‘If I’d known the skeletons were real I’d have been even more disgusted’: how we made Poltergeist

‘Steven Spielberg lit up when I told him I couldn’t do the face-tearing scene. Those are his hands you see in the film. I could never have ripped my face off with the same joie de vivre’

When my agent said, “We have a script called Poltergeist”, my response was: “Is it horror? I’m not interested.” Then he said: “Well, Steven Spielberg is producing.” So I read the script, which Spielberg had also written, and loved the family in it, and the fact that there were so many strong female characters: Diane, Dr Lesh, Tangina the psychic. Zelda Rubinstein, who played Tangina, was a dynamo. Spielberg was busy prepping ET, so even though he was often on set, Tobe Hooper, who made The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, directed. I’d never seen that because when it comes to horror, I’m a nervous Nellie.

We’d all do improv to give the sense of a real family life – sometimes they’d just roll a camera while we were chatting and telling jokes. Craig T Nelson, who played my husband, had been a standup. Where we’re smoking pot in the bedroom, he improvised the “before/after/before” routine with his stomach. Little Heather O’Rourke, who played my youngest daughter, Carol Anne, was just five at the time, but very intuitive. If I cried in a scene, she’d cry too. When we were covered in cold goop, she was shivering and shaking but never complained. She was such a trooper.