Henry Rollins On ‘He Never Died,’ Playing A Cannibal [VIDEO EXCLUSIVE]

Well, his circumstances are, briefly, he is immortal. He cannot die. What thrill that held for him left centuries ago, so now he’s basically clinically depressed, incredibly bored and gets through his day by sleeping and washing television. And, he does sustain himself on human blood, but he’s not a vampire. It’s not like turning to dust in the sun or repelled by silver bullets. He has tried to make everything really convenient. He has no shortage of money from his days as a day trader, so he’s got drawers of money. He buys blood from interns he corrupts at the local hospital. He goes, “Hey go get me some plasma, I’ll over pay you.” And he just peels off hundreds like they're nothing and these interns are like, “Great!” So he keeps like, the salad crisper in the refrigerator is full of bags of blood. So he doses up on blood and eats vegetarian meals at the diner everyday just to do something, and he also goes to bingo. And so that’s been his life for who knows how long and he watches awful TV because he’s that bored. Like religious pieces, he watches those crazy televangelical shows. He’s killing time because he has nothing but. And so at some point he finds out he has a daughter. All of a sudden, this inhuman guy must have been human enough to create life. And then he meets up with the daughter and analogue things ensue, in that people are after him. They’re using the daughter as leverage. There’s a woman at the diner who starts to have a bit of interest in him, a mild curiosity, because he comes in everyday. He’s nice enough and he’s interesting, and so all of a sudden humanity comes rushing in. A daughter who has daughter-dad issues, a woman who has quasi-romantic issues, some curiosity like, “What do you do Jack?” And then there are other things that factor in, and now Jack has to deal with people who he kind of loathes. He doesn't hate people; he’s just not good with them. He’s good at killing them. He’s good at eating them. But he’s not good at eating dinner with them, walking with them. All these things he has to do. So, you see his slight agony at all of this, and as the film goes on, the violence or whatever gets more ratcheted up and we get to see Jack in action – how he takes people out, which is a wonderful sight to see.

My favorite, for a few reasons, and you might get a laugh out of this, which is helpful: There is a scene where I rip a man's throat out, which was built by our amazing special effects guy Randy, over a series of days. He said, “Henry it’s going to sound like cartilage crushing. It’s going to look like a larynx. I mean the guy really is a pro. He said, “but we only have one, so if you get through part of the shot and it’s not feeling right stop, we’ll reset, because you know I’m off the side of the stage with a blood pump. Everything has to be right, it’s freezing cold out, so you’re going like grab it, find the little tear away spot and pull forcefully. If you can’t get it, stop. We do the scene, I’ve got the throat, it’s not coming. I’m like, “Oh no! I either go for it and semi break it or I mangle it and don’t get the shot.” I just triple-downed. And the blood came at the right time, but we got the shot and it looks magnificent. We didn’t have the budget to do that thing again. And so it’s like don’t screw this up and I had this quasi panic like, “Oh no oh no oh oh oh good. Yay his throat came off!” And the other actor sold it very well. But it’s one of those moments when you’re like, “Man we are in a small budget film.” We got one of these. We had five of those, “If you don’t do it right we’re screwed because we can’t afford another.” And there are a few moments in the film. Anytime you see anything big and dramatic happen like, “Whoa that was bada**,” we had one of those. And if you see the film and you’re like “I bet that was that one, that one, that one, and that one” you'd probably be right on all counts.

I’m in the car with Kate, Cara the waitress. I’m extracting the bullet from my head. She goes, “What are you doing?” I’m just like, “If I don’t extract the bullets I get migraines.” For me, it’s like what I’ve got to do. It’s an inconvenience, and for her it’s like horrific and she’s reacting wonderfully like, “I cant, who are you?” She’s having a really bad day and I’m like, “Ah people, such a drag.” And then there’s that moment where I’ve got Steven Ogg, Alex, I’m smashing his face into the bar. I said, “I’m going to eat you. I’m literally going to tear you apart and eat you.” I’m not trying to be mean. I don’t dislike the guy even though he’s trying to kill me. I’m just telling him a real true fact. And then there’s the very dramatic scene, where I kind of yell at death. That big monologue, which I rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed. I worked out whenever I could. I’m on the treadmill at the hotel, I have the script where the numbers that the TV read out. I have the script I’m rehearsing. At one point, I’m doing that scene and I feel a hand on my shoulder. I fall off the treadmill. Some wonderful person in the gym saw me and thought I was having some kind of meltdown and I fell off and I pick myself up and I’m like, “Yeah!” She goes, completely startled, she goes, “Oh I’m sorry are you okay?” I said, “I was.” I said, “I’m in a film.” She’s like, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I just thought you were having a bad time.” I’m like, “Thank you so much for caring.” And I had to go back to, in a sweat suit, doing lines and so that was one of those moments.