It's so refreshing to see a horror movie
where the woman is the badass and can save her damn self.
Was that refreshing for you as an actress.
Yes.
But this is a woman who, in that preparation
for saving herself, has basically perseverated on this point to
such a degree that
She lost her child,
she lost her friends, she lost men, she lost relationships,
family, friends.
And so that singular of purpose is actually
a tremendous flaw, because you can't spend your life like that.
The one thing that resonated with me so much was I feel like this is
the perfect moment, movie for the #MeToo era, right?
And yet it was written eight months before it. Isn't it interesting?
That's unbelievable to me, because it feels like it aligns so perfectly.
#MeToo began in August a year ago, is when the first allegations—I mean somebody
could do the math—against Harvey Weinstein began.
And this was written that January before it.
That's incredible. Do you just think it's, like, fate that things lined up.
I think it was obviously
in the air, if you will.
And then, of course, afterwards.
And then, as we really made the film,
This is coming back 40 years later.
I know, crazy, right?
I know you've heard that a million times—
It's crazy! It's crazy!
How have you seen the space for women in Hollywood change
over that time, especially in the horror genre?
You're like an OG scream queen.
which I now know what it means
by the way. I didn’t.
Like, I think of the first time I ever said something about OG, I didn't
know what the F it was.
And now, I completely understand what it is and I'm grateful.
When I was in the OG horror movie, 'Halloween,'
I played the intelligent, dreaming, intellectual virgin.
And the movies, the horror movies, were
somewhat illegitimate.
They were not taken seriously by the mainstream media.
They were disregarded as sort
of a genre-type movie.
And yet, when I made 'Trading Places'
and went topless, all of a sudden, I am legitimate, I am—
do you know what I mean? And it's so interesting to me that the
horror movies gave me
to be a well-rounded
woman. And then the mainstream movies really
or whatever.
And didn't allow me to have that same well-rounded.
So isn’t it interesting?
Yeah, why do you think that is?
I think people are just messed up about it.
I think
and kind of brush it off as not being serious.
And, obviously, there are a lot of sequels
to these horror movies over the years that are somewhat silly,
and kind of trite,
and dismiss it.
But if you look back at that original movie
and that original creature, Laurie Strode, and the amount of time we spend
with her in the movie before anything scary happens.
That showed a lot about Debra Hill
and John Carpenter, maybe me a little bit.
And it was always interesting
to me that as soon as I started
doing these quote legitimate, big movies,
I was naked, or dancing around in a leotard, or whatever.
And the movie where I am fully clothed, spouting philosophy,
and fighting for my life,
I am somehow an illegitimate creature.