[Interview] P.J. Soles Talks ‘Carrie’ Remake
While many might remember her best as the wisecracking Lynda in John Carpenter’s Halloween, P.J. Soles made her feature film debut in director Brian De Palma’s 1976 masterpiece Carrie, based on author Stephen King’s first novel, and during our recent interview with the iconic actress, we asked her about her thoughts on the new remake opening this month.
P.J. plays Norma, one of the high school mean girls that torment poor Carrie White, a small but memorable role that caught the attention of Carpenter, who was then inspired to create the character of Lynda in Halloween especially for Soles to play.
“I’d be more curious to know what Brian De Palma thinks,” P.J. laughed when asked about the Carrie remake opening on October 18, “but I’m sure someone will ask him and have that question answered at some point.
“I love Julianne Moore, and I know Chloe Moretz is a terrific young actress. It is based more on the Stephen King novel than the script that Brian worked off of, and there’s no Norma, so I love that. There’s going to be no red baseball hat, so I know everyone is going to be disappointed.
“Obviously it’s going to be very different and, like Rob Zombie’s Halloween, updated, so we’re going to see cell phones and computers, which is going to be really weird.
“Again, it’s the simplicity and the cast of the original. How can you really duplicate that? So it’s going to be different. I’m sure it will be enjoyable, and everybody’s going to be terrific actors, but it’s just not going to be in any way comparable (to the original).
“Sissy Spacek is Carrie, and Piper Laurie, what she did with that role of the crazy mother is so unbelievable that it’s hard to get those two actors out of your mind when you think of Carrie.
“I’ll watch it and I’m sure it will be interesting. I’m looking forward to it, but I wish they would stop trying to remake great movies.”
We will talk much more about remakes and working with both John Carpenter and Rob Zombie in the next installment of our interview with P.J. Soles, coming next week as part of our ongoing ‘Halloween at 35’ retrospective series!
Read Part 1 of our Halloween interview with P.J. Soles here!
Read Part 2 of our Halloween interview with P.J. Soles here!
