Actor Akihiro Kitamura’s face pops up on the Skype screen but barely gets a word out before his chihuahua, Discocherry, tries to bogart our interview. “She goes crazy!” Kitamura says, chatting from his Los Angeles apartment one recent afternoon. Although he set out to be a director when he arrived in the US from Japan 13 years ago, Kitamura seems to have found a niche as an actor. He’s had a few guest spots on reality shows produced by MTV and VH-1, playing the crazy Japanese guy, and scored a memorable appearance on prime-time’s episodic sci-fi Heroes. But his real notoriety comes right now: Kitamura has the pole position in Tom Six’s demented horror flick The Human Centipede. (For all the gory details about “Tha ‘Pede” see the interview with Six elsewhere on the site).

Let’s start with the obvious question: How the hell did you wind up in this?

Akihiro Kitamura: I have been in America almost 13 years, since high school. I was doing this TV show for VH1. It was reality TV. I acted as this crazy Japanese commercial director. The casting director for Human Centipede saw me on TV, and that’s how I got the audition. [Chihuahua yipping ensues]. This is my dog, Discocherry. She saw me doing crazy stuff on TV. She saw that I was so insane. Disco! Disco! Come here!

What did you think when they told you the premise?

I didn’t find it scary at all. I thought it was comedy. I couldn’t stop laughing when I was reading the script. The storytelling was really good. I liked the concept. I told Tom – we did auditions through Skype, just like this – he showed me this crazy photo. I said, ‘Tom, man, you are genius! You are genius motherfucker!’ They liked my audition so a week later I was in the airplane.

The actresses are very attractive. I imagine rehearsals were kind of fun, huh?

It’s funny, man. Dieter’s a pretty scary guy. I thought, yo man, that’s going to be awesome to have some hot chick attached to my ass. But because it’s a horror film setting, it was kind of a scary feeling, actually.

Were you creeped out?

I was totally creeped out by Dieter. He was scary, man! He’s a crazy guy, man, he just only eats fruits and shit.

Just fruit?

He eats fruits … and he’s professional. He’s always thinking about his scene. He’s still in character. He was shouting and shit.

You got in a fight with Dieter at one point?

They were shooting for one week. And then I joined the production. The girls were telling me Dieter gets really pissed when you talk over his lines. I’m the same way. I want to keep the concentration going and not have anything interfere. But I’m a coming-up actor. I know he’s done 72 movies. I know he’s a really great actor. But I didn’t want to be under his control. I want to show him that I am the king, too! From Japan! In the scene where Dieter is explaining the operation, and we are tied up and listening to him show how the centipede is going to be formed, he was giving his monologue. I knew he got pissed off when somebody talked over his line. So I think, you know what? It’s time for me to show that he thinks he’s the king, but I fight back! I talked over his line in Japanese: Get me out of here motherfucker! I’m going to kill you! I thought he’d get pissed but instead he said ‘Good, good.’ He liked creativity in the scene. He’s always coming up with crazy stuff. We’re cool. But still he was shouting at the crew sometimes. We were rehearsing the scene where he kicks me in the nose. Because I have directed a movie before, I know about camera angles. He doesn’t really have to kick me. There was a scene where he carries me from the car, he was shaky you know. I thought he was going to drop me. So when we were doing the kick scene, I was afraid he was going to kick me in the face. I said, ‘Please do what you did in rehearsal.’ So Tom says action and Dieter kicks me, almost in my nose. I yell cut, cut! I told him ‘Don’t kick my nose!’ I told him, he looked at me and said: “You chickenshit!” I got really mad, so I said: “Hey motherfucker! I’m not a chickenshit! Yahhhhhhhh!” I was going to fight him. But then we got separated. Dieter apologized to me and we apologized. We were both in character. That fight was meaningful to me. My character doesn’t give up, whatever he does.

What were your fellow centipede segments, Ashley C. Williams and Ashlynn Yennie like? I suspect it was a more difficult shoot for them?

They were ready. They weren’t scared at all. I was more scared.

What were the logistics of fitting into the centipede formation?

We had to wear this special underwear, like a diaper … a hard diaper. And where my ass is there’s this rubber thing for the actress to bite onto it. When we were trying that in the beginning, they were feeling it a little bit. But they are good actors. They liked the experience. It’s good it’s scary. It’s good it’s humiliating. Because they can be great actresses. Tom and Ilona made sure that we all felt safe. We got a massage every two or three nights. You know the scene where we climb up the stairs? There was no stunt double. It’s really tough on the neck and back. If we complained, they listened to it.

Have you done other horror movies?

This is the first one. I wrote, directed and starred in a movie called I’ll Be There With You, but it wasn’t really a horror film. You can rent it on NetFlix. It has Daniel Baldwin in it. It’s a love story but they categorized it as a horror film.

[SPOILER ALERT!] I guess you died, so you won’t be back for the sequel … or will you?

No. Unfortunately. I want to come back. Tom is “secret.” He told me the sequel is going to be something people have never seen before.

If it was your choice and you were part of a real-life human centipede, who would you want in front and who would you want in back?

Ohhhh. Both of them have to be hot chicks. No guys! I was afraid when I went to Amsterdam … you know the very first movie Tom Six made is called Gay in Amsterdam? I was afraid. Are you sure those chicks attached to my ass are really girls? I’m in Amsterdam. I don’t know anybody. That’s where they made Hostel! I saw Hostel three days before I shot Centipede and I got really scared. Maybe I’ll get really tortured by this crazy guy. I like Cameron Diaz, front and in the back a Japanese actress, Erika Sawajiri.

It’s a question we all must ask ourselves.

We can switch around, man. Human Centipede is fun.

Around Los Angeles, do people know you from the movie yet? Do people say, ‘Hey, it’s the Human Centipede!’”

I did Heroes. That’s why people recognize me. I was a guest star on Season Four. My character got drunk, like super drunk, at the company party and I photocopied my butt and put the video of my ass on YouTube. So my ass became very popular.

(Thanks to Marc Walkow of @OutcastCinema for the photos. Top:  The Human Centipede cast at IFC Center’s midnight screening April 29; bottom, director Tom Six displays IFC’s commemorative T-shirt).