AEW star and current ROH Champion Chris Jericho was recently interviewed by Screen Rant to discuss a variety of topics. Jericho talked about being part of the Terrifier franchise, as well as the ongoing drama behind the scenes at AEW.

Here are the highlights:

Being a fan of the franchise:

I kind of stumbled upon the movie early on in its existence back when was on Netflix, actually. And I just couldn’t believe it. It was the best horror movie I think I’d seen in about 20 years, with what I considered [to be] the next iconic serial killer, which we also haven’t had in horror movies for 25 years.

I think Art the Clown is the secret behind Terrifier. Because he is a clown playing the gimmick of a clown, with horns and riding a tricycle, and there’s little gags, and that sort of thing. But he’s also just a completely vicious killer… I just it was riveting to me. It was very gritty and dark. And you can tell it was low budget.

But if you told me that they had $50 million, I would believe it too, because Hollywood sometimes spends a lot of money to make movies look that gritty. So it was just everything about it really appealed to me. Right out of the gate, I became the biggest promoter of this movie and told my whole fan base over and over again, “You have to see Terrifier! You have to see Terrifier!”

And that’s kind of how it led to me being in Terrifier 2, because I was able to get a relationship with Damian Leone, the director, and then David Howard Thornton. It just became a mutual respect thing. And [they said to me], “We should do something for Terrifier 2.” And I was like, “Yes, we should.” And that’s kind of how it all started.

The practical effects in the film:

I don’t think people realize that Damien not only wrote this movie and directed it, but he does all the practical effects. There’s no CGI, it’s all old-school sculpting and models. So, being on set and on location in Staten Island, there’s a whole area of Damien’s special effects.

There’s Art heads and dismembered arms and fingers. He’s constantly working, even in between scenes and shots, he has to go through the final mold or paint or whatever on the prosthetics. So that was really cool for me, just to see how much he’s really involved.

In the film, I have to eat like, a zombie platter. It’s Halloween, so my wife has made all these zombie treats. And one of them was a jellied eyeball. And I think it was kind of custard with some kind of almost the plastic candy, and I had to eat like five of them. And they were cold, and they were gelatinous.

And it was really kind of getting to me. It was really gross. And I remember [Damien] was like, “Can you just eat one more?” And I was like, “Dude, I’ll eat one more, and then that’s it! Because I’m gonna f***ing puke if I have to do another one of these.” But these are the trials and tribulations of filming a horror movie.

You’ve got to eat too many gelatinous eyeballs. But like I said, just how much work everybody was doing really was inspiring because everything that you see, they left 100% on the screen. So now Terrifier 2 is on 800 screens in theaters. That’s a real victory for all of us.

How AEW gets past the public backstage turmoil:

Well, it’s one of those things. It’s really not that weird. I mean, it’s just wrestling, man. I think the only difference is that now, whenever something happens, it gets out very quickly and everybody has an opinion. But I’ve been in locker room fights before, and it’s never good.

But for us, I think there’s such a positive atmosphere which, of course, doesn’t get talked about. It really is a new era for our company. So many positive things on the horizon. So many great things going on right now. Our stories are just really clicking. The matches are really good. I thought last night’s show was great from top to bottom. Saraya has just come in, and we’ve got so many other great new talents coming in, with others getting ready to come in.

I think, sure, there’s negative things. But if you have 98 positives and two negatives, it’s the two negatives that are going to get talked about. And just like you said, you’ve just got to keep moving forward. And we know what’s happening. I know what’s going on with everything. We’re taking care of it.

And that’s just the way it is. It’s wrestling, it really is. And, more importantly, there’s some great momentum for AEW, and our ratings are still great ratings. So it’s just [that] there’s so much positive stuff that when the negative things happen, you just deal with them, and you move forward. That’s how it goes.