Although it may not have been her best-known work, David Cronenberg's 1977 zombie chiller Rabid was undoubtedly the most mainstream piece of work on the infamous resume of Marilyn Ann Briggs, a.k.a. Marilyn Chambers, who was found dead yesterday in her trailer home of as-yet-undetermined causes.Her most well-known work would have to be Behind the Green Door, the 1972 film that made her the very first bona fide superstar of the exploding adult movie industry--ironically mere months after she had appeared as a model for Ivory Snow detergent.
Interestingly, it wasn't Cronenberg who wanted her for the starring role of Rose in his second motion picture. Cronenberg wanted Sissy Spacek, who had just kicked ass in the starring role of Brian DePalma's Carrie. But it was producer Ivan Reitman who instead suggested Ms. Chambers, to give the flick more sex appeal. And you thought porn was mainstream today!
IIRC, Cronenberg wanted to cast Spacek _before_ she got really famous in Carrie, based on her performance in Badlands (1973).
ReplyDeleteReitman said no. Then Spacek got famous, and she was definately out of the question. So they went with Chambers for Rabid (1977) when they finally made it.
Cronenberg's attitude after this all happened was: "I told you so."
Rest in Peace
ReplyDeleteCouldn't have said that better. Great post!
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