Halloween's Original Michael Myers Suffered Extreme Pain To Only Make $25 A Day
In John Carpenter's 1978 film "Halloween," the masked killer Michael Myers was played by multiple actors. For the bulk of his scenes, Michael — called "The Shape" — was played by Nick Castle, a film school friend of Carpenter's and a director in his own right. Castle also directed "The Last Starfighter" and "The Boy Who Could Fly." As a small boy, Michael Myers was played, in one scene, by an actor named Will Sandin in his first and last role on screen. In POV shots, the hands of young Michael were provided by co-writer and producer Debra Hill, while the unmasked Michael — who appears only briefly at the very end of the movie — was played by Tony Moran.
Castle had the lion's share of screen time, however, and is generally thought of as the "official" Michael Myers by "Halloween" fans the world over. Castle would reprise the role for David Gordon Green's trilogy of "Halloween" movies made between 2018 and 2022, providing the character's heavy breathing noises (James Jude Courtney played Michael otherwise) and unmasked face. Other actors and stuntmen played Michael in the film's many sequels, including Dick Warlock in "Halloween II," George P. Wilbur in "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers" and "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers," Don Shanks in "Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers," Chris Durand in "Halloween H20: 20 Years Later," Brad Loree in "Halloween: Resurrection," and Tyler Mane in Rob Zombie's two "Halloween" movies.
The shooting schedule for the original "Halloween," filmed in Pasadena, was a mere 21 days back in 1978. The film was famously completed for a mere $300,000 to $325,000 ... although little of that, it seems, went to Castle. According to a 2018 interview with Vanity Fair, Castle's pay was $525, in total.
$525 for 21 days of work
Vanity Fair adjusted Castle's paycheck for inflation, saying that $525 in 1978 would be about $2,509 in 2018. By 2023, that inflation only equals $2,583.43. According to Rent.com, the average price of a one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles is about $2,853. It was also a brutal shoot that left Castle in a lot of pain. In the interview, the actor said that he went through pain that wasn't quite as bad as breaking an arm, but that it came darn near close.
He also admits that playing Michael Myers wasn't meant to be any kind of magical experience. The actor just wanted to be on a movie set and see how things functioned; he didn't give a lot of deep thought to Michael Myers, and Carpenter only seemed to like the way he looked and moved in a mask and jumpsuit. In Castle's words:
"I was paid $25 per day for 'Halloween.' That was a lot at the time! You have to remember: my interest in doing the film was being on set, so I could demystify the experience of filmmaking and directing. I expected to hang around the set for no money. But hey, $25 per day, and all I had to do was wear a rubber mask. It's a mystery what [John Carpenter] saw in me and the way I moved. I asked John, 'What is this character going to do?' And he said, 'Just walk across the street.' I knew Michael's movements weren't going to be robotic. He was a real guy. He's not rushing."
As fans of the director might know, most of the stories from John Carpenter's sets tend to be intentionally demystifying. Carpenter was a workman first and an artist second, rarely speaking about his movies in highfalutin terms.
Start the water cannons
But, yes, sometimes the shoot was terribly unpleasant. Near the beginning of "Halloween," Michael escapes a mental hospital by leaping on top of a car and accosting the driver through the window from the roof. The scene takes place at night, and Carpenter wanted there to be rain. This left Castle in a hospital gown, standing on the other end of a series of hoses. He recalls:
"The most difficult scene is easy for me to remember. It was a scene shot in the middle of the night, where Michael jumps on top of a car as he's escaping the mental hospital. It wasn't freezing, but it was in the mid-40s. I was in a hospital gown and underpants. I don't think John let me know what he had in store for me. He turns to the crew and says something like, 'Okay, start the water cannons.' The hospital's sprinkler system was more like a fire hose. The water arced into the air, and when it came down on me, it felt like icicles hitting me on the back."
Poor Castle was just there to provide the physical presence for a movie monster and didn't know he was going to be aggressively hosed down. While being drenched by water jets in 40-degree weather, doubts arose:
"It was the most painful thing I'd ever experienced outside of a broken arm. That was the one scene that I really remember thinking, 'Maybe I should have got more than $25.'"
"Halloween" became so popular that, at one point, Castle worried that he wouldn't be remembered for anything beyond playing The Shape. However, he eventually learned to loosen up, "It's not every day," he said, "that you can look across your desk and see a plastic figurine of yourself."