George “The Animal” Steele was a pro wrestler for the WWF. He also played the role of Tor Johnson in “Ed Wood” (1994). I talked to him and recorded this video at the Monster Bash convention in Butler, PA. June 2010.
dude this was awesome, i just watched ed wood like 3 days ago and was wondering about that guy ha. Well anyone thanks james you should go with ume and my gf to the evil dead cabin remnants
holy crap even though theres a thumbnail with the choke and everyone’s talking about it, it still surprised me! it happen so fast and out of nowhere, just awesome!
James, I applaud you for having the balls to go through the rest of that whole interview after George Steele strangled you. Personally, I would have shit my pants!
In spite of his intimidating image (and size), he seems like a pretty cool and down-to-earth guy.
George The Animal Steele, aka Jim Meyers was my parents’ phys. ed teacher in high school. He’s quite a legend in my family. Nice job with the interview!! Two of my favorite things – “the Animal” and AVGN!!
That’s fantastic, James. Your video are always interesting, please don’t ever quit! Also did he know about Cinemassacre beforehand or did you have to tell him about it? Since he knew about what you guys do with monster movies, I figured he had heard of you before. Again, great job.
l don’t like pro wrestling at all, but he really did seem like a pretty cool guy, and a lot of fun. I’d have been laughing my ass off too. I did laugh when he was strangling you- it was hilarious in its own right, and it really reminded me of you yelling “Blood! Blood!” in the “Pieces of Meat” video. There’s a retrospective within a retrospective for you, I guess. And twice as much hilarity.
Wow what a nice guy! I’m glad he mentioned about monster movies at the end because he’s definitely right – our “monster” movies these days just aren’t that great; the Saw series (with the exception of the first one) is pretty terrible.
What an awesome interview. Funny stuff. It is cool that you get to meet all these cool people, and go to great events like this James. I envy you! Keep up the great work!
I have watched every AVGN and documentary style video on this website, but I finally had to register for this one just so I could go with the consensus saying that George seems like the coolest guy ever, possibly second only to Mr. Rolfe.
haha!
“Don’t go to that gory, chainsaw, crap…”
James is just laughing like yeah….haha….crap…yeah..*stashes the deader the better under pillow*
Nice interview!
Great short James. I was a BIG fan of “The Animal” when I was younger and even saw him wrestle live a few times when I was a kid. He seems like a class act all the way.
That’s really awesome that he actually interviewed The Animal. I wonder if James watched wrestling back in the day, or watched any wrestling from that big boom period in the late 90’s. If so, I would love him to talk more about wrestling or interview more about their movies that they act in, etc.
There are a whole lot of bad shit to say about that kind of stuff and I’m sure James would really put a nice, creative, comedic twist on it all.
The Animal I think has suffered from optic nerve damage, notice how only his left eye still blinks throughout the whole interview, and never the right one.
I love that comment “You’re braver than I thought” great questions and his voice had to be down pitched. There’s too much in common for them to have dubbed the voice from someone else. Smooth out the frequencies and you still get clear audio with a lower pitch.
WWE hall of famer George “The Animal” Steele wow this makes me wonder if James is a fan of the WWE or just the fact that he was in that movie Sounded like he’s a fan of yours 2 lol
Awesome interview, I can tell that you’re in awe of him just like some people have been in awe of you when they interview you. Anyone who watched WWF in the 80’s could never forget George, no turnbuckle was ever safe from this guy!!
I love it when he says “SMARTEN UP!!!!” James you are da man for having the balls to talk to “The Animal.” And thanks for bring back some great childhood memories of watching George wrestle (early 80’s.)
I love how he says something about how we should stay away from the gory stuff, and specifically mentions chainsaws, and then right after you cut to the cinemassacre logo – a chainsaw coming out of a camera. Niiiice.
I often wondered why Tim Burton lowered Steele’s voice in the movie. Tor Johnson’s voice was actually pretty high pitched considering his size; even on the TV appearances he did, like when he was on Groucho Marx’s show, tho he might have been raising it deliberately as people tended to in 50s movies
Awesome interview . I love the way he cough you by surprise and started “choking” you 🙂
Keep up the good work and another greetings from Bulgaria. It looks like you have pretty nice fan base from here ^_^
Haha, when I first saw the thumbnail of the video I thought “Holy shit, that’s Tor Johnson!”. He really does look like Tor. Anyways, great video James and George sounds like a really funny guy. I was laughing the whole way through.
Oh yeah, and when George says “Don’t get into all that bloody, gore, chainsaw kind of crap” I was laughing at Jame’s face. He was all like “Oh shit, just uh, don’t watch “The Deader the Better”.
I’m not purely towards monster movies from the early days, but that is what I grew up with. Stuff from ever since Blair Witch is crap, but 70’s-90’s movies had great psychology. The gore is always good, but you never want it there so much that it ruins your life.
But Godzilla and Frankenstein rule the world, ’nuff said.
“But George Steele is an asshole. Really. His voice. His arrogance. It would have been funny is you hit him in the head when he choked you.
He deserved it, the asshole!”
George is a funny, smart and humble guy. The reason he acted like he did was because he was being playful.
You have to understand that in the 60s, 70s and 80s that is how wrestlers interacted with fans. Very playfully, I can’t count how many fan pictures of wrestlers I’ve seen where the wrestler is choking a guy, putting him in a headlock, picking him up, etc. etc.
They mean nothing by it, it is how they interacted with people. Can’t blame a man who spent 20+ years doing that on perhaps a nightly basis. And it looks like James had a blast, so it was all in good fun.
amazing, as always! keep it up! :D:D:D <3
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I am a huge wrestling fanatic and its so cool to hear the animal in his regular speaking voice! thanks for doing this, he still looks like he can kick some butt!!!
Hahaha awww he said don’t be makin those bloody violent horror films… But thats what your website is mostly about or at least what you like doing right james? LOL But yea you make awesome films dude 🙂
Ed wood made 7 of the worst movies ever made – he’s someone you can really look up to.
god I loved that line. It’s true, Ed Wood really ‘did’ make some horrible movies, but I know, James, you love his style… and I actually love his style too.
I wish we (you and I) could talk about it one to one.. but I don’t think you’d be interested…*sigh* :*(
July 19, 2010 at 7:48 pm
Finally a new video! It’s hell waiting for them but totally worth it 🙂
July 19, 2010 at 7:59 pm
Wow that guy was awesome. Hope there is coming more from that convention. 🙂
July 19, 2010 at 8:08 pm
Damn that guy is crazy!!! I’m sure his voice was dubbed by another actor in order to bring Tor’s voice to life.
April 7, 2016 at 5:26 am
Tor Johnson’s voice was pretty soft with a hint of his swedish accent.
July 19, 2010 at 8:24 pm
VIP James Rolfe
He certainly made that strangle at the beginning of the video look real… or was it?!
July 19, 2010 at 8:28 pm
The strangle was very realistic. Like in wrestling. The guy’s a pro!
July 19, 2010 at 8:42 pm
Really enjoyed the new video james…I couldnt stop laughing at the part where he was strangling you your facial expression was hilarious xD
July 19, 2010 at 8:44 pm
That was awesome when he choked ya.
Give him a sedagive!
July 19, 2010 at 8:45 pm
Lol nICE
July 19, 2010 at 8:47 pm
dude this was awesome, i just watched ed wood like 3 days ago and was wondering about that guy ha. Well anyone thanks james you should go with ume and my gf to the evil dead cabin remnants
July 19, 2010 at 8:49 pm
I love that face that James made. George seems like a really nice guy. Good interview.
July 19, 2010 at 8:49 pm
Very cool, James. It looked very natural. Just to guys, havin’ a chat.
July 19, 2010 at 8:52 pm
holy crap even though theres a thumbnail with the choke and everyone’s talking about it, it still surprised me! it happen so fast and out of nowhere, just awesome!
July 19, 2010 at 8:54 pm
James, I applaud you for having the balls to go through the rest of that whole interview after George Steele strangled you. Personally, I would have shit my pants!
In spite of his intimidating image (and size), he seems like a pretty cool and down-to-earth guy.
July 19, 2010 at 8:59 pm
George The Animal Steele, aka Jim Meyers was my parents’ phys. ed teacher in high school. He’s quite a legend in my family. Nice job with the interview!! Two of my favorite things – “the Animal” and AVGN!!
July 19, 2010 at 9:04 pm
I loved george when I was a kid and watched wrestleing with my mom.
And Ed wood is an awesome film. Great video James
July 19, 2010 at 9:10 pm
OMG that is one hell of a good interview, James! (Though I DO rather fancy the SAW movies) 😉
July 19, 2010 at 9:24 pm
That’s fantastic, James. Your video are always interesting, please don’t ever quit! Also did he know about Cinemassacre beforehand or did you have to tell him about it? Since he knew about what you guys do with monster movies, I figured he had heard of you before. Again, great job.
July 19, 2010 at 9:30 pm
l don’t like pro wrestling at all, but he really did seem like a pretty cool guy, and a lot of fun. I’d have been laughing my ass off too. I did laugh when he was strangling you- it was hilarious in its own right, and it really reminded me of you yelling “Blood! Blood!” in the “Pieces of Meat” video. There’s a retrospective within a retrospective for you, I guess. And twice as much hilarity.
July 19, 2010 at 9:35 pm
I loved Him as Tor In Ed wood….. James is the King for this interview also Lets hear it for The animal! funny guy eh?! lol good off the cuff stuff
July 19, 2010 at 9:51 pm
What a great guy. Fun interview.
July 19, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Wow what a nice guy! I’m glad he mentioned about monster movies at the end because he’s definitely right – our “monster” movies these days just aren’t that great; the Saw series (with the exception of the first one) is pretty terrible.
July 19, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Oh man. I found out not to long ago that a friend of mine is his Granddaughter. Another friend of mine dated her and got to meet him. Lucky bastard.
July 19, 2010 at 10:08 pm
Steele is hilarious and you can tell that he knows how to please a crowd! Great interview, thank you so much, James!
July 19, 2010 at 10:13 pm
damn saw this movie just today! funny
July 19, 2010 at 10:24 pm
Pretty interesting stuff.
July 19, 2010 at 10:26 pm
What a cool guy, wish I coulda been there. I really envy you James. Thanks for sharing
July 19, 2010 at 10:36 pm
Butler PA, about 1/2 hour from where I live. Damn! I would’ve killed to be there.
July 19, 2010 at 10:41 pm
thanks James, he seems like a great guy to talk to.
July 19, 2010 at 10:55 pm
He seems like a really cool, funny guy 🙂
July 19, 2010 at 11:17 pm
That was awesome! But George need to keep that diabeetus in check.
July 20, 2010 at 12:02 am
“Ed Wood” is one of my favorite movies. Thanks for posting.
July 20, 2010 at 12:03 am
How cool, George is a Born Again Christian:
http://www.georgetheanimalsteele.com/my-testimony.php
Great interview James. I’ve enjoyed all 3 of the new entries.
July 20, 2010 at 12:19 am
thanks again james for a behind the scenes look at another movie star!
July 20, 2010 at 12:28 am
Yeah, cool old man. Looks like eating turnbuckles doesn’t mess up your head too much. 🙂
July 20, 2010 at 12:39 am
That was some fun! Hey… Right, keep it up!!!
July 20, 2010 at 1:15 am
What a nice guy! I guess his WWF legacy lives on!
July 20, 2010 at 1:18 am
What an awesome interview. Funny stuff. It is cool that you get to meet all these cool people, and go to great events like this James. I envy you! Keep up the great work!
July 20, 2010 at 1:18 am
I have watched every AVGN and documentary style video on this website, but I finally had to register for this one just so I could go with the consensus saying that George seems like the coolest guy ever, possibly second only to Mr. Rolfe.
July 20, 2010 at 1:32 am
He seems like a really nice guy. Great work! Keep it up James! And Mike too
July 20, 2010 at 1:47 am
Bad fucking ass.
July 20, 2010 at 2:16 am
he’s cool and bad ass at the same time
July 20, 2010 at 3:24 am
He seems like an okay guy.
July 20, 2010 at 4:03 am
This guy is awesome. It’s cool that he appreciates what Cinemassacre is doing, too!
July 20, 2010 at 4:19 am
That was a cool interview, he seems like a fun guy, although reading his website I don’t agree with some things he says but that is his choice 🙂
July 20, 2010 at 5:09 am
James looks so fuckin happy to be choked….LMAO….that video was awesome James!
July 20, 2010 at 5:20 am
Awesome James, I bet that you wont be forgetting that interview any time soon! Great stuff
July 20, 2010 at 5:53 am
That was awesome
July 20, 2010 at 6:05 am
Ahh George “The Animal” Steel in all his green painted tongue, turnbuckle eating, “Mine” loving goodness. Cool interview.
July 20, 2010 at 6:30 am
Great job James, thanks a lot for this! Keep ’em comin’!
July 20, 2010 at 6:43 am
awesome interview – short and sweet. seems like a hell of a guy
July 20, 2010 at 6:54 am
Holy shit, he’s intense to talk to. He seems a little off at times. lol nice job!
July 20, 2010 at 7:05 am
Absolutely legendary interview!
Was the strangling part improvised? 🙂
July 20, 2010 at 7:12 am
Hahaha,
This is an awesome dude!
July 20, 2010 at 8:41 am
haha Awsome interview with a wrestling legend!! A really cool guy!
July 20, 2010 at 9:21 am
your lucky George didn’t think ur head was a turnbuckle lol
July 20, 2010 at 9:37 am
Great interview! 😀
July 20, 2010 at 10:28 am
Considering I’m a fan of the old school wrestlers, this is freakin awesome as Hell for me!
July 20, 2010 at 11:05 am
what do you know
haven’t you heard of dispension of disbelief
July 20, 2010 at 11:08 am
the nerd’s like
erm…i do gory stuff
July 20, 2010 at 12:03 pm
haha!
“Don’t go to that gory, chainsaw, crap…”
James is just laughing like yeah….haha….crap…yeah..*stashes the deader the better under pillow*
Nice interview!
July 20, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Wow that is awesome. I can’t believe James got to Talk to George Steele. Great work James!
July 20, 2010 at 2:45 pm
he is scary
July 20, 2010 at 4:12 pm
great work
July 20, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Great short James. I was a BIG fan of “The Animal” when I was younger and even saw him wrestle live a few times when I was a kid. He seems like a class act all the way.
July 20, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Well he seems like a nice guy!
July 20, 2010 at 6:13 pm
He seems like an awesome guy to talk to! I laughed with him hahahaha
Nice interview, James!
July 20, 2010 at 7:21 pm
That was hilarious. I will agree, I like the older black and white horror films as opposed to the new films that are just in it for the gore.
July 20, 2010 at 7:39 pm
That was so funny. James, you’re so cute! <3
July 20, 2010 at 9:27 pm
Freelancing in your future! Start getting the great interviews and the networks will beat down your door. Newswires and the like.
Terrific set-up and delivery James.
July 20, 2010 at 10:45 pm
That was awesome, George seems like a really great guy and really funny.
thanks for the video!
July 20, 2010 at 11:12 pm
That’s really awesome that he actually interviewed The Animal. I wonder if James watched wrestling back in the day, or watched any wrestling from that big boom period in the late 90’s. If so, I would love him to talk more about wrestling or interview more about their movies that they act in, etc.
There are a whole lot of bad shit to say about that kind of stuff and I’m sure James would really put a nice, creative, comedic twist on it all.
July 20, 2010 at 11:30 pm
Look at the end when George is gesturing with his hands. Those hands are huge, the size of catcher’s mits
July 21, 2010 at 2:48 am
The Animal I think has suffered from optic nerve damage, notice how only his left eye still blinks throughout the whole interview, and never the right one.
July 21, 2010 at 6:55 am
haha i like this old man.so hilarious XD. plus he got epic voice too
July 21, 2010 at 7:57 am
I love that comment “You’re braver than I thought” great questions and his voice had to be down pitched. There’s too much in common for them to have dubbed the voice from someone else. Smooth out the frequencies and you still get clear audio with a lower pitch.
July 21, 2010 at 8:18 am
WWE hall of famer George “The Animal” Steele wow this makes me wonder if James is a fan of the WWE or just the fact that he was in that movie Sounded like he’s a fan of yours 2 lol
July 21, 2010 at 8:25 am
Awesome interview, I can tell that you’re in awe of him just like some people have been in awe of you when they interview you. Anyone who watched WWF in the 80’s could never forget George, no turnbuckle was ever safe from this guy!!
July 21, 2010 at 11:05 am
This is the first time I’ve heard George talk! Good job, James!
July 21, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Great video! Greetings from Bulgaria!
July 21, 2010 at 1:01 pm
“This is the first time I’ve heard George talk! Good job, James!”
+1
July 21, 2010 at 4:18 pm
He seems like a real nice friendly fellow!
July 21, 2010 at 5:49 pm
haha this guys great! a legendary wwf wrestler 2!
July 21, 2010 at 9:50 pm
This was great. The Animal is one funny dude.
July 21, 2010 at 10:20 pm
Holy fuck, that guy’s a beast. He scares me. Great interview, James.
July 21, 2010 at 11:13 pm
I love it when he says “SMARTEN UP!!!!” James you are da man for having the balls to talk to “The Animal.” And thanks for bring back some great childhood memories of watching George wrestle (early 80’s.)
July 22, 2010 at 5:31 am
I love how he says something about how we should stay away from the gory stuff, and specifically mentions chainsaws, and then right after you cut to the cinemassacre logo – a chainsaw coming out of a camera. Niiiice.
July 22, 2010 at 6:00 am
Awesome…
July 22, 2010 at 9:05 am
I often wondered why Tim Burton lowered Steele’s voice in the movie. Tor Johnson’s voice was actually pretty high pitched considering his size; even on the TV appearances he did, like when he was on Groucho Marx’s show, tho he might have been raising it deliberately as people tended to in 50s movies
July 22, 2010 at 12:23 pm
He made me laugh.
July 22, 2010 at 1:48 pm
Ok, this is my first official comment.
Come to this site since a couple of years.
But George Steele is an asshole. Really. His voice. His arrogance. It would have been funny is you hit him in the head when he choked you.
He deserved it, the asshole!
July 22, 2010 at 5:58 pm
James, your last three photos all have you with a gaping mouth & wacky expression haha
July 22, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Awesome interview . I love the way he cough you by surprise and started “choking” you 🙂
Keep up the good work and another greetings from Bulgaria. It looks like you have pretty nice fan base from here ^_^
July 22, 2010 at 6:52 pm
Epic! Thank you 🙂
July 23, 2010 at 12:54 am
Haha, when I first saw the thumbnail of the video I thought “Holy shit, that’s Tor Johnson!”. He really does look like Tor. Anyways, great video James and George sounds like a really funny guy. I was laughing the whole way through.
July 23, 2010 at 12:59 am
Oh yeah, and when George says “Don’t get into all that bloody, gore, chainsaw kind of crap” I was laughing at Jame’s face. He was all like “Oh shit, just uh, don’t watch “The Deader the Better”.
July 23, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Epic!
“Anything to plug?”
“Anything to plug? Yeah, the toilet when i take a bath!” haha 😀
July 23, 2010 at 4:47 pm
I do agree. Godzilla beats Jason any day.
However, Jason beats Jigsaw any day.
I’m not purely towards monster movies from the early days, but that is what I grew up with. Stuff from ever since Blair Witch is crap, but 70’s-90’s movies had great psychology. The gore is always good, but you never want it there so much that it ruins your life.
But Godzilla and Frankenstein rule the world, ’nuff said.
July 23, 2010 at 9:47 pm
“But George Steele is an asshole. Really. His voice. His arrogance. It would have been funny is you hit him in the head when he choked you.
He deserved it, the asshole!”
George is a funny, smart and humble guy. The reason he acted like he did was because he was being playful.
You have to understand that in the 60s, 70s and 80s that is how wrestlers interacted with fans. Very playfully, I can’t count how many fan pictures of wrestlers I’ve seen where the wrestler is choking a guy, putting him in a headlock, picking him up, etc. etc.
They mean nothing by it, it is how they interacted with people. Can’t blame a man who spent 20+ years doing that on perhaps a nightly basis. And it looks like James had a blast, so it was all in good fun.
July 23, 2010 at 10:06 pm
That was fun to watch. I’ve never seen “The Animal” outside of the ring before. Didn’t know he was such a funny guy.
July 23, 2010 at 10:57 pm
amazing, as always! keep it up! :D:D:D <3
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July 24, 2010 at 7:51 am
I am a huge wrestling fanatic and its so cool to hear the animal in his regular speaking voice! thanks for doing this, he still looks like he can kick some butt!!!
July 24, 2010 at 2:58 pm
u lucky bastard:D
July 24, 2010 at 10:04 pm
the saw movies are awesome
July 25, 2010 at 12:59 am
I loved that up until the “God is with you always”
At that point I sunk my head and went “well… Damn.”
Signed
A loving atheist
July 30, 2010 at 4:03 pm
Intolerance will not be tolerated! Wait….
Anyway, don’t be so judgmental, fellow.
Signed,
An agnostic
August 4, 2010 at 8:22 pm
AWESOME James
YOU ROCK
Great interview
August 6, 2010 at 12:00 am
Great interview, that was hilarious
August 6, 2010 at 4:38 am
God Bless.
And “BASSMAN 2112” May God be with you !
Damn Atheist.
August 6, 2010 at 1:15 pm
That was hilarious.
August 7, 2010 at 8:22 pm
These video interviews are truly amazing James! Keep doin’ ’em!
August 7, 2010 at 11:37 pm
I just met him today! Really cool guy. It was a meet and greet thing so I got his autograph and stuff.
August 8, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Haha, the best answer ever:
Plug ?
The tub when I take a bath
I laughed pretty hard when I heard that
August 8, 2010 at 7:14 pm
Damn, James has red finger marks on his neck after that “playful” choke o.O
August 9, 2010 at 10:41 pm
Hahaha awww he said don’t be makin those bloody violent horror films… But thats what your website is mostly about or at least what you like doing right james? LOL But yea you make awesome films dude 🙂
October 3, 2010 at 5:26 pm
this was really funny and unexpected from James, but great he met the wrestler http://www.vizzed.com/vizzedboard/vizzedindex.php?ref=65348
December 4, 2010 at 11:58 pm
I spoke with him recently at a convention, not many people realize he battled dyslexia, is very educated, and still wrestles!
January 23, 2011 at 10:08 pm
Ed wood made 7 of the worst movies ever made – he’s someone you can really look up to.
god I loved that line. It’s true, Ed Wood really ‘did’ make some horrible movies, but I know, James, you love his style… and I actually love his style too.
I wish we (you and I) could talk about it one to one.. but I don’t think you’d be interested…*sigh* :*(
January 24, 2011 at 5:30 am
big, fat, greasy, wrestler, this video has the potetial to be a pile of boom! yes, I am frightened that it will be boring and boom!
http://www.vizzed.com/vizzedboard/index.php?ref=65348
January 24, 2011 at 1:47 pm
james aka the redneck xD
January 24, 2011 at 5:28 pm
Potential to be a pile of boom? What the fuck are you talking about, RomEmKIng?
April 22, 2011 at 5:08 pm
Bassman2112:
Luckily for us, though, that was just at the very end.
Signed,
A loving but critical atheist
May 10, 2011 at 12:53 am
The Animal! Dig It!