When you're on camera, even though you try to lose yourself in the character, you are aware that there is a camera there capturing every moment of it visually. With doing a voiceover job, you are worried about the sound of it, and you have to make all those visual colors come out with your sound.
I am kind of a freak of nature who has loose joints, and I was able to put my legs behind my head, and it looked weird to people when I was a kid, so I kept doing it. It's a great party gag.
That's kind of how my jobs have happened over the years. It's been referrals throughout the creature effects/make-up world. The drawings happen, and they see that it's a tall, skinny thing, and they go, 'Let's get Doug Jones for that.'
I'm in an age bracket now where I can play the father of an adult daughter whose going through her life issues, and she'll come to me for advice while I'm wearing my Christmas sweater and swirling a cup of hot cocoa.
My favorite thing to pass the time in the makeup chair is YouTube videos of talking cats. I don't know why, but they make me laugh.
I really connect with every character that I've played, just because I kinda have to; as an actor, you want to take them in and get to know them and like them; because they're evil, you kinda have to like them so that you can understand them and play them and play them with some kind of empathy.
I can put my legs behind my head, but that's pretty much it. An early agent said to me, 'If you can put your legs behind your head, let's say you're a contortionist!' So I got sent out for everything twisty and bendy. It's a good conversation starter.
I learned mime back when I was in college, at Ball State University, Indiana. That woke up my body from the neck down and made me realize that acting and communication - portraying a story, event, or emotion - is a full-body experience.
What sweetens the deal for me is that I get to develop an alien species from the ground up. I'm playing Saru, a Kelpian, and this race has never been seen before in any 'Star Trek' series.
I have such freedom when I'm living through a mask, and by contrast, can feel very exposed when a camera is capturing my real face. Kind of like the difference between walking out your front door in a sweater and jeans or in a Speedo.
I'm a very happy-go-lucky lover of all mankind as a person in real life. So when I play a darker character, I have to tap into something that isn't my natural way, and what I found was that I think human beings have the potential for all of these emotions.
I'm not usually the guy who has people hiding in his bushes and saying, 'Will you love me forever and ever?'
My wife and I have never been able to have kids of our own. Physically, it's impossible. The doctor checked. So we tend to unofficially adopt lots of twenty-somethings. I have a real soft spot in my heart for youth.
Whether it's t-shirt and jeans or full monster suit, I'm still an actor underneath it all, and a good director is going to know that.
I'm surprised how many commercials and sitcoms and movies have a need for, 'We just need something to come by the camera that's really weird.' They call Doug Jones.
People who know your work and know your personality, they know your strengths and weaknesses. A director like Guillermo del Toro, he knows more about me than I do. I trust him when he tells me what part I'm going to be playing in something, because he's envisioned that that can only be done by me. He knows it.
When I came out to Hollywood in 1985, I thought that I would be sitcom star. I'm a tall, skinny, goofy guy. I thought that I would make a great funny neighbor, or wacky office mate, in a sitcom.
I've never hidden my Christianity in Hollywood, and I've been handled respectfully because I handle the issue and other people respectfully.
My very favorite costumed character I've played would be Abe Sapien from the 'Hell Boy' movies. I love this guy.
To me I don't deal with stress well at all, and it is stressful enough for me to deal with my own one character. So if I had to deal with all the characters and the special effects, and the editing and make the writing tweaks and do everything the director does, that would drive me to an early grave, and I just can't do it.
