CS.com: Is it
true that you nearly turned down the part because you
had to drive home and so you refused to chew your right
hand off?
SY:
*laughs* That's my line... ok. That was at the
audition, they wanted me to chew off my left hand, but
because I had to drive home I said no. I almost didn't
take the part for a different reason and that was
because of the Union. It was a non-Union shoot and I was
in the Union. You guys in the UK aren't real big on the
Union but in Detroit, where all of this took place,
there is no bigger Union town in the world... maybe in
Ireland, but in the US Detroit is very tough on that and
they wouldn't give me an answer. I asked for a waiver,
I'd only jut joined a couple of weeks before the shoot.
Rarely do you get the opportunity to do a feature film,
I came in and said that I'd love to do but I needed
permission. I went to the Union and asked for permission
and they never gave me an answer. So I went ahead and
did it and I used a pretend name thinking they'd never
see it...
CS.com:
And here were are 20-years later and EVERYBODY has
seen it.
SY:
...everyone's seen it and I'm signing all my
pictures as Sarah York. I guess there are worse things
that could happen.
CS.com: Tell us
a bit about the environment on the set of THE EVIL DEAD.
It's one of the most highly regarded horror movies of
all time and yet I can't help but sit their smiling at
the sheer fact that it looked as though you guys were
having so much fun. Please, set me straight because I
want to be scared by this flick again.
SY:
Well, I guess it depends on how you have fun. For
me... being nailed under a floor with worms, rats and
mice, contact lenses in your eyes so you can't see a
thing, really isn't what I'd call fun.
CS.com:
I suppose you could think of things you'd rather be
doing on a Saturday afternoon.
SY:
Yeah, and while everyone else is falling
asleep, and on that particular shoot, the camera man
decided to fall asleep while I was nailed under the
ground. I couldn't believe it! Here I am freezing,
scared that a snake is gonna bite me and he fell asleep
during all my acting moments. A lot of us would fall
asleep, we were often very tired, we shot when the
weather was good, which is was unseasonably cold, it was
a record cold in Tennessee that year. So we had a lot of
trouble with the weather, there was no money so we shot
quickly, Sam wanted a thousand takes of everything. We
were just exhausted.
CS.com:
You mentioned that before you signed up to do the
film that you thought nobody would ever see it, hence
why you used the pretend name, but while you were
filming it did you have any idea that it would lead to
what's followed?
SY:
Oh God no. In fact I just really learned about all
this a couple of years ago. None of us who acted in it
really knew the scope of the fan base. We certainly had
no idea while we were shooting it... it just looked so
awful. *laughs* and we were there when Sam would make us
use a different mask for a scene that happened just
before. The continuity was just so bad and we felt that
nobody was going to watch this movie... let alone the
acting, the special effects
CS.com:
It must be fun to looking back at it
though?
SY: It's fun doing the
conventions and meeting the people who love the movie
and it's great that we get to meet the fans because it
gets us excited and it's kinda fun.
CS.com:
That to us is what the film is all
about.
SY:
... yeah. It's great.
CS.com:
Can you tell us a little bit about the short movie
that was filmed 'Within The Woods'?
SY: I've seen it. I'm one of
the few I know. *laughs* They actually used it as a
trailer to get money for THE EVIL DEAD... Book Of The
Dead, as it was known as then. It's with Ellen. Ellen
actually kills Bruce at the end of that
movie.
CS.com: Yeah the rolls are
kind of reversed in that one.
SY:
You've never seen it right?
CS.com:
I've seen a very poor quality downloaded version,
but fingers crossed if ANOTHER version of THE EVIL DEAD
comes out on DVD, hopefully it will be
included.
SY: You'll have to talk to
Sam about that one... but yeah, we're all
hoping.
NEXT