Jackie Earle Haley was a teen star when he was 15 and a has-been by his 30s.
And then, suddenly, having ditched the business for 15 years, he once again finds himself a valued commodity - an Oscar nominee, co-star of a hot TV show, working with Scorsese, now taking on one of the best-known horror-movie characters in a remake of a huge horror hit.
Indeed, Haley says, he was standing on the red carpet the other night at the premiere of A Nightmare on Elm Street, in which he assumes the role of Freddy Krueger, a serial killer who stalks teens in their dreams. And for a moment, he had a deja-vu flash.
"I stepped back for a moment and thought, 'How did I get back here?'" Haley, 48, says. "We pulled up at the premiere and it was surreal. How did I get here again? It's awesome. It's bizarre."
As Freddy, the razor-fingered demon who haunts adolescent sleepers, Haley continues a chameleonic return that kicked off in 2006, when a phone call out of the blue plucked Haley out of San Antonio, Texas, where he'd moved to start a new life - and ignited the second half of his career.
He experienced "trepidations and excitement" about taking on Freddy Krueger: "But excitement overruled," he says. "Look, one guy brilliantly owned this role and made it a cultural icon. It's scary and exciting to step into his shoes. And what an honor it is to play Freddy."
How do you improve on Wes Craven's original film, which starred Robert Englund as Freddy? "It's more a re-envisioning," Haley says. "When I met with the director (Samuel Bayer), we both agreed that, over the years, the films had gotten more comedic and campy. Sam said, let's go back to the original and make it more scary, more serious."
Aside from enduring lengthy daily make-up sessions to get into the burn-victim visage of Freddy, Haley also had to cope with the razor-finger-glove appliances that Freddy wears - like nail extensions the size of small scythes.
"It's tough to do anything with those on - like going to the bathroom, or holding a can of Coke," he says.