Lloyd Kaufman Officially Passes The Toxic Avenger’s Mop to Director Macon Blair [Interview]

For over 40 years, Lloyd Kaufman has been synonymous with The Toxic Avenger. While Toxie continues to be a legacy-defining mascot for Troma’s brand of independent film, Kaufman has officially passed the mop to writer-director Macon Blair.

Blair’s bold reimagining of The Toxic Avenger opens in theaters unrated on August 29. A producer on the project, Kaufman is pleased to have found the right filmmaker to introduce his cult icon to a new generation while honoring the existing fanbase.

“Macon’s beautiful film is a real movie, unlike the first Toxic Avenger. It’s a work of art — and better than the original Toxic Avenger,” Kaufman declares to Bloody Disgusting. “Troma fans like it, as well as normal people,” he chuckles.

“Lloyd was always very supportive and made it clear each time we spoke that he wanted me to do my own thing,” Blair recalls. “He and Michael [Herz, The Toxic Avenger co-director] both really went out of their way to say that they wanted me to feel free to chase whatever this new version was, which was a huge vote of confidence.”

He adds, “At the same time, I wanted them to feel like I was being respectful with their baby so I tried to keep them in the loop as we went along.”

“I went to Austin to meet Macon while I was doing a tour with Shakespeare’s Shitstorm, our version of The Tempest,” says Kaufman. “He’s a great guy, a family guy. He’s not into Hollywood bullshit. I sent him notes, but he very intelligently ignored them,” Kaufman jokes.

“He did have one suggestion for a kill — I’m paraphrasing here, ‘You should have someone get suffocated by giant boobs‘ — but it came late in production and we weren’t able to add that to the schedule,” Blair recalls. “Maybe next time!”

“Macon’s movie has the right amount of pathos,” Lloyd praises. “You feel for the characters, and that’s how it’s got to be. Frankenstein, which I grew up on, was a huge influence on Toxie. Macon took what we had done, which is based on many classic horrors and satires that came before it, and made it into something really profound.”

“The main piece of advice Lloyd gave was just to make it entertaining,” Blair explains. “He didn’t really have story notes, he just wanted it to be fun for the audience. So that was the main goal.”

A remake of The Toxic Avenger was first announced in 2010, and at one point Arnold Schwarzenegger was in talks to star. After Legendary Pictures secured the rights in 2018, Blair got the gig and cast Peter Dinklage as Toxie.

“Macon created such a wonderfully relaxed, collaborative environment,” Dinklage comments. “I knew that we all loved that original film, and we had Lloyd’s blessing. That’s everything. We took it off the pedestal and did our own reimagining of it.”

“We were working on our fifth Toxic Avengers script, Mr. Toxie Goes to Washington. We didn’t know what to do with Toxie. Do we kill him? Do we get an obese person to play Toxie? Maybe a trans Toxie?” Kaufman recalls.

“But Peter’s perfect! He’s a terrific actor. He knows the culture. He loves film. He’s extremely knowledgeable, as are all the people in this movie. They’re all lovers of cinema, and they get it. And they’ve allowed the Troma team to come with them!”

“The one piece of pressure that I did put on myself was making sure that the fans felt taken care of,” Blair explains. “This really dedicated fanbase has kept it alive for so many decades, and the last thing I wanted was for them to feel like this thing had been taken away in some other direction that has no resemblance to the thing that they love a lot.”

Blair continues, “As a fan myself, I wanted to respect that. Certainly you hope to get it out into the world with people that don’t know anything about The Toxic Avenger, but I wanted to make sure the fans were taken care of first and foremost.”

“Toxic Avenger took 40 years to be reimagined, and I’m not dead, so the fact that it’s coming out in theaters is terrific,” Kaufman muses. “This is a truly independent film. It’s just that they had a lot more money than the original Toxic Avenger, which was made for about $450,000.”

“It was important to me that this movie felt like an addition to the larger Toxie universe, not a replacement of anything,” says Blair.

“If you want a good movie on the big screen, this is it,”  Kaufman asserts. “It’s certainly Unrated, but it’s not about the blood and the violence. You don’t even need that in the movie — although you do need it, I’m wrong about that — but the effects are great. The acting’s great.”

Kaufman continues, “So many of the big films look like video games to this 79-year-old person, but this one is real. It’s a film that will be entertaining, fun, satirical, and the people come away learning something — as they did with the first Toxic Avenger.”

“I really just wanted to make a goofy comedy with monsters and some blood and have it be something audiences could have fun with,” says Blair.

“I have no idea if I’m the right person or not, but I do know that I saw The Toxic Avenger as a kid and it made a lasting impression on me, and so when the idea of doing a new one was suggested to me something about it felt very right — like I was circling back to the old days of making little VHS movies with my friends around the neighborhood — and I pursued it in that spirit.”

“It’s a great honor to pass the mop off to Macon — as long as he keeps giving me cameos,” Kaufman concludes with a signature smile.

Get your tickets now to see The Toxic Avenger Unrated in theaters on August 29!