Alex Winter Recalls ‘The Lost Boys’ As The 80s Classic Arrives In 4K

The Lost Boys landing on 4K UHD just weeks ahead of Halloween is like Christmas has come early fans of the 1987 teen vampire classic.

Released in the summer of 1987, audiences and critics feasted on director Joel Schumacher’s vision about bloodsuckers nesting in the fictional coastal town of Santa Clara, California. Made for $8.5 million it grossed over $32 million and boasted a cast that included The film’s now iconic ensemble includes Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, Dianne Wiest and Edward Herrmann. It also gave Alex Winter his big screen breakout role as Marko.

I caught up with Winter to discuss The Lost Boys, what it did right, the audition process and how far Schumacher went to make sure the actor said yes.

Simon Thompson: Did you have any idea that The Lost Boys would become the cultural touchstone and the phenomenon that it turned out to be? It was a movie that came out and was popular but it has gone far beyond.

Alex Winter: I didn’t even know if it would be a hit. You just don’t know. Unlike other things I’d done before that, I’d done Broadway and some other films and things like that, but it felt like there was a lot of support behind it while we were making it. It felt like it was going to do pretty well at the box office and they made it for a certain price and that was good too when it came to our chances. As you say that leap to the kind of cultural impact it has today to the degree that it does, absolutely not. We didn’t with Bill and Ted either, obviously. We really didn’t. We didn’t even think the first one was ever going to see the light of day. With The lost Boys, that is really a tribute to Joel and you’ve got to lay that at his feet. He had such a finger on the pulse of that era’s fashion and he was extremely well educated when it previous movies and fashion. Because he came from fashion, he was very good at predicting trends, and I think that is why the film hit the way that it did long term.

Thompson: I spoke to Kiefer Sutherland about this probably about two years ago about his relationship with Joel. He told me that Joel had these pearls of wisdom and insight that he would deliver to people. Was there anything that Joel imparted to you on set that was so on the money but perhaps at the time he didn’t realize it was so important.

Winter: There was a lot. I learned an enormous amount from him and from our cinematographer Mike Chapman. Joel was more effusive than Mike who was like a salty F-bomb dropping sailor but he was a genius so I just followed him around and watched him light. Joel was pretty effusive, even in the auditions. I was an NYU film student when I auditioned for The Lost Boys. Marion Dougherty, who was in charge of casting, had found me through some other work I had done as a child actor. She put me in front of Joel and then ultimately he and Richard Donner. Because I was a film student and a New Yorker, this kind of a punk rocker club kid from the 80s, I came in dressed in like all sorts of parachute plastic shoulder padded crazy shit. Joel was like, ‘Oh, I like you.’ We talked a lot about culture, about his reference points and this idea he had a mixing everything from kind of the Nicholas Ray style to 80s style to rock ‘n’ roll style and how he intended to fuse them. He was also very clear about character when you were talking about acting. We had a lot of questions. The kids that came in that were scrappy theater people which Kiefer was, Jason certainly was, and we were like, ‘What the f**k are you making exactly? (laughs) Can you please just give us as much information as possible?’ When I got to LA and he put me in hair extensions, I sort of had a moment like, ‘Whoa, what is this film? Can you put it in terms that I can understand so I know what I’m getting into?’ I was sold because he was very clear about the mash up and how it was going to work. From then on, I was just like, ‘I’m in your hands. Do your thing,’ and we had his back.

Thompson: When you auditioned for Marko, how many others did you read for?

Winter: I read for David over and over and over again which was fine because Marko has like two lines so I wouldn’t have anything to do. Joel came back to me and he cast me as Marko and Kiefer was David and he was amazing. He’d also done Stand By Me and all this incredible theater work in Canada. Joel went on to cast what seemed like every great young New York theatre actor that was working at the time. When I was reading for David I was paired up with certain stars who shall remain nameless because they didn’t get the role, but the audition process was fun. Richard Donner’s first question was like, ‘So, are you just another actor bullshitting that he can ride a motorcycle or can you actually ride a motorcycle?’ I pulled out my helmet because I literally on my motorcycle and riding it 365 days a year in New York so there was no bullshit.

Thompson: With an ensemble piece like this, and so many people read for it, do you consistently still come up to people that perhaps you didn’t even realize read for this?

Winter: That happens all the time. It happens with almost every movie that you do. I saw someone recently, it might have been Patricia Arquette, and we read for Near Dark. I got cast in it with Ione Skye, and then we got dropped because we were too young and they aged it up and had different actors playing it. It’s a masterpiece so they obviously made the right decision. It happens constantly. Maybe because I was a child actor, the audition process for me was just another chance to play so you didn’t sweat it too much. You didn’t ever really assume you were going to get anything. You just went in and you had fun and you left. I’ve come across a few. I’ve come across quite a few pretty big female stars who are like, ‘I was really close to playing Star in that film.’ It’s kind of sweet.

Thompson: Your face is on the classic poster. Was that the first time that you’d had that experience and how big of a deal was that for you?

Winter: I don’t think my face is on the Death Wish III poster was it? (Laughs) It would be very inappropriate. Being on The Lost Boys poster was a big thing. I’d been acting in theatre and TV commercials as a little kid but my first big break was at 13 years old on Broadway and King and I and my name was on the side of a building. I did Peter Pan for several years after that was Sandy Duncan and it’s Broadway which is a big deal. It’s not the same media exposure as the movies, but I’d been sort of part of a core ensemble in stuff that was getting a lot of press and in TV ads and things like that. I wasn’t wholly unused to that and I will not diminish the gratitude I had for getting cast in The Lost Boys. You knew you’d got in on something really special. I dropped out of school to do it. I left NYU and I never went back. I went to Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure right after The Lost Boys and just kept working. I remember Joel was worried that I wasn’t going to take the role because he knew I was a full-time student at film school. He called my mom and implored her to let me go do the movie. I wasn’t even living at home. I wasn’t 12 and it was kind of a cheeky thing to do in retrospect. I was an adult. My mom was like, ‘I had a lovely talk with this man called Joel Schumacher,’ and I was like, ‘What the f**k is he calling you for?’ (laughs). As small as my part was, it was a joy to be on that set every day. It was a beautiful film to be in.

The Lost Boys is available on 4K Ultra HD and Digital.