How ‘Exorcist’ sequel’s director got Burstyn to return
There’s a new “Exorcist” in town, and given that it’s the 50th anniversary of the original and the first new entry in the franchise in nearly two decades, Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions turned to horror master David Gordon Green.
Wait, David Gordon Green? The guy who started out directing sensitive indie dramas (“George Washington,” “All the Real Girls”) before transitioning to big-studio comedies like “Pineapple Express” and the HBO series “The Righteous Gemstones”?
Yes. Horror is his thing now, and he’s quite good at it.
Green directed the recent “Halloween” trilogy, resuscitating the career of Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”), and now is bringing back Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil for “The Exorcist: Believer,” her first “Exorcist” appearance since the original.
“I love horror as much as I love everything, all genres,” Green told the Chronicle. “It’s a time in the theatrical market where I think comedies are taking a breather, at least in terms of my sensibility and sense of humor. Horror has a great passion behind it for a great audience. I’m a big advocate of the theatrical experience, and I want to see movies big and loud and with a crowd. So I’m trying to find a way to engineer personal storytelling or subversive storytelling into mass-appeal movies.”
Green, 48, who was raised in the Dallas area and went to film school in North Carolina, currently lives in Charleston, S.C. He spoke to the Chronicle over video from Los Angeles.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Q: Do you remember the first time you saw “The
Exorcist”?
A: I was probably 14 or 15, living in Dallas at the time. I grew up going to a Presbyterian church on Sundays, but I went to a Jesuit Catholic prep school for ninth grade — strangely, with the composer of (“Believer”), David Wingo. It was a point in my life where I’m looking at my upbringing, I’m looking at the world out there. I’m opening up to literature and new education from new religious perspectives. And then that movie strikes me in a way that I hadn’t really thought about a lot of these things. And so it got under my skin and really affected me like it did so many people.
My parents were really strict. I was a really sensitive kid. So seeing that at that vulnerable point in my life really shook me and stuck with me.
Q: That first movie, of course, was directed by William Friedkin, who died in August . Did you ever meet him?
A: I never had that opportunity. I was hopeful that he would see our film and be able to recognize the passion we had for his work. There’s always those butterflies you get when you’re presenting a movie (to the director of the original). I would show John Carpenter our cuts on the “Halloween” movies. It’s nerve-racking, but it’s also exciting.
Q: There are similarities between the original and your film, in that for long stretches they are not horror films, but stories about personal moments of crises and family relationships (this one is centered on an anxious father played by Leslie Odom Jr. of “Hamilton” fame). How did Friedkin’s approach influence you?
A: I love a slow burn, and I love a character piece that sucks you into the drama. It’s great to have a genre to invite people to come and buy popcorn and scream and the things that people love about horror movies, but I wanted to make it meaningful. One of the techniques that I took from Friedkin is casting real people. So in the scene where Father Maddox (E.J. Bonilla) and Catholic priests are contemplating the exorcist, that’s all real Catholic
priests having that conversation. I didn’t write that scene. I just said, “Present the case. Let’s have a conversation about it.”
The young girls, after they’re discovered, getting a medical exam, those are all real medical examiners and physicians. There was no script. They would ask the questions they would ask (in real life) and perform the exam. Police officers and the EMTs are playing themselves. I think having that authentic representation is what gives it a little bit more honesty and a believable quality.
Q: Ellen Burstyn is great. She has long resisted doing another “Exorcist” movie. How did you convince her to
do it?
A: At first she was not open to the idea. I have too much respect for her as an actress to just, you know, throw a script on her desk and say, “Yes or no?” So I just introduced myself and said, “Here’s who I am, and here’s what I’m trying to do. Here are my intentions. Let’s get to know each other. You’re a powerhouse and someone that I should be so lucky to work with at some point in my career. If it’s not this, it’ll be something else.”
We had conversations, and I started asking her questions about spirituality and her perspective and her travels. Before I knew it, I was evolving my concept of Chris MacNeil to adopt some of her perspectives and insights.
I transcribed some of our conversations and sent them to my co-writer, Pete Sattler. When I did have a script that I was ready to present to her, she could sense the familiarity and she could more confidently interpret my intention of trying to bring something that was personal to me and also to her, and paid respect to a character she created 50 years ago.
Q: What was she like on set? What was your favorite scene to shoot?
A: Any time she would come on set, everybody would be quiet. And then she’d break the tension, and then everybody would have a really good time. I can’t say my favorite moment with her because it would be a spoiler.
Q: Of course, Linda Blair was the 12-yearold, playing Chris MacNeil’s daughter, who was possessed in the first film. In this one, there are two girls, played by Lidya Jewett (Netflix’s “Nightbooks” and in “Black Panther” as Lupita Nyong’o’s character as a child) and newcomer Olivia O’Neill. Even if it’s only a movie, this is intense material for young performers. What was your approach?
A: I was nervous about it. We were going to ask them to go to some pretty difficult places. So we brought Linda Blair in as a consultant. I told her, “I need help navigating the well-being of these girls.” I wanted to create a set that their parents feel is safe. Linda gave us great advice of bringing in child counselors and psychologists and teachers and having spiritual advisers on set.
These girls had a great instinct in creating authentic characters that were young and full of love and life, and then were able to pivot and be under the duress of 21⁄2 hours of prosthetic makeup and then unleash these demons in a way that was more or less performance art or interpretive dance.
But actually, we all had a really good time making those scenes.