Since January 20th, 2009 the nation has been crediting this guy President Barrack Obama with inspiring our nation’s youth and uplifting the economically depressed. They obviously haven’t met Ron Perlman.

The Hellboy hero can most recently be seen as Brother Samuel—a spiritual toughie who must save the world and all of humanity alongside a ruffian soldier played by Thomas Jane—in The Mutant Chronicles, now available on VOD and due in theaters on April 24th. Now how’s that for a “stimulus package,” eh? For the unacquainted, The Mutant Chronicles world is set on an unrecognizable earth, in the wake of a war waged by four major corporations, a war that’s spawned a race of mutant species hell-bent on destroying humanity.

Sheesh. We think we have it bad with our bail-outs and foreclosures? Apparently it can get much worse! Luckily Perlman is here to offer some insight about The Mutant Chronicles, the state of America, the impending mutant take-over and, of course, Bubba Nosferatu. Why, he is the king...

Fans have been waiting for what seems like forever to see The Mutant Chronicles, What are you most excited for them to see?
I think it’s the emergence of a new voice in filmmaking. I think Simon Hunter—I’m such a fan of his—he presided over some really good storytelling. I’ve seen the film twice and I’m proud of the film. I think it plays really well. I think it’s smart and worthy.

You’ve gotten to do just about everything from some extremely physical fighting with Hellboy to some character-driven pieces like Larry Fessenden’s The Last Winter…
Thank God. [Laughs.]

Character-driven or physical, what has been your favorite experience?
It always comes to the heart of the character for me, if I admire the guy’s heart when I read it. That’s the first thing I’m drawn to. I just love the humanity of Brother Samuel and who he was and what his point of view was on mankind, which is all called into question in the course of this film. His desire and willingness to sacrifice himself for the greater good, those are admirable qualities in anything. To play someone like that in a film, I think we’re all actors because we get a chance to get things right on film that we don’t always necessarily get right in life. I just admire Brother Samuel and love his value system and things he held dear. He was willing to lay his life on the line for the things he believed.

How would you describe Brother Samuel?
Brother Samuel is first and foremost a spiritual man. Someone who sees himself as a small cog in the wheel that makes life worth living and makes the world a place worth cherishing. He takes what is very seriously.

So you have The Mutant Chronicles spiritual character Brother Samuel and then your role in I Sell the Dead as Father Duffy. another “spiritual” character so to speak...
[Laughs.] No! He’s not really a spiritual character at all. Father Duffy is not what he appears to be. I don’t want to give too much of that story away, but he’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He’s not a “priest”.

Would you consider yourself spiritual?
In my own way I guess I would have to say off-balance probably yes. But I’m really uncomfortable talking about my own spirituality…

There was a Mutant Chronicles screening that took place at Comic Con 2008 in order to elicit the fans’ response and feedback. Do you know if any of that was incorporated?
I know that it was greatly appreciated and that we stirred up a whole lot of enthusiasm as a result of screening it to what has to be one of our more compelling target audiences. I don’t—because I’ve been running around from pillar to post in the last year and a half—I’m not up to speed as to whether Simon substantiated any changes or not. I was very happy with the film. I just want to get it played.

With the state of the economy and the obvious control corporations have over our daily lives, The Mutant Chronicles seems more relevant than ever. If there was a corporate takeover in our real world, which corporations or powers would bring our doom?
I think that we’ve seen an erosion in things that were driving all walks of life by “the corporation”, which has no heart, no soul, no personality, no humanity at all. It basically just has a bottom line. The interesting thing is the corporations are run by people who are almost asked to subjugate their humanity for the benefit of the profitability of what it is their working on. It’s been a balancing act, but what we’re grappling with today, [with] the great President Obama—God bless him and God keep him—is that we’re living in a world that’s gotten out of balance, where humanity has been overwhelmed by the bottom line and people have lost their morality in the name of profitability.

You put away guys like Bernie Maddoff, and a million other guys like him, even though he’s getting all the headlines—there’s a million of these Ponzi schemes that are happening all over the place. That’s what has evolved whether we like it or not. That’s what we’re going to have to face for the sake of our own power and well being. God does not like ugly and when you subjugate all your humanity in the name of profitability… that’s ugly.

On a lighter note…
[Laughs.] Hey you asked the question! Well, it’s not a downer because it’s out and finally in the light of day. It was a downer when it was insidious and when it was happening and wasn’t in our face. There was an erosion taking place and we weren’t even aware of what was taking place. It’s where we can look at it and say “Holy shit, we came this close to fucking up everything.” We’re going to make a choice. The great thing about the election was we decided that wasn’t what we wanted to be or where we wanted to go. That’s not the humanity we want to aspire to. I have a huge amount of hope and faith that it’s is going to become a more beautiful place…this world.

We won’t succumb to those Mutant Chronicles conditions…
Yeah, the mutants had their moment in the sun. [Laughs.]