Ron Perlman Ready For Hellboy 3

Over the course of their creative relationship, actor Ron Perlman and filmmaker Guillermo del Toro have collaborated on small-scale projects like the haunting horror movie Cronos and big-budget blockbusters like the Hellboy action-adventures. But their latest team-up eclipses anything they've worked on in the past. Pacific Rim is a literally monstrous enterprise that sees our world under siege by 'kaiju' – gigantic, hostile beasts from another dimension – with only the heroic pilots of massive mechanical warriors dubbed 'jaegers' standing in their way. And according to Perlman, bringing such a battle to the screen was a sheer joy for a pop-culture nut like del Toro.

“Guillermo makes very small, intimate films and he makes really big films, and then he makes really big films that have an intimate kind of core,” says the actor, who was recently in Melbourne for the Oz Comic Con event.

“Pacific Rim is the biggest film he's ever made in terms of scope – it's probably one of the biggest films that has ever been made, period. But if you're gonna make a movie that depicts this struggle between these irrationally huge, indomitable monsters and a force that was created to give us even a fighting chance against them, you're gonna need resources. So that's what this particular exercise was for Guillermo. He said 'Listen, let's not make this unless we're gonna make it right'. For someone as brilliant and cutting-edge as Guillermo, the main thing is having this film look like nothing else has ever looked. And he had no regrets at the end of this movie. I've never seen him happier, I've never seen him more satisfied.”

Ironman got nothin' on this suit, let me tell ya.

Perlman himself was pretty stoked with his Pacific Rim experience, especially as he got the chance to portray the wonderfully amoral, utterly ruthless black marketeer Hannibal Chau, a decidedly shady gent who traffics in kaiju organs (among other rumoured uses, they're apparently a very effective form of natural Viagra). Generally an imposing figure onscreen anyway, the actor is extra eye-catching this time around, thanks to excessive bling and a technicolour wardrobe.

“I really feel as though I'm a vision in magenta,” chuckles Perlman. “With a pair of 24-carat gold shoes. I had nothing but glee when I saw how brazen this character was in Guillermo's mind. Hannibal is a businessman. He has zero political allegiance, zero ideological affiliation, no moral compass whatsoever, no loyalty to anyone or anything – he's devoted to accumulating as much wealth as possible as quickly as possible. He's very different from anyone I've ever played, really. There's nothing spiritual about this guy. He's very clever, incredibly theatrical; he's invented everything about himself, right down to his name. He's like a one-man show.”

Any discussion of Perlman and del Toro has to include the raising the possibility of a third Hellboy movie, and there have been a fair few rumours that the duo will reunite to bring back the red-skinned hero with the solid-stone fist. “Yeah, I'm starting most of them,” deadpans Perlman. “The best I can do is to keep the conversation alive, and I have to say I've evolved on this issue. After Hellboy 2 I wasn't that interested in ever going through it again; it took a lot out of me and Guillermo. But as time passed I forgot about the hours and the hardship and the physical toll and it became a very pleasant memory. I realised that on the first two films we had asked people to come on this journey with us, and I felt like there was an obligation to complete the story for the people who have invested so much in it. And the story will never be complete until it's resolved, which is in the third film. I have these discussions with Guillermo, I've had these discussions with studio heads, so who knows? What happens happens. If the planets align and someone says 'Go make Hellboy 3', I'll be right there, baby.”

Pacific Rim is in cinemas now.