Betsy Baker Interview
EVIL DEAD ARCHIVES: Honestly, if you could do it all over again – would you still have made the Evil Dead?
BETSY: Yes because Sam and Rob Tapert and Bruce were very persuasive, very excited about their project, and way-out wacky enough with a great sense of humor that i would do it for the laughs and zaniness of it all because we sure didn’t do it for the money the first time!!
EVIL DEAD ARCHIVES: Would you be in another Evil Dead movie or make a cameo?
BETSY: I would imagine it would be lots of fun to be in another Evil Dead movie,because i would assume that some of the same people will be there as well — Bruce, Theresa, Ellen, and lets not forget Sam…like one big happy family, only on film. Is there going to be another “Evil Dead” movie—-?? Hmmmm….. let’s wait and find out!!
EVIL DEAD ARCHIVES: How did you make those freaky laughs?
BETSY: I thought everyone could laugh like that!!
EVIL DEAD ARCHIVES: Are you still able to do that squeaky voice that possessed Linda has?
BETSY: Absolutely it comes with lots and lots of training, you know, but it is like riding a bike and getting right back on after many years you never forget how to do something as lovely and melodic as that voice and that laugh. Come see us at a convention and you just might hear it echo through the halls sometime!!
EVIL DEAD ARCHIVES: If someone gave you that necklace Ash gave you in the movie in real life, what would your reaction be?
BETSY: I would still tell them it was beautiful, of course, so as not to hurt their feelings, but i would never tell them i wouldn’t ever take it off, because sooner or later i would have to remove the stupid thing so i could wash off the fake silver paint flicks from my neck.
EVIL DEAD ARCHIVES: Were you at all upset when hearing of Evil Dead 2 and Sam’s decision to use a different actress to play Linda?
BETSY: Actually, the boys (Sam, Bruce and rob) and i met at a diner in West Los Angeles when they were getting ready to do Evil Dead 2, and they DID offer me the part!! The problem was, we couldnÃt sit at a booth and had to sit at a table, because I was so pregnant with our first child i couldn’t slide into the booth, and I couldn’t obviously do the part you know what.
EVIL DEAD ARCHIVES: If you could change one thing about your experience of filming The Evil Dead, what would it be and why?
BETSY: Hmmmmmmm….. let’s see, i would probably bring lots of energy bars, a cell phone, a small TV, Advil, Aleve, Tylenol PM, huge vats of karo-removing solution, frozen dinners, and my own chair, so i could sit somewhere else other than the floor when i wasn’t shooting and i would hold on tight.
EVIL DEAD ARCHIVES: Betsy, we have heard that your experience in making The Evil Dead was less than favorable. Do you still look back on the experience with bad feelings?
BETSY: Well, that is a nice way of putting it…. less than favorable…….hmmmmm…. looking back……..nah. these days, what with working and touring together with Ellen and Theresa, we are just laughing so hard and having so much fun with the fans, how can anyone look back and recall all those wretched shooting nights, those awful days, the meals without edible food, the freezing cold, the karo syrup, the incessant and non-stop whacking of those beams across my head time and time again…….what was your question again??
EVIL DEAD ARCHIVES: Do you take pride in the fact that you were involved in something that thousands of people all around the world have thought to be one of the best and most innovative horror movies of all time?
BETSY: Yes it’s been an interesting experience to say the least.
EVIL DEAD ARCHIVES: Have you seen all of Tom Sullivan’s illustrated pages from the Book of the Dead? Which page is your favorite and why?
BETSY: Yes, and well, they really bug me because i know somewhere in those drawings there are words and coded pictures that i can’t figure out, you know, like in the old HIGHLIGHTS Magazine when you went looking for hidden pictures while your mom was seeing the doctor, and you could usually find all of them but 1 or 2. you’re probably too young to know what I’m talking about. trust me its a mild form of torture.
EVIL DEAD ARCHIVES: What are your favorite kinds of movies?
BETSY: My favorite kind of movies…. are the old classic musicals, comedies, and believe it or not, the older Disney movies….Mary Poppins, True Grit, Old Yellar, The Trouble With Angels……….then there is that old mystery-murder classic, the Last of Sheila.
EVIL DEAD ARCHIVES: A question we just gotta know. You were in the TV movie “Word of Honor” starring Karl Malden.I just gotta know id his nose as big in real life as it appears on film?
BETSY: Word of Honor, despite it is being a made-for-TV movie, was a great movie for its time, based on true events—- with Rue Mclanahan and John Malcovich, and of course, Karl Malden. and no, his nose is not nearly as big as his heart is.
EVIL DEAD ARCHIVES: Have you been having fun at the conventions?
BETSY: We have been having a blast!! it is so fantastic to see fans, young and old, and to have them bring their own personal collections for us to autograph or see chainsaws, European posters, bricks from the cabin fireplace, necklaces that are similar to the gem that ash handed me-we really do have a great time! everybody should come !!