ACTRESS REBORN IN INSIDIOUS SERIES
Lin Shaye portrays psychic in thrillers
Lin Shaye is best known for her portrayal of Cameron Diaz’s overtanned neighbour in the Farrelly Brothers farce There’s Something About Mary. Over- shadowing that past is her part as psychic Elise Rainier in the Insidious thriller series, including Insidious: Chapter 3 which opens Friday.
“The fact that this role was written for me at this time in my life is unreal,” says the 71- year- old, in Toronto promoting the scary movie with writer and director Leigh Whannell.
In the spooky prequel, Shaye’s Rainier reluctantly agrees to contact the dead to help a teen girl ( Stefanie Scott) rid herself of an evil entity. Soon enough, the spirit is also threatening Rainier and the girl’s father ( Dermot Mulroney) in its bid to possess the teen.
The latest spooky adventure, of course, has a built- in audience. The previous Insidious flicks earned almost US$ 260 million worldwide when Furious 7 director James Wan was at the helm.
Whannell, who wrote the Insidious scripts, is also directing Insidious 3. He’s a little relieved to have Shaye by his side for his directorial debut.
“My worst fear was that it wouldn’t be as scary as the others, and people would say, ‘ Oh swell, it looks like James Wan was the talented one and then the writer took over,’ ” says Whannell.
When those doubts threatened to overwhelm, him he was happy to have the steadying influence of Shaye on set.
“She’s an amazing actress, and people remember her,” Whannell says. “She’s a unique person and she also has so much empathy. She’s very affected by things, and I was pleasantly surprised that it translates on screen so well.”
Preview audiences seem to agree and are responding to the latest terror trip into the other world.
“The film seems to be working in terms of the scares and the terror, but I also think it is working with the emotional side of the story,” Whannell says.
“Everybody can relate to having lost something or somebody,” says Shaye, referring to the teen who is grieving for her deceased mother. “When you are vulnerable like that, everything seems scarier.”
Certainly, Shaye never expected to be an expert in horror or starring in a hit franchise of the genre.
After attending the University of Michigan to study acting, she landed small movie roles in Hester Street and Goin’ South, as well as bit parts in TV shows and other movies throughout the 1970s and ’ 80s. The Farrelly Brothers hired Shaye for a cameo in 1994’ s Dumb & Dumber, expanded her part in 1996’ s Kingpin, playing the repulsive landlady, and more famously as the too- tanned neighbour in the 1998 hit There’s Something About Mary.
She landed her first genre role in the 2003 thriller Dead End, but it was the recent Insidious series that revitalized her career and gave her a new fan base — teen girls who are loyal Insidious fans.
“It is a thrill,” says Shaye. “My fans are these wonderful young people who are really listening to me, which is such a treasure for an artist.”
Their approach, apparently, is always the same when they spot Shaye in public. “They always have a little conversation with each other before one of them is brave enough to talk to me.”
Certainly, producers have noticed. She has 10 new films finished or set to go, including a Helen Keller role in the action comedy Helen Keller vs. Nightwolves.
“I am the happiest I have ever been in my life,” Shaye says. “The Insidious films have definitely opened the door for lots of possibilities.”
And that might include a fourth Insidious.
“I’m not thinking further ahead,” she says. “But we will see, and into the further we will go.”