On the Table with Ashley
On the Table with Ashley is a podcast presented by luxury home goods brand, Âme Atendre. Join host Ashley Gould as she speaks with thought provoking individuals on their varied life experiences and professions. On the Table with Ashley covers any topic we can put on the table, with the goal of increasing human connection through curiosity, respect and understanding.
On the Table with Ashley
Part 1 - From 50% of His Body Burned to Playing Jason Vorhees in Friday the 13th (4 times), the Journey of a Family Man who found his Place in the Horror Industry with Kane Hodder
We have horror on the table today. Join Ashley for an unforgettable conversation with Kane Hodder, the man behind the mask of horror's most iconic villain, Jason Voorhees, in four "Friday the 13th" films. In part 1 of this 2 part interview, Kane shares his incredible story of survival and triumph, from enduring excruciating burns on over half his body due to a stunt mishap, to becoming a beloved figure in the horror community. In this episode, we cover how Kane overcame physical and emotional scars to carve out a successful career as an actor and stuntman, ultimately leaving an indelible mark on the landscape of cinema.
Kane provides an insider's look at the gritty realities of playing one of cinema's most recognizable characters, sharing behind-the-scenes secrets, delving into memorable fan interactions, and revealing the rigorous physical demands of the role. Speaking with Ashley, Kane truly takes off the mask. Kane candidly delves into his upbringing and his trials, as he reveals how these experiences shaped his path. This episode isn't just about horror; it's about resilience, determination, and the power of family support. Kane's journey is a testament to the human spirit's ability to overcome even the most daunting obstacles, and it is sure to be one you have never heard before. Whether you're a horror aficionado or simply someone seeking inspiration, Kane shares an inspiring story about human connection, compassion and recovery.
You can learn more about Kane Hodder and his captivating life journey in his book ‘Unmasked: The True Life Story of the World’s Most Prolific Cinematic Killer’ as well as the updated version 'Kill!', both available now.
Buy Kane's books at the embedded link.
Watch Kane's documentary, 'To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story', streaming now on Tubi.
Listen to Kane's podcast, 'Casualty Friday'.
Follow Kane Hodder:
Instagram: @kanehodder13
X: @kanehodder1 and
Tiktok: @kanehodder_authormike
Films mentioned by Ashley and Kane in today’s episode:
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield (2007)
B.T.K. (2008)
Free Solo (2018)
Follow On the Table with Ashley on Instagram @ameatendre
On the Table with Ashley is presented by Âme Atendre, a luxury home goods and tableware brand with a mission to connect people to all that matters.
If you have ideas for new episodes or guests, or just want to share feedback, email us at reachoutanytime@ameatendre.com
Ashley: Welcome to on the table with Ashley, a podcast where I explore ways in which we can lead more fulfilling lives and amplify human connection by increasing our curiosity and communicating with less judgment and more respect. It's my pleasure to welcome Kane Hodder to on the table with Ashley today. Kane is best known for playing Jason Voorhees in four of the Friday the 13th movies, to this day being the only actor to play Jason in multiple films. He has acted in over 180 films, including playing lead Victor Crowley in the Hatchet series and Dennis L. Rader in the real life serial killer known as BTK in the fictionalized biographical crime film also titled BTK. Aside from being the only actor to reprise the role of Jason Voorhees, he has also been the only actor to play three of the most infamous horror icons in the history of horror films. In addition to playing Jason Voorhees, he also played Freddy Krueger's gloved hand at the end of Jason Goes to Hell in 1993 and did the stunts for Leatherface in Leatherface Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 in 1990. Kane started his career as a stuntman, an area of expertise he has continued throughout his career, including acting, producing, and managing safety of all stunts on movies as well. Kane is also the subject of the 2017 documentary 'To Hell and Back, The Kane Hodder Story', And co wrote the 2011 book, 'Unmasked, The True Life Story of the World's Most Prolific Cinematic Killer', and its updated version, 'Kill', released in 2021. Kane co wrote these books with Michael Aloisi and includes, , the auto biographical details of Kane's life, career, and personal challenges, including his journey in the horror film industry and the burn accident that nearly took his life. He and Michael Aloisi also co wrote the 2017 book, 'Killer Trivia', a collection of horror movie trivia. You can buy all of these books@darkinkbooks.com and we'll put that in the show notes as well. Kane attends horror conventions regularly traveling widely to greet his fans and continues to actively pursue his career in acting. You can find Kane on X at Kanehodder1 on TikTok at Kanehodder_authormike and on Instagram at Kanehodder13. Kane also has a podcast called 'Casualty Friday' that everybody should check out. And we'll put all of those links in the show notes. Welcome. Thank you for joining me. Happy to be here. All right. So you discuss this in detail in your book, Unmasked and then the updated version 'Kill', all about your childhood and upbringing. But I always like to start with a bit of your childhood, what kind of kid you were so that we can share that with listeners. And you had, I think, a particularly interesting childhood. Geographically speaking. So I'd love you to touch on that.
Kane: Yeah, when I was in elementary school, we lived in Reno or Sparks, if anyone knows that area. And, you know, I didn't talk about it all the time, but my dad had, A job with the Corps of Engineers that took him away from us for a year at a time and twice between the age of four and 12, he was gone for an entire year in South Korea working. And at that time, you know, he wasn't able to come home at any time in between. So that kind of was tough as a, as a kid. And the fact that I had no brothers and sisters of the same parents. I had two half sisters that my, that were my mom's daughters, but they were much older than me by the time their, their dad died. And my mom met my dad. They had one kid, which was me. But by the time I was six, and ironically it, I have my oldest nephew is six years younger than me, Because of that, those things, and I was kind of, you know, meek, I would, that's the term I use, you know, that's when I kind of get bullied quite a bit in 6th grade, 7th grade.
Ashley: And you talk about that a lot in the book. I think it was after that period that you moved to the small island, is that correct? And what, what is the name of that island?
Kane: Blodgett.
Ashley: Okay. And you lived there for how many years?
Kane: I was there for a little over five years, all of, eighth grade and all of high school. And then my dad got another job after I graduated in American Samoa. So we moved there. I was going to go to college and I took a semester off to be able to go with them and experience American Samoa because, that was just crazy.
My dad was there to build a boat harbor on that island because when we arrived, we had to unload from the tugboat to a longboat, which is a giant canoe with all of our stuff, including a refrigerator.
And we, we lived in the old missionaries dispensary. Most of the time I was there, they built a house for my mom and my dad, but then I eventually after a few months went back to Reno and started school at UNR.
Ashley: Yeah. So I thought it was so, first of all, you have some photographs in the book that I think are really cool because it gives you really a sense of how remote it was and I'm sure it's changed a lot since then, but how was it moving from Reno where you had everything at your fingertips to these really isolated islands with very small populations. I mean, I know it was instrumental in who you became, but what do you remember? Like, do you remember being excited about that or hating it? I was not having a good life in Reno with bullying and all that stuff going on.
Kane: So I was happy to get a change. And then we go to an island where not only is it a small population, but it technically is a military base, the whole island. So consequently, there's no crime. At all.
Ashley: Wow.
Kane: Yeah. You're literally kicked off the island for good if you do any kind of crime.
You don't pay for housing. You don't pay for. Utilities, all you pay for is your food and no income tax. So people love going there for saving up a bunch of money and then being able to come back to the States and get a nice house. I mean, it also, and maybe I'm just thinking about today's world with all of the noise and social media and everything.
Ashley: I mean, it sounds idyllic in a lot of ways, like you have a picture, you're on your bicycle with your parents and it just seems like a pretty wholesome life, do you remember that it's the best place I've ever lived?
Kane: American Samoa was a little remote, even, even though I was used to not having everything fingertips. Cause. You know, we had a Macy's on the island, on Kwajalein.
Ashley: Did you really?
Kane: Yeah, but half the time stuff was out of stock. Yeah. But it was a little Macy's store and a little grocery store and almost nobody drove, drove vehicles. Everybody rode bikes. Yeah. Because the island was three miles long. Right. It was tiny. The whole thing. Yeah. Mile wide. It was easy to get around on a bike. It was hot as hell.
Ashley: So you've had a number of things in your life that I think, and we'll get obviously to your burn and other things that have like really defined you. In that period when you were living on these remote islands, like have you reflected on what that's kind of contributed to your personality or, or your drive for success or anything?
Kane: I feel like I would have had the same drive for success in the career I wanted no matter where I was living, but it was maybe a little easier being in high school out there because I could concentrate on other things and because so many of my classes in high school were 10 students. Yeah. Or like French class.
Ashley: Yeah. Which I know you're very interested in.
Kane: I had five, five of us in that class. And I was their only guy. Yeah. And, when you don't have everything at your fingertips, then I think you appreciate when things come more. Yeah. And, we would always be able to make a trip back every year from the island back to the city. to Reno or somewhere to get some time off the island, even though, you know, by the time you went back to the island, you were happy to be back. Right. Yeah. Time flies. And then I went to UNO three semesters after the third semester went to visit my friend in LA, hanging out with him.And we went to Universal Studios and that's, That was the turning point. Yeah. And I saw that live stunt show. I said that I knew immediately. I said, that's what I want to do. I have no idea how to get into it. And, but that's the kind of career I want. I used to do all this stuff to entertain my friends just by doing crazy things.
Ashley: Yeah. I was going to say that in the book you talk about the one that sticks out to me is you guys had gone, I don't know where you had gone, some other Island maybe. And you were, you were in Hawaii and you were up high and you, how high were you?
Kane: I'm holding on to the railing. I'm looking down 350 feet. I'm going to say, hey, what's the matter? And they took off they couldn't stand it anymore I'm out there on the house, on the railing Yeah. It's going to fall. I found it So fun cuz I've never had any kind of fear.
Ashley: And I wonder, have you ever had your brain like scanned for that? So there's this, movie about this guy who climbs, it's called free solo. I don't know if you've seen it and they talk about his brain and how he, it's part of his amygdala is like not there. So he just doesn't have fear and you might have the same thing. Like you just maybe don't feel it.
IKane: t's not that I don't feel it.I feel it, but it's a good feeling. Okay. Interesting.
Ashley: Yeah.
Kane:It's not like I don't feel it, but it was like, I'm doing something.
Ashley: Right.
Kane: Euphoria in some ways.
Ashley: I know, and you did stunts afterwards with fire, which, which we'll talk about. So that's interesting in your, with your other friends who are stunt people, do they have that same like euphoria with respect to fear? Have you talked about that?
Kane: We have. There, there are people that are very similar. With that feeling, you know, written a little bit of routine on my bike around the neighborhood and stuff a little bit. Yeah, 40 miles an hour going down those hills on my bicycle and no helmet. I prefer to never, which is not smart, I know. I prefer to never wear a seatbelt, which Susan hates.
Ashley:Right. Of course. But I'm with Susan on this.
Kane: Sometimes I think I came to the realization that part of that, not just a defiance of safety, but part of it is like, I'm 69 now. So I don't do the dangerous stunts that I used to do. So, there's a part of my life that's missing all the threads. So, if I do something slightly dangerous, It's like not wearing a helmet, not wearing a seatbelt, it's minor, but you're taking more of a risk than you should. And I feel like I'm still hanging in there.
Ashley: That makes sense to me.
Kane:I also do have the defiant thing where if everybody else is doing it, I'm not going to. And I think that started from the story in the book.
Ashley: It seems like that actually has almost always been part of your personality. Maybe not when you were very young, but even on the island, you have stories where you were pretty defiant. So it seems like it was relatively young and, and your dad had some of that too. You have this quote, which I thought was pretty amazing in the book. You wrote, so your father was a really a wonderful man. You're right. He was so good. He did something I can't imagine ever doing. My mother had been married before she met him. Her first husband had died when she married my father and I was born. My father suggested to my mother that my middle name be Warren after her first husband. That's how good a man he was. I mean, that's pretty amazing. And it seems to me, And, you know, I'm just getting to know you, I don't know you all that well, that you have both sides of your dad in you.So you have this defiant side and I'm going to be a stuntman and I'm going to defy all the odds even after my burn and, you know, just never back down. And also this very like focused on your family side, which is very lovely. You have two children and you have a wonderful wife and that is so important to you. So I feel like you also have these like two sides that your dad had and, and, but I don't, you don't talk as much about your mom. I mean, you talk about how much you love her, loved her and she passed away and you dedicate your book to her and you also, and again, we'll get into the burn, but after your burn, you had this, I don't even know what to call it.And you've probably explored this like with therapists, so even though your family was not with you when you were burned, there was something in your brain that connected the burn to them. So you had a hard time with them after, including your mom. But can you tell us a little bit about your mom and like, what did you get from her? It's obvious to me what you got from your dad, just from what you've shared in the book.
Kane Yeah. My mom, you know, didn't have an easy life and she died right before I turned 20, so I was way too young. Way too young. To kind of backtrack a little bit, my dad's biggest dream was for me to get a college degree. Because he didn't even go to high school, and did pretty well for himself. And his, he, he has another, he had another daughter, so I have another half sister that I've never met.
Ashley: Still haven't met?
Kane: But his big dream was for his son to get a college degree. So he was so happy when I started college. And then when I decided to quit and try and pursue the stunt career, he wasn't real happy about it. Which I knew, but he didn't really express it. He still gave me enough flexibility to hope it worked. But I think in the back of his head, he was like, we'll find out it's impossible. And then he'll go back to school. That's how I, he never said that, but I always felt that he may have. Had that state of mind, so I start my career, I get into SAG, which is, yeah, tell people what SAG is, Screen Actors Guild, and it's very hard to get into. My mom had a friend that she, most of all, a female friend from school and stuff, and they kept in touch. And we were trying to figure out how to get into SAG. She goes to me one day, my friend so and so, her son is the mayor of Burbank, and I thought, I don't, he's not a studio guy, but their major Warner Brothers is in Burbank. So I got into SAG and then I said, I'm official now, now this is when the hard part comes getting work because you don't audition.
Ashley Yeah. Explain that to people. So you talk about that in the book, for actors, they go, they audition. I mean, not that it's easy. Of course, it's very difficult, but it's even more difficult for stunt people because you don't get to audition. You have to know somebody. You know, like you said, it can be a long shot, but it's a shot you are trying to get into acting.
Kane: And if you do a good audition, like Henry Thomas, the little, little boy from E. T. I do a lot of conventions with him and stuff. And he talks about his audition. He just nailed it. With stunts, you have to be hired by a stunt coordinator, and nobody, no stunt coordinator is going to hire you unless you have experience, which you can't get if nobody hires you.
Ashley: Right.
Kane: Or if you're a legacy. That helps.
Ashley: Okay. I'm sure.
Kane: Just like getting into some college. Right. And acting, too. But if you're the close relative of a successful stunt person, people will look at you sooner. Okay. Point of bringing up my dad was that I never got my degree. He was around when I got burned was my first year as a professional stunt man. So he had to endure the whole five and a half months in the hospital. And, you know, he couldn't, he could barely walk in my room because the smell and stuff was reminders for him of the war, everything. So he, he survived that and still thought, maybe this will show him he should get back to school.I don't know if that's true, but I feel that it might have been possible. And I didn't, I kept going and wanted to do it more now than ever. And I could, I just knew he was like, uh, really? I'm still going to try this and then, you know, as fate would have it, he died before I could show him I made the right choice.My dad really wasn't too sympathetic with me. Other people's difficulties, not that he would be shitty about it, but I could just tell he didn't want to deal with it. And fortunately, from my mom, I got more of a feeling of, you know, somebody's going through something that you don't understand. It doesn't mean it's not difficult for them. You may think, man, just get over it. I've heard that a million times with the OCD stuff that I have and which you experienced when I got out of the car. But, you know, I think it was inherently in her personality for my mom to be a little more, understanding and sympathetic about people's stuff. Yeah. But then, when you go through something, As traumatic as terrible burn injury that increases even more.
Ashley: Yeah. So I think and I, I think you'll agree with this from the book, the bullying that you experienced, the burn that you experienced losing your father, all of these things, horribly traumatic and difficult. And I do think have given you this like. Deep compassion that your fans seem to really connect with. So you have a lot of quotes near the end of the book of people's stories, meeting you and what it meant to them. And they're not superficial, right? These are people who are sharing with you suicidal thoughts, sharing with you, like, serious, like body image issues, health issues, you know, all kinds of issues. And they sort of just like open up to you and then they're willing to like publicly share that story, which is also pretty amazing. And I think you say in the book, like one of the things you're most proud of in your career is that you've been able to really help people. And really even like. Save lives, which is with the book, maybe in particular, or maybe also at conventions, both, but mainly the book and the document because of the reach.
Kane: Yeah, because you really see people's reactions and stuff, but conventions all the time are so it's the best part of it. I mean, You make a shitload of money and you have a lot of fun because you're with your friends and hanging out, playing jokes on each other. We all know each other very well.
Ashley: Right.
Kane: Anybody who has done anything in horror does these conventions. Yeah. And we all just have a great time. But when you can connect with somebody that's not used to that happening, that's part of the whole thing. Yeah. You know, there are cases where Other actors avoided, these are typically fans, that they avoided because they were uncomfortable talking to them. A lot of times we see a lot of people in wheelchairs a lot of times with I believe it's spastic. CV. Okay. Cerebral palsy. Uh huh. It's a spastic type where. Their body moves involuntarily. So, CV.
Ashley: Yeah, yeah. Well, you know what it feels like you write about in the book after the burn, how it felt to go back in public and have feel like everybody's watching you. So I think that you know what that feels like. So you want to help those people more probably. Maybe.
Kane: Yeah. I mean. Yeah, with the burn, it's a horrible thing to survive. And as you're alluding to, once you survive, then the work starts, right? Which I know you is lifelong work. Because when you burn skin, heals, it tightens up. Yeah. And makes. You know, that like, that's why I say you survive and get off the pain, then the work starts. Yeah. And my mom would stretch me every day and, you know, just do the exercises to try and minimize this kind of stuff. Mm hmm. It's just the contractures.
Ashley: So let me talk a little bit about the burn. So, okay, so you, it was July, 1977.
Kane: It was July 13th, 77.
Ashley: Okay. You were in Nevada, and you were doing an interview in a photo shoot with a local reporter, and you were actually supposed to do the stunt on the 12th .
Kane: We did do the stunt. Okay. And I just wanted to let her be able to take pictures of.
The Hollywood stunt man doing a fire stunt. Okay.
Ashley: And so you said you'd do it again.
Kane: I didn't like how the pictures look. Okay. It was too windy. Okay.
Ashley: And on the 12th, you were actually near a body of water on the 13th, for some reason, you guys went out into the desert. There was no water around. There's nothing. There was no, okay, no wind, no water, nothing. And you didn't, you had been using this like certain brand of rubber cement and you either, you ran out or I don't know, or didn't pack it with you. And the reporter had some with her. And so you just used hers, assuming it would. Act in the same way. And it, it obviously did not.
So basically, okay. You were 22 years old. You, and maybe you can describe it better, like with the rubber cement and everything and how the stunt worked.
Kane: Right. Well, typically if you do a fire stunt on film, you have very good protective gear under your wardrobe. Still, you might use rubber cement for the fuel. It always burns so bright. It looks fantastic. But the more important thing is that you have safety guys just off camera with extinguishers. And their whole cue, shouldn't say guys, it's not always guys, but safety people. Yeah. Their cue to put you out with extinguishers that are ready to go is when you hit the ground.
Okay. If you're standing on fire, it's up to you to know when to be put out. Then you go face down, they put you out, and you're good. And I didn't have any safety people because ignorance, really. I should have tested in new glue, which I did not. Yeah. And I should have had somebody there for safety, which is by far the biggest mistake I made. Yeah. And I think later on, when I would talk about, in interviews, when I would talk about, before the book was written, so, talk about the different brand of glue, I started thinking, oh man, I hope that she doesn't think I'm blaming her because she brought the glue and I got burned because she would not talk about it for years.
Ashley: So the glue, the glue that you had when you rolled in the dirt, it would go out, the fire would go out, and then the glue that you use that day, it just would not go out. So how, I can't remember if you say this in the book, how long do you think you were actually burning?
Kane: I would always light myself and would always have, you know, protection on certain areas that were supposed to burn. That's why this is all scars. This one is none. We had the protection from here to here. I could see that right now.
Kane: Yeah.
Ashley: And you had full facial hair, which was a blessing, right? Didn't you You had a beard and long hair. So how long do you think you were burning? Do you know?
Kane: if I really had to think. 30, 40 seconds.
Ashley: Okay. So you sustain life threatening burns and then you say, and this is like a lot to dig in, but you say your flesh was like literally falling off of you. And you couldn't, you were in shock. I don't think you felt it right away. I think that's normal, right? I don't know. It's like, yeah. And it was honestly, I think it's a miracle. I said this to you before. It sounds to me like a miracle that you survived because everything went wrong, like literally everything. So first of all, you were out in a remote area. There was no water around. Then the photographer. You tell her, like, I need to get to the hospital. She drives to, like, a fire station. Nobody's there. You go across the street to this woman's house, who you do later talk to, and she's in the book.
Kane: Yes, she, the woman allowed me into her house to stand in her shower, which I think was, I don't even know whose idea that was, whether I thought it was good. Right. She said it, reporter, whatever, but it was the best thing to get just cool water running on, you know, because I guess maybe it helps control the damage that would be further done. And, you know, I remember the little girl, I'm sure you're going to mention the little girl was playing and I walked through the house and she was terrified. But you said later she didn't have a memory of it or it didn't, it wasn't traumatizing for her. Yeah. She was young enough. Yeah. Yeah. Her mom was kind of traumatized because,
Ashley: Yeah, but she did such an amazing thing.
Kane: And so she's terrified. And then somebody calls the ambulance probably the photographer or the journalist, so an ambulance comes and then it breaks down on the way to the hospital I mean, I'm reading this and I'm like this cannot actually be true and then you finally get to a hospital and there's no burn unit and Months later, I mean, it's probably years later. You realize like they had no idea what they were doing. And I kind of thought that at the time, but I also wasn't sure what proper burn care should be.
Ashley: Right. How would you know?
Kane: Can't be this much pain. Yeah, because he wasn't giving me pain medication properly. He thought I'd become addicted and you. can't worry about that shit.
Ashley: Okay, so you had multiple skin graft surgeries. You can, and you can explain what some of these are. Debridement, which is scraping dead skin off of you daily. For some period of time and again, without really any pain management and then having your arms locked in place, which you told us about with pins to try to get them to take the skin grafts and heal underneath a staph infection, which was probably because you didn't have any sterilization because they didn't know what they were doing. And all of that is before you were actually transferred to a burn unit. And you said that was 5 and a half months.
Kane: Four months in the other hospital. Four months. Then I went to the And you were not getting better. And you say in the book, like, the doctor basically told your parents, like, you might die and they don't know what to do, so they're going to send you to this burn unit.
Kane: And everybody's like, burn unit? Like, why haven't, why hasn't he been in a burn unit this entire time? So It would be one thing to be in the hospital for a couple weeks and then shit. Right until you were like, stable, I mean, it's such a terrible shape and then you quickly did make a lot of progress physically once you got to the burn unit, because you're getting appropriate care, sterile environment, but then.
Ashley: And I don't know, it was probably before then the mental, like, anguish started, but you definitely talk about in the burn unit, like, almost like giving up, which is maybe the only time in your life you felt like that. And, and then you tell the story of a guy who clearly had been burned, talking and joking with the nurses, and you saw him, I think it was all glass in there, maybe?
Kane: Yeah, I'm, I'm laying in my bed. And in this particular burn unit in San Francisco, the nurse's station was in the middle of the unit. And from the station, they could look in all directions and see through windows to each patient without having to get up and go in. Yeah. Which is great because you can make sure everything's okay just by looking around. And I was very depressed and thinking, I don't know if this is worth it. This is after, you know, five months. Yeah. In the hospital. And wondering if I even wanted to continue. Right. Because I, you know, when I said there's the pain, then the work starts with the recovery, then you also get to live with the constant reminder. Every time you look in the mirror, oh yeah. Or just look down or, you know. With other medical situations, if you survive, you don't necessarily have that visual reminder, and yeah, so, I'm in my bed, not in a good state of mind at all, and I'm looking at the nurse's station, I see a guy come in that's all gowned up and he was, you know, talking to the nurses, laughing, having a good old time. I fucking hate you. You're happy. Yeah. And you're suffering.
Ashley: But could you tell he was burned?
Kane: Not at that time.
Ashley: Okay.
Kane: That's why I hated him.Then, he was burned. As I'm watching him, because I have nothing else to do. I can't even watch TV because I can't use my hands. If anything, I could change the remote. Then I saw him pull up his sleeve of his gown and I'm looking and said, he's got burn scars. And that's when it occurred to me. Which we all do, which I did also, this very unit. Once you finally get out and get home, eventually you want to come back and show off. How good you're doing. Yeah. How well you're doing. And it just helps your state of mind. When, you know, I left the unit at 140 pounds or something, and when I finally got to come back in there and visit them, I was doing way better. So that's what he was doing, just to show all day. You know his progress and yeah, and that's when totally I turned around saying this guy can do it I think I can yeah, he's happy. He's got as much scars if not more than me, but he's happy He's laughing. I haven't laughed in fucking months. Yeah, and He totally turned me around never met.
Ashley: Yeah Isn't that beautiful? I think it's beautiful. There's something very poetic about it But you've done it for other people too, right? So that was an important moment. And then when you got out of the burn unit, you know, you had to wear a suit called a jopes body suit. Am I pronouncing that? Okay. And that's a compression suit made of nylon or spandex or sometimes it can have cotton and it reduces scarring and you had to wear it 24 hours a day for how long?And id it go like, how did it, did it go like all the way to here and gloves and gloves, gloves, sleeves, neck, all the way up to here, like a mock turtle neck. Kind of exactly. Uh huh.
Kane: My whole body and my legs, because I had some burns on my legs, but also the donor sites, when you have skin graft procedure. In order to heal badly burned tissue, you have to have skin from your own body. They do sometimes the diamond skin or pig skin back then, temporarily. But you'll never heal unless it's skin from your own body.
Ashley: So they would take skin from, like, your ankle and they would put it on your arm or something?
Kane: They light it, basically. It's so thin. You can almost see through the skin. But it's your own skin and it's covering a decent amount of burned tissue, so it'll heal.
Ashley: Yeah. Okay. You can't move. Really? Splinted. Everywhere. So that the skin wouldn't be disturbed. So you were in this suit for about a year, and you said it was extremely uncomfortable, but you also realized it helped you getting used to being in public again. So kind of going back to what you're saying with the guy with the tongue and people with cerebral palsy. Everybody was looking at you because you looked different. So having the suit in a way was a blessing because even though it was very uncomfortable, it helped you kind of, they would look at the suit and they weren't looking at your scars.
Kane: Yeah. Yeah.
Ashley: And then you say you write about going back to the site of the burn a year after when you were seven. You're still very, very weak and in the job suit, but you forced yourself to go and it was actually, you said, even hard to drive.
Kane: It was all coming back too fast and too hard for me to even open my eyes. In the year after the accident, I had cried countless times, mostly out of anger or pain, but this time the tears were different. I can now look forward. To the future and take my life back. I wasn't going to let the burns or anything else stop me from living the life I wanted to live.
Ashley: And I feel like you really haven't. And maybe it started in the burn unit where you saw that guy and it sort of was like solidified that day you went back to the burn site, but I think there's something extremely powerful in making up your mind and it feels like you just made up your mind in that moment. Like I'm not going to let this ruin my life. Is that, is that true?
Kane: Yes. Completely accurate where, you know, I was still 22, which is the only reason I survived. I feel with such shitty care and horrible medical staff and no insurance, no insurance at all, because I was just old enough to have been taken off my parents. But I hadn't worked enough inside to qualify for insurance. So I always thought that that might've been part of why I never got to the burn unit.
Ashley: Oh, interesting. But you were very healthy going in, like you had been working out, you were in very good shape, and that had to have helped you, for sure. Physically. So, did religion have any role in how you coped with any of the things you've had to deal with in your life, or are you not very religious?
Kane: I am not very religious. I, you know, I even kind of joke I'll say my mom, my dad died right before I turned 25. My mom died right before I turned 50, which is kind of strange. So I've always said, I'll probably die right before I turned 75. And whenever I say that, it's no, no, no. And they knock on wood. And then they're like,
Ashley: yeah, that doesn't do anything.
Kane: But as far as religion, being it's the source of most every war we have had and what kind of bothers me is when, like, somebody will say, Thank God you survived.
Ashley: Right.
Kane: Yeah. Thank God I'm the one that survived. Right. And I don't blame God for getting hurt in the fall. So, I just don't understand why people, Thank God for every good thing that happens. Right.
Ashley: Well, I agree with you that religion and that from a pretty young age, I grew up in actually a pretty religious family. and from a young age, I distance dmyself from it because for me, it started with like, we went to a conservative temple and it was all men and I'm like, well, I'm a woman and I'm a girl. And why do I not see myself up there? So you dug deep for your life and it didn't, doesn't have to be a religion. It was something like something in you that made you do it. And it's either like a love of life or like the life you wanted, like things you wanted to accomplish, or maybe just your fighting spirit.
Ashley: So you love the horror genre from a young age, but you didn't really dream about that at being part of that as a kid, you probably didn't like even think about that. You say at one point in the book, killing people on film gets those demons out of my soul without the cathartic release. I would probably be in real trouble. And then, I just want to hear about, so it's one thing to become a stuntman and you, you kind of took us to the beginning of that, but you can talk a little bit more about how you like really made your way into that profession, which is quite difficult to do. And then I think you just got to, I don't remember why you got to try out for the Jason part. And that started like this entire huge career in horror that you really weren't counting on, I don't think.
Kane: Not at all. Yeah. Never. I mean, there's so many benefits to doing stunts because when you work with an actor or an actress that you've admired, and now you work in hand in hand with them and they want to really work with you, not just doing an acting scene because it's a physical thing where they want to look good.
They. It's, it's a different vibe on the set when you're doing stunts because you're helping them look good. Right. You're not, you know, doing just dialogue with them. And I never anticipated anything beyond that. That's all I ever wanted. You do all the hiring and every other stunt person on a movie, that's your job. And you get to pick and choose what stunts you want. So it's an ideal situation. I always loved coordinating. So I never tried out for Jason. I did a movie called Prison with Randy Harlan. It was, I think it's first movie. Almost all the stunts I did myself. I did a high fall. It was in a prison, an old prison. I did a high fall off the fourth tier, crashed a car through an exploding main gate of prison, all kinds of fun stuff. And the makeup effects person asked me if I've ever done. Any kind of makeup effects, and I really had some couple little things, but he said, I have to have somebody play a character that has been dead for years and comes out of the ground.So it's a rotted corpse guy, and, it's going to be a full body suit. It's going to take three and a half hours to get into it. Lenses in my eyes, dentures. Prosthetic glued everywhere and he said you want to do it and I said sure I'll do that. Yeah, it sounds fun. And I think I was only in the makeup for one or two days Just doing the scene and one of the things that this guy named John Biefler is the one that did the makeup effects And he was amazed that the director and him were like, 'Hey, just because you're a rotting corpse coming out of the ground, we want to put worms on you'.I said, okay. Live worms. Yeah. Yeah. So it looked really creepy. And I said, 'Oh, how cool would it be if I had them when I stand up and I scream, they come out of my mouth.' They're like, you'll do that? Along with how I used the makeup and worked with it to make the character more enjoyable to watch, I guess. John B. Lurden, the effects guy, was trying to do that for the second and following year. And I'm amazed at how he got the job. Yes, I agree.
Ashley: So, this is the guy. Cheers. Because they had had six movies before. And it was a different person every time. So they weren't against using somebody new again, but they were a little leery. But they didn't know, they didn't know anything about you. . It's crazy how like. This one thing, this guy asking, Hey, would you do this scene completely changed your life.
Kane: Yeah. And once I was finally officially hired to do the movie, I couldn't believe it. And I also stunt coordinated that. So I got to do and plan all the stunts and, and, that's, you know, after that movie came out, everything changed.
Ashley: So you go to conventions all the time. You've been in, do you know how many movies youve been in? 180? How many are horror?
Kane:I think I just had somebody research it. I think I've done 77. Okay. Horror movies. A lot.
Ashlet: So, can you just talk a little bit about like, The fans and the genre and like the love, because it feels like a very strong love of this genre.
Kane: On Susan's birthday. Oh, which was a Friday, okay? The 13th, Friday, the 13th of May, 1988 is when the movie was released in theaters. And we had a big opening thing at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood when it was one big theater jam packed, just sitting there watching the fans react to my stuff, on screen was amazing. And then I I was invited to come to a horror convention. I said, yeah, I'll check it out. I knew nothing about it. During a panel for that, John Buechler was having about the movie before it came out. He said, by the way, the new Jason is sitting right there.
Ashley: I think you did put that in the book and people were so running after you to get your autograph before they'd even seen the movie. and you now sign, I mean, how many autographs are you signing a year? Do you have any idea?
Kane: I really don't. I do about 20 conventions a year.
Ashley: Okay. And. All over the world or all over the country?
Kane: All over the world. I've been to Germany, you know, Ireland, Canada, of course, Mexico.
Ashley: Horror fans are everywhere.
Kane: Yeah. I just love the horror fans, and especially when somebody will come up to my table at a convention and show me an old picture that they took. And I look at it and it's from like early nineties or something. Yeah. I look at it and I say, no, I'm holding an infant in the picture.
Ashley: And it's them?
Kane: And it's them with their kids now. It's making me feel fucking old, but at the same time, that's amazing.
Ashley: It's amazing. It's multi generational and there are certain industries or certain franchises, I think where that happens and then others where it doesn't happen at all. So why do you think that happens in horror?
Kane: Maybe because there's so many sequels that fans are able to stick with characters for so long, because, you know, most people think the Mount Rushmore of horror characters. It's Jason, Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers from Halloween, if you know that one, and Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. you know that I didn't watch any of Leatherface.
Ashley: Yeah, tell me about that. You were telling me about that the other day, which is so cool. And you go in a suit. Is it called a green? What is it called? A green suit, like a suit where they, okay. And then you move and they can get it on the game and there are multiple versions, right? Multiple versions of the game. Now you've done it several times.
Kane: Uh, no, not the same game, they keep adding more characters and more interesting stuff, which we did the Friday the 13th game, but we never did all of that after the fact. The game came out almost a year ago, and we just did another session two weeks ago. I don't remember if I told you what happened at the studio this last session.
Ashley: I don't know. What happened?
Kane: We do the motion capture at Henson Studios in Hollywood. Okay. And it's a historic studio and we're on the Charlie Chaplin stage and there's a recording studio right next door to the stage that we're at and a lot of singers, musicians and stuff record in there. And, I was excited because a couple of people came into our stage, took pictures, they're holding chainsaws and stuff. Cause they're kind of fans. It's Machine Gun Kelly and Jelly Roll, which is, I
Ashley: I love Jelly Roll's music. So good.
Kane: I love it too. And it was just, it's, that's another benefit of this stuff is that At some points, people that you look up to may feel like you're on the same level. So they gave the Jason role to somebody else that was many, many years ago.
Kane: And I don't know, you, you kind of allude in the book, like you still don't really know what happened. Do you feel like you have closure on that or that you'll never have closure on that? But it's like, and are you, you seem like you've got a lot of great things going on.
Kane: So I do, but I just wish I had been given a reason. Yeah. Whether I agreed with it or not, just tell me why. Yeah. And tell you instead of not telling you. Right. That's the thing where I'm like, why do people have so much trouble just being honest, like you're not gonna get the role. If they just told me from the beginning that we're going to go in a different direction. I would've been happy that I did four in a row, but to tell me I'm doing it and then going to do it just seemed more insulting and then never tell me why. You know, it was hard for me to understand any logical reasoning because I was still in really good shape and, and couldn't have said I was too old or anything like that. Yeah. But you're doing a lot of great things. You, I mean, and hopefully you've done some work to like process it.
Ashley: You've had to process a lot of things like the burn and the bullying, right? So you kind of had some practice processing difficult things, it does sound like your career is pretty awesome right now.
Kane: Oh, it is. I mean, the ironic thing is that because of conventions and autograph shows and stuff, making five times the money I used to make risking my life, which was good also, but the autograph money is insane and it's, you know, it's just enjoyable. Yeah. It's more tiring than people think.
Ashley: Well, and the travel.
Kane: And you're sitting there signing stuff. Well, when you have to answer the same question 50 times. Yeah. And they haven't heard the answer. So you can't answer like, oh, here we go again. Right. You have to answer with enthusiasm.
Ashley: I think it's work. Oh, that definitely takes work. And you're traveling, which is exhausting. I mean, I think all of it sounds, you know, tiring, but also I think it gives you energy because, and you have a lot of these in the book, again, these stories of fans, like really quality interactions with fans. So that's very cool. So you have two boys. I know that they came on set at least once and one of them, or maybe both of 'em had a cameo in at least a movie, one movie?
Kane: Well, yes. Both of them, Reid was in a movie called Ed Gein. Okay. Which is another real guy that existed like BTK. Okay. And I played him. Reid was like six or something, and he had a line.
Ashley: Oh, he had a line? So, Jameson was in, the first hat movie. Okay.
Ashley: The one we're gonna watch?
Kane:Yes.
Ashley: Okay. Do they love horror?
Kane: It's not like a passion because. Yeah, you know, chose to follow my footsteps, which was tough. Yeah, yeah. Father fought, follow my father. Right.
Ashley: Yeah, so we were talking earlier about like the impact your father and mother have had on you, and you and Susan have this very, you guys have such a wonderful family, do you have any advice for dads and maybe even dads who travel, like you did have to go off on set a lot, but you were always very involved in their lives. Like, do you have any advice?
Kane: I would just say, just being aware of it doesn't mean you have to dictate your career. Because if you have, you know, a career that demands a lot of attention, then unfortunately you're going to have to do that. Right. But don't forget about your wife and kids or spouse and kids. Yeah. And, you know, especially since, as you know from reading the book, I don't have any contact with anyone I'm related to.I believe one of my sisters is gone. I don't know about the other one. And then the other one, the other half sister that I never met, and I don't speak to any cousins, or aunts, or uncles, or nephews, nieces, nothing, which You know, it was unfortunate, but I think it's a, as a result of my uh, repercussions from the OCD and the PTSD.From the burn. Yeah. Yeah. I know it was difficult, all my family, to deal with that. My mom always stuck it out. She always did whatever I asked her to do, which would often seem unreasonable.
Ashley: Well, I can say as a mom, mothers love their kids. I mean, it's hard to think of things you wouldn't do for your kids. So, but still, it's amazing.
Kane: She did. It's wonderful that she did, you know? Yeah. Dad was gone, you know, and she's still helping me deal with stuff. And she, she wasn't really that knowledgeable about mental health issues, but she was always willing to try.
Ashley: Yeah. Well, people didn't talk about things the same way then. And there wasn't the internet, like things weren't as readily available to read about either. So, you know, you kind of had to be an expert at that time. The fact that, you know, part of the time. Two and a half years ago, there was a little wake up call saying, Oh, you know, what a person you used to be.
Kane: I thought I was healthy and had a great diet and still had a heart attack, so. Yeah. There's just so much you can do to avoid the genetic factor. Right. My dad had three of them. Right. But he also never quit smoking and all that stuff. And then having a seizure last year on the plane, and that's another time where they say, he was on a plane.I said, yeah, but we hadn't left the gate yet.
Ashley: Oh, thank God.
Ashley: I mean, like you said, there's certain things you can't control. I mean, we do our best, but I think, you know, obviously you're very focused and Susan's also very focused on your health, but also just having this mindset, like we don't know how much time we have. We should really enjoy and live. Life to the fullest for the time that we do have. I'm actually in September starting a series on the podcast on death and dying. It will be 10 years since I lost my dad to a rare cancer. And I just feel like we don't talk about death enough. And it's, you know, it's funny cause you have this like line in the book about how people who aren't horror fans are just scared of death.And I don't know that I agree with that. Although I was, I was telling you about this paper that this palliative care doctor told me about where it basically like, Every fear we all have is about death, so maybe there's some truth in that, but I do think it's right that we don't talk about it enough and it's not that it'll make it easier, but we can like prepare for it. Right.
Kane: We shouldn't avoid it and we should prepare for it for our loved ones, frankly, and for our own peace, you know, but also just this idea of like, Let's live the life we have to live, and if you remember, I think I believe it's in the book that when I was. Trying to get everything going, and my mom and dad were still in Sparks, and I got a chance to audition for a Coors Light commercial in LA A., so I leave my mom and dad's house and my dad's on his recliner. I say, I got to go dad, see ya.
And I go, and he fucking dies that night. It was that night. That night. I'm gone one night and he dies. And the last thing I said to him, see Ya. So point being that Every single time, every single time I say goodbye to my sons or my wife, I end it with I love you.
Ashley: Hmm. You'll make me cry. Kane I am a crier though.
Kane: Something terrible happens. I want that to be the last thing. And I said to my loved one is I love you. So every single time.
Ashley: And I'm sure that they hear it and they know it. And that's amazing. I know you even say in the beginning like you weren't gonna write a book for a long time because it was just like people just wanted the money to be honest like publishers and then you found Michael and you had a really good connection and He was a horror fan and you knew he was really going to tell your story.And I think you were probably just like ready to tell your story. I mean, I think probably, you know, like it's not an easy story. And, and I think that's why it's so touching. Like it's really a meaningful book. Like, you know, I mean, I haven't literally even seen a horror movie. I'm not a horror fan, but I'm a fan of yours. And I think a lot of people feel that way and it's because you were willing to be vulnerable and you are willing to be vulnerable and not everybody is, if you can't show emotions, you're not very strong.
Kane: I agree with that. It doesn't typically make sense, but that's how it feels.
I, I totally agree with that. I think it's harder to do it and to open yourself up to the pain of like what could come on the other end of it, but life is so much richer that way too.