By Joe Puccio
Cultivating a fruitful film and television career for an astounding 50 years, talent, tenacity, and even a little luck are all clearly somewhat responsible. Dee Wallace names self-creation, however, as a key rationale for her success. “Each time you have a thought or a feeling or a perception of the world, you are creating,” Wallace explained, in a recent chat with Generation X Wire. “The more you create consciously, the more you get what you want and learn who you are. We are all self-creators.”
Wallace began her vocation with minor parts in movies like The Stepford Wives and The Hills Have Eyes and small screen offerings such as The Streets of San Francisco and Starsky & Hutch before nabbing the lead in the Joe Dante-helmed werewolf cult classic, The Howling. Known for its advanced special effects, especially for the early 1980s, Wallace’s experience on the set was a fond one.
“Joe is a brilliant director and such a funny guy to work with. For some reason, I had it in my contract that my character would never appear as a werewolf,” Wallace laughed. “But everyone wanted to see Karen turn into one. They called me to ask and I said I don’t give a rat’s you know what! So I just asked if I could be a little more vulnerable, like a Bambi werewolf. I kind of looked like a penguin.”
Wallace’s fiancé at the time, Christopher Stone, wound up being cast as her character’s husband in the movie – an occurrence that, contrary to popular belief, wasn’t really a result of the duo’s relationship. “The producer called and said we had a great cast but they were still looking for someone to play my husband,” she recalled. “I asked what they were looking for and thought to myself, ‘Well, damn, I’m living with him’ but I knew if I said that they’d never consider him.” Instead, the thespian wisely recommended him as an individual she co-starred with on an episode of CHiPs, leading to the production team contacting Stone, who auditioned and landed the role on his own. “The next day, the producer called and was confused when I answered the phone because he thought he was calling Chris. I told him it was the right number and there was a long pause,” she remembered. “I told him to look at it this way – you only need one trailer.”
While The Howling solidified Wallace’s connection to American audiences, it was the following year that her indelible mark on the motion picture landscape was truly cemented.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, released in 1982, is undoubtedly the Midwestern-born actor’s most celebrated production. Wallace starred as Mary Taylor, single mother of three children, one of whom was the precocious Gertie, played by future superstar Drew Barrymore. The family-friendly science fiction tale of a young boy who befriends an alien, dubbed E.T., was a bona fide summer blockbuster that has stood the test of time, more than 40 years since its premiere. Yet despite its achievement, Wallace admits that she didn’t have even an inkling of how lauded it would become.
“You just go into the job trying to do your best and portray the character in an honest way but you really never know what the reaction will be,” she stressed. “In fact, the budget was kind of small and I think most people expected Poltergeist to be Steven’s (Spielberg) big hit that year. You follow your heart and hope for the best and if the film is successful, woo-hoo!”
Although financial rewards are obviously important, oftentimes it only chronicles part of the project’s trajectory. “E.T. crossed barriers between myself and my interaction with others. I have so many stories – autistic kids that had never spoken who went to see the film and they came out saying every line, or children of divorced parents who were outcasts and ignored in school and after seeing E.T. they were accepted again,” she beamed. “We should never take for granted the power we have in our industry. When I taught acting, I used to tell my students to be proud of being an actor and that, in some ways, you can heal more people in one night than a doctor can in a lifetime.”
Wallace’s personal favorite performance from her lengthy body of work is an easy choice. That distinction goes to Cujo, the heart-pounding 1983 thriller based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, in which she brilliantly played a woman trapped inside her car with her young son while shielding themselves from a rabid St. Bernard. A total of 13 dogs were used to bring the title character to life and while it might sound daunting, working with the animals was a piece of cake for the dog lover.
“The hardest part for me was not being able to go over and love on them,” she chuckled. “Before I agreed to the part, I made sure the dogs would be taken care of and they really were. As for filming it, the constant emotional and physical output in every scene was so exhausting. It’s funny because we had to have so many dogs because you can’t overwork an animal – but they can overwork the actors and they did,” she added, facetiously.
Wallace’s latest feature is a vast departure from her typical fare. Although the veteran actress is widely and affectionately recognized as a ‘scream queen’ for her penchant for the horror genre, Stream is a slasher flick, and a particularly graphic one. Her reason for participating in the Michael Leavy film is simple. “It has a good story,” she clarified, matter-of-factly. “And I love Michael. It’s a movie of famous cameos (the late Tony Todd, Danielle Harris, Tim Reid, Felissa Rose, to name a few). And when I found out Jeffrey Combs, who I did The Frighteners with, was starring in it, that helped too.”
On the subject of cameos, another recent notable one for Wallace is The Forest Hills, an independent work notable for being the final film appearance of Shelley Duvall, who passed away earlier this year. Unfortunately, as is a pattern with brief walk-on parts, Wallace didn’t cross paths with The Shining actress. “I wish I could’ve met her,” she sighed. “I didn’t even know she was going to be in it.”
As for the “scream queen’ moniker, Wallace embraces the title. “I am proud of it. Everybody knows I do a lot of other stuff too. I’ve got a plethora of Hallmark family movies and two more are coming out soon,” she revealed. “But I have to tell you that there isn’t another genre in the world that asks an actor to go more truthfully into every part of their soul and it’s a real disservice in our industry that good horror isn’t recognized more.”
The upcoming Hallmark features are just a sprinkling of what the immediate future holds for the beloved entertainer. A Netflix project and at least one more appearance on Ryan Murphy’s 9-1-1 procedural drama can be expected, as well as more books for the best-selling author. Her latest, Born: Giving Birth to a New You, provides an insightful look into the Law of Attraction, specifically Spirituality, Brain Science, and Religion. “It’s an easy read,” she promised. “I’ve been working in conscious creation for 40 years. It’s changed my life and I love sharing it with everybody.”
Order: Born: Giving Birth to a New You
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