CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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From 24-7 Press Release:
“BEHIND THE STORY: Although having grown up in a rather dysfunctional family caused mostly by her twin sisters' illness, Eileen was able to break into the entertainment business despite her father's strong misgivings. Soon she was attending Summer Stock only to be rejected by the Head of her Syracuse University Drama Dept. Finally, after several false starts, she arrived in New York City to become an actress. Almost immediately she was starring in the popular drive-in attraction TEENAGE GANG DEBS. Soon after came the award-winning DAVID HOLZMAN'S DIARY, and then the starring role in Pulitzer Prize winner Joyce Carol Oates' play 'Ontological Proof Of My Existence.' This led directly to a screen test for THE EXORCIST, in which she was cast as the demon that possessed Regan which led to the immensely popular icon, the black and white figure known at The Face Of Death, aka Captain Howdy.
“In THE EXORCIST, Eileen performed parts of the controversial scenes such as masturbating, vomiting, levitating, and climatically dying at the end. After director William Friedkin brought her to California, Eileen made a break in
television including THE PLANET OF THE APES, the Emmy-winning HELTER SKELTER, KORG 70,000 BC, and the daytime drama GENERAL HOSPITAL.”Is it me or do I see glaring flaws in this “preview” already?
Father B
That blurb would work on a casual consumer, but not fans on this board who can spot the glaring mistakes.
I am interested in reading it, of course. I would love to review it.
Captain Howdy said:
That blurb would work on a casual consumer, but not fans on this board who can spot the glaring mistakes.
I am interested in reading it, of course. I would love to review it.
Yep. Please review it for us, Cap. If the preview blurbs are so inaccurate, you might find some real gems in the “biography.” Who knows, Eileen may have done the entire role that Linda Blair performed.
Also, wasn't Dietz just hired randomly for the Dick Smith makeup screen tests? Didn't Dietz do the screen tests in New York? I don't believe, “After director William Friedkin brought her to California …” WTH?
Father B
Read the book last night and really enjoyed it.
It seems as though a lot of what we've previously heard from and about Eileen has been misconstrued (like the above press release). There's none of that in the book. Eileen is very open and honest about her role in the film and at no point does she try and take credit from Linda or any of the other cast and crew. In fact, she's constantly praising Linda, giving he credit for the role, and even jokes they paid her more to just be there than to actually act.
The only discrepancies I found were details of some scenes (for example, she mixed up the shot where Kinderman sees the silhouette of Regan in the window with the arrival of Merrin), which can be attributed to the fact that it was filmed 40 years ago and she probably doesn't watch it on a regular basis.
Here are a couple of excepts some might find interesting:
“We both ended up with some bruising after we shot that scene [Karras' final moment], but it was all worth it. It looked great on film. And, it was after shooting this scene when I ultimately decided I would never do stunt work. You've gotta be nuts and highly trained. I was lucky I didn't get hurt. Ironically one of the stunt men (who went out the window and down the steps) must have liked what he saw and asked me if I was interested in doing stunt work full time. I politely turned him down.”
“I never even thought about what Linda did vs. what I did – the transformation from Regan to demon was so seamless and complete. I marveled at the on-screen results produced by Dick Smith and Marcel Vercoutere, two geniuses of makeup and effects.”
“Linda earned a Globe for her role. Simply put, she was amazing. Forget about being 12 years old, she was just great. She stood toe-to-toe with some of the best in the business and never backed down. Friedkin provided some guidence, sure, as all directors do, but it was Linda in front of the camera. I was genuinely happy for her and applauded when they announced her name during the awards.”
“Although I agreed not to talk about the film or my involvement, everybody knew I was shooting The Exorcist. From my agents to their clients and colleagues. It wasn't a big secret and casting notices had gone out so everyone knew they were casting someone to play this demon. I had assumed it was the same with folks on the west coast as well. Unfortunately, this was not the case. I was friends with a girl who was friends with a writer for the LA Times. She had told her journalist friend about me and how I was moving to LA at the invitation of Warner Bros. Before I knew it, a story was released about an actress from New York who did all of the possession scenes. I started freaking out.”
“Joyce Haber had taken the story and run with it as far as she could. I thought it might be good to take an interview with the person who was taking the biggest shots at me. I could talk about how I thought Linda had done an amazing job, and how she'd done the majority of acting in the film. I could tell I only did what they asked me to do, which was to play the part of the demon for a few specific scenes that required a stronger body. Linda certainly carried the film on her back and I've always been awed by her performance. Ultimately, I thought talking about this could make things much worse, so I demurred. I just wanted to close my eyes and pretend none of this was happening.”
“Also, wasn't Dietz just hired randomly for the Dick Smith makeup screen tests? Didn't Dietz do the screen tests in New York? I don't believe, “After director William Friedkin brought her to California …” WTH?”
I've always heard they were looking specifically for an actress to do the scenes Linda Blair couldn't do, and that's how they found Dietz (which she confirms in the book). Initially she was only hired to do the crucifix scene but eventually landed a 6 month contract as a principal cast member and went through all the make up/screen tests and rehearsals with Linda, which is why she's so adamant about not being called body double. She was brought to California after the film was released to attend meetings with Friedkin and WB. But before she got there the story broke out about her involvement in the film and all shit hit the fan.
I definitely recommend picking up a copy of the book.
I don't have a scanner hooked up at the moment so the best I can do is take photos. The first two I hadn't seen, the other two were shown during the E! Curse of The Exorcist doc.
Justin, thanks for reading this and giving us a fine review and pics! I'm actually glad to hear that the write up for the book went overboard on the description (which indeed it did and leads to the wrong impression considering what you have posted above from the actual biography).
Many of my own interpretations of Dietz's work in The Exorcist come directly from Dietz's own interviews. On that note, I find that Dietz often overzealously (and sometimes inaccurately) elaborates on her 12 seconds of screen time. However, I am sure it took a vast amount of hours to prepare both mentally and physically for her part which she never received screen credit.
Father B
PS: It's good to know that Dietz did the ball grabbing on the shrink! 🙂
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