What The Chatterer From 2022's Hellraiser Really Looks Like Out Of Costume
In Clive Barker's novella "The Hellbound Heart," Frank briefly describes the Chatterer as it asks him what he wants. "Its features were so heavily scarified — the wounds nurtured until they ballooned — that its eyes were invisible, and its words corrupted by the disfigurement of its mouth." The Chatterer was considered by many "Hellraiser" fans to be one of the most gruesome and terrifying of the Cenobites and was featured in all of the films and the comic series. With wires violently pulling back his lips to reveal his teeth and gums, the Chatterer is truly a nightmare to behold.
While Nicholas Vince portrayed the Chatterer in the first two "Hellraiser" films, the Chatterer is played by Jason Liles in David Bruckner's 2022 reboot. While Vince's iteration with his bloody gums and twisted flesh was horrific, Liles' portrayal is even more gruesome-looking, with his lips and skin pulled back to his ears and beyond. "To carry on the role of the Chatterer, who people have already loved for 35 years, is really cool," he told Screen Rant. "It's like cheating... but it can also be very scary, like, 'Don't mess it up or people are going to hate you.' But I feel like fans are really reacting well to the redesign of him, but I was so excited to jump into such a cool, terrifying creature."
While Liles is no stranger to makeup and prosthetics, with roles playing many of the aliens, such as Feelers and Colussus in "Men in Black 3," and Noiro in "Star Trek: Picard," "Hellraiser" truly takes Liles' transformation to a new level, and fans may be surprised at how different he looks out of costume.
Jason Liles wants to be the next Doug Jones
Luckily for Jason Liles, no one will ever mistake him for the Chatterer in real life. The tall, lanky actor hopes to be the next Andy Serkis or Doug Jones and is known for portraying otherworldly characters through mo-cap technology, which is something that has interested him ever since he watched "Lord of the Rings." "What got me involved is I found that was where I fit, with those otherworldly type of characters,” he told Hidden Remote. "That's where I fit best because I'm 6'9, and I looked at people who did that like Doug Jones — who most recently did "Shape of Water" and "Star Trek Discovery" and figured well I should try to follow in his footsteps."
A fantastic performance as Ryuk, the death God, in 2017's "Death Note," helped connect him with visual effects supervisor Colin Strause, who then recommended him for the role of the gorilla, George, in "Rampage," co-starring Dwayne Johnson. "It really was an amazing set of circumstances that led to me getting Rampage," he told Hidden Remote. "I couldn't have gotten it without my friend Colin Strause. I couldn't have gotten it if I wasn't on Death Note. So it's interesting the set of dominoes that led to that."
Liles is also no stranger to playing monsters, both real and costumed. In 2020 he co-starred in the series "Stereoscope" as The Reek, a creature from another dimension that is hunting a woman who has found a toy stereoscope that can see the dead and the different dimensions of life and death. Whenever the stereoscope is used, The Reek is able to enter the living world. Liles' last film before "Hellraiser" was "Aftermath," co-starring Ashley Greene and Shawn Ashmore. He played Otto, a murderer who has been stalking a young couple while secretly living in their home.
Liles has definitely been showing that he is capable of portraying characters of all depths, and with his enthusiasm for mo-cap, which Andy Serkis predicts will only get better at capturing the nuances of actors' performances, Liles is definitely someone we will see a lot more of.