Spoiler alert for the 1981 The Evil Dead, and therefore for the faithful remake that just opened. The Evil Dead has a famous scene in which one of its heroines is raped by the trees in the forest. Jane Levy plays the character in the remake who has to (gets to?) remake that infamous scene. She plays Mia, a heroin addict whose friends take her to a cabin in the woods to detox. When one of them reads from the book of the dead, the woods attack Mia and possess her. After that, things don’t go exactly like the 1981 Evil Dead. Levy let loose with spoilers when we spoke at WonderCon so we decided to hold the interview until after the film opened, but now present the spoiler interview to discuss where Evil Dead goes from here.
Read the rest of CraveOnline’s Evil Dead coverage, including reviews and interviews, right here.
CraveOnline: I feel like I should thank you for going all out and taking a beating for our entertainment.
Jane Levy: Sure, you’re welcome. You’re very welcome.
Was it as harrowing as it looks?
Yeah. It was harder than it looks actually, much harder than it looks, but it was so worth it. Now I see the finished product. When I was making the movie, there were times where I forgot that we were actually making a movie because you get so into this world and every day you wake up, you don’t have any sleep and you’re being covered in blood and puss and KY jelly and mud and you just forget. Now that I’ve watched the movie, I was like, “Oh yeah, thank God I actually did it.”
How harrowing did you think it would be when you got the script?
I thought it was all going to be really fun, and it was. It was really fun. In a way, it’s fun to say that I’ve been buried alive. I mean, I don’t know what your idea of fun is but it’s not something I want to do every weekend. But now that I’ve done it, I have this badge. I’ve been buried alive.
That didn’t even occur to me. There’s really no way to fake that. They have to put you in the ground and cover you.
Yeah.
How long before they’d yell cut and pull you out?
Really quickly. Once my face was covered, I could move. When I was fully covered, it was a couple seconds so that was good.
Were you looking to counter the TV family comedy role you have on “Suburgatory?”
Yeah, I was. It wasn’t a decision to prove to Hollywood that I could do it. It wasn’t so much that. It was mostly I just wanted to try something new because I was doing the same thing every day for seven months, that I felt like trying something different.
To challenge yourself?
Yeah, to challenge myself and also just because things get boring when you do them for too long.
You’d only been doing that show for a season if this film was on your hiatus. Was that enough repetition that you were already craving something different?
Yeah, I love my television show. I love the people I get to work with but I’m an actor, I’m an artist and I want to do different stuff.
Did you play Mia as a drug addict and a rape victim before she’s even possessed?
Well, the rape is when she becomes possessed. That’s what the rape is. It’s the initial possession. I don’t play her a rape victim but at the beginning, she is a heroin addict going through withdrawal.
I guess I meant before the full on possession, she’s reacting to the tree attack like a real survivor of sexual assault would. The way you see it, once the tree scene happens, she’s possessed?
Yeah, there is a little bit at the beginning where she is a victim. She’s telling all these people she loves the truth and it makes good drama because you understand why they don’t believe her. There is a reason, but she’s ironically the most [honest]. She’s the one who never lies and she’s telling the absolute truth from the beginning and no one listens to her. In a way I think yeah, she’s a victim. And then evil Mia seeks revenge.
I meant it as a compliment for what a layered performance it is before it goes fully crazy.
Well, thank you very much.
You’re welcome. Did you see Mia as the Ash character of this version of Evil Dead?
No. I see her as the protagonist and the survivor but she’s nothing like Ash. I’m nothing like Bruce Campbell. So sad.
Maybe brave and relentless like he was.
Brave and relentless, sure. And maybe there’ll be more room in the next one for me to be as charming as this beautiful Bruce but I didn’t really have the opportunity. It’s a woman going through withdrawal. It’s pretty grim to begin with. I think the most fun I’m having, ironically, is when I’m possessed but I would like to maybe put a little of humor into Mia in number two.
They wouldn’t necessarily go in the same direction as the first trilogy though, with more humor.
No, not at all. I think they’re trying to surprise. I don’t know what they’re doing yet. I actually don’t know the details.
But when you got the role, was it in the contract or cards for multiple films?
Yes.
Does that mean you knew you would survive, or there was on option they might leave you alive at the end?
Well, I mean, I read the script before I got the part so I knew I survived.
But in the interest of trying to let viewers know it could go either way.
Yeah, I keep giving things away. I don’t know when these things are running, sorry.
Is “Suburgatory” a very physical performance?
No. No. It’s all about your eyes and your face. Then you just sort of stand there in comfy sweaters.
I thought it was a physical character, but no comparison to this?
What do you mean by physical? Of course I’m an actor. When you play someone it’s a physical embodiment so everything is involved. What I meant by physical is I don’t run around. That’s not true. We did an amazing fight scene at the end of season two that I’m so excited for people to see. I dance a lot in the part but it’s not something I go home feeling sore like Evil Dead.
They don’t beat you up on “Suburgatory.”
No, they don’t beat the sh*t out of me.
Have you kept up with “Shameless” and the new Mandy Milkovich?
I haven’t. I know the actress herself. Emma Greenwell’s a great person, but I haven’t watched the show.
In most horror movies there is a female protagonist. Evil Dead is sort of the only one with a male protagonist. What does the female protagonist of a horror movie mean to you, and what did it mean that Evil Dead would have a female protagonist?
Well, I think Mia is actually a pretty original female protagonist in a horror film because she does save the day, but she’s a villain and a hero at the same time. I don’t know when I’ve ever seen that before. I sort of find the males in this movie the scream queens. They’re the ones being scared. The women are the ones torturing mostly, and the men have to fight off these evil women, but then the twist is that Mia is the winner, the survivor. I think in no way have I seen that in any other horror film.
A lot of great actresses came from horror movies because they’re such great roles for women. Did you see this as that sort of opportunity?
People said that to me but I actually didn’t think about it like that. Once I took the role a lot of people said that and I was like, “Huh, cool, that’s another reason why I’m happy about this, but it wasn’t a conscious decision
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
