"Then he said: Well, Steven Spielberg is producing. So I read the script, which Spielberg had also written, and loved the family in it, and the fact that there were so many strong female characters: Diane, Dr Lesh, Tangina the psychic. Zelda Rubinstein, who played Tangina, was a dynamo. Spielberg was busy prepping ET, so even though he was often on set, Tobe Hooper, who made The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, directed."
"We'd all do improv to give the sense of a real family life sometimes they'd just roll a camera while we were chatting and telling jokes. Craig T Nelson, who played my husband, had been a standup. Where we're smoking pot in the bedroom, he improvised the before/after/before routine with his stomach. Little Heather O'Rourke, who played my youngest daughter, Carol Anne, was just five at the time, but very intuitive."
"Later, I get dragged across the bed, up the wall and across the ceiling by an invisible force. That was filmed on a rotating set called a gimbal, like the one that allowed Fred Astaire to dance on the ceiling in Royal Wedding. The cameraman, Dennis, was strapped to the set and had to go round and round like he was on a ferris wheel."
An actor initially rejected the Poltergeist script as horror until learning Steven Spielberg was producing and had written it; the actor loved the family and many strong female characters such as Diane, Dr Lesh and Tangina. Zelda Rubinstein, who played Tangina, performed energetically. Spielberg prepared ET and appeared often on set while Tobe Hooper directed. The cast improvised frequently to create authentic family interactions; Craig T Nelson introduced spontaneous routines during a bedroom scene. Five-year-old Heather O'Rourke responded intuitively to other actors, cried when prompted and endured physical discomfort without complaint. Several effects used complex practical techniques, including a one-take chair-stacking shot and a rotating gimbal for the ceiling sequence.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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