Linda Blair - The Exorcist
by Fred Topel for SuicideGirls (http://suicidegirls.com/)

The Exorcist is considered the scariest movie of all time. Generations cowered before VHS copies, and new audiences got to see an updated version which retained the infamous upside down spider-walk in 2000. Now on Blu Ray, both versions of the film are re-mastered in high definition, and are packaged with a bonus behind the scenes documentary about the making of the film.

Linda Blair played Regan MacNeil, the teenaged girl possessed by a demon. She famously floated over the bed and her head spun 360 degrees with the help of old school special effects that still look better than any CGI creation. She then returned to the franchise for the critically panned Exorcist II: The Heretic and, in 1990, a spoof of The Exorcist called Repossessed (Leslie "Naked Gun" Nielsen was the comedy priest.)

None of Blair’s subsequent roles ever matched the acclaim or success of The Exorcist however. By her ‘20s, a series of women’s prison movies and B horror films defined her professionally, and drug problems eclipsed her career for a time. The Exorcist keeps coming back to haunt her though, and Blair has participated in several re-release events with a smile.

Now Blair’s focus is on distinctly positive spiritual endeavors - she's penned a pro-vegan book, and works to promote the wellbeing of animals. She still acts, and, as the latest release shows, The Exorcist still calls. At 51, her lean figure and healthy complexion are a clear endorsement of her lifestyle. A veteran of the press circuit, Blair enthusiastically greets reporters with a plan to promote the good stuff while speaking frankly about the bad.

SG: Are you proof that clean living works?

LB: My entire life, my mother was very much into supplements and eating healthy and she read a lot of magazines no matter what her interest was. My brother was hockey, I was of course a variety of things from the horses and the articles on that and whether you are a runner or whether you sail or whether you play piano. Whatever it is, there are so many great articles and things. So she would read and she would outline things with supplements. I hated food when I was young, so in order to get me to eat she knew that I had to have certain things. Then as I got older, everybody accused me of being pudgy for so long so I found my balance. That’s how I became a vegetarian and then a vegan. It has to do with the environment and how we treat the planet. So yes, I think if I can be a testament to changing people’s eating habits then that’s a good thing.
SG: Is it easier now that it’s more popular and people accommodate it?
LB: Sure, I mean, I didn’t know what it was years ago either. Vegetarian, vegan, what? Huh? And way back when, if you were a vegetarian, you were a freak, right? You were like a hippy. You were like, “You’re crazy.” Now of course it’s hip to be vegan and vegetarian. I don’t care how we get there. I just want to make it a better place. Of course it’s all how we farm animals and the foods we eat. It makes a difference. Heart disease, diabetes, all these things are so tied into it. They can find much of this information. We’re working on getting the new website, getting the information in there. It’s still a work in progress but LindaBlairworldheart.org and Healthworld. It used to be quite prominent, my old website about six years ago but ever since I moved up on the property with the dogs and creating that part, we had a couple of hiccups. So we’re just putting Healthworld and everything back together.
SG: Is it fun that every time The Exorcist comes around again you get to revisit it?
LB: I’ll tell you what I’m so excited about. Everybody is like, “You’re really excited about this.” I am because 37 years later, whoever talks and honors something? Usually it’s like oh yeah, we remember that film. At the Academy Awards, oh, great performance, great performance 37 years ago. Wasn’t she fabulous? When in fact with this, finally all the questions I still get asked… I do a lot of appearances and I do it for two reasons. A, because of my charity that I want to educate people and how we can make the world, planet and our country a better place. Also because it’s a nonprofit and also because it keeps me out there in the public light to understand really the heartbeat of America at least. For me they will always ask the same questions. How do you spin your head around or this or that? If they come back several times to see me, they’ll have a different question. “I asked you this last time but I want to ask this this time.” So I know all the questions they’ve asked are about to be answered. People’s wildest dreams are about to be answered. How did we spin the head around? How did the bed shake? How did the room move? How did, why did? As far as the theological side of it, that’s why it’s withstood time, because it’s a theological thriller. It’s not a monster movie. It never was. [Author] Bill Blatty had to clear that up for me, so I think people are so hung up that it’s a horror film, but it’s not. The horror is in the reality of how scary religion can be and God and the devil and the questions.
SG: Did you have a potty mouth after filming The Exorcist?
LB: Not after, no, no, no. I developed a potty mouth probably in my 20s and 30s and I’ve tried to, I think as all adults do, you need to restrain it. It’s really not very attractive. We all slip once in a while but no, I didn’t.
SG: So the dialogue of possessed little Regan didn’t affect you?
LB: No, that was all not in the original screenplay at all. [Director] Billy Friedkin wrote a lot of those fabulous lines before we would shoot. He’d give them to me the night before and say, “This is tomorrow’s dialogue.” I’m like, “Nah, I can’t say that.” He talks about this in the documentary, how much he had to make me do things because I didn’t want to. I’ve told people this for years. Everything I’ve said to people no one wanted to believe it to be the truth. Finally the guys are finally telling the truth and letting me go. I think that this version is going to change people forever and honestly they’re going to have a different respect for it. I really do. I think it’s very empowering.
SG: Blu Ray is a fantastic way to see it.
LB: No, but it’s the documentary. Then the Blu Ray.
SG: Why do you think Exorcist II gets such a bad rap. It’s obviously not the original but it’s not that bad.
LB: Well, I think that if we had done the film that we all signed and agreed to do, it was good. I’ll tell you what happened. They rewrote it five times. It wasn’t the story. You have Richard Burton. Are you kidding me? That’s incredible. You have John Boorman who had just won the Academy Award. John Boorman got scared. He brought in it Rospo Pallenberg to finish filming it. Thank you for the compliment. Some people do like it and other people don’t. That’s where the studio system and everybody starts making it not as good as maybe it could have been. That’s all I’m going to say. I had the honor of working with Burton so that’s all I care about.
SG: Repossessed is a really funny spoof of Exorcist. Why isn’t there more love for that?
LB: That was released the same time Friedkin had out The Guardian, Blatty had out Exorcist III, I had out Repossessed and it broke my heart because I think for all the people that are afraid to see it or don’t want to show their kids, it is a perfect film for them to be able to see it. I’m very proud of it. Thank you for giving it a shout out.
SG: In hindsight, how would you have navigated Hollywood after The Exorcist if you look back now?
LB: I think that it’s given me great tools to work with the press and with Linda Blair World Heart Foundation try to make a better relationship. There is no handbook. Somebody told me a long time ago there’s no book written for a young actor to know how to communicate. The technology always changes so for the press it changes and there’s no handbook for young people. Look at Lindsay Lohan and all of them. Nobody’s talking to them. They get fired. If they tell you no, you get fired. I wasn’t necessarily like that. I wasn’t like that at all but it is hard. It really is hard.

The Exorcist is now available on Blu Ray.

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/Linda+Blair+-+The+Exorcist/