in eight “Nightmare on Elm Street” films and a TV series. An upcoming documentary — “Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story,” out June 6 — dives into Englund’s unique silver screen journey, of which he is self-effacing.
During a break filming “V,” Englund auditioned for Wes Craven’s horror film “A Nightmare on Elm Street” as a burned child killer who haunts Springwood, Ohio. A low-budget hit, sequel after sequel was greenlit, and Englund was pleased to see the horror genre get more respect as he continued the role. “Jackie’s just so good, a wonderful actor, so I don’t think it was that,” he says. “I’ve always thought that Freddy is described as a child killer. So when they made Freddy a child molester [in the remake], that’s not what Freddy is, I don’t think. By taking it to such a dark, dark place, there’s no room for the personality of Freddy to be exploited.”
Would he be willing to put on the fedora again for the right script? “I’m too old and thick to play Freddy now,” Englund says. “I just can’t do fight scenes for more than one take anymore, I’ve got a bad neck and bad back and arthritis in my right wrist. So I have to hang it up, but I would love to cameo.”