James Jude Courtney learned about "stealth efficiency" from a contract killer.

You may not know James Jude Courtney’s name, but you certainly know his latest character: Michael Myers, the masked killer from “Halloween.” Ol’ Jimmy isn’t himself a crazed murderer, but he once lived with an actual hit man who wanted his life story written. The actor recalls this experience in a Vanity Fair interview, explaining that he took said contract killer to see “The Hit List,” a movie he was in, and received the following reaction: “Jimmy, it’s a really nice movie, but that’s not how you kill people.”

“Really?” Courtney asked, to which his new acquaintance responded, “I’m gonna show you how.” Well, all right then.

“There’s a stealth efficiency to the way an actual trained killer works,” Courtney explains. “Movies tend to dilute that quality with dramatic pauses and dialogue, which a true predator would never waste time doing. That efficiency is what I took to the part of Michael Myers.”

Courtney’s time under the mask was preceded by six other performers, whose stories are likewise recounted in the Vanity Fair article. “That’s something that only these guys and I get to know,” he says of this exclusive club. “No one else will get to experience that. Part of the honor of this experience is being able to join a club with these distinguished gentlemen who happen to kill people for a living.”

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