The Exorcist actress and her curse: a pact with the devil and the stigma of being possessed | El Salvador News

One of the most shocking scenes in the movie The Exorcist lasts a few minutes, but it’s hard to forget, you know what it is, but we’ll describe it: Chris MacNeil finds his daughter in bed, out of his mind, cursing and with a crucifix between his bloodied legs. When she wants to get closer, she is pushed with bestial force against the wall. Then the head of Irrigators MacNeil turns 180 degrees and addresses his mother, “Did you know what your daughter’s sow did?”

A 12-year-old girl possessed by the devil, so far this is one of the strongest and most controversial roles in film history.

It all started when in August 1972, preadolescent actress Linda Blair was chosen to play her among 600 aspirants, in which she surpassed other prodigy actresses such as Melanie Griffith and Laura Dern. The focus of the film The Exorcist, considered by many to be the best horror film of all time, and to date the second highest grossing film of the genre, was set in Regan.

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The beautiful Linda at the age of 13 already had a reputation as a model because she started at the age of five and had gained some popularity as an image of Macy’s catalogs if a series of The New York Times commercials. With the film he made himself known to the whole world, but he never imagined that he would not be able to get rid of the diabolical stigma of the film.

For the producers, she was the perfect person who stood out in the rigorous research, as the chosen one had to interpret both good and evil and have the temper to tolerate it.

The screenwriter and producer of the film, William Peter Blatty, author in turn of the bestseller on which it is based, tells in the biographical documentary about Blair Did not you used to be Satan? (1996) who never expected them to actually find a “normal” girl of that age capable of doing so. “Think of the shock of the plot, of the language … My God!”.

In fact, Jamie Lee Curtis had also been studied for the role, but his mother, actress Janet Leigh, considered him too young to do so. Linda, on the other hand, surprised the director, William Friedkin, from the first interviews. When asked if he had read the book, Blair said yes: “It’s about a girl who is possessed and does a lot of bad things.” “Bad things like what?” Friedkin asked. “He pushes a man out the window of his room, hits his mother and masturbates with a crucifix.” “Did you know what that is? Did you ever do that?” Blair laughed. “Obviously, don’t you?”

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According to Blatty, he and the director had a tacit agreement to protect Blair during filming, but at some point they realized that “it was just impossible.” The filming lasted eleven months in which the girl was exposed to the stress of living with a macabre doll of her own in full size and undergoing endless make-up sessions to look like a spirited one. Also to Friedkin’s harsh methods, which included hanging from a harness for a scene in which he levitates and falls hard and for which he was left sequels to the column for life.

For this scene the actress had to be operated on years after the recording because she suffered a fractured vertebra and came to suffer from chronic pain for years, but at that time she did not receive medical attention: “At that time I didn’t get medical care, they didn’t call a doctor. They thought I was acting. “

In the scene, the screams are in pain and not performance.

the curse

The film was delayed for several months and it is said that Friedkin himself was responsible for the marketing campaign that began to ensure that a curse haunted the film. However, some events that occurred during this period helped make the rumor even more credible. The first alarm signals went off at the start of filming, when a fire destroyed the set in New York. There was no need to mourn the wounded, but something caught the staff’s attention: the only part of the study that was not damaged was the room used for the exorcism scenes. of Irrigators.

To this were added several samples of people related to the team, including actor Jack MacGowran and actress Vasiliki Mailiaros, the characters also died in the film. Also in charge of the refrigeration (deadly because it was filmed with sub-zero temperatures to see real steam coming out of their mouths) and a serene, and Linda’s grandfather, among others, died.

Even cast members, such as Ellen Burstyn, Blair’s mother in the script, began to believe in the curse. Thus, it began to be common to see in the seven real cures mingling among the fictional ones to throw holy water. In those days, Burstyn gave Blair a bracelet with a horseshoe to protect himself from the demon that would accompany him in his most difficult years.

But that was not all, after the release of the long-awaited film in December 1973 began to report fainting, vomiting, heart attacks and at least a miscarriage in theaters. The film was accused of causing mental disorder in viewers and was even used as an argument in defense of an assassin who said he had been possessed after watching the film.

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Despite all this, the film was a boom and people lined up to see this girl in transit vomiting green and blaspheming. The image of Linda immediately became synonymous with the devil.

Just around this time, it transpired that the actress had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital and the solution found by Warner Bross, who were responsible for the production, was to send her on a promotional tour. The documentary about her life shows her on the tour, facing questions from the press at just 14 years old: “Linda, it is said that the film affected you psychologically, what is the situation?”. She laughs and replies, “I think people felt I was going to get in trouble, but it’s not like that.”

Versions about her being mad or possessed did not stop. If she had been under the protection of the press throughout filming, she was now, instead of the adult protagonists of the film, in charge of answering about God, faith, religion and Satan. “I did my job without asking who the devil was, I was a professional, I would confess a lot later, but the movie ended and my story changed.”

Being conceived as the most tangible face of the devil complicated the rest of his daily life:

“I couldn’t go to the supermarket anymore, or to a store, or anywhere. People saw me and were scared to death. They couldn’t separate the film from the person: they looked at me like I was the devil.”

She also began to be harassed by religious groups and fanatics who claimed she was possessed and would kidnap her. This led to her hiding in the homes of her parents’ friends, even Warner hired bodyguards who accompanied her for the six months following the premiere.

This left him with a trauma he did not overcome: “I think it’s one of the main reasons I never had a child: I was terrified of being kidnapped.”

Drugs and the pact with the devilO

Another very strong rumor was that the actress’ parents had made a pact with the devil and this was reinforced when the film received ten Oscar nominations, including Best Supporting Actress for Blair. He also rose with the Golden Globe. But although he had impressed critics and catapulted his career to fame, his performance had left such an indelible mark on the audience that it was difficult for him to be considered for a role other than that of a girl in danger. This was demonstrated by her next two films, the controversial Innocent (1974), in which she was abused by her peers at a juvenile center, and Sarah T. Portrait of an Alcoholic Teenager (1975).

Soon, her roles came to reality, the actress spent nine months in a rehab center and also making public appearances in which she gave messages to young people about the dangers of drugs as part of her community tasks. That same year was released The Heretic, the sequel to The Exorcist, which was received with terrible criticism. Blair had gained weight and the press was even making fun of his weight. In those days she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for depression.

Her courtship with musician Rick James, known for his orgies and his addiction to crack, in 1981, once again sidelined him from major Hollywood productions. She ended up accepting roles in Class B movies and erotic thrillers and even posed nude for Playboy to prove she had regained her figure.

Somehow, the battle between good and evil within the body of the girl he embodied continued to be fought in his.

Long before that life-changing casting, Blair rode a horse and dreamed of being a vet. Only in time could he return to the sources: in 2004 he created the nonprofit Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, which rescues and rehabilitates abandoned animals. She changed her diet and, after thirteen years of vegetarianism, in 2001 became vegan and wrote a book about her experience. Today at the age of 62, on January 22, the burnt times he vomited in his role as MacNeil Irrigators is still one of his favorite dishes.

“Do you also believe in the Exorcist’s curse?”, She was asked ten years ago, at the age of 52, in an interview with El País in which she is described bluntly as having Brazil and an intensity in the totally demonic smile and look “; she replies, “To me, the devil is no joke. But it’s the people who keep me from forgetting The Exorcist. Fame made my life impossible.”