Acting Carrie (2001)
**** (out of 4)
This 41-minute documentary about the cast of CARRIE features just about every main character with the exception of John Travolta who was doing whatever else that couldn't allow him to be interviewed. Brian DePalma, Sissy Spacek, Nancy Allen, Betty Buckley, Piper Laurie, P.J. Soles, William Katt and Amy Irving are all on hand talking about how they got hired, what they thought about the making of the film and of course it now being considered a classic. DePalma says several times that they got lucky being able to get such a talented cast and we learn that the auditions were held with George Lucas who was casting STAR WARS. Katt and Soles both mention auditioning for STAR WARS only to be cast in this movie instead. Spacek talks about how down she got when DePalma told her she could have a screen test but she wouldn't get the part because he had someone else in mind. Spacek used this depression to "fit" the role of Carrie, which eventually got her the part. Another interesting aspect is hearing how during rehearsals each of the cast members would play different parts just so it would come across that they all knew one another. The now legendary shower sequence gets a good portion of the running time as DePalma talks about how every female was made aware of the nudity and he also mentions how many backed out. He says that Spacek went first and he showed the rushes to the rest of the cast to show them that someone was willing to go out there for the film. If you're a fan of CARRIE then this documentary is going to be a must-see. For starters, it's great hearing all these wonderful stories about the making of the film but it's also interesting to see how are favorite characters look today. Laurie comes off just about as creepy as her character in the film and even DePalma laughs that he wasn't sure what was going through her mind. At one point Laurie even said she thought the film was a satire. The final sequence in the school gym also gets quite a bit of talk and we learn that several people were injured during the filming.