• last year
In his interview, star actor Leslie Odom Jr. discusses being a huge fan of the exorcist franchise and his experiences seeing the exorcist movie for the first time. Leslie Odom Jr. also discusses what it meant to him working with star actress Ellen Burstyn on the new exorcist movie. Check it out.
Transcript
00:00 We wrapped with Miss Ellen Burstyn earlier tonight.
00:05 And what a dream this has been, what an exciting...
00:13 once-in-a-lifetime-- I feel like I won a fan contest, you know?
00:19 I am one of the biggest Exorcist fans that you will meet.
00:25 When I heard that David was making this movie,
00:30 I sent my agent an email, must have been last year,
00:35 maybe even the year before, end of the year,
00:39 I sent them an email like, just so you know,
00:42 this is a dream project. FYI, just do with that what you will.
00:46 And 7 or 8 months later, I got a call to join David on this adventure.
00:52 It's weird to talk about a blessing on a project like The Exorcist,
00:57 but she really blessed the project.
01:00 And she grounded and blessed me as a scene partner.
01:06 We already had the bar of her work, the high bar of her work,
01:11 the high mark of her work and Linda's work
01:14 and that original team that they gave us.
01:17 We're trying to be in the world.
01:20 I know we're making our own thing here,
01:23 but we are of course trying to...
01:30 honor this thing that inspired us so.
01:36 I just remember being a teenager when I first saw The Exorcist
01:42 and being so, like, shaken by Ellen's work
01:46 because it's disarming in its humanity and its honesty.
01:51 So I was a little nervous, as you can imagine,
01:54 to come here and work with her,
01:57 but from the first minutes of being with her,
02:00 she gave me this huge hug.
02:03 I mean, you know, a nice, long, special hug,
02:09 like a welcoming hug, and then we dug right in.
02:13 At the end of the day, I want to get wrapped up in a story.
02:17 I want to believe it.
02:19 It was the specificity of those relationships.
02:23 It was the truth and humanity
02:28 and desperation that they brought to it, you know,
02:32 those relatable emotions.
02:35 They made me believe it.
02:37 They made me feel it, and so that's what we're trying to do.