Interview – Lin Shaye Talks THE CALL And Being A Horror Power Couple With Tobin Bell
Drew Tinnin
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Lin Shaye is a national treasure but one that wasn’t fully appreciated until her heroic turn as Elise Rainier in the Insidious franchise. Now, we want to go into battle with her or, rather, have her go into battle for us. Not even getting into her memorable work in classic comedies, she’s appeared in Alone in the Dark, A Nightmare On Elm Street, Critters, The Hidden, The Running Man, Pump Up the Volume (I had to include it), Detroit Rock City, 2001 Maniacs (alongside Robert Englund), Chillerama, Director’s Cut (wink) and Ouija: Origin of Evil from Mike Flanagan.
And yes, calling her the “Godmother of Horror” is certainly a term of endearment but she is so much more than that. She also happens to be one of the nicest humans in the business, alongside Tobin Bell whom she shares the screen with in her latest foray into horror, The Call, a late 80s set ghost story with a twist. Shaye is always easy to laugh and was open to talking about everything from her experiences working with Jack Hill on the now classic Western The Long Riders, the Elm Street legacy, her brother Bob Shaye who founded New Line Cinema, and being a horror power couple with Tobin Bell.
Synopsis: From the creator of Final Destination, Lin Shaye and Tobin Bell star in this terrifying tale of death from the fall of 1987. After a tragic accident, a group of small town friends must survive the night in the home of a sinister couple. One by one, their worst nightmares quickly become reality as they enter the realm of The Call. Four Friends. One Phone Call. 60 Seconds. Stay Alive.
Dread Central: Hi Lin Shaye!
Lin Shaye: Hey Drew!
DC: It’s funny, I’ve been in journalism a long time mostly in the genre space and I’ve interviewed Tobin multiple times over the years but you were really on my bucket list of interviews so it’s already a very good day for me.
LS: Oh, thank you. That’s a real compliment and I appreciate it so much.
DC: It’s cool that with Insidious and Saw, you have these two really large horror franchises and now you’re opposite Tobin Bell. You guys are the new horror power couple in The Call.
LS: Isn’t that great? I got so excited when we started…it was actually my manager that thought he would be a great fit. When she told me that I thought, ‘Oh my God, the audiences are going to love that!’ We both have the same godparents, Leigh Whannell and James Wan.
DC: Leigh’s fantastic as well. It’s great to see all of his success right now. Do you guys still correspond? Are you talking with him at all about the new Blumhouse stuff that he’s doing?
LS: I really haven’t. I haven’t talked to him in quite awhile. I talk to James a fair amount. Leigh kind of runs off on his own bicycle. I talk to Jason [Blum] quite a bit! Of course, he’s a wonderful writer and director and he’s been doing exquisite work so I wish him well and I hope I work with him again someday. That would be great but we’ll see.
DC: Well, enough about Leigh, let’s talk about you.
LS: Okay. (laughs)
DC: You must have had a good experience on Final Wish to want to work with Timothy Woodward and his team on this as well. You have that connection with Spencer Locke, too, she was in Insidious: The Last Key, right?
LS: Right, that’s right. Working with Timothy was really…I adore him, he’s a very interesting guy. Very cryptic. I don’t know who he really is as a person, I just know he’s a doer and he’s totally devoted to filmmaking. When we did the The Final Wish, I’ve told this story a couple of times, but he kind of hunted me down. I didn’t love the script, the script went through a lot of changes as all scripts do from the page to actually shooting. We sort of kept turning it down but Timothy would not let go. I took him out to lunch to thank him for being so persistent and I wanted to meet him. And, of course, during lunch he convinced me to do the movie! So, we had a wonderful time and I think the film turned out just great. It was us that got [The Call] to him and the rest is history. I think he did a really fantastic job. I’m very proud of the film.
DC: It’s interesting to me, hopefully to you, that Timothy has directed a couple westerns and you were in The Long Riders. I just love that movie. Is there anything that sticks out to you about that experience? It’s definitely a new western classic.
LS: Oh my god, that has a whole little story to it. Because Jimmy Keach, I knew him in New York and, of course, the Keach brothers are in the film. When I knew they were doing this I called them and I said, ‘Do you think there’s a role?’ They said, ‘Well, let me set you up to meet Walter [Hill].’ I remember I was wearing cut off jeans and cowboy boots.
DC: Perfect.
LS: And this T-shirt with a big tiger on it. (laughs) And I go over to Warner Brothers and there’s Walter who is just a wonderful human being in every way. I’ve done actually four movies, little tiny parts, but I’ve worked with him four different times. So he cast me as a prostitute. That was the role I got. It’s actually a great scene. I haven’t seen the movie in a long time now, but it’s one of my all-time favorite westerns. Just the idea of how I landed it and met Walter and that sort of off, sort of newbie actress. I hadn’t been in L.A. very long and I did whatever came into my head that I thought would be a good idea to be noticed and have someone give me the opportunity. So, he gave it to me and I’m forever grateful to be in that film.
DC: I love little stories like that, thank you. I’ve watched it again recently. If we could talk about some other things throughout your career in relation to The Call, did you get a kick out of the small connections in the film with the Elm Street franchise? Seeing how you appear in the original and, obviously your brother Bob Shaye was so integral in the series. I’m not sure if you’ve heard the music cues in The Call where the high school kids are trapped in your ghost world but they definitely feel like an homage to Freddy. Then, there’s that whole connection with Jack Sholder with Freddy’s Revenge…
LS: Right.
DC: …and you were in The Hidden and Alone in the Dark that he directed. So, any thoughts on that?
LS: Well, the thoughts on those movies is my big brother said put my sister in your movies! (laughs) Nepotism was alive and well and I was grateful. I was good. Even going back to the Farrelly brothers, that’s how I got in Dumb & Dumber. I didn’t know it in the beginning but my brother said to Charlie Wessler who was one of the producers, find a part for my sister. When I do well, I get the benefit of getting to work with those people again. You know, they go, ‘Oh! That’s not just Bobby Shaye’s little sister, she’s actually talented!’
So, the homage to Freddy, there is a feel of the old Nightmare On Elm Street, that sort of nineties, early mid-nineties feel. Or late eighties even, I mean that’s the kind of feel this film does have. I think that in itself is homage to that world of Elm Street and to Wes, of course. I didn’t really think about that at all when we were constructing the film and I was trying to find the character. I leave all that behind and really try to go to the moment of the detail, creating the character through detail. I think Edith is a very interesting and very sad woman who’s been really robbed of joy by these kids that just won’t let her live her life as she wanted to live it. So, there’s a real heart to the story. And, in a way, Elm Street doesn’t quite have that same thing. Elm Street is really an homage to real true horror and Freddy Krueger is such an awful but loving character. You fall in love with him because he’s got a big mouth so he knows how to torture you. It almost becomes comical. I actually think The Call is a much darker film than the Nightmare On Elm Street films.
DC: Some of the faces you make in this are really frightening. Do you practice in front of the mirror until you freak yourself out or does something take over when the camera’s on you?
LS: I never look at myself in the mirror. I hardly look at myself in the mirror for real!
DC: Yeah, me niether.
LS: Except when I want to get lipstick on sort of straight! I don’t want to know what I look like, I want to know what I feel like and I want to know what it makes you feel like to see me feel the way I feel. I don’t think at all like that. There was an early teacher I worked with named Joe Chaikin at the Open Theater when I lived in New York and we used to do mask work, but not real masks, our face. We would like find a place of torture and hold that for a really long time and do physical things with that mask without changing. It was really a real exercise in self-control and controlling facial muscles almost. A real physical work out. So maybe that sticks somewhere in my repertoire to pull but I never look at myself other than try to really be who I’m supposed to be in that moment in the film.
DC: Whatever you learned in that class, it definitely stuck. You’ve still got it.
LS: Thank you Drew for calling. I love Dread Central, you’re one of my staples, too. So thank you so much for including me in your thoughts.
DC: Of course, we’re always here for you, believe me.
LS: Okay that sounds good, I’m ready!
The Call is in theaters and drive-ins October 2, 2020 from Cinedigm.
Categorized:Interviews
