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Thanks to Captain Howdy for posting a brief excerpt from William Friedkin's, “The Friedkin Connection.” I agree that Friedkin certainly has a way with words and I've always been fascinated with his “car salesman” approach to getting his own points across …. even if it means stretching or even inventing the truths that he recalls – or – are they just his own inventions?
“Fondling” Jane Fonda:
While he mentions Jane Fonda's response about turning down The Exorcist, I'm still amazed that Fonda has never gone on record ever as having said the “capitalist” statement publicly. Yes, Fonda was very vocal in her political days and probably lost some work, but I find Friedkin's memory a little odd here:
“Jane Fonda, frankly, turned us down. She sent us a note saying, “Why would I want to appear in a piece of capitalist, ripoff bullshit?” A few months ago, I had dinner with her and I reminded her of that, and she said: 'Wow, did I say that? It feels like another person.'” Hmmm … so the decades-long story of Fonda's verbal response now includes a “note.”
“Jerking” Linda Blair:
On another point, is Friedkin just inventing some of his memoirs? Most likely. While lots of authors find the need to stretch the truth, it works when it's David Sedaris getting away with being ridiculous for the sake of laughter, IMO.
“So I said, “Linda, do you know anything about The Exorcist?” “I read the book,” she said. So I asked, “Well, what is it about?” and she said, “It's about a little girl who gets possessed by a devil and does bad things.” “What sort of bad things?” I asked. And she says, “Well, she hits her mother across the face, and she pushes a man out of her bedroom window, and she masturbates with a crucifix.” I looked over at her mother, and her mother was smiling. I said, “Do you know what that means?” and she said, “Yeah, it's jerking off, isn't it?” and I said, “Have you ever done that?” and she said, “Sure, haven't you?” Hmmm … so Linda Blair WAS LYING after all these years? Go to 1:06 below:
playnext=1&list=PL42B50836D909D9E1
Father B
Friedkin has been saying this for over a decade now, although I'm still not sure if I believe he really asked a 12 year old girl if she “jerked off” or that Linda knew what it meant.
http://mubi.com/notebook/posts…..m-friedkin
Justin, thanks for posting this!
Like everyone, we tell stories differently at different stages of our lives. I am really fascinated more at Blair declaring that she never understood the term “masturbation” until many years after performing the crucifix scene.
I can recall writing some posts on here about this very subject and the fact that Blair was an American inner-city kid. She wasn't naive at the age of 12. In fact, I would venture to say that she was more exposed to adult situations rather than being a overprotected by her mother. However, Blair has always claimed that she never got what she was doing except hitting a crucifix in a box of red-colored Karo syrup while “jerking off” and saying, “Let Jesus fuck you!”
Again, thanks for posting this. I enjoyed it!
Father B
2 things you definitely can't trust in this world; old memories and self publicising movie people. 😉
Otoh, Blatty maintained that it did not involve Blair at all, just one of the hundreds of applicants for the part of Regan. Friedkin asked the kid if she knew what masturbation is, and she replied, “Yes”. And then Friedkin had the effrontery to bulldoze on, asking her if she masturbated, to which she replied, “Sure – doesn't everybody?”
Yeah, like it says, memory's in the storyteller's eye. At least if we go along with Blatty's version, we can give some credence to Blair's later protestations of sexual innocence. Maybe 😉
“The Fonda thing” according to Blatty himself:
= – = – =
I sit here thinking of many things…of a day in the fall of ’71, when as I dozed in a hammock on the backyard patio of my agent, Noel Marshall, I heard the piping voice of Jane Fonda say in guarded tones from within the house, “There’s someone out there.” I believe she meant me… I clenched my eyelids, feigning sleep: for Billy Friedkin and I had offered Miss Fonda the role of Chris MacNeil…, and after reading the novel Miss Fonda had reacted, according to her agent, with the following statement telephoned from Paris: “Why would any studio want to make this capitalist ripoff bullshit?” Which, when I’d heard it, I’d understood to mean that she didn’t want to do the part. Now I heard a screen door sliding open: then footsteps. I opened my eyes and saw Miss Fonda approaching the hammock…. But it seemed that Miss Fonda had come to say something nice. She had heard the report of her comment on my novel and wanted to tell me that it wasn’t true. “The reason I didn’t want to do it,” she explained sincerely, “was because I don’t believe in magic.”
William Peter Blatty on The Exorcist: From Novel to Film, Bantam 1974, p. 3
= – = – =
So, according to WPB, the original “capitalist ripoff bullshit” remark was misattributed to Fonda, secondhand, based on something that her agent was supposed to have said, and then Fonda explained “the real reason” that she declined the part.
granville, thank you. I now recall that Blair's statement did indeed come from one of the other girls who auditioned. I don't remember exactly where I heard/read/viewed this, but it's more clear now.
Thank you for posting Blatty's viewpoint on Fonda's “capitalist ripoff bullshit” statement. Blatty is much more palatable than Friedkin in terms of how I would anticipate Fonda actually responding.
To me, Friedkin tastelessly continues to promote Fonda's unpopular political stance re: the Vietnam War in which she was dubbed “Hanoi Jane.” It probably wont' make sense to a lot of people today, gran. However, I think we're both old enough to remember those days. Deep down, I often wonder if Friedkin might have his own political axe to grind with Fonda and it has nothing to do with turning down the role of Chris MacNeil.
Father B
You're welcome, Fr. Bowdern 🙂
Yeah, I remember Fonda's and Tom Hayden's shenanigans in Vietnam. I think of it as extreme radicalism, but then, considering the times, it was part of that crazy patchwork quilt. I certainly don't think of her as treasonous, if by treason is meant the betrayal of one's country. She certainly “betrayed” the corrupt Johnson Administration's actions at home and abroad, but that's the right and duty of every American, as I see it. In Vietnam she broadcast messages to the US soldiery to consider refusing to bomb the Vietnamese, which, inasmuch as it was an effort to end the war, wins my admiration. I know this is not a political board, and nobody asked my opinion, but I see her activism as a type of heroism, just as I see Bradley Manning's dispersal of the truth to the American people and the world. This doesn't mean she was never an angry, foul-mouthed bitch, of course. It's just that government-caused-and-sponsored crimes like the Vietnam War, when clearly seen, tend to radicalize many conscientious people “in whose name” the government claims that such incursions are supposedly carried out. As far as her “fraternizing with the enemy”, “the enemy” was of course defined by the US's own viciously enraged imperialistic government. I never thought the North Vietnamese, the Viet Cong, etc. were my enemies. For them to be my enemies, they would have needed to be doing to us what we were doing to them, for instance, napalming our civilians, mass-bombing our towns and farmlands, disseminating Agent Orange, mining our harbors, etc. The US decimated Vietnam, not vice-versa, and still our “enemies” won the ultimate victory. If Fonda had a hand in that process, she has earned my respect.
“I now recall that Blair's statement did indeed come from one of the other girls who auditioned. I don't remember exactly where I heard/read/viewed this,”
Peter Travers book, The Story Behind The Exorcist (1974)
Sofia said:
“I now recall that Blair's statement did indeed come from one of the other girls who auditioned. I don't remember exactly where I heard/read/viewed this,”
Peter Travers book, The Story Behind The Exorcist (1974)
Hi Sof!
I hope your days are going well! Yep. This was the little who said that thanks to Peter Travers!
Love,
Father B
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