Brad Dourif has been the voice of Chucky since 1988’s Child’s Play. Season three of the Chucky TV series gave Dourif another chance to appear on screen. Charles Lee Ray (Dourif) comes from the spirit realm to haunt the White House.
Dourif spoke with Showbiz Junkies via Zoom about the latest developments in Chucky’s voodoo mythology in the TV series. This interview contains spoilers for the season through this week’s episode, so watch the episode first. The season finale airs on Wednesday, May 1 at 10 p.m. on USA and SYFY.
Brad, you only appeared on screen at the beginning of the first Child’s Play and in flashbacks in Curse of Chucky. Were you always angling for more on-screen appearances?
Brad Dourif: “I’m an employee. I don’t get to angle. It’s been a while since I’ve been on screen, and they ask me if I like it. I said I’d love to so that’s that.”
This is the first time you’ve interacted with the Chucky doll. Is that surreal?
Brad Dourif: “Very. Actually, I voiced Damballa. So, what was surprising about that is I felt like it was somebody else. Also, Damballa was very different from Chucky. So I wasn’t acting with Chucky. I was acting with Damballa who looked like Chucky.”
Was it surreal to see your daughter looking like you before the first Child’s Play?
Brad Dourif: “No, because I’ve seen her before as Charles Lee Ray. She was sitting in the chair for hours. I was thinking, ‘Well, I did that so many times. Better her than me.’ And then I couldn’t wait. At first, I watched her do scenes and that was a lot of fun. I watched her work.”
The series also let you do lots of different Chucky voices like Col. Kurtz and Good Chucky. How did you vary them but still keep them Chucky?
Brad Dourif: “The Brando Chucky was really hard. I worked and worked on it. I would do it and I’d get Brando finally. And then I would try to bring in a little Chucky and the whole thing would fall apart. I did that for like two weeks. By the time, I was kind of mad at Don for having put me through that, not his fault. So that was hard. Good Chucky is just fun. I kind of had to la la la him up a bit. I just made him, ‘So I wish I was an Oscar Meyer wiener.’ That was fun. That was just fun.”
Was Chucky killing the President good for bragging rights?
Brad Dourif: “I never thought of it that way. I really didn’t. For Chucky, yeah. He does mention it to Damballa but I think it’s far more impactful, how many shows does the President get killed? Tons of them, but how many people blow up Santa Claus? Not a lot. There you have it.”
Well, Freddy and Jason never killed someone that powerful.
Brad Dourif: “No.”
They keep adding backstory to Charles Lee Ray. When you think back to the first movie, were you just thinking he’s a strangler and practices voodoo?
Brad Dourif: “Well, that’s all I had to work with. Every performance is also an event and the event is a certain thing. It requires a certain kind of life. Preparing for that is different from preparing for a lot of other things. It’s not as serious. I remember, I decided to have him, as he was pursuing women on the street, have him dance a little bit.”
Were you almost not in the first movie because of scheduling?
Brad Dourif: “No, that’s not true. The movie I was already in. What the scheduling problem was was doing changes in the voice. So they hired somebody else to do it and it didn’t work so they waited for me and I came in and did it.”
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