Art the Clown star says he wants to play the Joker after Terrifier: "Hopefully someone like James Gunn gives me the opportunity to tackle that"

Art the Clown star David Howard Thornton will soon hit the big screen and traumatize moviegoers in director Damien Leone’s brutal and bloody sequel Terrifier 3. But after the franchise is done and dusted, the actor is keen to switch horror for the superhero genre and take on another iconic clown role next: the Joker. 

"The Joker is my favorite villain of all time, and that's a character I would love to play myself one day," says Howard Thornton in an exclusive interview with GamesRadar+. "So hopefully someone like James Gunn gives me the opportunity to tackle that character because I would like to do a lot of fun things with him."

The role has been taken on many times by legendary actors such as Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger, and more recently Joaquin Phoenix, but there is always room for one more. Howard Thornton has proven himself to be a varied and limitless character actor, why shouldn't he be next to don the famous scarred smile? Moreover, the star admits that he has been a fan of the Joker since he was a child, and would carry around a Mego DC Joker figurine, adding, "I am a huge comic book geek." 

However, the star has already made a name for himself portraying the sadistic and evil Art the Clown who has become a modern horror legend. The star reveals that the Joker was actually a big inspiration in his portrayal of Art, amongst many other villains. "I kind of look at Art as being an amalgamation of all the horror icons that came before him," says the star. "There are little bits and pieces of every single one of those characters, from Jason to Pinhead to Freddy, Chucky, Jigsaw, all of them."

But despite Art scaring the pants off of Terrifier fans, the clown, which Howard Thornton calls a "horror fanboy," is actually not the scariest jester in the genre according to the star. "My scariest one would probably be Pennywise," he says. “I mean, he was always my favorite back in the day because it's just that that whole concept of this thing, it feeds off of fear, and it can change its form depending on what scares you the most.” 

In Howard Thornton’s upcoming movie, we will see Art do some shape-shifting of his own as he suits up as Santa Claus in Terrifier 3. Just as the first two movies were set on Halloween night, the third installment takes place during the Christmas period and follows the evil entity as he wreaks havoc on final girl Sienna once again. The movie is written and helmed by Leone and also welcomes back Lauren LaVera, Samantha Scaffidi, and Elliot Fullam.

Terrifier 3 releases on October 11. For more, check out our list of the best horror movies, or keep up to date with upcoming horror movies heading your way this year.