In my quest to continue meeting actors who had portrayed madman killer Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th series, I had the chance to meet two more of them during the Fall of 2012. Both of them are landmark entries into the seemingly never-ending parade of Jason portrayers: the first of them and the last (or at least most recent) of them. Although the encounters came a little less than a month apart, in true twisted fashion I met them in reverse order.
Derek Mears had been given the role for the series reboot, simply entitled Friday the 13th in 2009. Continuing along the notion of making Jason bigger and bigger as the series went along, Mears, like his predecsesor Ken Kirzinger, stood 6’5″ tall. My encounter with him was at the Fanboy Expo in Knoxville, Tennessee on October 26, 2012.
You might recall that this convention was sparsely populated on the Friday that I attended, but somehow I had the most trouble of all pinning down Mr. Mears until the end of the show. At first he was participating in a Q&A section (as seen above). I wandered away and went and had my lengthy encounter with Michael Berryman, which was near Mears’ table. After about a half hour that saw no return of Mr. Mears, I went in search of him.
I found him chatting it up with one of the vendors, so I stood by for about fifteen minutes while they chatted about the pitfalls of the stuntman and film industry. Eventually Derek apologized for taking up the vendor’s attention, thinking that I was interested in purchasing something from this artist. I corrected him and said that I was actually waiting for him. He apologized even more profusely and accompanied me back to his table.
I picked up the cool photo above and we chatted a bit about how if felt for him to join the Jason ‘legacy’. He was astounded by it since he himself had always been a fan of the series. I outlined the Jasons that I still needed to meet, and we talked about a few of the ones whom he had met. He was an exceptionally nice and friendly guy, posing for a photo for free of course – both a friendly one and the standard ‘strangle Brad’ poses.
I had actually told Derek Mears that I’d finally get to meet Ari Lehman in less than a month…and that’s exactly what I did. While attending the Days of the Dead convention in Chicago on November 18, 2012, I got my chance to meet the performer who, as a child actor, first portrayed Jason in the first Friday the 13th film.
Ari Lehman is a guy who had most certainly stumbled into a legacy, his screen time in the first film lasting less than 60 seconds, but providing one of the most jarring moments of the film – if not the entire series. But unlike so many others who have lucked into such pivotal roles, Ari’s ego remains in check. More interested in music and his career in his band First Jason, he was handing out free CD’s with purchases. Since he socialized with everyone who approached his table, it took a while for me to finally get my turn.
By that time, he had run out of CD’s, so he gave me the bonus photo seen above – in addition to signing the photo that I had already had autographed by special effects artist Tom Savini. He also spent ample time posing for photos with both the machete swords that he was selling and a lifelike replica bust of himself as Jason. It was a fun encounter with a fun, friendly, and eccentric guy.
I ran into Ari again at the Horrorhound in Indianapolis on September 8, 2013. This time I had Carolyn with me and she expressed an interest in getting photos with the Jason actors. Again I had to wait until he was done chatting with other fans, and then I asked him if he would pose for a picture with Carolyn. He obliged, taking time once again to pose with the machetes.
This time I chatted him up a bit, asking what he remembered about his day of filming that would be immortalized. He remembered the cold water and how he had gotten the role. Ari had been in one of director Sean Cunningham‘s earlier works entitled Manny’s Orphans, a role he had acquired by showing up at the casting call and pretending that he actually belonged there. He had had no agent, so he just arrived and picked up the clipboard with the application on it and filled it at. Cunningham was apparently impressed with Ari, so he called him back and asked him if he could swim. The rest was history.
For the most part, all of the Jason actors have been very friendly in obvious contradiction to their film roles. Derek Mears and Ari Lehman are no exception to this, and in fact they seem to be the friendliest of them all.
I still had more Jasons to meet, and I’d take up that challenge in 2013…
Celebrities of the 2012 Knoxville Fanboy Expo will continue…
Celebrities of the 2012 Days of the Dead in Chicago will continue…
Leave a Reply