For decades, Doug Jones has been haunting your nightmares and bringing mythological creatures to life, and you might not have even known it. Since moving to Los Angeles in 1985, the angular actor has been the film industry's go-to creature performer, dawning dozens of dazzling makeup jobs to play monsters, beasts, and—on one particular Oscar-winning occasion—an extremely sexy fish-god from the Amazon rainforest. You may have met him as the moonfaced McDonald's spokesman Mac Tonight. Or maybe it was as Bette Midler's zombie ex-lover in Hocus Pocus. Or even more likely still, you know Jones from his collaborations with fellow monster enthusiast Guillermo del Toro, which includes Pan's Labyrinth, both Hellboy films, and the Best Picture winner The Shape of Water.

Either way, Jones' career is fascinating, and with CBS All Access gearing up for season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery—in which Jones stars, under trademark heavy prosthetics, as Kelpien Starfleet Officer Saru—we thought it'd be a good time to sit down with the man himself to discuss it. The result was an in-depth hour-long discussion covering every aspect of what it took to become Hollywood's most prominent monster. (The journey involves getting whacked with an umbrella by Danny Devito and appearing in the music video for Smash Mouth's "All-Star".)

Check out the interview in the player below, and below that, I've listed out the full breakdown of what we talked about for anyone who wants to skip around from topic to topic.

Doug Jones:

• 02:00 - Moving to California from Indiana for a bank job, and how he transitioned into an actor
• 12:50 - When he realized he was becoming Hollywood’s go-to creature and prosthetics actor
• 14:07 - His memories of his first big studio movie, playing “Thin Clown” in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns.
• 17:00: Playing zombie Billy Butcher in Hocus Pocus, and what it felt like to put that same makeup on 27 years later for the reunion.
• 22:53 - What it feels like to have his brief appearance in Mystery Men enshrined forever in the music video for Smash Mouth’s “All Star”

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  24: 10 - Why he relates on a personal level to Abe Sapien in the Hellboy movies. (And why Saru from Star Trek replaces Abe as his most relatable role.)
• 26:10 - His reaction—along with his castmates—to realizing Guillermo del Toro would not get to make Hellboy 3.
• 28:20 - His anxieties about playing the Faun in Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-winning Pan’s Labyrinth, and how he created the movements of the terrifying Pale Man.
• 31:06 - At what point in his preparation process for monstrous roles does he find a nugget of humanity to the part?
• 34:15 - How he feels about playing the first big-screen Silver Surfer for 2007’s Fantastic Four sequel, and what advice he’d offer to anyone taking over the role in the MCU.
• 37:50 - Details on what his Monster would have looked like in Del Toro’s scrapped 2009 Frankenstein remake.
• 42:54 - The challenge of turning a fish-monster into a sexy romantic lead for The Shape of Water.
• 47: 58 -  His feelings on the night The Shape of Water won four Oscars, including Best Picture. 
• 50:00 - The massive changes to Star Trek: Discovery season 3, which include a
• 59:12 - Whether he sees there being a point when he stops doing roles with heavy prosthetics