SHE'S A SCREAM
Jessica Harper returns to the horror classic that launched her eclectic career
DARIO Argento’s 1977 film “Suspiria” has been long renowned as one of the most shock-tastic horror flicks out there. This writer will admit she was too squeamish to watch it until very recently — and she’s not alone. “I have two daughters in their 20s,” says Jessica Harper, the star of the original who also appears in the new remake from director Luca Guadagnino. “And one of them had never seen it because she was scared. Finally, she felt she was ready. And we sat down and watched the beautiful Blu-ray version, and when it finished, she just said, ‘Wow.’ That was cool, coming from a 27-year-old!”
In the original, Harper, now 69, played Susie Bannion, a young American dancer who enrolls at the Tanz Dance Academy in Germany. She’s met at the front door by a terrified young woman fleeing the place, and things go downhill from there: As it turns out, the school’s run by a murderous coven of witches, which Harper’s character gradually discovers, culminating in a finale that sees the school come crashing down around her. But she says the most difficult part of shooting was that Argento’s film was intended to be dubbed into various languages, which meant that little of its dialogue was recorded as filming happened. “I had a scene with an elderly gentleman who spoke German,” she recalls, “and I spoke English to him, and when one [of us] spoke, the other just nodded as if they understood.”
The film is a gorgeous, psyche- delic marvel of the genre, with blood-red sets and shrieking, shredded victims. It’s not the only time Harper had her finger on the pulse of what would eventually become a cult classic. Harper, who was in her late 20s when she played the role, went on to appear in another beloved cult hit, albeit in a very different genre: “I played Garry Shandling’s wife on the last season of his sitcom [‘It’s Garry Shandling’s Show’],” she says. “It was fantastic. I think I’m attracted to things that are, let’s say, out of the ordinary. Offbeat.”
She also appeared in the original Broadway cast of “Hair,” understudying for two of the female leads. “I got naked onstage,” she says. “If you got naked, they paid you an extra $2.50 a night. I have my price!” she says with a laugh.
Now she’s got her eye on podcasting. “Winnetka” will be a limited-series memoir of her upbringing in the titular Chicago suburb, with her family lending their own voices to it. “As far as I know, it’s kind of an anomaly in the podcast landscape,” she says.
In the new “Suspiria,” Harper says, “I play the love interest for a central character, Dr. Josef Klemperer, who’s played by Lutz Ebersdorf.” Does she mean Tilda Swinton? She laughs. “I guess that cat has emerged from the bag,” she says.
For those who’ve been too skittish to check out the original, Harper has some advice. “I would say, surround yourself with some of your best friends, make popcorn and have a cocktail, and you’ll be just fine!”