It’s been over 25 years since John Carpenter’s sci-fi social satire They Live hit theaters, but the film is more relevant than ever. A movie about a blue collar worker who discovers that there are aliens living as rich people on earth, it focuses on extreme economic inequality and corporate media control, topics that are still very much in the news. Fans are also rediscovering They Live, as they look back on the life and career of the film’s star, WWF brawler Roddy Piper, who died in July.

Yahoo Movies called Carpenter earlier this week to look back on They Live and discuss several of his other iconic movies like Halloween and The Thing, along with his career as a movie score composer. The director, now 67, was delightfully irascible, showing all the wit that helped him become one of the ‘70s and '80s most pioneering filmmakers.

They Live was a reaction to the Reagan years, but the income inequality, corporate ownership of the media — all of that is more extreme now than ever.

Yeah, it is. You have to understand something: It’s a documentary. It’s not science fiction.

Do you feel like it’s gotten worse since then?

It’s morphed into something really bizarre. The same problem — unrestrained capitalism — still exists. Listen, I’m a very happy capitalist. I love my country. I love the system that we’re in, but not without some restraints on it. The last recession we had is an example. The ‘80s never ended. The mentality that the ‘80s bred is really alive and well — that’s the part that’s so bad. Nothing is to built to last. Everything is built to make profit. But I don’t want to whine about it.

In the Blu-ray commentary for They Live, the late Roddy Piper says you worked closely with him on his acting. How did you help him?

Roddy had a lot of natural talent, but he didn’t have a lot of experience in movie acting. [For the WWF], he played Rowdy Roddy Piper and that wasn’t what we were doing. He was from a different world. So I just guided him. He was playing a different character, a guy named John Nada. We had to go through who that was, figure out what that was all about.



So is there a backstory to John Nada?

Yeah, and I had [Roddy] work out some of his own and never tell me. I didn’t need to know, as long as he knew.

What’d you work out together?

I believe his wife was killed by unintentional acceleration, which is something that happens with cars. But I won’t tell you what else we talked about, what the hell? [laughs] Those are secrets of the trade.

That’s a hallmark of your films in general. We don’t know what they’re researching in The Thing, and we don’t know much about the cops or murderers in Assault on Precinct 13. Did you leave that out on purpose?

It wasn’t that I wanted to leave it out; I just didn’t think it was necessary. You know what the police are doing in society: They’re trying to keep order. And you know what the guys are trying to do in the Antarctic: They’re doing experiments. You don’t need to know what exact job it is. It doesn’t matter. No one cares.

Similarly, we don’t know much about the aliens in They Live, or where they’re from. I’m wondering where the design for their grotesque masks came from.

Well, we had a drawing. My then-girlfriend, wife-to-be, made a drawing of them and said “Here.” They’re kind of metallic skulls. It had to be humanoid, but not human.

Maybe the most lasting element of that movie is the “Obey” poster, especially after artist Shepard Fairey used it. Who designed it for you originally?

Oh, I don’t remember. I have no clue.



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