Henry Rollins on his latest role as a villain among villains

Henry Rollins just might be one of the hardest working guys in Southern California.  

He first came to fame as the front man for the legendary California punk band Black Flag:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsbvo5GVK10

In the decades since, he's hosted numerous radio shows; he has a podcast. Heck, he even writes for LA Weekly.

Well, now Henry Rollins is a serial killer.

That is, he plays one named Bernard in a new film called “The Last Heist.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4wIVPUb7yY

Rollins himself recently sat down with Take Two's Alex Cohen to talk about his new role.

With a film like this one, you’ve got some dialogue, and I’m sure there’s plenty of actors out there who would go to the library and take out every book on the psychology of every serial killer known to man. My gut tells me you’re not that guy. What’s your technique?

Here’s what’s unique about my life: I’ve met a lot of people. In my line of work, I’ve met more people than any president. Coming from the kind of music I come from, where anyone can walk up to you and talk to you — and everyone does — I’ve met all kinds of people. I’ve met killers, I’ve met the rich, the poor, the insane, the lovely, the repulsive; and so I have a lot of the human types to draw from.

So with this guy, he needs to disarm people with charm, so I tapped into a few people I’ve met — especially a pedophile who I had met in my youth. He would hang out at a movie theater I had worked at, and he was always trying to get me to come over to his place. As far as his physicality; the way Bernard moves around, he’s a bird. Some birds, everything’s amazing when they look at it. And that’s what Bernard does; you pull a gun on him and he’s like, ‘Whoa, a gun. I’m going to take that from you.’ He has no fear of death at all.

You can hear more from Henry Rollins by clicking the blue play button above.

(Answers have been edited for clarity.)