P.J. SOLES TALKS ABOUT MAKING 'CARRIE'
Somehow I had missed this magnificent interview with P.J. Soles from last week, posted by Vulture's Patti Greco, who talked to Soles by phone shortly before the Carrie remake came out. Soles had much to share about making the 1976 film, including a lot of details about how it was to work with Brian De Palma on the set."He wasn’t really a dictator," Soles tells Greco. "It was definitely his set. You always know who the director is: They’re the one in charge and they’re sitting in the higher chair. But he wasn’t very verbal. For instance, at the end of a scene, a lot of directors will go, 'Cut. That’s great, let’s do another one.' Or, 'Oh, that’s great, we can move on.' He would say cut and then you’d look and if he had this sly smile on his face, you knew he liked it. And then he’d just kind of mumble. And if you saw the camera move, you’d go, I guess we’re moving on. That’s good. We’re not gonna do it again. So it wasn’t a loud set; it was a very quiet set. It was really about the shots, and the lighting, and the look. We came in at the last minute like a football team, like, Okay, run this play. We have the field mowed, the people in the stands, and then the players come in to run one play. We were sort of the afterthought to everything that was going on. Everything that led up to it was what took the time, and it looks like that. To me, when I watch it now, it looks like a work of art; it looks like somebody painted this movie."
Go to Vulture to read the rest-- I'll post more highlights later.