{"id":114745,"date":"2020-08-20T11:00:21","date_gmt":"2020-08-20T10:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=114745"},"modified":"2023-03-21T13:20:51","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T13:20:51","slug":"flashback-interview-with-veronica-cartwright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/interviews\/flashback-interview-with-veronica-cartwright\/","title":{"rendered":"Flashback: Interview with Veronica Cartwright"},"content":{"rendered":"

Commencing her career as a child actress in television, before being cast as 13-year old Cathy Brenner in Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s\u00a0classic\u00a0The Birds<\/strong><\/a>, Veronica Cartwright has carved out an impressively prolific career as a character actor over the past five decades. Notable genre roles subsequently\u00a0included classics like Ridley Scott\u2019s original\u00a0Alien<\/strong>, Phillip Kaufman\u2019s superior\u00a01978 remake to\u00a0Invasion Of The Body Snatchers<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and George Miller\u2019s\u00a0The Witches Of Eastwick<\/strong>, along with a slew of scene-stealing\u00a0guest appearances in TV shows like\u00a0The X-Files<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

We spoke to the award-winning actress about working with the great master of suspense, being originally considered for the role of Ripley in Alien<\/strong>, how equally surprised she was by the twist ending of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers<\/strong> and reveal how often she plays the voice of reason in cinema.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Tell us how you were cast in\u00a0The Birds<\/em>\u00a0and your\u00a0introduction to the great Alfred Hitchcock\u2026<\/span><\/h2>\n

I did a movie called\u00a0The Children\u2019s Hour<\/strong><\/em>, which starred Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn. Mr Hitchcock had seen me in it and requested a meeting. So I met him at\u00a0his bungalow\u00a0at Universal Studios. We just talked. He told me how to cook a steak, as he felt I would need to know this some day when I was married. Then after finding out I was born in Bristol he told me about great wines as his favourite wine cellar was in Bristol. It was just a conversation to see if we got along. He was just lovely to me. He had a very dry sense of humour.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are your fondest memories of working with the master?\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

He was always kind to me. I\u2019d ask him about how things were done and he\u2019d always answer me in detail and never made me feel uncomfortable. For example, the cardboard birds that were mixed in with real birds on the jungle gym scene\u2026 I said: \u2018Isn\u2019t the audience going to know that those are fake?\u2019 And he said: \u2018Well, the audience will\u00a0see movement and automatically assume that they\u2019re alive.\u2019 To this day it\u2019s hard to\u00a0pick out the fake birds!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Was it intense working with real birds?<\/span><\/h2>\n

A couple of times it was creepy. When the birds came down the chimney, they were sent down shafts that were pulled in a shimmy and thousands of them went up and hit the ceiling. Then, realising they couldn\u2019t go anywhere, they just dropped, which was disgusting and then [people] would just come along with shovels and sweep them back in and then into the shafts again. Thousands of birds flying around\u2026 it was creepy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Can you tell us\u00a0how the\u00a0famous bird attack sequence was\u00a0achieved upon\u00a0the running school children?<\/span><\/h2>\n

We shot everything twice. We shot in Bodega Bay where we ran down that hill and we had mechanical birds that were on some of the kids\u2019 shoulders. Those birds were built in Germany and were remote controlled. Then we shot it again in the studio with a mobile arm that swooped down with birds while we were running on this huge treadmill. We were all desperate to stay in front otherwise you\u2019d just wipe everybody out. We just ran for our lives!<\/span><\/p>\n

Also effective is when the birds invade the house pecking through the front door. How was that accomplished?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Well, there were a lot of real birds. They were finches in fact. They would have hammers and things like that so they would be able to go through the doors. However, they did also have birds sent in when Rod is trying to close the door. It was very realistic. The only early CGI was during that weird [bird\u2019s eye view] shot where the birds are circling above the town.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Being so young at the time, how much of an affect did the film have on you?\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Well, years later I had a wooden shingled roof house and a big eucalyptus tree outside and the crows would nest there. One day I heard this horrific stuff going on and I could hear all these things running on my roof and I saw 30 birds\u00a0pulling my shingles to make a nest! It was so creepy and I told them that I\u2019d done that movie already and they should just go away!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Alfred Hitchcock cast Veronica Cartwright in The Birds<\/strong> <\/em>after seeing her in The Children’s Hour.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Alien<\/em><\/a>\u00a0you played Lambert but you were originally considered for the role of\u00a0Ripley\u00a0weren\u2019t you?\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Originally that was the only part I read for so I assumed that was the part I had. I\u00a0called my agent and said, \u2018it\u2019s for Ripley right?\u2019 because they were saying I was Lambert! I hadn\u2019t even read the script from the point of view of Lambert. It bothered me that the character was so weepy, so I tried to make her not such a campy ass! But in a weird way that character was the audience and the way they were feeling; they wanted to get out of there too!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Director\u2019s Cut, there was a scene, following the quarantine altercation with Kane, where you slap Sigourney Weaver across the face! Was that real?<\/span><\/h2>\n

That was real. But every time I went to slap her she kept ducking. Then, Ridley Scott said to me “would you just get her this time!” So, I went to hit her and then I back-handed her and she was not a happy camper. Oh, she was pissed! She felt it wasn\u2019t right for the character that I would cry and so it was cut out of the film. However, I thought it was a perfect reaction; of course you\u2019d be pissed!<\/span><\/p>\n

Ripley and Lambert didn\u2019t really get along anyway did they?<\/span><\/h2>\n

I think we\u2019d all been in space too long. We were all aggregated with one another and that was what the whole thing was. After Dallas died Ripley becomes the captain but she has to earn that; nobody was just going to let her be the captain. I was sort of the voice of reason that thinks, \u2018let\u2019s get the fuck out of here!\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You get the most blood splattered on you during\u00a0the iconic alien chest-burster scene. What are your memories shooting that?\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Those were real reactions from everybody. John Hurt had a false chest filled with [animal] kidneys and livers\u2026 and then there was this puppeteer underneath doing the monster stuff, so we all saw the creature break through, turn around and look at us. I was told that I would get a little blood on me, but the blood jet was pointed directly in my face! I had no idea.\u00a0I started getting so fascinated watching that thing and\u00a0I then was just covered! That was the cut they used, as it was the only take we ever did.\u00a0Well, it worked! And everybody remembers it that\u2019s for sure!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Cartwright was told she would get “a little” blood on her during Alien’s<\/strong><\/em> famous chest-bursting scene…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is infamous for being a pretty tough shoot too. Was it as tense on set as reported?<\/span><\/h2>\n

It was a very tense shoot. The Nostromo set was interconnected and you had to literally go through this maze to get off the set so it was very claustrophobic. Those space suits weren\u2019t comfortable either and they forgot to give us air holes so we kept passing out. It was difficult and when we shot all that stuff there was a heat wave in England and all the bottles of beers were popping in the pubs. I\u2019d lost ten pounds in just one week. It was grotesque. It was a rough shoot but we all made it work.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You were similarly cast in a \u2018voice of reason\u2019 role in Phillip Kaufman\u2019s 1978 version of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers<\/em>. Tell us about that.<\/span><\/h2>\n

The film is about people being afraid of really loving or hating or of any true emotion\u2026 making it so much easier to live in that grey world. That\u2019s what makes it so creepy. I said to Phillip [Kaufman], can we just try something here\u2026 it builds to a point where I say, \u2019they\u2019re like monkeys and apes\u2026\u2019 and that ended up being in the movie. The information becomes a stimulating topic of conversation and again my character is the voice of reason.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Your character is\u00a0essentially the only real\u00a0human left at the end. The twist when Donald Sutherland\u2019s character is\u00a0revealed to be a pod person and emits that infamous shriek\u2026 that was a surprise to you too wasn\u2019t it?<\/span><\/h2>\n

At the end of the movie when Donald Sutherland\u2019s character screams at me I just freaked out! Both of us were told different things; so when he was revealed to have turned into one of [the pod people] I flipped out! My character, Nancy, was the voice of reason again. I even thought they might make a sequel, because she\u2019d taken every precaution not to be found out and made sure nobody else was around, but of course, I did not know Donald was going to do that!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Cartwright wasn’t told the actual ending to Invasion Of The Body Snatchers<\/strong><\/em>…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With\u00a0George Miller\u2019s\u00a0The Witches Of Eastwick<\/em><\/a>\u00a0you play what ultimately\u00a0became a\u00a0very outlandish character. How fun was that role?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

She\u2019s just fantastic and it was so much fun.\u00a0You just don\u2019t get parts like that anymore.\u00a0You think she\u2019s so prim and proper but she wasn\u2019t.\u00a0You just don\u2019t get scripts where you get to go ballistic and nuts and come up with things off the top of your head: growling, galloping and feeling oneself up \u2013 she was just a wacko! But the script made me do all those things!<\/span><\/p>\n

Tell us about filming the infamous vomiting scene\u2026<\/span><\/h2>\n

It took five days to shoot that scene. It was a tube that went up my dress and into my hand. That was actually the first take because after\u00a0the second take they had to redress everything, which took an hour. They were real cherries with pips that were in huge tanks and then it shot up into my hand\u00a0and looked like I was spewing it up. But the second time we did it\u00a0nothing came out so I tried again\u2026 somebody turned the valve all the way up and it got to be so strong I had no control of my arm! It hit me in the face, my arm flew up, it flew up over the top of the set, it was hysterical and there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn\u2019t control my arm!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Cartwright’s character, Felicia Alden, in The Witches Of Eastwick<\/strong><\/em> was a wacko!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More recently you had a cameo role in the fourth\u00a0Body Snatchers<\/em> movie\u00a0The Invasion<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0Can you tell us how you came to be cast?\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

The director, Oliver\u00a0Hirschbiegel,\u00a0requested meeting me because I had been in the other one. He discussed how [my character] could\u2019ve survived and taken on a whole new identity and here it was happening all over again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There were reportedly some problems during production with reshoots…<\/span><\/h2>\n

Oliver had directed it originally and then they ended up reshooting stuff over a year later. It was James McTeigue that ended up doing the reshoot so they reshot that whole thing again. I don\u2019t know what happened, it was kind of odd.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So the \u2018my husband isn\u2019t my husband\u2019 scene was reshot. What was different about it originally?<\/span><\/h2>\n

I was\u00a0more paranoid about things that were happening and it made it seem more like I\u2019d been through this before and knew something really wasn\u2019t good. I thought Oliver was doing a great job. He was bringing great eeriness to the whole thing and really added a sort of grunginess to it which made it much more interesting. Then James McTeigue came in, who was a very nice man, but it just looks like an entirely different movie.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Birds, Alien, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and The Witches Of Eastwick are available on Blu-ray.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Read our deep dive with Veronica Cartwright with our FLASHBACK on The Birds<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Providing memorable turns in The Birds, Alien, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and The Witches Of Eastwick, Veronica Cartwright has been part of several iconic scenes in genre cinema. We spoke to the actress about her most prominant roles in sci-fi and horror.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":114748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[2617,7],"tags":[125,6932],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Veronica-Cartwright.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114745"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127967,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114745\/revisions\/127967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}