BSP 2014 Advent Calendar: Day 13

Welcome to Day 13 of Bam Smack Pow’s 2014 Advent Calendar! Only twelve more days left until Christmas, and that means twelve more superhero films will be mined for trivia. For Day 13, we give you …

Hellboy (2004)

If any actor was born to play a part, it was Ron Perlman becoming the titular character Hellboy. With his all-too-comfortable presence in the role, and Guillermo del Toro’s masterful vision and directing, Hellboy was a living comic book that jumped straight out of the pages. The film garnered positive reviews from critics and audiences, and went to make $99 million worldwide. Although it was not a financial hit, the movie had enough interest to spawn a sequel — Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

Hellboy was directed by Guillermo del Toro, written by Guillermo del Toro and Peter Briggs, and starred Ron Perlman as Hellboy, John Hurt as Trevor Bruttenholm, Selma Blair as Liz Sherman, Rupert Evans as John Thaddeus Myers, Karel Roden as Grigori Efimovich Rasputin, Jeffrey Tambor as Tom Manning, Doug Jones as Abe Sapien, David Hyde Pierce as the Voice of Abe Sapien, Brian Steele as Sammael, Ladislav Beran as Karl Ruprecht Kroenen, and Bridget Hodson as Ilsa Haupstein.

Trivia

For the role of John Thaddeus Myers, Guillermo del Toro considered actors Jeremy Renner and Jason Schwartzman. The role eventually went to Rupert Evans.
Hellboy’s line to Liz, “I’ll always look this good, ” was a real-life line originally spoken by Guillermo del Toro to his wife when she didn’t like him dressing so casually.
Mike Mignola, the creator of Hellboy, makes a cameo as a cosplay knight in a crowd of other cosplayers who are threatened by Sammael.
Hellboy was Guillermo del Toro’s dream project. After the success of Blade II (2002), del Toro was offered Blade: Trinity (2004) or Hellboy. He chose Hellboy.
The producers originally wanted to change the origin of Hellboy. One idea was to have Hellboy be a human who transforms into Hellboy when he gets angry. Another idea was to have Hellboy come from Hell, but look like a normal human. Guillermo del Toro stuck with the source material and didn’t want to alter anything.
To avoid an R-rating, filmmakers had to keep the blood and gore down to a minimum. They found creative ways of symbolizing violence without blood. Ron Perlman suggested beating a monster with a gumball machine and having the gumballs fly out — which symbolized blood splatter. The scene was later filmed with Hellboy beating a monster with a payphone and the resulting coins flying about symbolizing blood.
The demonology used in the film was based on the Cthulhu Mythos works of 1930s renowned horror writer H.P. Lovecraft.
The quote at the beginning of the film is from a book referenced in H.P. Lovecraft’s fiction called De Vermis Mysteriis.
Abe Sapien was performed by Doug Jones, but the voice was provided by David Hyde Pierce. Pierce didn’t want credit for it. He felt that the performance was purely Jones’s and didn’t want to take anything away from him.
For the role of Abe Sapien, Doug Jones had to endure five to seven hours of make-up. Removal of the make-up took three hours. To save time, Jones would leave some of the pieces on for the next day.
The studio originally wanted Vin Diesel to play the character of Hellboy.
When Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and Guillermo del Toro met to discuss the film, they both decided to reveal to each other their first choice for playing the character. They both said “Ron Perlman” at the same time.
Ron Perlman’s preparation for the role consisted of reading Hellboy comic books and working out three hours a day for five to seven days a week.
The filmmakers originally wanted Hellboy to have cloven feet, just like in the comics. But it was decided that it would be safer for Ron Perlman, who liked to perform his own stunts, to wear normal boots.
Ron Perlman’s make-up is basically full-body. After applying everything, the only thing visible that are his own are his eyelids.
Remember how I said Ron Perlman was born to play this role? The filmmakers originally wanted Hellboy’s large stone hand to be on his left hand so that the actor could still use his dominant right hand. It turned out that Ron Perlman was actually left-handed. This allowed them to preserve the Right Hand of Doom, just like in the comics.
Ron Perlman broke a rib in real life when he was filming a train scene. He actually jumped onto a train going at 45 MPH.
Jeffrey Tambor being cast in the role of Tom Manning was a last minute change. A week before production, the actor who was actually cast for the role never showed up for work.
Director Guillermo del Toro makes a cameo appearance as a cosplayer in a dragon costume in a crowd of other cosplayers who are threatened by Sammael.
Director Guillermo del Toro voiced Baby Hellboy, Ivan the Corpse, Kroenen, Sammael, and Train Driver.
In the film, there is a scene of Rasputin stabbed in the belly with a creature coming out of an open wound. Mike Mignola originally had this idea for Hellboy: Sead of Destruction, but abandoned it. Mignola was quite impressed that Guillermo del Toro thought of this same scene by himself, independent of Mignola or other materials.
Some Hellboy comic book references are hidden in the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD):
- Roger the Homonculus, who was introduced in later Hellboy stories, is seen as a greyish male statue with a large ring on his groin. The character goes through periods of dormancy, but when he’s active, he’s an agent for the BPRD. The character was cut from the film, but he made it in as a prop.
- The supernatural creature The Iron Shoes is represented by his footwear in a glass case.

Make sure to come back each day because we still have twelve more days worth of superhero film trivia for you!

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A special thanks to Eric Dufresne for his amazing geometric superhero art that’s being used as the background for the advent calendar.

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