CraveOnline: By the time A New Nightmare came around and you were playing quote-unquote “Heather Langenkamp,” did Wes just go off and do that on his own or did he talk to you about how you wanted to be portrayed as you in the film, even though you knew it was fictional?
Heather Langenkamp: No, I think Wes just needed a gimmick. [Laughs] I think in a way it’s not a gimmick, but he needed a really unique idea that would bring people into the franchise again with newfound respect for not only him, but also the core story that he created in 1984. So this idea that he had that was so revolutionary, I wouldn’t call it breaking the fourth wall but it’s something like that, that I don’t think people fully appreciate it even now. He was searching for things that would make that kind of story successful, and making me play myself, I don’t know how he thought of it. I really don’t. I don’t know where it came from. When I read it I’m like, “He’s nuts. This is great. This is so revolutionary. I’ve never even seen a movie like this before.”
When I realized that I’m like, okay, I have to do it. I can’t complain. [Laughs] I can’t protest. I just have to say a really a great filmmaker wants to make me the lead in his movie, and I play myself. So who would ever, ever say no to that?
I can’t imagine.
You can’t imagine it. It wouldn’t happen. If Woody Allen did the same thing you couldn’t say no, you’d just have to say yes.
I have to ask you about a non-Nightmare film though, because I remember when T…
Tonya & Nancy: The Inside Story?!
Yes! I remember when that came out and…
God, you’re asking me…
I have to ask you about it, because it came together so fast, right?
Yeah, basically while we were doing Nightmare 7 the headlines of that terrible event were just plastered over all the papers, so I called the casting director, April Webster, and I said, “You don’t know me, but my name is Heather Langenkamp and I look just like Nancy Kerrigan and I really want to come in and audition for this part.” [Laughs] And so she’s like, “Okayyyy, weird lady. Okay come on in.” And so she saw me and took me directly to the producer and I got hired the next day.
It was just one of those things that was meant to happen, but you know, Frank Deford, he’s sports commentator on NPR, yesterday had a whole thing about the Nancy Kerrigan incident, and he was right on the money. He said she was beautiful and she was kind of made a laughing stock because she was a pretty athlete. Tonya was just so rough and tumble and so crazy that she’s the one who’s emerged kind of unscathed superstar out of this event, in the morbid way we watch reality TV. It was the beginning of that. We were just so consumed by her tawdry, and yet Nancy got hit in the knee, seven weeks later she was skating for the gold in the Olympics, and she was just from a real, tough, hardworking family. I thought, I wonder if our movie reflected that, because I kind of don’t remember.
But I remember thinking to myself, once again, this is a girl nobody is going to give her proper due. I really felt that way about Nancy Kerrigan. I do think that I was part of that media that maybe was trying to mock her, but I don’t know. I have to go watch it again because in retrospect I realize what a hero she really was for herself and I’m sure for her family in that she got through that nightmare.
Did you ever get a chance to meet her or find out what she thought about the movie?
I bet she detested that movie. I’m sure she hated it because everyone was just taking advantage of this tragedy in her own life. She never gained anything from all that. But I do think I’ll have an opportunity to meet her someday, and I thought, “God, I wish they’d re-air that show because I’d like to see it and I don’t have a tape of it.” It was very original. It was an interview format where these people who are tangentially involved are interviewed, and you see scenes of us acting. It was kind of like Reds, that movie that Warren Beatty directed where you see the real people talk about it and then you see actors acting it out. I’d love to see it again. I thought it was really fun movie, and it was fun to make. It was super fun to make.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
