The Exorcist Actress And Her Curse: A Pact With The Devil And The Stigma Of Being Possessed | News from El Salvador

One of the most shocking scenes in The Exorcist film lasts a few minutes, but it’s hard to forget, you know for sure what it is, but we’ll describe it to you: Chris MacNeil finds his daughter in bed, next to herself, cursing and with a crucifix between bloody legs. When she tries to get closer, she is pushed against the wall with a beastly force. Then Regan MacNeil’s head turns 180 degrees and she turns to her mother, “You know what your daughter’s sow did?”

A 12-year-old girl possessed by the devil, so far this is one of the strongest and most controversial roles in film history.

It all started when in August 1972, pre-adolescent actress Linda Blair was chosen to play her out of 600 applicants, surpassing other child prodigy actresses like Melanie Griffith and Laura Dern. The film The Exorcist, considered by many to be the greatest horror film of all time, and the second highest-grossing film in the genre to date, was the focus of Regan.

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The beautiful Linda had already gained a reputation as a model at the age of 13 as she started out at the age of five and had gained some popularity as a face in Macy’s catalogs and a series of The New York Times ads. The film made him known all over the world, but he never thought he couldn’t get rid of the film’s diabolical stigma.

For the producers, she was the perfect person to stand out in the rigorous quest, as the chosen one had to interpret both right and wrong and had the courage to tolerate it.

The screenwriter and producer of the film, William Peter Blatty, author of the bestseller on which the film is based, talks about Blair in the biographical documentary. Weren’t you Satan before? (1996) who never expected to actually find a ‘normal’ girl of that age who would be able to do so. “Think how shocking the plot, the language … my God!”

Jamie Lee Curtis was even considered for the role, but his mother, actress Janet Leigh, thought he was too young for that. Linda, on the other hand, surprised the director, William Friedkin, from the first interviews. When asked if she had read the book, Blair said yes, “It’s about a girl who is possessed and does a lot of bad things.” “Bad things like what?” Asked Friedkin. “He pushes a man out of his bedroom window, hits his mother and masturbates with a crucifix.” “You know what that is? Have you ever done it?” Blair laughed, “Obvious, right?”

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According to Blatty, he and the director had an unspoken agreement to protect Blair during filming, but at one point they realized that “it was just impossible.” Filming took eleven months, during which the girl was exposed to the stress of living with a macabre life-size doll of herself and going through endless make-up sessions to look like a posse. Also to Friedkin’s harsh methods, including hanging her from armor for a scene where she floats and falls hard and for which she had sequels on her back for life.

For this scene, the actress had to undergo surgery years after shooting because she had a vertebral fracture and suffered from chronic pain for years, but at that point she received no medical attention: “I didn’t get medical help then, they didn’t call a doctor. They thought he was acting. “

In the scene, it’s screaming in pain and not acting.

The curse

The film was delayed for several months, and Friedkin himself is said to have been responsible for the marketing campaign that caused the film to haunt a curse. However, some events that occurred during this period have made the rumor even more credible. The first red flags went off at the start of shooting, when a fire destroyed the set in New York. There were no injuries to regret, but something caught the attention of the staff: the only part of the studio that was not damaged was the room used for the scenes of Regan’s exorcism.

To this were added several examples of people related to the team, including the actor Jack MacGowran and the actress Vasiliki Mailiaros, whose characters also died in the film. The person responsible for the cooling (fundamentally because it was filmed with sub-zero temperatures so that real steam could come out of the mouths) and a guard, including Linda’s grandfather, also died.

Even cast members, such as Ellen Burstyn, Blair’s mother in the script, began to believe in the curse. Thus, it began to be common to see real healings mix between fictional healings to throw holy water on set. By then, Burstyn gave Blair a bracelet with a horseshoe to protect herself from the demon that would accompany her in her most difficult years.

But that was not all, after the premiere of the highly anticipated film in December 1973, fainting, vomiting, heart attacks and at least one spontaneous abortion began to be reported in the projection rooms. The film was accused of causing viewers’ mental disorders and was even used as a defense argument for a murderer who said he became possessed after seeing the film.

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Despite all this, the movie was booming and people lined up to watch that girl in a trance vomit green and swear. The image of Linda immediately became synonymous with the devil.

Around this time, it turned out that the actress had been admitted to a mental hospital and the solution that Warner Bross, who was responsible for the production, found was to send her on a promotional tour. The documentary about her life shows her on tour, confronted with questions from the press at the age of 14: “Linda, the film is said to have affected you psychologically, what is the situation?” She smiles and replies, “I think people felt that this was going to get me into trouble, but it’s not like that.”

The versions about her crazy or obsessed didn’t stop. If she had been under the protection of the press during the shoot, it was now she, instead of the film’s adult protagonists, who was responsible for answering questions about God, faith, religion and Satan. “I did my job without asking who the devil was, I was a professional, I would confess much later, but the movie ended and my story changed.”

Being perceived as the devil’s most tangible face made the rest of her day-to-day life complicated:

“I could no longer go to the supermarket, or to a store, or wherever. People saw me and were terrified. They couldn’t separate the film from the person: they looked at me as if I were the devil ”.

She also began to be harassed by religious groups and fanatics who claimed she was possessed and would kidnap her. This led to her being hidden in the homes of her parents’ friends, Warner even hired bodyguards to accompany her six months after the premiere.

This left him with a trauma that he couldn’t overcome: “I think it’s one of the main reasons I never had a child: I was terrified of being kidnapped.”

Drugs and the pact with the devilO

Another very strong rumor was that the actress’s parents had made a pact with the Devil and this was reinforced when the film received ten Oscar nominations, including Best Supporting Actress for Blair. She also won the Golden Globe. But while she had impressed critics and catapulted her career to fame, her performance had left such an indelible mark on audiences that it was difficult for her to qualify for any role other than that of a girl in danger. . . This was demonstrated by her next two films, the controversial Nacida Inocente (1974), in which she was abused by her companions in a youth center, and Sarah T. Portrait of an alcoholic teenager (1975).

Soon her roles came out, the actress spent nine months in a rehabilitation center and also made public appearances where she gave messages to young people about the danger of drugs as part of her community duties. That same year, The Heretic, the sequel to The Exorcist, was released with terrible criticism. Blair had arrived, and the press even scoffed at her weight. At the time, she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for depression.

Her courtship with musician Rick James, known for his orgies and crack addiction, in 1981 again marginalized her from the big Hollywood productions. She eventually accepted roles in Class B movies and erotic thrillers, and even posed naked for Playboy to show that she had regained her figure.

Somehow the battle between good and evil in the body of the girl incarnated was still raging in his.

Long before that life-changing casting, Blair was riding a horse and dreamed of becoming a vet. Only after a while was he able to return to sources: in 2004, he founded the nonprofit Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, which rescues and rehabilitates abandoned animals. She changed her diet and, after thirteen years of vegetarianism, she became vegan in 2001 and wrote a book about her experiences. Today, on her 62nd birthday, January 22, the pea cream she threw up in her role as Regan MacNeil remains one of her favorite dishes.

“Do you also believe in the curse of The Exorcist?” and an intensity in the smile and in the totally demonic look. ”She replies,“ To me the devil is no joke. But it’s the people who won’t let me forget The Exorcist. Fame made my life impossible.