Movies - TV
Halloween’s First Michael Myers Suffered Horrible Pain Even Worse Pay
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
In John Carpenter’s 1978 film “Halloween,” the masked killer Michael Myers was mostly played by Nick Castle. The actor endured a physically brutal shoot for meager pay.
The film was shot over 21 days and made for $300,000 to $325,000, but Castle’s total pay was only $525. The actor told Vanity Fair, “I was paid $25 per day for ‘Halloween.’”
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.
Poor Castle was only there to provide the physical presence for Myers and didn’t know he was going to be aggressively hosed down by water jets in 40-degree weather.
Castle recapped his experience, saying, “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.’”
He continued, “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.”
“It was the most painful thing I’d ever experienced outside of a broken arm. [...] I really remember thinking, ‘Maybe I should have got more than $25,’” Castle concluded.