Jane Levy on Shooting 'The Evil Dead'

Jane Levy recently began shooting a lead role in “The Evil Dead,” a remake/reimagining of the classic 1981 Sam Raimi horror flick that starred Bruce Campbell battling undead forces in the woods. Though a horror fan, Levy says she had never seen the original before landing the part. “When I got the script I thought about watching it, but I decided against it so it wouldn’t mess with my head,” she says. “I would have created all these things that I thought they wanted. I think it was better that I went in not knowing anything.”

Raimi, who is producing the new version, wasn’t there for her initial audition, but Campbell, director Fede Alvarez, two casting directors, and a producer were. And in Levy’s mind, it was not a great audition. “I went in there deciding to go as crazy as I possibly could—why not let it all go?” she remembers. “Let’s have an experiment to really let go in an audition. So I was like this lunatic, stomping around and crying and screaming. And immediately after I finished, I got so embarrassed and I practically ran out of the room. And then I was embarrassed that I got embarrassed. I asked my agent to call the casting directors and apologize for my behavior. But it turned out I got the part. I guess they were looking for a crazy person.”

Check out Jane Levy on the cover of this week's Back Stage, on newsstands on Thursday, May 3!