does not make me insane. It’s the insanity that I suffer that makes me drink.” And I suspect that Poe might have been a bit of a bipolar or a manic-depressive. A lot of people who have incredible gifts have these incredible swings.
On the Somerville Theatre …
It’s the best period-feeling venue that I’ve ever done my show in.
NEVERMORE: AN EVENING WITH EDGAR ALLAN POE. SOMERVILLE THEATRE, 55 DAVIS SQ., SOMERVILLE. 8PM/ALL AGES/$35.
FURTHER READING
POE POE: THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF THE TWO POES
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN BACKS EDGAR ALLAN POE BRONZE BUST PROJECT
SOMERVILLE THEATRE CENTENNIAL: 100 YEARS AND GOING STRONG
