William Friedkin, 'The Exorcist' Director, Slapped Actors & Fired Rifles On Set
Exorcist Director Employed Face Slapping & Firearms To Achieve His Masterpiece
The Exorcist, released to movie theaters on December 26, 1973, remains the scariest Hollywood film of all time, and this cinematic fact shall always be so.
Discuss my bold statement. Go ahead. Argue amongst yourselves how dead wrong or oh so right I am. I’ll patiently wait while lunching on warm pea soup. Mmmmmm so green.
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You should know I’m partial to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. It still gets me every time. Admittedly, I know it so well I’m not surprised, nor truly shocked anymore, however this classic’s fearful meat’s still on the bone, and it still fills me up. John Carpenter’s Halloween is akin to this well known scare fare, yet still as powerful in most ways. The Shape, on Halloween, remains a frightful landscape. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre from Tobe Hooper still hooks me into a monstrous meat locker. Leatherface beats Friday The 13th Jason or A Nightmare On Elm Street Freddy by a cool horror mile.
Above all, however, film director William Friedkin’s documentary like examination of the demonic possession of Linda Blair as tortured Regan and Father Damian’s (Jason Miller) spiritual turmoil deftly suprasses them.
What exactly are Friedkin’s making of secrets - the skillful key to much of the horror we see in his final product? How did Friedkin motivate his actors to show real fear in these memorable scenes? Hollywood is known for its masterful grasp of illusion and using deceptive tricks to make us feel and think the way film makers desire.
Did he employ complex directorial methods involving the famed method? Were acting workshops or in depth rehearsals held as most Broadway theater creatives rely upon? Shit, did he simply horndog it and sleep with members of the willing cast? Don’t be so fast to mock it dismissively. Apparently, sex has worked for more than a few productions. Did Friedkin summon up real demons to light a fire under his cast’s collective ass?
Nope. None of that. He slapped an actor silly and constantly shot rifles on set.
Oh yeah. Slaps and firearms. It’s all true. This isn’t an urban myth nor a tall tale designed to unnerve. The terrific terror tale is told by slap happy Friedkin himself in the great Shudder original documentary, Leap Of Faith: William Friedkin On The Exorcist
A Frank Friedkin
Talking candidly throughout this excellent documentary, Friedkin admits that it wasn’t his own idea to shoot off firearms near the actors while filming. He was inspired by the artillery antics of director George Stevens, who while filming the Oscar winning drama, The Diary of Anne Frank 1959, regularly shot pistols to jar his crew into the nerve wracked state he desired to elicit in them.
And the slapping of actors? The physical incident involved a real priest and also actor, Bill O’Malley, who portrayed Father Joseph Dyer in the film.
Until we came to the scene where he has to come to tears as he’s giving the last rites to his good friend, who’s dying, and O’Malley couldn’t do it. And I took O’Malley aside and I said, “Bill, do you love me?” And he said, “Of course I love you, Bill. You know that.” I said, “Do you trust me?” He said, “Of course I trust you.” I said, “Okay.” and I turned away, then I hit him full in the face! I smacked him in the face and I pushed him in front of the camera and I said, “Action!”
And afterward he hugged me, thanked me because there was no other way he was gonna ever get to that, but I don’t think I’d do that again that way. Techniques like that would not go over today. That wasn’t something I invented. That was done by directors like John Ford and George Stevens that produce emotion.
Friedkin goes on a real in depth reminiscing about everything from the make-up tests for Linda Blair in her various dread demonic states to how famous foreign films, film director Alfred Hitchcock, various paintings and famous photographs helped influence his visual and filmmaking style for The Exorcist.
William Friedkin isn’t the only Hollywood director who’s used extreme or even violent measures to get what he wanted in front of his camera. Friedkin’s creative inspiration, Hitchcock, is well documented to have used some truly off kilter stuff of his own.
Bill Mumy, most famous for playing Will Robinson in the classic sci-fi TV show, Lost In Space, relates a chilling tale about Alfred Hitchcock, who directed him in an episode for his TV show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Mumy, only 7 at the time, was having trouble hitting his mark. A stressed out Hitchcock pulled the boy aside privately and said, “If you don’t stop moving about, I’m going to get a nail and nail your feet to your mark, and the blood will come pouring out like milk. So stop moving!”
Wow. Considering the shocking nature of Bill Mumy’s grisly little Hitchcock anecdote, especially when it pertains to such a young child, it appears demonic directing William Friedkin’s antics don’t seem all that strange, uncommon nor upsetting afterall.