resembles Brian's own, and only utters grunting and groaning sounds when seen externally. After deciding to have Aylmer's voice be "very sophisticated-sounding, articulate", Henenlotter contacted a vocal agent who offered a list of actors that might suit the part. Henenlotter chose John Zacherle, a television horror host whom Henenlotter had watched in his youth, to voice Aylmer. Later in the film's production, Henenlotter called Zacherle to ask if he wanted his name to be billed in the credits as "John Zacherle" or "John Zacherley", and discovered that Zacherle was a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). As Brain Damage was a non-SAG production, Zacherle went uncredited for his voice role, in order to avoid fines or expulsion from SAG. According to Bartalos, Zacherle visited the set twice. Rick Hearst, Gordon MacDonald, and Jennifer Lowry were all first-time actors, and Brain Damage remains Lowry's only film credit as an actress. Henenlotter wanted Hearst to have "some kind of edge" as Brian, and so he had a scar added to Hearst's lower lip during filming. Hearst later called this "the funniest choice that I think Frank made for me," stating that Henenlotter felt that he "needed to have that as part of the character, otherwise I'd look too pretty. And I was like, 'that did it?' I mean, you could've scarred me [on the cheek], I mean, I could've had part of an ear off..." The crew of Brain Damage included veterans of Basket Case and 1987's Street Trash (such as Jim Muro, who was Steadicam operator on all three films, as well as the director of Street Trash); seven Brain Damage crew members had also worked on 1988's Slime City (including Muro and Slime City director Greg Lamberson, the latter of whom served as first assistant director on Brain Damage). Filming Principal photography on Brain Damage began on January 21, 1987, and took place over the course of eight weeks. Filming took place in New York City, New York, over two months. The primary location for the shoot was a building on West 33rd Street in Manhattan that had formerly housed belt manufacturing and sign painting businesses. According to Ievins and Lamberson, the first floor of the building was an equipment rental house operated by Mike Spera, from which the production rented its equipment; the second floor was rented out as living space for Bartalos and mechanical effects artist David