What was the inspiration?

[deboisguilbert]

Hi Lin,

Just wanted to ask you about your wonderful character in 2001 Maniacs - Granny Boone. I know that the initial plan was to have her character played totally different to the one seen in the film. What prompted such a change? Did it come from yourself and what was the inspiration behind it.

I ask this because the character really worked well, especially building upon the sexy/horror link that flows through the whole film. How much of your own style and what ideas did you introduce into the character.

Thanks,


Sir Brian DeBois Guilbert

[Lin Shaye]

Well Hello Brian...
Thanks for your thoughtful question! I haven't been "visiting" the boards as much as Il like, but did come across your question today.

Granny, as you see her, really shaped the day we began shooting!! The origianl idea was "the Beverly Hill Billys kind of Granny," but one look at the civil war structues where we were shooting the film, in Lumpkin Georgia, and I immediately said to Tim....Granny is "Scarlet Ohara gone bad...a cross between Scarlet and a black widow spider!...The wonderful Wardrobe designer was "on board," and literaaly about an hour before shooting the first scene, she showed up at my trailer with petticoats, skirts, and corsets galore!! Voila! Granny began to emerge. Once we had me all sewn and pinned in, the visit to hair and make-up began to take shape too...As Robert Englung says, "Granny looks like a deranged Mary Todd Lincoln!" the sausage curles, part down the middle, and just "oh so sweet." Tim Sullivan completely agreed. We were all happy....and GRANNY BOONE was born!
Thanks again for asking such a wonderful question! I just returned from MONSTERMANIA in Cherry Hill N.J., and many signed photos of Granny will now grace many people's walls! There is an amazing amount of interest in the film, and we are hoping to get the sequel up and running sometime next year. Coordinating financing and schedules is the hard part! I will keep all of yo uposted. Lin Shaye