Kane HodderI was sitting on the set of Hills Have Eyes II with Wes and we were talking about my burn scars, And he told me about this character he was developing, who’s gonna have burn scars. And at that time he was considering using an actor with real burn scars, just for the sensationalism or whatever of it. And he said, ‘I think I’m going to call the character Fred Krueger.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, that sounds interesting.
For those who also didnt know or forgot he also stated this before in 2005 (17 years ago) from this article date.
Kane HodderWe had known each other for a long time, way before that. In fact, I did a movie with [Nightmare creator] Wes Craven a long, long time ago, called The Hills Have Eyes Part 2. You probably know that I have burn scars over almost half of my body from a fire stunt that didn’t go right, so after Hills Have Eyes 2, I had a meeting with Wes, when he was developing a character that he wanted to have looked like he had been burned. He interviewed me as a possible actor to play Freddy — he liked my physicality for what he was thinking at the time — but then they decided not to make him a big guy. Obviously, Robert was a fantastic choice.
The Hills have Eyes II (1984) was in production and him [Kane Hodder] and Wes Craven had spoken about a future film project with a Character name already planned along with what he envisioned him to look like.
It should be stated that Kane Hodder truly praised and gives respect for his long-time friend Robert Englund for molding the Character the way he is today.
This was at a Panel along with many other horror icons such as Robert Englund himself, Doug Bradley, and Tony Todd, abd many others.