Stunt Doubles?

Hey! Welcome to the forum 🙂

Was Eileen the only stunt double? Eileen didn’t do the spiderwalk, it was someone else. Correct?

A contortionist named Linda R. Hager did the spiderwalk, but apart from that Eileen Dietz was Linda’s only other stunt double.

Jason Miller had double for the stair fall.

Can anyone explain exactly which scenes/parts of scenes they used the stunt double?

– Some shots of the BACK of Regan, like hitting the doctor and lifting her dress during the ‘sow is mine’ scene, and grabbing the doctor’s crotch and wrestling him to the ground when they try to hypnotise her.

– Possibly the shot of the crucifix going between Regan’s legs. Conflicting reports on this one, so I can’t be sure. Some of the crew say it was Eileen, but I’ve only ever heard Eileen talk about rehearsing the scene, and Linda talks about actually doing it as you mentioned.

– The very quick vomiting shot you mentioned. They were going to use Eileen for the whole thing, but Friedkin didn’t like the way the vomit sprayed from Dick Smith’s rig, so they superimposed the vomit over a shot Linda pretending to puke (like this).

– At the beginning of the exorcism when Regan spits on Merrin’s face, and again when vomit starts oozing out of her mouth.

– Apparently it’s Eileen when the statue of Pazuzu appears during the exorcism, and that she was wrapped in a body stocking so she look more like Linda (as Eileen was quite slim). Not 100% convinced on this though.

– All the Captain Howdy/Pazuzu subliminal flashes.

It seems like quite a bit but her appearances in the movie would add up to maybe 20 seconds, if not less.

Eileen did mostly behind the scenes work like standing in for Linda while they lit the set and testing special effects.

I always though the spitting scene was that of Blair vs. Dietz. Oh, never mind, eff it. According to Dietz, she starred in the whole movie and made it what it is today! 😉 I’m sure her tell-all book will be more detailed than anyone could imagine because she will have the legal rights to make claims regardless of the truth … fair communications act!

Father Bowdern

We can clearly see when Dietz was used as a double, and this is just in the scenes reported above. Her face was totally different than Linda’s and there is no way to supect she could be in other parts of the movie.

Maybe she can keep saying she did the whole thing, but the film speaks more truly than she does.

Justin said:

Dietz certainly deserves credit for being one of the most iconic and frighting faces in cinema history (Captain Howdy), but she is not Regan.

She crosses the line when trying to take any credit away from Linda's brilliant performance.

Justy is right. I so adamantly agree that Dietz has milked her 12 seconds of camera time to the max. Actually, I believe that Captain Howdy is the icon, not Dietz at all. In fact, Dick Smith created the Captain Howdy icon with his brilliance and makeup talents. It wouldn’t matter whose face was chosen to put Smith’s concepts to work in the most effective manner as that face did in The Exorcist. After all, did Dietz really act? No. Anyone who can make a grimaced face and follow Smith’s guidance could have done that “part.” Dietz served her role as body double. She appeared in certain scenes that required adult strength and the ability to suffer the long hours of wearing Smith’s vomiting apparatus for hours on end.

I can guarantee that I will find her book a month after it’s published next to the outdated 90%-off Betty Crocker cookbooks and Fung Shui Sand Gardening books … that is, if the publisher prints that many.

When it drops to around 50 cents, it should make for wonderful page-turning laugh.

Father Bowdern

Thanks, hammer. For a really good laugh, please enjoy this site! Even her sister is well-known author!

Father Bowdern