[Interview] Marteen Talks Playing a Bully in ‘Halloween Ends’
Halloween Ends is currently in theaters, dominating the box office and bringing some new blood to Haddonfield, including musician Marteen, making his feature film acting debut in role of Billy, one of the bullies harassing Corey Cunningham (played by Rohan Campbell) in the highly anticipated Michael Myers sequel, and we so were happy to learn that the mean character he plays is nothing like the friendly young actor in our exclusive new interview.
In a video conversation earlier this week, Marteen tells us that his first read for Halloween Ends was only his second audition ever. “I thought I blew it, to be honest with you,” he said. “I messed up some of the lines. I did like an improv audition, as well, while I was on the Zoom, and right after I was like, I ruined it. But I got a call back five minutes later, like, ‘You got the part”. It was a crazy feeling, a crazy up and down moment. And then we started filming like a month and a half later.”
On his character Billy, one of four Haddonfield High School marching band students who harass Corey Cunningham, Marteen said that he created his own backstory for the character, which he found out later from co-writer Paul Brad Logan actually is the story behind the real life inspiration for Billy, “Man, you know, Billy’s got issues,” he said. “Billy’s going through a lot. In the backstory I just kind of created for him before going in for the role, his dad’s not in his life and his mom’s been on drugs for a while, and he had to get out of his house. And Terry (played by Michael Barbieri) let him come stay with him, even though his dad’s abusive, and you can kind of see that in the movie. I feel like we’re just a bunch of kids trying to fit in that have problems and don’t know how to deal with them, just like any bully. But yeah, I think Billy’s definitely off. He’s got a screw loose.”
When asked about any scenes that were filmed but not used in the theatrical cut of the film, Marteen says everything he filmed is in the movie, except for two moments of added physical abuse toward Corey.
“Joey (Harris; watch our interview here) mooned Jamie (Lee Curtis)”, he recalled, “and then I like twisted Corey’s nipple – well, Rohan’s nipple – which didn’t make it. I think it’s going to make it in the bloopers, but it was a really funny moment. I’m like, ‘Here’s your milk’, and he drops the chocolate milk and stuff. Just a real dick move from Billy… Another funny moment is on the bridge scene, when we were like tussling with Rohan and stuff. One of the takes we did, I accidentally gave him the craziest wedgie. He was like, ‘Dude, that was all underwear’. (laughs) So right after, I was like, ‘My bad, bro’, and he was like, ‘Nah, you killed it. You killed it’.”
We also discussed his music and how one of songs, “Misbehavin”, was featured on the soundtrack, and of course we talked about celebrating Halloween itself.
You can watch our full exclusive interview with Marteen on playing Billy in Halloween Ends and more below.
Halloween Ends is now playing in theaters and streaming on Peacock.
Watch our interview with Joey Harris on playing bully Margo in Halloween Ends here.
Read our Halloween Ends review here.
See all of our Halloween Ends coverage here!
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