CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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Hi Lena7,
I bought Linda’s A&E Bio off Ebay a couple of years ago. I think you can still find some copies there for sale.Blatty is the best writer. 🙂 There’s a part in the book when Karras is studying Regan’s EEG and he finds no fluctuations in the graph. Hysterics always seem to cause some odd fluctuations, so Karras thought it was something he could use with the Bishop as an argument that Regan was not a hysteric and therefore was conceivably possessed.
I wish, so badly, that Blatty could extend the novel. In the ‘Fear of God’ commentary, he said that he was going to write another 250 pages, up to the point when Merrin dies. So the book would have about 500 pages!
This is a complete contrast to Linda’s story
It was a nine year girl who said that! Peter Travers wrote about it in his book, The Story Behind The Exorcist:
“Billy Friedkin knew the real key to how the role would affect the child rested upon how well the novel was handled by both parent and child: they had to be open enough in their interpretations to deal with the events and themes in the story. He never wavered in his belief that the right child could be found if all his conditions were fulfilled.
But would this openness be tantamount to sophistication and lack of inhibition? Friedkin responded with an unqualified “No!” as his smile broke into a wide grin of remembrance, Friedkin quickly added: “Let me tell you a story about one of the girls I auditioned. She was a really cute nine-year-old who seemed quite ‘hip’. She sat down in my office and began to talk. I asked her if she had read The Exorcist, and she quickly responded she had not, but assured me she knew the story. I asked her to give me her interpretation. She matter-of-factly replied, “It’s the story of a girl who gets possessed by a devil and does a bunch of bad things.” I said, “What kind of bad things?” and she said, “Well, the girl masturbates with a crucifix.” I asked if she knew what that meant and she sighed, “Sure, it means jerking off.” I must admit that I was somewhat taken aback, but I looked at her and asked, “Do you do that?” She looked at me, paused for a moment, and said, “Doesn’t everyone?”
What Friedkin was looking for (readily apparent from the nine-year-old’s reaction) was an actress who could, through her innocence, make the demonic transitions more credible and the horror more palpable. Friedkin was very straight on what he wasn’t after and confident that what he wanted could be found.”
I think colombiancannon meant this part: “Wherever Sharon moved, Regan would follow.”
Of course it’s creepier in the novel because you can use your imagination, and in my opinion, there’s nothing creepier than that. 🙂I emailed the seller asking if he had more rare footage from other scenes coming up, particularly The Trip to Washington scene, and here’s his answer:
“Yes, I do – I will see what I can come up with. Just wondering – how come you did not bid on this auction – it truly went out for a much lower price then I thought it would. Gracias, Jerry”
“Yes we all know it was to feed her. The question is why.”
In the novel, when the Doctor performed a spinal tap on Regan, he explained that she needed intravenous feeding due to her condition.
Everything from the book I wish was in the movie…
I’ll just copy/paste what I posted in a similar thread:Blatty’s intention to keep it a mystery as to whether Regan was genuinely possessed or whether it was a case of mental illness,
The gradual onset of Regan’s “illness”, starting with the missing of her dress, books, shoes, complaining of noises, displacement of furniture and Chris thinking it was her daughter doing it all to get attention,
The subplot on a witchcraft book that Regan read prior to her acting out occult rituals,
The extensive discussions about medicine and psychiatry which were kept to a minimum in the movie. The list goes on and on… 🙂
Sure caps! I bought it off Ebay a couple of years ago. I couldn’t copy onto a DVD because it’s region 1. 🙁
Yes, Blatty said the complete opposite in the audio commentary of The Exorcist and in his book, From Novel to Film.
Umm yeah. That’s the word Friedkin used in the documentary about the making of The Exorcist – Fear of God.
