After The Exorcist became a gigantic hit for Warner Bros. back in 1973, a sequel became all but inevitable and, sure enough, we got several of them. What we didn’t get were Exorcist sequels starring Ellen Burstyn, who played Chris MacNeil, the mother of the most possessed daughter in cinema history.
Flash forward many decades. The folks at Blumhouse and David Gordon Green announce that they’re working on a new, direct sequel to The Exorcist, and that Ellen Burstyn would be returning to her iconic role. How’d they manage that? In a new interview with THR, the iconic actress happily lays it out for us:
You know, what happened was I’ve turned down many versions of The Exorcist 2. I’ve said no every time. This time they offered me a whole bunch of money and I still said no. And then they surprised me and they came back and said, ‘We doubled the offer.’ I said, ‘OK, let me think about this.’ I thought, ‘That’s a lot of money. Let me think about it.’ The next thought that came to mind was: ‘I feel like the devil is asking my price.’ And the next thought that came to mind was, ‘My price is a scholarship program for talented students at our master’s degree program at Pace University. That’s my price.’ So I then went back and upped their up and ended up getting what I want. And I’ve got a scholarship program for young actors.
That’s how ya do it, folks. Ellen Burstyn knows her value, calls her shots, and manages to break ground on a brand-new acting scholarship program for Pace University. This will be an instructive story to keep in mind the next time any of us are negotiating our pay rates on a new job. When someone asks your going rate, you should think, “What would Ellen Burstyn do?” You might not launch a whole-ass scholarship program in the process, but maybe you can wring a few extra thousand out of ’em per year.
The new Exorcist seems to be a ways out, but we’re admittedly curious to see what Gordon Green’s come up with her, and will obviously be keeping our ears to the ground for further updates on the project. Stay tuned for those, and if you’d like a little further reading on David Gordon Green’s horror output in the meantime, I suggest picking up the latest issue of FANGORIA Magazine.
