[IMG:L]Poltergeist started scaring the bejesus out of fright fanatics back in 1982–and now fans can pick up the 25th Anniversary Edition DVD.
In honor of the Steven Spielberg’s famous ghost story, Hollywood.com chatted with Poltergeist star Zelda Rubinstein about her famous role as Tangina and the film that catapulted her career.
Hollywood.com: As your first major role, how did you prepare for the part of Tangina? Did you research psychics and mediums?
Zelda Rubinstein: I developed the character under the fichus tree in the corner of my living room. I didn’t know how to develop a character, but I decided that I’d better do something because it looked like a really good opportunity. So I sat under there and I developed an equilateral triangle in my mind and at the base of the triangle was her knowledge and what she was doing. One side was her life as a boring Odessa, Texas, housewife and the third side of the equilateral triangle was her dream of becoming a dealer in Vegas. I kept her dead center in that equilateral triangle at all times. Those were my guidelines. I don’t know where I got them from, but that was my mental image and that’s how I developed the character. I was screen tested several times. I don’t know how my competition was and I didn’t hear from them after my last screen test for a couple of weeks. I was getting ready to perform under a street lamp under on the street. She had grown so big in me by that time, too.
HW: Do fans often approach you and expect you to know about the supernatural?
ZR: Just the crazy ones [laughs]. No. Shortly after the film came out, a lady in the market where I shop came up to me and said, “Please, please come to my house. It’s got things wrong with it.” I had to let her know that I wasn’t who she thought I was and that I couldn’t help her fix her house. I found that rather amusing. I usually don’t like people coming that close to me and that’s left over from my childhood when people came too close to me and considered me a novelty because of my short stature. Now, of course, I handle it very well.
HW: Is it true that during Poltergeist III you sensed something–and then found out your mother had passed away?
ZR: Well, my mother had been ill for five weeks following open heart surgery and she was alive, but not with us for those five weeks. I knew she was dying. I went home every weekend to Oakland, Calif., where she was a patient and did not have that experience. The director did. Gary Sherman was taking pictures with a still camera. I think that they were Polaroids and over one picture there was a very diaphanous shadow and it scared a few people. It didn’t scare me. My mother, if that was her spirit ascending, it didn’t bother me. I had a superb relationship with my mother, which is why I’m a healthy woman today.
HW: Have you experienced anything else in the psychic realm?
ZR: While I was filming Poltergeist I was in an auto accident. I was driving a little Volkswagon Beetle at the time and just as the two cars impacted, I felt my deceased father reach in through the roof of the Beetle and grab me like a puppy by the back of the neck and pull me out. After the collision, he sent me back down. That was as close as I’ve had to any extraordinary experiences, personally. I mean, I’m sensitive. I stood in front of my mirror at one time when I was living in a very old cottage. This was well before I was involved with any film and I felt something pulling at my hem, the hem of my dress. I looked in the mirror and it was coming to a point and there was no one present, but me. So I’m aware of things that happen and, like I said before, we’ve no way of measuring these things yet. So it could happen.
HW: What was it like seeing the film for the first time and then being asked to do so many sequels?
ZR: For me it was very dramatic when I first saw the film at a screening for cast and crew. I had to practically be carried out of there because I realized that it was going to change my life. It did cost me a 14-year relationship I was involved in because neither one of us knew particularly well how to handle this. But I feel, looking back in hindsight, great. It was a fabulous experience. I didn’t know many people because I only worked six days on the film and I didn’t socialize at that time with anyone connected to the film. There was an attempt to connect all the unfortunate things that happened to some–and I never saw any of that.
HW: Are you referring to the rumor that there was a Poltergeist curse?
ZR: Yes, that’s what I’m talking about. I’m very pedantic and I don’t believe in any of that. I believe that there are phenomena that we don’t understand because we don’t have any way of measuring them, but I don’t believe that there was any kind of collusion going on.
HW: Your declaration that “This house is clean” has to be one of the most famous miscalculations in movie history. Is it a privilege or a burden to have your name associated with this character?
ZR: No, it’s neither a burden nor a pleasure. In fact, it’s work. I’m not a southern lady. I’m from Pennsylvania and we speak sort of correctly there. People identify me that way and they also easily identify me on the street because of my short stature. So I get picked out in many ways and no way is it a burden for me.
HW: The screenplay was written by Steven Spielberg, Mark Victor and Michael Grais, but directed by Tobe Hooper. What can you recall about Hooper as a director?
ZR: I don’t think I can because during the six days I worked, Steven Spielberg primarily took over that helm in my scenes. Tobe was around all the time. As I saw it, and I was not an experienced person at the time, it seemed that Tobe setup every shot and Steven made adjustments to every shot. I was very happy to have his input.
HW: So what it was like then working with Steven for those six days?
ZR: Oh, he’s magnificent. His image gets on the screen. I don’t know the man well. I love him dearly. He was very influential in handing me a career and I’d love to work with him again. As far as I’m concerned, he’s the best film director that I’ve ever had so far.
HW: How did the cast react to you on set? We’re they welcoming to you when you got there?
ZR: Yeah. Well, most people didn’t know each other before they got to the set at various times. I was made very welcome by JoBeth Williams, the late great Beatrice Straight, the children, Craig T. [Nelson]. I felt very much at home. That was my world.
HW: Would you be willing to go back for another Poltergeist film?
ZR: Oh, of course, but we don’t have the little girl. We lost Carol Anne in 1989 or 1988 and that was the end of the series.
HW: They’re doing so many remakes right now. How would you feel about being presented with a remake of the first Poltergeist?
ZR: Fine. I think it’s worthy. I don’t know if I would be involved to be in it in any way, but it’s very rare that the sequel is better than the original or that the second issue is. I just saw a film that I had seen years ago, 3:10 To Yuma, and I thought that this was a better film, but that’s because the technology is so improved. It depends on whose hands the direction falls.
HW: You spent 20 years working in medical labs associated with blood banks and then living in Europe in the ’70’s. What brought you back to the states in the ‘80’s and later to Poltergeist?
ZR: A man. [laughs] I need to be honest. At that time in my life, I made the film, I think, when I was 48-years-old. I had been in a long term relationship and I had traveled with this wonderful gentleman and I just took his leave and then came back with him at his invitation. I knew him in this country and then we left together and spent many years traveling Europe and living in London where I worked at the North London Blood Transfusion Center. That was before I realized I was an artist.
HW: What made you realize you were an artist?
ZR: I had an epiphany one night, overnight, in my sleep. I don’t know what the epiphany was, but I went to a bed a blood banker and I woke up an artist–and I had no idea what my discipline would be. Being pretty bothered I went into work that morning, it was a Monday, and I quit my job. I had no idea what I would do after a two week notice was worked out and then just serendipity happened and I met an agent who sent me on a couple of interviews and within two weeks after leaving medicine I got my very first job on The Flintstones. I used this most unusual vocal instrument.
