Hollywood starVeronica Cartwrighthas one of those faces instantly associated withhorror: Lambert inAlien, Nancy inInvasion of the Body Snatchers, and Felicia inThe Witches of Eastwick. All standout roles that showed Cartwright’s horror range and consolidated her status as an underrated icon of the genre. But perhaps her most significant early horror film role is the one many don’t immediately remember. When she was just a child, Cartwright starred in a groundbreaking scary film directed by visionary Alfred Hitchcock. That film is the “nature strikes back” horror movieThe Birds.
Cartwright is currently promoting her most recent movie,an interesting return to the genre titledThe Ruse. Per the report byIndieWire, Cartwright plays a “dementia-afflicted musician whose home contains myriad mysteries for the young nurse who has taken a job as her caregiver.” At 76, Cartwright proves she hasn’t lost her touch. It couldn’t be any other way, considering her decade-long experience in which she has worked with directors like Ridley Scott, Philip Kaufman, George Miller, and the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. Speaking toIndieWire, Cartwright reflected on her early experience working with the legendary director behindPsycho,Rear Window, andVertigo:
“I never felt intimated by him. It was so interesting. I got The Birds because of The Children’s Hour. Hitchcock requested to meet me, so I met him in his bungalow and he proceeded to tell me the best wines to get, and how his favorite wine cellar was in Bristol where I was born, and how to cook a steak because some year I would get married … all of these bizarre things, and I’m thinking ‘OK, what am I supposed to do with this? I’m 12!'”
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InThe Birds, Cartwright plays Cathy Brenner, the young child who witnessesthe invasion of birds in Bodega Bay. Hitchcock wasn’t used to directing children, but it seems that he had very interesting advice for Cartwright, who says that his words stayed with her throughout her life:
“He said, ‘If your eye sees movement, you assume everything is alive,’ and it’s true. To this day I can look at that jungle gym, think I’ve spotted a fake bird, and then it moves.
“How many times does somebody get to experience that? This man was a legend, and I would have tea with him every afternoon.”
Bringing Lambert to Life: ‘Alien’s Overlooked Scream Queen
After a long hiatus in the mid-60s, Cartwright returned to Hollywood in a controversial comedy titledInserts. Three years later, in 1978, she would star in Kaufman’sInvasion of the Body Snatchers, where she was able to fully display her horror talent. However, in 1979, Cartwright got on board the Nostromo and was part of the crew terrorized by a xenomorph in Ridley Scott’sAlien, one of her best films.
Lambert’s character often gets overlooked when compared to Ripley. But as it turns out, the navigator of the spaceship hasthe most organic “reaction” in the movie. Cartwright’s authentic screams of terror are as important as the special effects in order to make us believe that there was something otherworldly jumping out of Kane’s stomach. Cartwright spoke about Ridley Scott with deep admiration, recalling how he pushed her beyond her limits:
“His whole background was as a graphic artist, so he was very interested in what everything looked like. There’s a scene where I slap Sigourney [Weaver] across the face, and every time I went to do it she ducked. Ridley turns to me and goes, ‘Just f*cking get her this time.’ So she ducked and I brought my hand back and backhanded her. She was not a happy camper, but it worked for the scene.”
Source:IndieWire
