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| The Witch Is Back Actors Interview |
The camera-wielding 20-somethings who venture into the Burkittsville, Md., forest in Book of Shadows aren't concerned with the mysterious demise of Josh, Mike, and Heather. The five new recruits head back to the scene of the "crime" because they've all seen The Blair Witch Project and, like many real-life fans, they want to see for themselves what's in those woods.
In an ode to the original film, each of the five Book of Shadows leads uses his or her real first name. Stephen Barker Turner plays the group skeptic, who — along with his girlfriend, played by Tristen Skyler — is writing a book on the subject of the Blair Witch. Erica Leehrsen portrays a flirtatious Wiccan, Kim Director plays a dry-witted Goth, and Jeffrey Donovan depicts a former mental patient who leads them all into the woods. "It's kind of like a hall of mirrors," says Turner about the experience of filming the sequel. "What is reality, what isn't? I'm acting in a movie of a sequel, using my real name, [based on] events that may or not really have happened." Got that?
Mr. Showbiz recently sat down with this group of hard-working actors, most of whom come from the New York stage. We found them to be articulate, passionate, and almost wholly unconcerned about whether this little sequel lands them on the cover of Newsweek — or just at the top of their next call sheet.
What did you think of the first movie? Did you think, even for a moment, that it was real?
Jeffrey Donovan: Of course I didn't believe it was real. I'm in the movie business! I'm an actor! Come on. I had bought a ticket. I had popcorn in my hand. I thought that would be a great clue if you paid $9 to see it, that it's just a movie. But I can understand the need to believe in it. In this day and age — we could still believe in fairy tales.
Stephen Barker Turner: I didn't see it until I'd gotten this part. I was at a theater festival the summer it came out. I'd heard the hype, of course, but by disposition, I'm a little suspicious of things with that much hype. When I saw it, I knew what it was about — you'd have to have lived in a cave to not know.
Erica Leehrsen: I knew it wasn't real but it scared me just as much, because I thought, "What if this could be real?"
Kim Director: I was a big fan of the first movie. I saw it the second week it was out. At first, I wasn't into it, but somehow it just really took me in, it totally took me on a ride. And I just found the end so chilling.
Tristen Skyler: I loved it because I think people want to go to the movies to get lost, and that's exactly what happens. And it plays to your deepest fears of being a child alone in the dark. I knew it wasn't real because I met the director and the cast at Sundance. I'm friends with Josh Leonard — really good friends. He said [in exaggerated "surfer" voice], "Man, I thought the sequel was going to suck and now [that] I know that you're in it, dude, I might just give it a shot."
Why did you want to do the sequel?
Leehrsen: I just thought it was a really interesting character and I thought I could do it really well. Because a lot of times you're trying to get your big break with, like, Rocky and Bullwinkle, and that's not really me. I thought, this is me. I can do this. I know who this girl is.
Skyler: When I found out that I had an audition for the film, and that it was for Joe Berlinger, it was like winning the lottery. His documentaries that he co-directed with Bruce Sinofsky are some of my favorite documentaries of all time.
Turner: I was a big fan of Joe Berlinger. Part of the reason to go to that audition was to meet him.
What kind of research did you do?
Leehrsen: I met a Wiccan in Baltimore [where part of the film was shot] who didn't really know what to make of me. No. 1, she thought I was a Hollywood actress who was trying to come in and exploit her culture, and had all these preconceived notions about me. I had preconceived notions about her — we were trying to set up a time to meet — and we got into an argument about it. We realized we both thought the other one was flighty and irresponsible, me because I was an actress and she because she was a Wiccan!
Director: I dusted off all my Goth music and listened to it 24-7. I basically spent four months subtly trying to live my life in ways that I thought my character would. I was very alone for those four months, I wasn't very social. I finally went to a Goth festival in Baltimore and, oh my God, one of the promoters came up to me and asked me to do some fetish modeling! And that was when realized, I was, like, one with the Goths.
Donovan: It sounds like I'm a lazy actor, but I did as little research as possible, because I knew that what [my character] was doing was a lie. He was not aware of the Blair Witch mythology, he was not aware of the history.
Skyler: I did all this research; Stephen and I practically outlined the book [that our characters are writing in the film]. We were inspired by Claude Lévi-Strauss, we had a structuralist approach to mythology, which is that myth is a way of mediating between opposing forces in society. Would anyone know that? No, but what are you going to do?
How do you try to top The Blair Witch Project?
Turner: We've got a good solution. We don't try to do the same thing again. Joe has brilliant ideas: You pick five characters that are obsessed by the first [movie] and thereby you make a comment on the media; especially in this age of reality TV, you can't believe what you see.
Director: Basically, it was a sequel to the phenomenon of The Blair Witch Project [not the film itself]. I feel like this film is a meditation on evil. What I think this film is saying is to stop pointing fingers at other people and to see what you yourself are actually capable of.
What was the toughest thing about making the movie?
Turner: It was an arduous shoot, 10 weeks of shooting 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. every night. Go back to the hotel, scarf down some room service, have nightmares, get up, do it again. We all had nightmares. I think the subject matter breeds it.
Leehrsen: The satanic ritual! I really was building up to that the whole time because I didn't know what I wanted to do. Joe gave me a whole bunch of satanic rituals to watch on videotape. By the end, Tristen and I were like, "Joe! We have to do this thing with the skull!" and the next thing I know there's a skull on the set and I say, "Did I really say that? Because now I have to be naked with a skull!"
Director: The hardest thing was the emotional focus you had to have in doing this film, because it was three months long of being scared out of your mind. It really did require so much emotional energy. Also, my makeup took two to three hours every morning, and then it took another half hour to an hour after lunch every day. They touched me up between each scene. I was a makeup artist's nightmare!
Was it weird to use your real names?
Turner: In the beginning, it was sort of an enormous relief, because you sort of say, "Ah, yeah, it's just me, right?" But then as we actually started shooting, it obviously didn't work to just play yourself. There was a certain vulnerability to it, if you're saying, "Would Stephen really do this?"
Skyler: If you use your real name, you disservice yourself as an actor, because people really do think that you're playing yourself. [Besides the name,] there really are no similarities [between my character and me]. I am born and raised in New York City, I've been supporting my entire life as an actor, I'm not in a serious relationship, nor am I pregnant. My character is from a small town outside of Boston, is one year out of college, is in a very serious relationship, is pregnant, and is writing a book with her boyfriend. I guess I can't be concerned [if audiences get the two confused].
Director: I felt very exposed. I felt very vulnerable. I wasn't expecting it, and I didn't think that was going to have such an effect on me, but it really did. Joe just kept saying, "Everyone's going to know your name anyway. When the film comes out, you're not going to be that anonymous anymore." But to me, I really did feel like it was different.
How will audiences react to the movie?
Skyler: Someone's going to say, "It was better than the first," the next guy's going to say, "It sucked, it was worse than the first," the next guy's going to say, "I hated them both," and the fourth guy's going to say, "I loved them both."
Turner: There is a feeling when the movie ends of, "Wait, wait, what just happened? Why did this happen?" It leaves you thinking.
Is it scarier than the first movie?
Skyler: You can't answer that — the first movie was scary for some people, some people said they weren't scared at all. There's no objective measure, like "It was a nine!" Our movie uses different scare tactics, which I think is unusual. Most sequels make the mistake of thinking, "Well, people like the first movie and we'll do exactly the same thing." How's that going to work in a horror movie? There's no surprise in it. You know what's coming.
Turner: The intent was to make a psychological horror film. There is nothing scarier than not being able to rely on your senses and your perceptions, and I hope that's what our movie does [convey]. We did feel that we had a huge responsibility to the fans of the first one, and this movie's being hyped as a scary movie, so it [had] better be scary.
What scares you?
Turner: The possible Screen Actors Guild strike. It's scary as hell.
Skyler: Something that happened today. I was talking about Paradise Lost with someone whose friend had written about a very brutal triple murder, and right at the point that he was telling us about the murders, this woman with white makeup walked in. I guess she goes to all the press junkets to pay homage to the film. She just walked in at the wrong moment and I kind of jumped out of my seat.
Donovan: Our capacity to do horrific things to another human. The scariest thing is not the boogeyman but living next to a neighbor who, for 40 years, was the nicest man, then you see him pulled out into a cop car, and they tell you they found 12 dead bodies rotting under his front porch. The real boogeyman doesn't have a scary mask.
Director: I have lots of little weird fears: the dark, heights, fish … Oh, I love eating them, but I don't know what it is, but I have this thing with fish. I used to housesit when I was little and I would hold my neighbor's cat over the fish tank. Who knows why you have certain fears?
What's the scariest movie you've ever seen?
Director: The opening picture of Paradise Lost — I had seen it before I got Blair Witch 2 and, like an idiot, I didn't even put it together [that it was the same director]. In two days, I think I saw Rosemary's Baby, The Shining, Jacob's Ladder, and The Blair Witch Project — but the image from Paradise Lost that I saw kept me literally awake with the lights on for two weeks straight. It was that opening shot of three 8-year-old boys that were dismembered and dead by the creek. And that's real.
Skyler: The first Dracula.
Leehrsen: Children of the Corn
Donovan: Jaws. I saw it when I was 10 and I wouldn't take a bath for a month after.
Turner: My Father, the Hero
Best Halloween costume?
Leehrsen: My best costume was Dead Thelma, from Thelma & Louise; I had blood coming out of my mouth.
Director: My most successful Halloween costume was definitely two years ago as Monica Lewinsky. I was waiting tables at this rib joint in New York — I had toothpaste on my apron, I had the beret, the whole nine yards.
Do you expect this film to rocket you to stardom?
Leehrsen: It was my first film! I got a Hollywood manager, thanks to this film. My life has completely changed.
Donovan: I don't take roles to further my career. I take roles because I'm excited about the filmmaker or the director or the material. That's how I've worked for the last 10 years. When I got out of school, I was very fortunate to go right to Broadway; then I did TV, then movies, then back to Broadway. I did a movie right before Blair Witch [Bait, with Jamie Foxx], and I'm doing one right after.
Director: Oh, gosh, I should probably say yes, but I really don't. Maybe I'm just completely naive, but I'll still be taking the subway in New York, I don't think I'll get stopped that much.
END
October, 2000 - article courtesy of Mr. Showbiz
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THURSDAYS
