At this weekend’s Wizard World Horror Fest we celebrate the works of Chuck Russell, who is best known to horror fans as the director of The Blob and A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.
Bloody Disgusting already caught up with Russell, who dropped the bomb that New Line Cinema nearly pulled the plug on the A Nightmare On Elm Street franchise after the lackluster sequel to Wes Craven’s 1984 masterpiece. Now, in an interview with Xfinity, Russell reveals that the studio also wanted to recast Patricia Arquette after just one day of filming!
“She had a little bit of cold feet on her first day,” he told the site. “The producers were very concerned about her. I don’t even know if Patricia knows this, but they were talking about possibly recasting that part. And I said, ‘No, this girl has such a beautiful, haunted quality about her that made her believable in that role.’ She’s an amazing actress, a totally truthful actress.”
Later in the interview, Russell was asked which scenes stand out as something really special, to which he expanded on Arquette’s first days as an actress.
“The first scene between Nancy [Heather Langenkamp] and Patricia Arquette’s character in the hospital was Patricia Arquette’s first day on the set and her first day in a leading role in movies at all. I saw something in her—and I have to say, this is the most exciting thing about making films to me. I’ve worked with some celebrities—or “stars,” as people call them—where you’re just trying to maintain their brand. But there’s nothing more exciting than a young cast where you know they’re gonna break out, and Patricia was that kind of actress.”
Neither Arquette nor Russell, unfortunately, would return in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, with Tuesday Knight taking on Arquette’s role in the follow-up.
Russell is scheduled to appear at Bloody Disgusting and Wizard World’s Horror Fest Philadelphia this coming weekend in which he and star Heather Langenkamp will be doing a live commentary of Dream Warriors, all before Dokken performs the film’s theme song live (get tickets here)!
