Linda Blair
Posted by Jaclyn Dornfeld in Uncategorized, tags: Ethics, Linda Blair, The Exorcist
The Exorcist (1973) is interesting to look at in many different roles but one aspect of the film that we talked only briefly about before watching it was the ethical concerns for the actors. Having a young child be exposed to such violent acts, language and physical stress is something that really needs to be explored. The readings talked about articles in Newsweek about The Exorcist that trumped the Watergate Scandal because such a young, innocent girl was faced with these issues.
While doing some research on Linda Blair’s life, I found that Linda Blair was a child model and had been in many commercials and motion pictures. After her role in The Exorcist, Blair had no trouble finding lead roles, but mostly about different troubled characters. In her own life, Blair had a problem with the young fame and took to drugs an alcohol at a later age. Even after The Exorcist had premiered, Blair received death threats and Warner Brothers hired police officers to live with her family for 6 months.
As she continued to get older, Linda Blair look was arrested in a large bust of cocaine and other amphetamine drugs. She was arrested for possession but the charges were dropped. Something very interesting I found about Linda Blair was a quote on IMDB.com from her about her role in the movie, “It was always very strange for me when I was young and would meet someone who geniunely seemed to be afraid of me. They couldn’t separate me from the monster I became in a movie. You wouldn’t believe how often people ask me to make my head spin around.” Linda Blair’s life has been defined at such a young age by her role in The Exorcist and these are troubles she has had to deal with since. The movie defined her life.
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I think this is defiantly something we should talk about in class. As well as something that people don’t think of. Children are used A LOT in horror movies to frighten audiences. I think its because we consider children the future and it makes it that much scarier that something (the devil, satan, or some other dark force) is messing with our future. The whole innocence of children also makes it more scary because if a being that is so new to the world can be susceptible to such torture as Regan (Linda Blair) in The Exorcist, the what hope do the rest of us have.
I wonder if child actors themselves are frightened of the movies they are in or if they are just so used to it, that they separate the film from real life (which was something we discussed that people failed to do with movies like The Exorcist).