Yahoo Movies The Exorcist: Believer director explains how the shocking ending came about
The Exorcist: Believer spoilers follow.
David Gordon Green, the director of horror film The Exorcist: Believer, has revealed how the film's final surprise cameo came about.
Following the typically brutal, bloody and sacrilegious ending of the direct sequel to 1973's The Exorcist, fans were given an extra surprise when Linda Blair, who starred in the original horror flick, appeared.
With main character Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) recovering from her injuries in hospital, a figure appears in the room, who quickly reveals herself to be her estranged daughter Regan, played again by Blair.
Although Burstyn reprised her role throughout the entire sequel, Blair, who underwent her own exorcism in the original film as MacNeil's daughter, only appeared for the cameo – and Green has explained how he convinced her to do so.
Related: The Exorcist: Believer doesn't live up to the original
"I never thought she would do it," Green admitted to Entertainment Weekly.
"She has a very passionate life protecting dogs at a rescue centre in California, and she has, for the most part, stepped away from acting. I reached out to her originally just to say, 'I'm going to be the steward of this title. You are an important legacy figure of this franchise. I need to know you.'"
Blair – who hasn't portrayed Regan since Exorcist II: The Heretic in 1977 – then came onto the project as an advisor, with Green revealing that she read over the script and gave him advice.
"She...gave me her thoughts on how to go about accessing a degree of intimacy, of darkness, of complexity within these two amazing performers, Lydia (Jewett) and Olivia (Marcum)," he said.
"She helped us walk those tightropes, and then we started having fun."
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Green also revealed that the majority of the cast and crew didn't know the reunion was going to happen until the scene was filmed – and that Blair "hadn't seen Ellen in many, many years."
He added: "The beauty of the scene, to me, is that there were maybe five people in the world that knew what was about to happen."
The film follows MacNeil as she attempts to exorcise the daughter and daughter's friend of a photographer. A sequel is already in the works.
The Exorcist: Believer is in cinemas now.
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