The Exorcism of Emily Rose – Set Visit Report, Pt 4 of 4

Q: This question is for Scott.   It’s my understanding that you’re playing the film in an ambiguous way where you’re letting the audience figure out is she really possessed or is she not?   Do you find yourself having to self-censor yourself visually when you’re filming the exorcism scenes because you don’t want to make them too horrific and imply to the audience that she is possessed ….?

SD: Yeah.   I mean yeah, it’s a real, uh, tightrope walk that, um, balance, and, and I, you know, and again I don't know how well we've achieved that.  I do know that it hasn't been terribly difficult, like I haven't been distracted by it because I think that there was so much rigor put into that in the screenplay. 

I think that our actress, um, Jennifer Carpenter you know, who plays, who plays Emily Rose is, you know, she's so extraordinary, um, in the role that it, it actually took a lot of that weight off of me because wh--  you know, I really reconceived how to do the entire movie at her call-back audition because she was so frightening, and she was--  it was so surreal, just her in a, in a room full of guys, you know, behind a desk, uh, behind a ch--  you know, a table like this. 

What she was doing was so counterintuitive to watch -- what she can do with her body, the way just--  and the realism to it --  and I had this terrible sense of gosh, how am I going to make these possession and exor scenes--  exorcism scenes frightening, you know?   Well what camera tricks can I use?   How far can I go?  And then when I saw her I was like “Well, you've just gotta point--  turn the camera on and point it at her, you know.”  And, and when she is doing things that are more representative of, you know, sort of mental illness and something that's not so supernatural it's really equally disturbing.  And, and I think that's one of the things that's interesting about it. 

So she took a lot of the burden off me in that, in that respect.  Um, but you do have--  from a story point of view, you know, there are certainly--  there is a good amount of kind of paranormal things in the, in the story, and so you're always trying to remember who's telling this story, you know, and, and of course in that respect it was, you know, very influenced by RASHOMON .  

There's a, that’s a, you know, a RASHOMON type story, that's a phrase that gets thrown out a lot, but it's oftentimes not really a RA--   you know, just because something's fragmented it's not RASHOMON, but when, when there's a same event that really is being remembered different ways or being thought of as (MUMBLES) different realities are being presented, it's incredibly interesting because memory does warp history in some regard, and so you get, you get a certain range of, of freedom when you're telling a story like that too because you--  when you, you can go a certain distance and think boy we're really making this look supernatural and this is supernatural, but then you're remembering “Oh, but that's the priest telling his, his version, you know, as opposed to someone else who's talking about, uh, the same situation from a much more skeptical point of view.” 

So, but it's--  that’s what's fun about it, and it's what's interesting about it and, and somewhere in the heart of that is what the movie is about, I think.  It certainly is for me.

Q: Do your spiritual beliefs change as you’re working on something this intense?

Campbell Scott: Yeah, I would think that happens.  Yeah.  I would think we wouldn't often admit it, uh, but I, I would, uh, uh, conjecture that that's part of the reason -- those of us who are actors -- became actors in the first place.  There's something about…  not necessarily changing outwardly, but there's something about learning about something that you--  someone's point of view that you would have never considered before, whether you're playing a military person or a priest or a lawyer or a…  I mean to me this is the attraction, because suddenly instead of immediate labeling, which we're all very fond of because it cuts the fear down, you're suddenly looking at someone/something from someone else's--  literally walking in their shoes.  Now, you know, we joke around all day. 

It's an exorcist movie.  Do we really believe this stuff?   No, late at night is probably when we really think about what you're asking about, and personally I think those things change as your life goes on too. 

There, there have been points of my life where I might be much more open to the kinds of things that we're talking about, whereas another part of my life I might be much more solid and think no, no, no, I don't believe in that.  It just depends on your track.  But the cool thing about being an actor is that when you get a job you get to go and spend one or two months or whatever f-finding that out, and usually nobody gets hurt which is a very, uh, a very satisfying way to live.  Not always.  I mean it can be--  by solving those problems can be very frustrating and piss you off or whatever, you know, or scare you.  But most of the time it's very, it’s very rewarding.

Q: Who is actually doing the effects and what kind of budget do you have?

SD: Um, to be honest with you I don't know exactly what the budget is on it.  Uh, Captive Audience is doing it, and Captive Audience, (MUMBLES), I talked to a number of people about special effects and, and, uh, the reason why-- 

There were two reasons why I really chose Captive Audience.  One… they did all the--  they did the effects on THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST.  They did both makeup and digital effects, and, and so much of that was dealing with the human body, and there was a seamlessness I thought to a lot of the effects in that in terms of both makeup--  the blending of makeup effects and digital effects and they just--  there was a, there was a realism to it that I thought was very effective. 

Um, but they all--  again they were also the, the company that I think best just kind of understood the aesthetic of the movie, you know, and they, they seemed really excited about, about, uh, making something that was intelligent and, and they, they recognized that it was very important given the quality of the actress that they would be mostly working with in Jennifer, um, to stay out of her way, you know, um, and, and rely on her performance, let her performance do what it do--  let it be what it is, and, uh, and only enhance it rather than distract from it.  So, um, and so, you know, they--  as they've really been getting underway I've been really happy with them so far. 

Q: Who’s point of view is mostly featured in the film?

SD: I think the RASHOMON intention is to, to really--  to communicate the idea that you, you never really can know the truth of history, and it’s--  things were left so opaque.  Um, I don't think this movie's quite that opaque, um, but, but yeah, I can't really go any farther than that without, without giving things away that probably shouldn’t [be].

Q: How do you view the genre in its current state, and how do you feel you’re contributing to it?

SD: Uh, that's an excellent question.  Um, yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about, you know, ‘cause--  because I've been in-involved with.  And I've been to all of these websites at some point, so, you know, none of you's names are, are, are surprising me.  Um, I mean hor--   yeah, horror fans are rabid fans, you know, and they--  I think what I love the most about horror fans is, is just--  it's not the--  and I think the greatest misconception about horror fans is that they just--   they love, that they love gore and they love--  they, they, they love cinema, and they really love this kind of cinema and they love the, the, the things that horror cinema can do that they can't get anywhere else, not in horror novels, not in graphic novels, not in anything else.  And, um, I think…. what was the second part of your question?

Q: I was just asking you about the current state …?

SD: Well, I think that--  I think that it's, it’s, um, it's a very exciting time to be working with this genre because it's beginning to branch out where it belongs.  I really feel that -- this is pure abstraction, so, you know, and I, and I, uh, I don't want to be too, too abstract about it -- but I really think that this is a genre that, that historically, you know, hasn't gotten the respect that it deserves.  I don't know how else to put it.  And I, and I, and I mean in cinema. 

But if you look back at the rest of history, you know, literary history and history of the theater, you know, the macabre and the horrific and the gothic, these are things that were so integral in all of the great arts and the cathedrals have gargoyles on them in Europe.  But, you know, our--  the churches nowadays don't have horrific things in them like they did back then.  I think that, that, that there's something about cinema this century that, um, as it went on and special effects developed it began--  it, it sort of began to pander I think, um, a little bit to the lower common denominator, and it's almost like now people are realizing wow, you can really, you can really branch out with this genre.  You can really get into ideas and you can really get into characters and get into situations that are, uh, as, as provocative as anything you're going to find in any movie. 

And I, you know, I look at the great sort of--  whether it's THE OTHERS or THE SIXTH SENSE or THE RING, you know, these are all movies that, that have I think started to open up the possibilities of, of the genre. 

And I think that, uh, you can even be more frightening than those films and still have great characters.  And the seventies gave the promise of that with ROSEMARY'S BABY and THE OMEN, and those are my favorite horror films, you know, certainly, and, and, and THE EXORCIST.  So I think I'm, you know, I'd love to think that this is gonna fall in that line, but, you know, that would be presumptuous to think that until it's done, you know.  

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