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Interview - Conducted via e-mail on February 4, 2026
"What got you interested in acting in the first place? And
how did you first meet Sean Cunningham for Manny's
Orphans?
First, I would like to say "Hi and Thank You!" to all the
great people at fridaythe13thfilms.com and their
wonderful web audience. It's always good to hear from
the fans of Jason Voorhees who make it all happen in the
first place.
When I was a kid, I was really into books, movies, and
music. In particular, I had a taste for science fiction,
fantasy and the like. I was an avid reader of Lewis's
Chronicles of Narnia, LeGuin's Earthsea Trilogy, and
Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.
In 1977, when Star Wars came out, I saw it 9 times, the
first time at Times Square in NYC with my Dad.
After that, all I could think of was movies, movies, movies!
I actually got a chance to study with filmmaker Dan
Lincoln at an experimental Summer Camp in Connecticut
where I grew up. I directed and shot a film satire of the
Disaster Classic Earthquake, with kids from the camp
as actors. When the earthquake was supposed to come,
I would just shake the camera!
Around that time, Sean Cunningham was making a film
called Here Come the Tigers! a takeoff of The Bad
News Bears, also about a ragamuffin baseball team.
Two of my friends, John and Bob Basili, were in that film.
When Sean decided to do a similar film called Manny's
Orphan's about a soccer team at an inner city
orphanage, my friends told me to come to the audition.
Using a combination of guts and charm, I managed to
sneak in to the audition, read for Sean, and landed the
80-line role of 'Roger', a girl-obsessed orphan.
Later, when I got the call for Friday the 13th, I was
accidentally handed sides for one of the camp
counselors who goes off into the woods to make out with
his girlfriend. At age 13, when I saw that, I said,
"Wow...alright!" But then Sean Cunningham showed up
and said, "No, no,no, that's not the part for Ari...he's too
young for that...he's going to play the monster!"
I am sure that I was chosen simply because I was the
right size for the costume, I got along well with the crew,
and Sean knew that I liked to swim.
Had you had any experience camping or being part of
boy scouts beforehand? Did you enjoy the woods and the
lake setting?
When I lived in Connecticut, I did a lot of hiking with my
friends, and even hiked the Appalachian Trail one
Summer. One of my favorite places to hike is in Maine, in
the Rangeley Lakes/Saddleback Mt. area. Still today, I like
to be outdoors as much as possible.
This question brings me to a unique element of the
Jason scenes in Friday the 13th that I would like to
discuss. While most Horror movies make great use of gloomy,
dark settings and lighting, all of the Jason scenes
actually take place at a bucolic woodsy lake, in direct
sunlight! Somehow, Sean Cunningham and D.O.P. Barry
Abrams transformed the beauty into Horror, even making
the sun shining on the water seem wicked. The music
and sound effects also play a large role in this illusion,
contrasting the the timid with the terrifying.
Please give some details about how long Tom Savini's
makeup job took to get you prepared for your scene.
When Sean handed me over to Tom Savini, I had little
clue that I was in store for the adventure of a lifetime. We
went out to his studio in the woods of rural Connecticut,
and it was like entering Merlyn's lair in T.H.White's Once
and Future King. Everywhere you looked was some
effect or illusion in the making, a riot of sheer
imagination. Tom and Taso Stavrakis, his assistant, had
an excellent raport, and were always making jokes. I
remember they played The Doors 'Strange Days' for me
as I got ready for the first molds to be made. Strange days indeed!
At first, a mold was made of my entire head. The only
opening was under my nose so I could breathe. The hard
part was remaining completely still, because Tom and
Taso kept making me laugh. After Tom designed the first Jason head on that mold, I
was called in for the fitting. Then, Tom wanted to make
some changes, so I came back a second time for the
adjustments to be made.
When everybody was happy with the look, Tom made
some deformed false teeth for me, put a gruesome glass
eye over my right eye, and Jason was born!
Of course, every time we were on the set, the mask had
to be applied and adjusted again. This would take about
four hours, so we would have to be on the set very early,
around 4AM for the 8AM start time.
In order to make an effect work properly, a lot of time
must be spent in careful preparation for what may only
take up a few moments on the screen. Like a magician,
an effects master must have a painstaking attention to
detail, to insure that the "wires and mirrors" are never
seen, and the hypnotic spell of the illusion never broken.
What were the conditions like for you and Adrienne
King during the shooting? Was it fairly easy on you or
was it exhausting?
The Jason scenes were done on three separate days, at
Blairstown, New Jersey. The first and second time, we
shot the scenes of Jason drowning and coming up out of
the water. Only the makeup crew, the film crew and I were
required for those shoots.
The first time was toward the end of Summer, so the
water was warm, and everything went well. The second
time was in early Autumn, and the water was a bit chilly,
but I got used to it quickly, having spent my youth
swimming in Long Island Sound. Also, they let me wear
sneakers in the water so my feet were warm.
When Adrienne showed up, later in the Fall, it was
actually a warmer day than the second time, so it was
very easy for me. We only shot the scene where I pull her
into the water twice. Now, Tom and Taso really wanted
Adrienne to be scared of me, so I had not spoken to her,
and she had never seen me out of makeup. The effect
was that when I jumped out the first time she was very
shocked, and gave a scream as I pulled her in. After that
they had to dry her off, and dry her hair, and make her
costume look just as it did at the end of the previous
scene. When she got back in the boat Sean said, "Well, I
think we may have got it already, but just do it again, this
time a little slower." After that take, when I came up out of
the water, I could see them already starting to pack up the
cameras. "We got it!" said Sean, and the rest is Horror
History.
Where there any in-jokes or funny stories that
happened while you were on site, maybe dealing with
Sean Cunningham or some of the other actors?
Well, we certainly had a blast making the film! Being out
there at a Summer camp was condusive to hijinks. Tom
and Taso liked to practice stagefighting, jumping off of
tables, and generally swashbuckling all over the camp. I
quickly learned how to defend myself with a sabre.
One of the stories that I can safely recount in this forum is
about Harry Crosby, Bing Crosby's son, who played one
of the camp counselors. His character is the one killed by
an arrow through the eye, pinning him to a cabin door.
This is not the funniest of tales, however. It seems that
some of the chemicals used to create the effect began to
seep into his eye, causing him great pain. As a testament
to his professionalism, Harry refused to stop the scene,
even when Sean and Tom were insistent. "Keep
rolling...I'll be O.K." he said. As soon as the scene was
done they rushed him off to the hospital. Thankfully, he
was fine, but we were all inspired by his Old Hollywood
"the show must go on" mentality. Well, what do you
expect from the son of Bing Crosby?
Please relate your version of what you think happened
to Jason after his mother was killed until part 2 when he
was grown-up.
Great Question. My way of seeing Jason, and the subtext
that I used in the film, is that while underwater, Jason
managed to acquire some sort of superpowers. I related
him with the Creature from the Black Lagoon, one of my
favorite monsters, also an aquatic hominid who pulls
young, vulnerable women into the water. Ultimately,
Jason had no reason to surface until he saw his Mother
killed, right on his lake's beach, before his very eyes. This
tragedy had the effect of increasing his powers through
an enormous jolt of adrenaline, evinced by his ability to
jettison himself up out of the deep water in the middle of
the lake.
However, once he is done childishly pulling his
Mother's killer into the water, he does what any child
would do, and turns his attention to his Mother's remains.
This is why Alice survives the attack, and wakes up in the
hospital shouting "the boy, the boy!" Jason is simply
more interested in collecting his Mother's remains,
especially her head, which he later makes a sort of
shrine out of, as we see in Part Two. Jason's adrenaline
burst now enables him to survive both on land and
underwater. He roams the campground secretly putting
together the clues to his Mother's demise. When he
realizes what has happened, he devotes himself to
ridding the world of such evil people who neglect children
and kill parents. We know what happens next....
At the convention, you talked some about the spiritual
and emotional impact that the persona of 'Jason' has
carried with him. Please give us some more details
about that.
First of all, it was a great experience to see how all the
effects are done. It was like being let in on a joke told by
your big brothers, both reassuring and empowering.
Also, I believe that facing our innermost fears head-on is
spiritually liberating, and makes us stronger people. It
enables us to seek beyond the limitations of convention
and become less judgemental. Every one, at some point
or another has wanted to "take arm against a sea of
troubles, and by opposing, end them." Jason does just
that, without remorse or shame. The only way to truly
appreciate this is to see that Horror movies are made for
fun, as an amusement, and a release from the
sometimes overwhelming realties that life presents.
Compared to the actual horrors of real life, Jason is but a
mascot of our compassionate rage. An awful fierceness
dedicated to make things right, by any means possible.
Finally, please tell us more about what you are
currently doing, and we are very interested in your
upcoming music project influenced by "Jason". Any
details would be great.
I have spent the past twenty years as a touring performer
and recording artist, mainly on the Reggae and World
Music scene. I have toured with some of the top names in
the business, as a keyboardist and background singer,
working for Tuff Gong and Interscope records, travelling
across the U.S., to Europe, and even West Africa.
Now, I have my own World Rock band, ARI BEN MOSES
BAND, made up of the best artists I met on the
professional World Music circuit. Please visit
aribenmosesband.com to hear our music, see
band photos, and check out our schedule of upcoming
shows.
YOUNG JASON, a Jason-related Rock project, is currently
in the studio, with material cut from a darker cloth than
ARI BEN MOSES BAND. With all the lyrical content
coming from the workings of Jason's mind during and
after the first Friday the 13th, the first YOUNG JASON CD will be
released around Halloween 2026 at www.cdbaby.com/abmb. Keep your ears open for it!!!
Many Thanks, fridaythe13thfilms.com!!!
Have Fun! ~ Ari"
Filmography
ThanXgiving (2006)
Friday the 13th (1980)
Manny's Orphans (1978)
Where Is He Now?: Ari Lehman recently released a new CD with his band, First Jason, inspired by the Friday the 13th series. Ari returns to film-making with an appearance in the low budget movie, ThanXgiving.
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