Interview: Lance Henriksen raves about THE ARTIFICE GIRL, reminisces about DOG DAY AFTERNOON, and remains all in on any future MILLENNIUM revival

I’ve talked to Lance Henriksen several times over the course of my career as a pop culture journalist—once for Bullz-Eye, once for The A.V. Club, and once for Decider—and he always delivers a fun, casual conversation full of anecdotes. Unsurprisingly, this time was no exception.

In addition to discussing his great new sci-fi film, The Artifice Girl, which takes a disconcerting look into the world of artificial intelligence, we also talked about a few gems from his back catalog, including the ones mentioned in the title of this post but also an obscure horror flick from the ‘70s that I’d somehow never asked him about before. Read on, and enjoy!

It's good to talk to you again. I think this is our fourth time talking over the years, so I'm glad that I can actually see you while I'm doing it for a change.

[Laughs.] I know, man. You'll be sorry. I'll make a lot of faces.

I'll endure. Well, I was able to watch The Artifice Girl ahead of time, and it was really fantastic. It's definitely a serious and intelligent sci-fi film. 

Can you believe that film? I watched it more than once. I had a big fight with some guy who was at my house when I was watching it, and he goes... [Sighs.] "It's got a lot of dialogue." And I said, "You don't like that? Maybe you're just lazy." And we got into a big fight!

Well, I agree that it's very dialogue-heavy, but it's good dialogue, and it's the kind that you absolutely have to listen to. 

You have to! Yeah, but not only does it have layers, but after awhile the dialogue becomes like music in a way. When people stop in the dialogue and they're looking at each other, there's a bigger message in that part than the distraction of dialogue. I mean, when you really think about the ins and outs of that incredible story - you know, what happened to this kid, and how they think he's a pedophile, and all of this stuff - where all those roads meet, it's been truthful the whole time. It's never lies. So I just found myself very proud to be a part of it. I mean, I'm not kidding. This director, he's gonna go all the way.

I was going to ask you if Franklin Ritch was the one who approached you about doing the film.

Yeah. He said, "Would you like to do it?" And I read it, and I said, "Franklin, you wrote this? And you're gonna be in it? And you're gonna direct it?" [Laughs.] It was like a five-minute conversation just to get through the threshold of the house! It was amazing. I really enjoyed it. We went out to dinner every night, and we couldn't let it go. We stayed up until early in the morning.

You play his character in a section set decades after the first part of the film. 

Yeah, I don't know, we look a little alike, and we tried to lean it that way. But all of the characters, everybody in it was born, they lived their life, and they died. All of them. After [my last scene], I'm sure I went out the door, got into my car, and then died. [Laughs.] But her performance, this young girl... Tatum [Matthews] kept all of her skills. She danced, she can sing, she can definitely talk... She really knows how to act. She's a powerhouse!

She held her own with you, for sure.

Oh, hell, yeah. More than that. We loved working with her. Her family were on the set the whole time, so they were there to protect her and make her feel secure. But when she launched into any aspect - dancing, playing chess, or whatever it was, even arguing - she kicked ass, I must say. She really did. Man, she's gonna be around for a long time, doing great work, I'm sure. 

It's definitely a film with a lot of moral implication to it, as far as artificial intelligence goes.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. You know, we're looking at each other in this computer, and we're so jaded about stuff that we're not giving the computer any credit. We're just using it, like a hammer or a knife. I'm sure the first knife must've been the biggest invention in the world. We just have to become friends with it. But in terms of A.I., it's like saying, "If I was a cockroach, would I have as much right to live as a human?" Look what you're doing!

[Of all moments for this to happen during the interview, my computer suddenly started glitching and the video—but not the audio, thankfully—started giving me a bit of a Max Headroom stuttering effect.] 

I don't know what's up with this thing. It's been annoying me a lot lately. Hopefully it'll pop back to normal. Can you hear me, at least?

Yeah, I can hear you. Everything's good. Can you still see me?

I can still see you fine. 

Because I have to admit: I'm an A.I.

[Laughs.] That's ironic, because at the moment, it looks like I am!

Maybe it's doing it because you're talking about it! [Laughs.] 

It's not impossible. 

But Franklin, for him to do that many elements, including being in it and directing it and keeping his energy up throughout all of it... He's a miraculous director. I think he's got a giant future ahead of him. The more opportunities they give him, the better. He's meant to be in this business.

I wanted to ask you about a few other things in your back catalog, but since—by coincidence—today is Al Pacino's birthday, I wanted to ask you about the experience of working on Dog Day Afternoon.

Oh, I loved it, of course! The only thing I did was... I came late once and shot [John] Cazale's character in the head. We said, "We'd better rehearse this in the car." So we started, and I said, "Hey, Sally, you gotta keep the gun pointed up, otherwise it might go off and hurt one of us." [Laughs.] But the minute I turned and looked at him, we started laughing! Because I knew John. So we were laughing hysterically, and we couldn't stop! And I think it was the tension of "I'm gonna shoot him!" But I was having a field day being in the movie. I really loved being in it. I knew all those guys. They were all Actors Studio people. We saw each other on the street all the time.

That's crazy to think.

It's amazing. And Dog Day, that was really my first movie that was, y'know, a real film. [Laughs.] And I remember being late on the first day. I had sat with a buddy of mine named Lázaro Pérez. He was a Cuban guy, and I liked Lázaro. We got a bottle of red wine, and we were celebrating that I'd gotten the job and all of that. And I laid down on the couch, and I woke up...and I was supposed to be there at 8 o'clock, and it was all the way in Brooklyn. So I got up in a panic, and I ran out the door, down to the subway, got out there, and I knew, "I've got to get my wardrobe on and everything and then end up on the set." And I thought I could sneak onto the set. And I did all of that, and even though there was a street full of people, he looked across the street, found me, and said, "It feels like shit, doesn't it?" [Laughs.] And I said, "Yeah..." But I was so happy to have the part.

I was trying to think of things that I've never asked you about, because I've asked you about so many of your projects over those earlier interviews, but I don't think I've ever asked you about working on Mansion of the Doomed. I believe Michael Pataki directed it.

Yeah, he did! And... [Starts to laugh.] Oh, boy, that was something. That was something. And... Oh, my God, you just brought up something really cool, man. Richard Basehart and Gloria Grahame were in it, and Basehart, he was kind of wonderful and knew his shit, but he looked like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, because... [Mimes tipping back a bottle.] A little o' that. I'm not faulting him for that. The game is over! But in that movie they gouged my eyes out. Stan Winston did the makeup. What they would do to us, our characters in the film, was give us a drug, we'd fall out, and wake up with no eyes, because his daughter had lost her vision, and he was trying to restore it.

So we end up in a cell with about nine or ten guys, and he'd ripped all of their eyes out. And I was the boyfriend, so he was super happy to rip my eyes out. But anyway, at the end of the movie, we'd dug a hole with a spoon through the cellar, and we end up escaping...but where are you gonna go? We were walking around like this... [Holding his hands out in front of him.] It was so silly, it was unbelievable. I got into all kinds of trouble like that. But then I started getting some good ones.

Do you have a favorite of those early roles where it was just a day, in and out?

That was by far one of them. [Laughs.]

I know you were in an underrated... Okay, maybe not underrated, but certainly an underseen Sean Connery movie called The Next Man.

Yeah! I was happy to be working with Mr. Bond. [Laughs.] He was playing an Arab in the one I did with him. 

And no doubt still had a Scottish accent.

Probably! But, you know, back then I just didn't worry about what was coming. You get it handed to you, and you go, "What?!" And then you shrug and you go, "I'll be there, don't worry!"

I just wanted to touch on Millennium briefly. It's one of those shows that I really wish was streaming somewhere.

I know, I know. I loved doing that show...until the third season. By the third season, I was exhausted. It was such a big role. It was endless. And I was up in Canada, so that was a whole other thing. I couldn't sleep in my own bed! 

I'm surprised you could sleep at all, given some of the plotlines.

[Laughs.] But I loved doing it. I really did. But I did so privately. If I'd expressed it, it might've gone another two years! But at least we did three years of it.

I know you've talked about revisiting the character if given the opportunity.

If they do, I'll do it. But I just... [Hesitates.] My memories of it, they're part of me. So it's not gone. Sometimes I'll lapse into Frank Black. I tried to do the series with dignity and no tricks. People are flawed and they do terrible things. But I read a lot of books. There are guys who do that work, and I respect it, but I wonder how they survived doing that through their whole career. Because you're seeing the best and the worst of mankind. But thank you for asking about it and, yes, if they do it, if they decide they're going to do it, then I'll do it. Of course I would! I owe it to the fans.

Lastly, I know I've asked you this before, but it's a question that often results in different answers: do you have a favorite project in your back catalog that didn't get the love you thought it deserved?

I love westerns. I've done westerns, and I like them, because I love horses and guns and cowboy hats and boots and spurs and embroidered shirts. [Laughs.] But it's part of our heritage. There are some new westerns coming out that I think are going to change the game, because they're original. One of them, the whole western is about a love story. I don't want to talk a lot about it, because it's not mine. But I've read the script, and I've seen some of it. But westerns are great because they are, in a sense, the primitive us, when we came to this country and started exploiting it and killing everything that walked. We are weird, man. Humans are weird! If they can't have it to hug it, they'll kill it! It's so crazy... 

Do you have a favorite among the westerns you've done?

Yeah, when we did The Quick and the Dead, the wardrobe lady gave me the most beautiful set of clothes I've ever worn. It's all embroidered black. I just felt like, "Go ahead, shoot me, make yourself happy!" [Laughs.] And I put that trick in there. I had a friend, Rex Rossi, he was still alive then, and he said, "Rex, I want to flip off that horse and shoot under the belly. How do I go about this training?" So we worked on it and worked on it, and finally I became really comfortable with it.

So I get up to the set in Santa Fe, and I said to the director, Sam Raimi, "I want to show you something." And I got the stunt guys to bring out a big white horse - I needed a tall one - and I get on the horse. I've got to shoot the card out of the little girl's hand, and she's way away, so I turn sideways in the saddle, flip off, land on my knee, and - boom! - I pop that card out of her hand. And Sam goes, "Oooh. That's gonna be in the movie." [Laughs.] He was so excited! But those are moments that you never forget. Because, you know, we really want to give gifts to each other, and sometimes we get away with it and we can do it, and other times I don't understand what the director's asking for. That's the vital part of it all. But I'm always open to an idea. 

Well, to bring it full circle, as far as gifts go, The Artifice Girl is a gift for sci-fi fans, for sure, so I really hope people find it and check it out.

Oh, they'll see it. You tell 'em to go see it! [Laughs.]