You?d think the days of discussing clotheslines and spiral bombs would be long gone for 51-year-old wrestler turned actor Diamond Dallas Page. But contrary to this belief, DDP still hits the ring with his famous diamond cuts when he?s not busy starring in the latest round of horror films for genre heavy hitters like Tim Sullivan. One of his recent projects, Driftwood, showcases wrestling legend DDP as the sadistic and relentless Captain Kennedy, who runs an attitude-adjustment camp for troubled youths. Last week we talked one-on-one with Dallas Page himself about his menacing role as The Captain.

For those who haven?t seen Driftwood, could you tell them a little about your character as The Captain?

?He is one of those guys that is from that Arkansas, Georgia, Florida part of the country, that are the good ol? boys that came up through the Marine Corps. He?s got a pretty tough edge to him and he runs this attitude adjustment camp. After Columbine a lot of these places opened up for parents who couldn?t handle their kids. Sometimes these kids really need to go to a place like that and then other times it could be because the kid likes Marilyn Manson and their parents can?t control them and they have purple hair or tongue rings so they send them off to places like this. It?s just because the parents don?t really have the time. It?s not always like that but there?s a lot of research that Tim Sullivan did where a lot of kids (and if there?s more than one there?s too many) have died in these places. What it really comes down to is the guards can?t beat on the kids so they get the other kids to beat on them to get them in line. The Captain [is] sympathetic at times but most of the time you want to get him back for all the wrong he?s committed.?

It was interesting to see you play this type of character since through wrestling you are known as being tough but this role has placed you as a tough guy who is also a bad guy. What sort of preparations did you go through to become The Captain?

?I had already been in three movies so I had my feet wet in the acting world and as a wrestler you are an actor (some wrestlers better than others), but I could have never played the role of The Captain without the proper training. I worked with an acting coach and the studio Howard Fine which is the best acting studio in all of Los Angeles. He and I hit it off incredibly right off the bat. For starters he was a wrestling fan and you don?t really come across that very often, but when you do it means something. He understood that wrestling is an art. I grew up with ADD and Dyslexia so at 30 years old I was reading with a 3rd grade reading level, but at 31 I decided I was going to learn how to read proficiently. Howard read my book and he knew who I was. His whole attitude was that if I worked half as hard at acting as I did at wrestling I was going to do fine (then he exposed that he was a closet wrestling fan). But I had to become the character so there?s a lot of Page Falkinberg (which was my name before Diamond Dallas) and a lot of Dallas in The Captain but then again I?m nothing like that character at all. I had to create that storyline and then really live it. Howard didn?t really recommend me becoming the character and being the character all the time. I just sort of did that because there was so much dialogue and when you see the movie, it?s a big part like an Al Pacino type. I believe there are two big deleted scenes that I am in that were cut because the film was becoming too much about The Captain. The film is not about The Captain it?s about David, the kid who comes in who?s played by Rickie Ullman.

I went in for the part of Norris that was played by David Eisenberg the guy who played Steve on Sex And The City (great actor) and we just hit it off right away me and him. He ended up getting that part but the reason why that happened was, Sullivan, after talking to me for two hours, was like this guy is the Captain not Norris.?

After becoming so involved with the character did you find yourself embodying the Captain off camera or even off set at all?

?I never came out of character. When I rode through those prison gates I never stopped talking like him or being him?

Even through cuts and lunch breaks you were still the Captain?

?Oh yeah, all the time! Only once when I was doing some scenes back and forth with Ricky and I just for the hell of it thought I?m just going to step out and I did and couldn?t remember the lines. I had to be living in the moment. As an actor it?s always where was I just at, where am I going now, where am I going to go next. It?s like it is in life. I know that when we?re done here I?m going to go to the massage therapist. I know exactly where I?m going. As an actor you have to know exactly where that next spot is. If you?re just reading the lines for someone there?s too many of them and I just won?t remember. If I?m living it then I can.

There was something really funny when we were filming. It was about six or seven days in, and all of us were pretty tight at that point working 14 or 15 hour days. I remember someone said ?Dallas where are you from anyway?? and I said (in the Captain?s accent) ?New Jersey, but I don?t normally talk like this? [laughs]. But I didn?t break character to tell them!?

Did you have a favorite memory from those days together?

?I wouldn?t call it a favorite but I guess getting the hell beat out of me by the ghost. I don?t think they knew I could handle those bumps like I did. I had a tortoise shell on my back-which we never wear stuff like that-but that was mainly to get hit by the shovel. When I took the fall on my back it totally dislodged my lower back, so when you see me crawling to the rope and I?m just going off, that?s ALL real. There?s no living in the moment there. That was ALL real. Tim was like god I can?t believe this, this is amazing! Later he?s telling me and I?m yelling ?I really hurt myself!?

My other favorite was the rain scene and it wasn?t just raining it was POURING and it was so cold. One of my favorite moments was with Baelyn Neff who?s not only a beautiful girl but a great actor who plays my daughter in this and during shooting we got really close. She had her great-grandmother?s ring and the grass as you can see in that scene was really, really high and she lost the setting in the grass. She was so bummed and we?re just about to do our scene where we?re sitting there and it?s her big entrance and I watched her change and I just told her to snap out of it and to get in the game. She was just like ?your right, your right? and got into it. We did the scene and it was great and then we were sitting there and we?re drinking lemonade and I look down and between eight or nine inches of grass and I see a *BING* and I reach down in between all this grass and I pull it out and go, (in The Captain?s accent of course) ?Is this your diamond?? That was my favorite because she was just so happy.?

What was it like working with Tim Sullivan, Lin Shay, Talen Torrelli, David Eisenberg and a cast of young upcoming actors and actresses?

?You step up and bring you?re A-game. Dealing with people with great amounts of skill you do better. Lin Shay and Marc McClure are great actors. We do that scene where I cut her off and Lin who has been acting for 50 + years was so proud of me she was with me in Hood of Horror as well and she told me that she really got to watch me grow as an actor and come into my own. That, coming from her, who has worked with everyone and anyone, it was an honor. And Talan Torriero, this was his first movie but he did a phenomenal job. There were things about his role that he brought, where he?s burning the church down, he just broke down.?

Haven?t you worked with Tim Sullivan on Hood of Horror as well?

?Yeah actually we were working on Driftwood and then I got the role in Hood of Horror. Tim called me up and was like ?Hey I got you another part? and I met the director and she liked me and I said do you want me to read for this and they were like ?Come on you are that guy!? I never read for the Captain, I only read for one part that I?ve gotten because after talking to me you know. This is the way that Mel Gibson does it, he doesn?t ever have his actors read, he talks to them because that?s how you really see who you?re dealing with. Any monkey can memorize lines but can you live them??

Do you find that many of your wrestling fans cross over to become your film fans?

?When I go to a special event or anything that has to do with horror I see it. Out of all the people in Hood of Horror with the exception of Snoop because he was on the phone, I was asked about 30% of the questions because horror fans are wrestling fans and there?s a huge, huge cross over. I?ve been waiting for this movie [Driftwood] to be seen. With the DVD release we got a really good response I just can?t wait until it gets to Showtime or Cinemax and people really get to see it.?

You are definitely creating a name for yourself between horror fans after your roles in Devil?s Rejects, Hood of Horror, and now Driftwood. Do you prefer your work as a wrestler or an actor?

?I was a guy who didn?t become a wrestler until he was 35 1/2. I tore my rotator cuff at 36. They fired me and I came back at 37. At 40 I finally blew threw the door and from 40-46 years old I was on top of the world. I became a three time world champion and no one ever did it how Diamond Dallas Page did it. I just wrestled two weeks ago and I?m 51 years old. I can still do it but I don?t want to do it anymore. I did all I could do there. But if you go to DiamondDallasPage.com you?ll see most of what I?m doing right now.?

What projects of yours can fans look for in the future?

?Sullivan and I have a project that I bought. It?s a script that he wrote for Tobe Hooper a few years ago called Clowns. Imagine if Tony Soprano was a Clown, so imagine living in the mob but the whole family is clowns. And when you went to go rub the grease paint off their face it didn?t come off because they are real clowns and a special breed of people. There are a few hundred of them throughout the world and they are really tough sons of bitches.

This script that he wrote is so well done. I have some big producers looking at it right now. It?s a $3-5 million project but it?s self contained and all shot in a house. It?s a character that could continually go on almost like a Freddy Krueger type of thing.?

Were you planning to star in Clowns?

?Oh yeah I?m the lead. This to me is like what Sylvester Stallone is-on a different level of course-to Rocky. No one can be Tom Clown but me. I own him. Sullivan originally gave me the script and said I?d be great to play this Bruce Willis type dad and when I read the script I said ?Dude I don?t want to be this Dad I want to be Tom Clown!? He?s the most colorful character that I?ve seen in quite a while.?

Are you a fan of the genre?

?Absolutely. I?m not a fanatic but I wasn?t a fanatic about wrestling either. I was a fan of wrestling. To me, I love The Shining, The Exorcist. I?m a fan of the Saw films because it could happen. I?m not sure if you?d call this a horror movie but it has to be in that element but I liked The Sixth Sense. When that ring drops I remember where I was, I was with Kim [his wife] in a huge old school theater on the top floor and I looked at her and said ?Am I alive?? That just scared the shit out of me. I love that stuff even the slapstick stuff.

I don?t think there?s a more entertaining guy from the horror genre than Robert Englund. There might be guys as entertaining but no one that is more entertaining. He?s one of the nicest guys too. When I walked up to him he was like ?I know you!? and he was a fan of mine and I was a fan of his so we became quick friends. Sullivan and I got a double diamond with him (every time I take a picture with someone we do the diamond cut) because that?s my sign. So we have a picture of Robert Englund, Diamond Dallas and Tim Sullivan doing the double diamond.?

Wrestlers like Kane, Chris Jericho and yourself have ventured into film but specifically into the horror world. Why do you think that is?

?I would have done Free Willy. Michael Madsen, one of the greatest friggen bad guys of all times did Free Willy. If I like the script and I like the role then I?m going to do it. It just happens to be that it?s a natural thing that it would be a progression like that. My dad always says well what if you get labeled as that kind of an actor or get stuck in those types of roles and I?m just like maybe I should get so lucky!?

What?s you?re biggest fear?

?To be in a spot where I?ve lost everything and I?ve got to rely on the government to support me like so many people do. We don?t take care of our people here. When people get older we sort of discard them. So that would definitely have to be my biggest fear.?