Exclusive: Dee Wallace Talks Nope, Nothing Wrong Here: The Making of Cujo
Staci Layne Wilson
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Dee Wallace’s very first cinematic appearance onscreen was as Nettie the maid in 1975’s The Stepford Wives. She went on to horror fame in now-classic movies like The Hills Have Eyes (1977), The Howling (1981) and Cujo (1983). Though her most widely seen role is as Elliott’s mother, Mary, in the Steven Spielberg film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), she told us recently that the one movie that’s stuck with her the strongest is Cujo.
“Cujo is definitely one that has certainly stayed with me after all these years. It was a really difficult shoot and yet the joy of the challenge really stayed with a lot of us and of course, I was an intricate part of so many of the decisions that were made that yeah, I don’t know, I have really, really vivid memories of it, much more than E.T.”
Dee recently shared those memories with author Lee Gambin, who wrote the definite tome on the movie, Nope, Nothing Wrong Here: The Making of Cujo (review).
Dee hasn’t seen the book yet, but, “I certainly know Lee’s work from other things that he’s done and he leaves nothing unturned. He was just, ‘do you have any pictures, do you know of anybody with pictures and stories?’ Lee is nothing if not thorough. He knows how to put it together in an interesting way that’s really paced, too. I’m interested in putting the whole thing together. I’m sure I’m going to learn some things that I’ve been mistaken about or didn’t know about.”
As she and I were talking on the phone, a dog started barking in the background. I asked, “Is that Cujo?” Dee laughed and said, no not exactly. “He’s a sweetheart! I’ve always had dogs, and they’ve always come from rescues. I love dogs.” She told me there were 13 rescue dogs used in the movie. We weren’t allowed to play with them. When I did Lassie we weren’t allowed to interact with ‘Lassie’ either. I guess the more you bond with them the less distracted they are when they’re on set with you.”
When I asked Dee about the fracas on the set of Cujo when the first director, Peter Medak, was replaced with Louis Teague, she said, “It’s weird and it’s an adjustment for everybody. You just get a dialogue going, an understanding going but in the long run, and I’m a huge admirer of Peter’s work, I think that for whatever reason there hadn’t been a clear discussion about where the producers and myself wanted the picture to go and they saw my part and how Donna was, our vision of what Donna was and how she should be brought to life. I don’t ever remember any animosity, it was just we saw her different ways and we saw the telling of the story in different ways and ultimately of course it was the producers call about what’s going to go down as far as replacing him. It’s not like Lewis came in and usurped anything.”
She’s excited about the book. “You know, it’s my favorite film, it’s the film I’m most proud of my work in, so I’m thrilled that Lee has tackled this book and coming out with it and just love to support it however I can.”
Since female directors are rather trendy now, I asked Dee if she would ever want to don the jodhpurs and grab the bullhorn. “I have not ever wanted to direct a film. There are just so many politics. Maybe an independent film. I’ve done a lot of directing on stage and I’ve done a lot of directing as far as working with other actors. My forte is that, it’s certainly not the technical aspect of which camera to use, how to put it together, I would definitely have a vision but the technical stuff is not my forte and nothing I was ever interested in. My daughter however, is starting to emerge as a director and is really interested in all of that and is really good at it.”
When asked what keeps her interesting in just acting, even now, Dee said, “An actor wants to keep busy and want to stay creating. I’ve got a whole other business also as a healer and a teacher. I do private sessions every day for people and so there’s just something wonderful about the world that lets you juggle all of that and then it’s up to you to stay happy doing it, which is always the challenge. I just got back from the Sonoma Film Festival, they were celebrating a little short film that I did called Charlie’s Gift that I’m very proud of and you know, I don’t care, film, stage, TV, I just want to go create new parts that are exciting for me. I would rather live in the nebulas space of not having a permanent gig rather than having a permanent gig and being bored to death with the part. So I just wait for the exciting stuff to come find me and then I go play.”
Dee can currently be seen as a regular on the TV series “Just Add Magic.”
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