We Find Out How Low You Can Go With Richard Riehle, Star of 'Limbo'

We were honored to have a sit-down with none other than Richard Riehle. His career has spanned decades, and hundreds and hundreds of roles in every genre you can think of.

One of his most recent projects, Limbo, came out on DVD and On-Demand August 4th, 2020.

M3: You are a very busy gentleman; you’ve got so much in production and you’ve been in so many of our favorite movies, but today we’re talking about Limbo. Can you give us a rundown of what it’s about and the character you play?

“Limbo is the story of Jimmy, who died after committing a crime. He’s in Limbo, and he is basically on trial, and an angel comes to his defense. My character, Phil, is a demon who is summoned to be the stenographer for the trial.”

M3: Your character, Philitonus, is a minor demon. We all have preconceived notions about how demons behave, think, and feel. You, however, gave him a true sweetness and innocence. I teared up a little as he was asking Jimmy about what it was like to be alive. Was that based on the script, or was that a choice you put into the character?

“Oh wow, thank you! What you saw was in the script. This is really a testament to the writing; Phil names off all of these fantastic places, ending with Disneyland, hoping that maybe he can go to the material world and find out if it is as wonderful as it seems.”

M3: Now Phil is sporting a pair of pretty wicked horns. How was the process of wearing that appliance versus the body cast you wore in Office Space?

“[Laughter] Oh, it wasn’t bad at all; took just a little while to put on. The hardest part was building up the flat base that the horns sat on. It really was nothing like Office Space; we didn’t have a prop cast. An EMT came in and it took a couple of hours to get me into the cast, and I had to spend about 7 hours in it. At the end of the day, some poor PA had to cut me out of it because the EMT had to go to work. ”

M3: Oh my goodness!

“Yeah! This is an independent production, but we had a very great makeup crew. The only thing is because it was a smaller production, if you notice, I’m not in the cafe scene, because they had to use my horns for another demon!”

M3:Phil is Hell’s best Stenographer. Did you have to learn Stenography to work the machine?

“Oh, no; in fact that stenography machine was an antique, and it only had that small amount of the paper and you can’t get any more for that machine, so we had to be very careful how it was shot because we had to conserve the paper.”

M3: Now, your career spans just about every genre you could name, and I noticed that there has been an uptick in your horror roles. What is your favorite type of character to play?

“I don’t necessarily have a favorite type; there are 3 things I consider before deciding on a role: 1. The Script- it has to say something, 2. How the character fits into the story, and 3. Who else is working on it? You want a solid group.”

M3:Well Richard, we love watching you, but what are you watching right now? What’s in your Netflix Queue?

“Oh, gosh; I’m watching a lot of theater productions on YouTube. You know we can’t go due to the virus, so all of these different theater companies are broadcasting their productions. I’m watching a lot of the Northern Theater and the Stratford. One that I watched that I really enjoyed is called Oedipus The King, Mama; this group called the Troubies takes classic plays and mixes in a song or an artist. This one is Oedipus Rex with Elvis. ”

M3: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us; we can’t wait to see what you do next!

Limbo, written and directed by Mark Young, starring Lucien Charles Collier, Scottie Thompson, Lew Temple, and today’s guest, Richard Riehle is available on DVD and On Demand across most platforms. Check out the trailer here:

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