{"id":19208,"date":"2015-06-05T16:22:49","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T23:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qgp.ykq.mybluehost.me\/cinephiled\/?p=19208"},"modified":"2016-02-11T22:36:10","modified_gmt":"2016-02-12T06:36:10","slug":"interview-lin-shaye-hester-street-whore-godmother-horror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/interview-lin-shaye-hester-street-whore-godmother-horror\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Lin Shaye \u2014 from \u2018Hester Street\u2019 Whore to Godmother of Horror in ‘Insidious: Chapter 3’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just when you thought you were safe at the multiplex, it\u2019s time to take another visit to The Further, the terrifying other-worldly realm that is part and parcel of the popular Insidious franchise. With original director James Wan now immersed in the Fast and Furious<\/em> series as well as the upcoming Aquaman<\/em>, the new film, Insidious: Chapter 3<\/em>, was directed by screenwriter and franchise co-creator Leigh Wannell who also continues his role as Specs. The latest chapter in the series takes place several years before the haunting of the Lambert family in the first two films. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"linshaye-award\"<\/a>But the family involved in the new story still relies on the serves of renowned psychic Elise Rainier, played in all of the films by Lin Shaye who was recently named the \u201cGodmother of Horror\u201d at the Wizard World Comic Con in Philadelphia. In addition to the Insidious<\/em> franchise, Shaye has appeared in more than 20 horror films including the classic A Nightmare on Elm Street<\/em> and the cult favorite Snakes on a Plane<\/em>. Before that, she was in films ranging from Joan Micklin Silver\u2019s Hester Street<\/em> (one of my personal favorites) to the Farrelly Brothers\u2019 Dumb and Dumber<\/em> and There\u2019s Something About Mary<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this prequel of sorts, Elise helps a young teenaged girl (Stefanie Scott) and her widowed father, Sean (Dermot Mulroney) who are fighting a mysterious force that seems to be taking control of the sensitive girl. We see how Elise first meets her co-horts Specs and Tucker (Angus Sampson) and watch as Elise ventures into The Further to face off with one of the most ruthless enemies she has ever encountered.<\/p>\n

\"insidious-dm\"<\/a>Before sitting down to chat with Lin Shaye, I experienced the Oculus Rift \u201c4D\u201d virtual reality version of Insidious 3<\/em> that scared the bejeesus out of me. You can see me cowering in the exhibit like a cornered rat which is what I felt like! This terrifying (but way cool) experience will be traveling to various theaters around the country that are showing the film. You feel like you\u2019re dropped into the actual movie and you have a 360-degree view of Elise and the various ghouls that populate The Further. Lin herself had just gone through the Oculus Rift attraction before me and even though she\u2019s IN it, she still screamed!<\/p>\n

Danny Miller: Congratulations on your Godmother of Horror award, Lin! Was a career in horror something you actively pursued?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lin Shaye:<\/strong> Not really, Danny, I kind of fell into it by accident. I\u2019m drawn to good story, good characters, and good people, those are always my criteria for doing anything. I love all the genres. I certainly love comedy \u2014 the Farrelly brothers really jumpstarted my career, I am so grateful to them.<\/p>\n

How did you first break into horror films?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My big brother, Bob Shaye, started New Line Cinema in 1968. Bob was the one who gave me some great opportunities when I was just a schemdrick in Hollywood. He would graciously say to filmmakers, \u201cHey, put my sister in your movie!\u201d That\u2019s how I got Nightmare on Elm Street<\/i> and Critters<\/i> and it went on from there until the Insidious movies started.<\/p>\n

But you started out in theater in New York?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes. Acting was always in my heart. When I was a little girl, I would literally take all of the clothes out of my closet and make up stories with my stuffed animals and my dolls. Really full scenarios that were serials \u2014 they would pick up the next day where I left off! And did all the school plays.<\/p>\n

Musicals, too?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, including when I was at the University of Michigan, even though I don\u2019t really sing. But I was a good actress so they\u2019d give me the parts that were more speaking roles like Wonderful Town<\/i>. I played Helen, I loved that show. But at Michigan I was an art history major, I never really thought about acting as a career. After I graduated, I got my first job at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the registrar\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Ooh, what a cool place to work!<\/strong><\/p>\n

The best. I used to go in at 8 in the morning and walk around the Egypt exhibit \u2014 talk about ghosts! I still get goosebumps thinking about it. That is a spooky place! But then I realized I missed being in plays\u00a0and I ended up going to Columbia to study acting. I stayed in New York doing theater after that for many years. The fact that my work in horror films has turned into such a big thing in my life is a total surprise. I am beyond grateful!<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something I love so much about Elise. She\u2019s such a grounded human being despite her psychic abilities that I feel like I\u2019m better able to enter these movies with her as a guide.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the skill of James and Leigh. Leigh wrote such a beautifully constructed story for Elise in these films and I think this one is scary in ways that people are not expecting because it\u2019s really about loss and grief.<\/p>\n

I loved Chapter 2 when we got to see you just starting out in this profession. That woman who played you in the flashback scenes, Lindsay Seim, was so good. But that was your voice, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

She did a great job, and yes, that was my voice \u2014 or Elise\u2019s voice, as I like to say!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s cool that we got to see you at the beginning and then much later and now we\u2019re getting some of your middle backstory that I bet you never expected.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Never. I made up my own backstory when I did the other two films but it was not as rich as this. And, again, I think what Leigh did so skillfully was to use that theme of grief and loss which Quinn and her Dad were also going through to help bring us all together in a kind of powerful family unit.<\/p>\n

How was it working with Leigh as a director?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was awesome. I knew Leigh from the other films, of course, and he was just fabulous. It took him about two days and he was in 100 percent. Great attitude, funny as can be, absolutely tireless, and always open to creative and technical suggestions. If Leigh didn\u2019t understand something because he was a first-time director, he never hesitated to ask people for help. We were all working 16-hour days and he was probably working 23 hours a day, but he never lost it!<\/p>\n

\"Dermot-Mulroney-In-Insidious-Chapter-3-Photos\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I always wonder if the actors in scary movies ever have moments of actual fear on the set.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m always scared because I want to do a good job, but I guess that\u2019s a different kind of scary! (Laughs.) But there is a vulnerability that these characters have that opens you up to all kinds of stuff. And there is sometimes a crossover between the physicality of the part and the fear. It took us forever to shoot that scene where the woman in black is after me and as you\u2019re doing that over and over, and I\u2019m being grabbed, my body doesn\u2019t know I\u2019m pretending. By the end of that night I was like, \u201cDon\u2019t anyone touch me, don\u2019t anyone come near me, I want to go home and get into bed!\u201d Even though I know<\/i> it\u2019s pretend, it can still be a little freaky.<\/p>\n

Lin, before I go, I have to ask you about one of my favorite movies of all-time that you did at the beginning of your career.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hester Street?<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes! I love that movie so much and you have a very interesting credit in that film.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a great movie. People forget that Carol Kane was nominated for an Academy Award for that film \u2014 and she mostly speaks in Yiddish! That was really my first movie role. Joan Micklin Silver, the director, came up with this beautiful story about these people on the Lower East Side of New York about a hundred years ago. She told me that there was this part of a prostitute. It was small role but this woman had an interesting story \u2014 she was trying to bring the rest of her family over from Poland and she was earning 25 cents an hour as a prostitute compared to 5 cents an hour working in the sweat shop.<\/p>\n

I remember you in the film but now I want to go back and watch it again.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Part of my stuff got cut out \u2014 I think the only time you see me in the finished film is when the wonderful Steven Keats comes to see me. There\u2019s a moment when I lean forward and you can see my breasts and I remember thinking, \u201cOh God, my mom is NOT gonna like this!\u201d So cut to the movie\u2019s opening day. Everyone was so excited and I invited my mom and dad to come to New York for the big premiere. I didn\u2019t tell my mom too much about my part, I wanted her to be surprised. So then at the end of the movie the credits roll and I think I was the very last credit. It just said, \u201cLin Shaye: Whore.\u201d And I remember that my mother looked at the screen, then at me, then back at\u00a0the screen, and then ran out to the Ladies Room and threw up!<\/p>\n

Oh my God, that is the best story ever. \u201cFor this<\/i> we paid for her to go to Columbia University?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n