George, Melissa (The Amityville Horror)
Melissa George may not yet be a household name, but she certainly got off to a great star with her turn as CIA agent Michael Vaughn’s double-crossing wife on the hit show “Alias”. Since then she’s been out of the loop in terms of visibility, but she’ll be returning soon in a big way as she takes on the role made famous by Superman girlfriend Margot Kidder, that of Kathy Lutz in The Amityville Horror remake.
Our man Sean got a chance to sit with Melissa during the Amityville press junket, and the results follow.
Question: Did you meet with Kathy Lutz before she died?
Melissa George: No, I didn’t. She wasn’t very well, so there was no meeting. I just read her diaries and what she went through and based my performance on that. But then week one of filming, she was gone. It was very freaky actually. It was a very sad day for everybody.
Q: Literally the first week?
MG: Yeah, first week of filming, they said, “We have an announcement. Kathy Lutz has passed away.” And I’m like, “Okay, I better watch what I’m doing.”
Q: How important is the reality of this?
MG: Look, let’s start off saying I’m not sure if… personally, these things I don’t really believe, but when you really read about what happened, you can’t help but think something did go on. As an actor doing a role in a true story, I’m not trying to imitate her at all. I just got the facts and I wanted to give my interpretation of the role, to play this tortured soul and actually feeling like I was the eyes for the audience in a way. Like what I was feeling as Kathy Lutz, I’m assuming is what the audience is going through as well watching this movie. To do a true story in general, you’ve got to be careful in a way that you make it believable and true to the story, and I think we did that. It’s a horror film definitely, but what I love about this movie is there are real scenes. I’m not just running and getting slaughtered or whatever. There’s actually a real story and a real performance going on.
Q: You’re not a blonde screamer?
MG: No, exactly. There was something else and hey, if I got offered the blonde screamer, I’d probably do it as well, but this is so much better because now I got to do a horror film with that terror element but with real acting in there. There’s a story to tell is what I’m trying to say.
Q: How far would you take devotion to your husband?
MG: I think she lasted a little too long personally, but being a very religious woman growing up in Long Island, God was everything, and demonology and the supernatural never really existed in those days. They didn’t believe it really happened so of course she’s going to be in denial. Then when she witnesses him going crazy by the boathouse, I think only then she felt “Okay, I need to do something”, and still, the whole joke on set was that still Kathy Lutz doesn’t believe it. Then when she sees the coffins with the names on it, I think that was the moment where it all hit and that was like “I have to get out of this house, I have to get the kids out of this house” and she was about to kill him. I mean, she had the gun on him and she went for the trigger in a moment of insanity and then she chose to believe that he was still a good guy and she was still the loving woman that she is to the end.
Q: Is that explained in her diaries?
MG: No, that part wasn’t.
Q: How far would you take it, how much would you put up with in real life?
MG: An hour. I’m an Australian woman. We’re very tough down under.
Q: Considering how young you are, how could you play a mother of three?
MG: When I met the children, I said to the oldest one, “Hey, I was 12 when I had you.” It was perfect because what I’m realizing in Hollywood is that you can play any role if you believe it. Like if the kid’s 11, that’s fine, Long Island, my mother had three kids by the time she was 25. So in those days that’s what women did. They had kids at 16 even. I mean, my grandmother had kids at 16. It’s what you did. So we’re thinking of a modern day woman which waits a little bit longer. I couldn’t play a modern day woman in 2005 with three children. That wouldn’t make sense. And then my next audition that I went for was a 21-year-old girl and I’m like, “Oh my God, if they only knew what I just played I probably would never get this role.”
Q: Were you a fan of the original movie?
MG: Not before I auditioned. I made a point of that. In fact, my agent called me in New York and said, “We’ve got this movie called The Amityville Horror. What do you think about the horror genre?” I said, “Yeah, its okay, the Hitchcock woman. I think there’s always space for that, like a nice, elegant good horror film.” And they said it’s a remake, and I said, “Really?” I had no idea what it was. Because in Australia, I wasn’t even born then. My parents knew it, everyone else knew what the film was, but I didn’t. I actually read it based on seeing if it was a good script, to see whom else was going to be in it. As an actor when you audition, you know whether you’re going to get the role or not. It’s how on you are in that character. I felt from the beginning that I deserved it, but we all think in this town that we deserve it and it’s whether you get the offer or not that’s the hard part. And all these big stars were getting offers, so every time I would screen test, within 24 hours I knew I was going to lose it because someone would say, “I’ll take that for no money” or whatever. 
Then five screen tests later I finally got the role, and only then did I watch the movie. I was at home and my mother was looking all over Australia getting orders for this Amityville Horror to get a good copy to see for us because she’d never seen it either. She remembered it, but didn’t see it for a long time. We sat down and watched it and they were on the edge of their seat in the original. I’m like, “Mum, here’s the screenplay. You’ve never read one before, read this” and she couldn’t read it. I said, “You’re scared of the original? You’re not even going to be able to watch my film.”
Q: What did you think of the original?
MG: I liked it. I mean, it’s hard to see something when I’m so used to working jobs where the technology’s much better, it’s just a different world of filmmaking than I’m in this generation. So I was watching a movie that was dated but that’s all it was. It was just a ‘70s film.
Q: And more innocent because of less blood?
MG: Which is kind of sweet. But I’m sorry, anyone that cracks your wife in the nose by the fireplace…you see what I mean? So in the ‘70s they used to beat women and now its like forbidden in movies but I was shocked at that by the fireplace. Smacked her right in the face.
Q: How do you feel about domestic abuse?
MG: I feel very responsible in a way, and I love the tone of her character where she loves until the end, which I think is a great thing. I mean, I know that I love my husband and no matter what, we’re very resilient as women. To see this woman just fight back and almost kill him and knock him out and become this warrior is exciting to me. I mean, I know that if I get put in the position where my life is at stake, I become a crazy feline. I think a woman could kill if you push them far enough. She just fought back so I feel very responsible. It’s a great role. I look at actresses like Jessica Lange, and all the women she plays that are messed up in some way. Why not go to work and be that because I knew when I came home every day after Amity, I was the most relaxed, loving, peaced out girl. I’d been strangled 300 times in the day, I couldn’t even swallow it was that painful, that strangling scene. Which they kind of made a little bit less in this. The take that they chose was a little bit less gruesome. But the one we filmed was pretty heavy, so… I love to play tortured, interesting characters.
Q: Did you read the Amityville Horror book?
MG: Yes, I did. It’s more based on the book than the original film what we’ve made.
Q: But there were so many things added that were in neither the book nor the original film.
MG: Well, we have to entertain. The big one that didn’t really happen was the axe. Did that shock you guys at all? Did you see it coming? Did the audience go [GASP] when the axe came?
Q: And the little girl?
MG: Well no, but when you read the diaries of the children that actually lived through it, that’s what they believe were in the house. The little girl did have an imaginary friend and I believe it was the little girl that had been shot by DeFeo. So those things maybe didn’t make it into the book as such but a lot of new evidence in the past 30 years have actually come up that were never written in the book. The producers and I went and interviewed the coroners that were actually there and did new evidence and brought it all together.
Q: Is the Ketcham thing true?
MG: There’s truth in that, yeah, that’s true.
Q: That’s he tortured Indians?
MG: He was a nutcase and that’s a true fact. 1692, yeah. Dr. Ketcham really went on.
Q: Did growing up in Australia help put the whole Hollywood experience in perspective?
MG: Thank you for that question. It’s a great question. Yeah, it has actually. I know that if I get tired of all the craziness in Hollywood, I would just get on the plane and go back home. That’s a nice comforting thing. It’s made me more humble. I think Australians do well here because we feel a bit naughty, like we’re in America and if they only knew how much fun we were having, we’ll all get thrown out, you know. So there’s that mischievous thing that we feel that gives us this beautiful kind of sense of joy in a crazy, hard town. We laugh through it a little bit which is… you need that. I say what’s the worst thing about Hollywood is because you get rejected a lot. But you look at Australia, you might get rejected once every six months and that’s only because there’s one film every six months, you know what I mean? Whereas here it’s like six movies a day and six “no’s”. That’s hard to take but you just put it all in perspective and being from Australia helps that.
Q: Anything else going on in your life?
MG: Just trying to pick the next thing carefully. It’s hard. Like we all want a paycheck but hey, if I do the wrong movie, I won’t work for six years or seven years.
Once again, big thanks to MGM for allowing us to take part in the junket, and especially to the lovely Ms. George for taking the time to chat with us. The Amityville Horror remake is due out on April 15th, be sure to visit it’s official site right here!
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Categorized:Interviews News
