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The Exorcist scared audiences in 1973 and can still scare audiences today...and a lot of sweat went into making those scares as we see in...
By PAUL DAVIS (Note: This is the second installment of a special three-part series that will examine the background of that seminal 1973 shocker, The Exorcist. You can read the first installment here.)
Blatty's novel of The Exorcist centers on actress and mother Chris MacNeil, who lives with her daughter Regan in a town house in the Georgetown section of Washington D.C. Through an Ouija Board Regan becomes possessed and is soon spewing obscenities and masturbating with a crucifix. In between these fits of shocking behavior, every medical specialist imaginable examines her. Still Regan’s possession progresses, she vomits green bile, spins her head in a 180-degree turn, and later appears as a boil-covered demon. Rapidly running out of options, Chris finally turns to a careworn Jesuit priest, Father Damien Karras in the hopes of conducting an archaic ritual an exorcism. Harper & Row published the book in the summer of 1971 and on the first four weeks of sales it was rapidly dropping to decline. That was until Blatty had a forty-minute promotional spot on America’s premier chat show The Dave Cavett Show. After this show his book took a phenomenal turn around and became an instant best-seller. His book was in the top ten for fifty four weeks, tempting publicist Paul Monash to buy the movie rights from Blatty, which Monash then sold on to Warner Bros. for $641,000. With Blatty’s contract securing him a place at the helm as produce and screen writer of the film, Blatty was now in search of a director.
The studio had already approached Stanley Kubrick, who refused to direct it unless he could produce it, and Michael Nichols, who was working on another project. Blatty had just previously seen The French Connection and he wanted Billy Friedkin, who’d won an Oscar for best director for that film. This was not the first time Blatty had been brought to the attention of Friedkin. In the late sixties Blatty had written a TV screenplay for a man named Gunn, which Friedkin had been lined up to direct. What impressed Blatty about him was the fact that Friedkin bad-mouthed Blatty’s Gunn screenplay, to his face. Before a director was hired. Blatty found out that Monash was making changes to Blatty’s story without his permission. These changes consisted of cutting the Iraq prologue, taking out Father Merrin altogether and changing the location from Washington to Los Angeles. Blatty also found out that Monash was ready to hire a director named Mark Rydell. Blatty was furious, and demanded that Warner Bros. fire him. Warner Bros. had no choice when Blatty threatened a lawsuit, and Monash was released from the project. Blatty then played The French Connection for the Warner executives, and they immediately granted him permission to approach Friedkin. Blatty sent a copy of the book to Billy Friedkin who was halfway through a promotional tour for The French Connection. "I was gonna go to dinner with some people and while waiting I opened the book and started to read it. I canceled the dinner. I stayed in the rest of that night and finished it. And it was, of course, mesmerizing," according to Billy Friedkin. Friedkin phoned Blatty the next morning and asked him why he had sent him the book. Blatty told him the background to the story and told him that he was currently planning the movie, and concluded with asking him if he’d direct it. A few days later they met up and Blatty surpassingly produced a screenplay in front of Friedkin’s eyes. Billy was delighted and read it with excitement. When he had finally finished reading, he told Blatty that it was not very good and would be four hours long. Friedkin then said that the screenplay was not the book at all and that it was overwrought with unnecessary plot twists that were not in the book.
Both "Bills" then re-wrote the script together by circling parts of the book that would be good to shoot and still structure the story. They’d both agreed to drop the sub-plot that revolved around Chris’ servant Karl (this sub-plot involved his daughter Elvira), a number of hints that would suggest Karras or Karl killed Burke Dennings. and shortened the dialogue tremendously. They finished the revised script in three months and started to discuss casting.
Both Blatty and Friedkin had ideas for the role of the mother, Chris MacNeil. They first approached Audrey Hepburn, who’d only agree to do it if they changed the location to Rome. Next in line was Blatty’s first choice, Shirley MacLaine, who was too busy working, ironically enough, on The Possession Of Joel Delaney. Added to the list was Jane Fonda, who said, "Why would any studio want to make this capitalist rip-off?." From that, both Bills kind of got the idea that she didn’t want the part (though she later stated that she didn’t do it because she doesn’t believe in magic). With another choice, Anne Bancroft, too pregnant to play the part, Blatty was rapidly running out of options until Warner received a phone call from Ellen Burstyn. She never had a starring role but Friedkin thought she was an interesting character. Friedkin drove out to her house in the Hollywood hills and was greeted by a female hippie-type who offered him some "grass" in her first sentence. She went on to tell him that it was fate that she would the part, and Friedkin left her house feeling that he wouldn't cast her. However, later that night he gave her a call and offered her the part. The part of the aging exorcist, Father Lankaster Merrin, was decided immediately once Friedkin had seen a photo of the French Catholic priest, Teilhard De Chardin, who looked exactly like Swedish actor Max Von Sydow. Von Sydow was contacted and had agreed to meet with them. Friedkin showed the photo of the French priest and Von Sydow was baffled at the fact that he was 38 and the priest looked to be in his late sixties or early seventies. Friedkin told Von Sydow that they had a make-up genius waiting to give him the look of a seventy-year-old missionary. With that. Von Sydow signed the contract to play Father Merrin.
Casting the Jesuit priest Damien Karras brought Billy Friedkin and Bill Blatty to their first argument. Billy Friedkin wanted to turn to his lead actor in The French Connection, Gene Hackman, but Bill Blatty wanted to go with a crowd favorite by the name of Marlon Brando. Friedkin rejected Brando flat because of worries that he’d take over the film, and Blatty didn’t want Gene Hackman because he didn’t think he be the right person to play a priest. With a week-long argument coming to an end, they decided to compromise and go with a unknown actor by the name of Jason Miller. Miller was a playwright who won a Pulitzer prize for a play he’d written in 1971. He was a firm favorite (behind Hackman) with Friedkin after he had auditioned for the part (the scene in which he meets Chris on the bridge).
The biggest challenge was the casting of the 12-year-old girl Regan MacNeil. At first, Blatty felt that they would have to cast a twenty-five year old midget, because of the film’s content, but Friedkin was determined to give this film a certain realism that demanded the casting of an actual 12-year-old. Friedkin decided that he’d only get the perfect actress for Regan if both child and parent had their own interpretation of the theme and story. He went on to interview hundreds of girls for the part but none of them really suited the role. "Let me tell you a story about one of the girls I auditioned," Friedkin revealed. "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’d read The Exorcist, and she quickly responded that 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 little 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 it meant and she sighed, "Sure." 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?""
After a four-month duration, Friedkin was down to twelve girls that he still wasn’t confident about and admitted to Blatty that maybe they should use a twenty-five-year-old midget! Then, a young girl by the name of Linda Blair was brought in to audition by her mother.
Linda was a working child model/actress from New York and she astounded Friedkin. After a lengthy interview with both Linda and her mother, Friedkin filmed Linda with Ellen Burstyn on an empty sound stage, acting out the Ouija Board scene. He then asked her to read some of the demon’s dialogue, which was full of obscenities and cursing. He then realized that Linda had the ability to turn her innocence into utter horror, and that was what he wanted. She then went on to do screen tests, make-up tests, and so on. He then contacted his associates at Warner Bros. and they told him that if he believed that she could play the part then go ahead and cast her, and so he did. A week before shooting began Blatty and Friedkin had their second argument; this time it was about whether or not Ellen Burstyn should have a limousine meet her at the airport in New York. Friedkin said that she should and Blatty said no, he said she could get a cab. Friedkin didn’t react to well to that comment and said that he’d rather Blatty fire him than treat his cast like that, and to Friedkin’s surprise Blatty did fire him. After a nervous weekend, Warner executives explained to Blatty that he had no legal right to fire Friedkin, so he was re-instated. NEXT MONTH: The Curse…The Aftermath…The Phenomenon! Thanks, Paul, for baring the background in preparation to filming The Exorcist. We can't wait until the cameras roll and the vomit flies next month. Cheers! Article copyright Paul Davis |
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