The Ladies of "The Evil Dead"

Living-Dead.com: I know that during the production of a motion picture, certain scenes become favorites of the people who acted in it. What scene or scenes in 'Evil Dead' are your gals favorites, whether it be for sentimental purposes, or for the simple fact that it looked great on screen?

Ladies: There are only a few scenes in which we appear all together before we take on a "possessed life of our own": the car scene, which was shot during the first few days upon our arrival in Tennessee, long before we started freezing our fannies off every night and we still looked at least human, and the card-playing scene - a real classic. Linda really is dumb enough to think she has ESP, Shelly is dumb enough to make Linda think she has ESP, and then there's Cheryl, who just couldn't mind her own business, turns around to play with us, and ruins the evening for all of us.

Living-Dead.com: Question for Ellen: During the scene when Linda and Shelly are messing around with the playing cards and you begin reciting the exact same cards, how was the levitation scene done? That scene really freaked me out as a kid, and has managed to stay with me till this day.

Ladies: They put me on what has now been affectionately named the "Ellievator". Basically they attached me to a harness which was attached to the end of a telephone pole. The pole went out the window so they could basically see-saw me up into the air - not too comfortable, but it worked!

Living-Dead.com: It's obvious by the location of the filming in 'Evil Dead', that is was indeed a very secluded location. What kind of experience, (you all being the beautiful and elegant ladies you are), was it to give up the luxuries of a warm bath and soft bed, during production of 'Evil Dead'?

Ladies: Thanks for the "beautiful and elegant"! We really did have to give up warm baths and soft beds, however! The first one back to the house usually got all the hot water, so you were very lucky if you were the first one out of the car and up the stairs after a long, cold night of shooting at the cabin or worse, in the woods. And Sarah, being the savvy one and thinking ahead, would sometimes sneak into the tub and have a nice hot bath in the middle of the day, just before we trudged off to the set. But a soft bed, never. We took turns between twin beds and an army cot.

Living-Dead.com: Question for Betsy: Your strange, off the wall, horrorfying screams during your on-screen possession seemed to never end! How the heck did you manage to scream so loud for such a long period of time!? Was this scripted, or something you just add libbed once the production started?

Ladies: Well, some people say it was because I was a singer and I had great lung capacity. OK, not really. But I figured, if I really screamed loud and made the film crew cringe when I did the babydoll laugh, I wouldn't have to do it over and over too many times. The possession with the babydoll-like features wasn't scripted; it actually took on a life of it's own once we started to rehearse the scene one night - Sam liked the laugh, and it took off from there.