My favorite thing to look at is “fancasts”. A fancast is when ordinary people cast movies (real or imaginary) with the people they like. My husband and I were making our own fan cast for Breakfast at Tiffany’s last weekend. I like the movie ok. Everyone expects me to love it because Audrey Hepburn is in it. For the record, my favorite Audrey Hepburn movie is Sabrina. The casting of Breakfast at Tiffany’s makes me so uncomfortable to the point I feel guilty watching the movie. I also love the novella and don’t appreciate the changes made.
This reminded me that Audrey Hepburn was in some real talks to play Chris MacNeil in The reason she didn’t was because she wanted to stay close to her son Luca. Which..I mean...fair enough. I’m not that salty about it because I regularly use Luca Dotti’s cookbook and he likes my pictures/comments on Instagram sometimes.
My dream version of The Exorcist has Audrey Hepburn playing the mother. For two reasons. The first, is she’s my favorite actress so duh. The second being how GOOD she was in Wait Until Dark. The whole movie is such an amazing thriller, and I agree with Alan Arkin when he said he wasn’t nominated for an Academy Award is because “You don't get nominated for being mean to Audrey Hepburn!” aka. Arkin noted how easy it was to get the role because no one wanted to terrorize Audrey Hepburn, even if they were acting. Anyone that knows anything about Audrey Hepburn is that she was genuinely one of the kindest people to walk this earth. Being horrible to her is horrifying to see because we know she’s a good person that doesn’t deserve this. I think it would add another layer to the dynamic between Regan and Chris.
So, here’s the rest of my fancast for “The Exorcist”
Regan MacNeil- Brooke Shields.
I really feel like Brooke Shields had the potential to be a great scream queen. While little known in the zeitgeist, her debut film “Alice, Sweet Alice” gave a lot of shout outs to a lot of more popular films. It also pays homage to “Don’t Look Now”. And Les Diaboliques, most notably. Also, the more recent film “The Midnight Meat Train” was sooooo good. I really liked her role, even if it was not necessarily a starring one. I don’t want to reiterate how lax her mother was, because it’s disturbing tbh. Her mom would be no problems with Brooke screaming obscenities and all the other terrible things Regan did in the movie. I would much rather live in a universe where Brooke Shields is a Scream Queen, than the one we’re living in now because she’s had a hard life and it’s all so terribly unfair.
Father Merrin- Stellan Skarsgård
(I can already hear everyone. Telling me to shut up). Actually, Brando was almost cast as Father Merrin irl! William Friedkin (the director) vetoed it because he said it would become a “Brando” movie. Skarsgård wasn’t a “thing” in America yet, so star power overtaking a film (at least in this role) wouldn’t be an issue. Also, the best thing about “Dominion” was Stellan Skarsgård’s portrayal of Father Merrick. Age is obviously an issue, but this is a movie where they turned a sweet little girl into a disgusting demon. They could give Stellan some wrinkles. Honestly, I would keep! Max Von Sydow, but I saw the opportunity to insert Skarsgård propaganda and took it.
Paul Newman- Father Karras
To be fair, I haven’t read the book the movie was based on yet. I’m not sure if it’s integral to the plot for him to be Greek. A lot of people my age know Paul Newman as the organic food guy, but he was actually a prolific actor with the most beautiful blue eyes. And this is coming from someone who prefers brown eyes. Just imagining Newman’s eyes going from an angelic looking blue to a demonic yellow sends chills down my spine. Paul Newman didn’t act in any horror movies I can think of, I think it would have been interesting.AND YA KNOW WHAT.....I was lurking on google, and Paul Newman actually wanted to play Father Karras! It should have happened!!
Non main characters
Sharon- Joanne Woodward (name a more iconic duo.....I’ll wait.)
Burke Dennings- Jack Nicholson (irl he was shortlisted to play Father Karras, but was considered too “unholy”.
Lieutenant William F. Kinderman- James Garner
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