B.L. What was it that inspired you to do a horror movie?
R.E. I liked this movie from the original story. The original concept struck me as a simple set-up that kind of creeped me out. A small group of people out in the middle of the ocean bumping into a big boat that's empty and abandoned. They're trapped out there and what they find on the boat has a life of its own. I thought this has a lot of elements that bring out natural fear and natural and phobias in people. Then to see how people fall under the pressure of greed or whatever it is they covet. I thought this could be a fun movie. It's not that often I find a movie that is going to be scary or fun.

B.L. What were some of your favorite scary movies?
R.E. I would say some are from growing up and some are what you would see later in life. The Shining was a great movie and I just saw the Exorcist re-release that still held up and is still really scary. The original Halloween is fun and Nightmare on Elm Street is a pretty creepy movie.

B.L. In Ghost Ship you got to work with your real-life girlfriend, Julianna Margulies, whom you met on the set of ER. Was that fun, did you work well together?
R.E. It was really fun -- like having a great vacation down in Australia. And it was also a pleasure to watch her play this kick-ass cool, tough chick. Just having a woman in the lead doing that was cool. Here she gets to kick ass from beginning to the end and I liked that all the other guys respect that she's on the upper echelon in that group.

B.L. Was it easy to leave the creepiness of the shoot at the end of the day and just go home and be normal?
R.E. I'm a pretty creepy guy so I bring that creepiness and heaviness everywhere I go (he laughs). The only thing I brought back from this was that it was tiring. We shot a lot of nights and trying to sleep in the daytime was tough, you had to make a cave of your house and black out all of your windows and then it was always cold. But then once you step out you're in beautiful Australia, so it's hard to bitch, you know?

B.L. Seeing how Ghost Ship is such a spooky film, I was wondering what was the best Halloween costume you ever had?
R.E. I created my own costume once, it was last minute and I found this little-old-man mask that I thought was going to be sweet and fun I put a raincoat on and I thought it would be different. It turned out that the area I went trick-or-treating in had flashers running around. Plus, I had something hanging out the bottom of my raincoat. Someone called the cops on me twice as I went roaming through the neighborhood. In some ways, that was my favourite costume (laughs).

B.L. The next film that we are going to see you in is called The House of Sand and Fog. What can you tell me about it?
R.E. I can tell you that it's with Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly and the director is a first time film director but a big time commercial director named Vadim Perelman. He also wrote the script. It's one of the very best scripts I have ever read and I got to work with a great group of people. I just felt from the beginning of the project that it had elements of greatness in it. How it turns out, you never know. But I was thrilled to be a part of it.