[Sofia]

Am I the only one who visualizes completely different people from the movie version in the roles of Chris, Regan, Sharon, Willie and Karl, Burke, Karras, Dr. Klein, Kinderman, Merrin, Dyer, Mary Jo? Well, basically, I don't visualize anyone from the movie in the novel. 😉

For me, Chris and Regan are Shirley MacLaine and daughter, Sachi, of course.

Sharon is Sharon Tate or Jill Clayburgh

Willie and Karl are Shirley's French housekeepers who lived with her in the 60s/ 70s.

Burke is Shirley's English director and friend, J. Lee Thompson

Karras, the actor who plays FR. Bowdern on a documentary made about the possessed boy: Exorcists, The true Story.

This actor really looks as if he could be both a psychiatrist and a priest. I don't really get the feeling that Jason Miller is a psychiatrist, maybe because he looks so young in The Exorcist.

Dr. Klein, the Doctor from the movie, Coma. 😉

Kinderman,

Merrin, I kind of visualize Teilhard de Chardin as him

Dyer, FR. Walter Halloran S.J. (witness to the exorcism in 1949)

Mary Jo, Dorothy Stickney

 

What about the interior settings of the MacNeil house? Do you visualize it in the same way as the movie?

[granville1]

Blatty calls Sharon a pretty blonde, and Kitty Wynn was pretty but not blonde. I could never accept Rudolf Schundler as the hulking, muscular Karl.  I like your choice of J. Lee Thompson for Burke.

[Sofia]

I was waiting for you to comment on my topics. 😀

The British director J. Lee Thompson was the model for Burke Dennings. Blatty has written about it and Friedkin mentioned it in the 25th anniversary commentary. 🙂

[granville1]

He also “looks” like I imagined Burke looking … 🙂

[Jagged]

When I originally read the novel I would doubtless have pictured different people, More like those Blatty described. At the time I would have had no clue about any real people he had based them on.

But once I saw the film those images stuck and now whenever I read it, despite my better instincts, the faces of the actors have become inevitably entwined with the characters.

I have tried to re-imagine them on previous readings but it sadly doesn't work for me any more.

[Sofia]

Gosh, everyone says the same thing whenever I ask ‘who do you visualize as the characters in the novel. 😉 It strikes me as funny that people can visualize a brunette Linda when reading that Regan is a very thin natural redhead with fair skin. And how can they visualize Ellen Burstyn’s long and narrow face shape when reading Chris’ physical description: distinctively small and round shaped face with freckles.

What about the interiors of the MacNeil house? How do you visualize it? I actually visualize the house of Audrey Rose because I love it so much, the ceiling with classic paintings set into it is so beautiful and yet sinister. The whole atmosphere of Audrey Rose house is more ominous and mysterious in my opinion and fits Blatty’s description of the MacNeil house better.

Also, it rains a lot in The Exorcist novel but it doesn’t rain once in the movie. 🙁 I think that rain falling manages to make the atmosphere spookier. Sure wish there was some rain in the movie like there is in Audrey Rose. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Can’t you visualize Regan spiderwalking down these carpeted stairs? It’s even creepier to me because the steps, banisters and rail posts have dark old wood.)

 

 

 

[epicwin123]

The first time I read the book I visualized the movie actors and house. After reading up more on the who was based off who I pictured different people. Chris and Regan were Shirley and Sachi. I pictured Sharon a lot like Sharon Tate. Karl, Willie, and Dennings were still the movie actors though. The house I picture is the movie house too.

[Sofia]

I guess I've brainwashed you, Molly, into visualizing Shirley & Sachi as Chris & Regan and Sharon Tate as Sharon. 😉

[Author]

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