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Scream queen
Tulsa native may be remembered best for her link to Freddy
By MICHAEL SMITH World Scene Writer
Published: 10/30/2009 2:20 AM
Last Modified: 10/30/2009 4:10 AM
Heather Langenkamp had made a couple of TV movies, a couple of after-school specials, and in the summer of 1984 the Tulsa native started filming a low-budget horror film in which she had the lead role.
As Nancy Thompson, she was to be terrorized in her dreams by a horribly burned man with razor blades for fingers.
"I thought it was going to pay the bills. It was a job. I wasn't even thinking at that stage of my career that it was going to be good or bad, just that I was going to be able to keep my career going," she said recently of "A Nightmare on Elm Street," the iconic scarefest that introduced the world to Freddy Krueger.
"I remember meeting (the film's writer-director) Wes Craven during auditions, and he was a really wonderful guy. He wasn't depraved at all," Langenkamp said without a chuckle. "Some may picture these (horror filmmakers) as being insane or something, but he was more normal than you could imagine."
She had read the script: A girl, Tina, is killed by Freddy and pulled up to the ceiling. Her character's boyfriend, Glen (Johnny Depp in his first role; "He was sweet," Langenkamp recalls) is killed and blood splatters, soaking a room. It sounded like a horror film.
"I was 20, and I wasn't sophisticated enough to know what (those scenes would) look like on screen. Then when we shot, and we got to watch the dailies, I just couldn't believe what I was seeing."
The film was released Nov. 16, 1984, and as the 25th anniversary approaches, Langenkamp is filled with memories of friends and fun. There is also a realization that she arrived at long ago.
"I love everything I was able to do in the films, but all of the sadistic blood and gore of the Freddy movies, in the end, it's really hard for me to watch," she said. "I don't think I ever enjoyed (that part of) it."
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Just a few years before filming the genre classic, Langenkamp was completing her studies at Tulsa's Lee Elementary before moving on to Holland Hall for junior high and high school in Washington D.C., when her father — Dobie Langenkamp, an internationally known energy lawyer from Tulsa — became a Department of Energy official during President Jimmy Carter's administration.
She was back in Tulsa, working as a copy clerk at the Tulsa Tribune, when she saw an ad asking for extras for the local 1982 filming of "The Outsiders." Langenkamp made the cut, and a casting director noticed her. Stay in touch, she was told. I'm going to Stanford for school, she replied.
Answering that ad has shaped her life in ways both professional and personal. The assistant to the "Outsiders" casting director was Jill Simpson (now the director of Oklahoma's state film office), who became a close friend as Langenkamp took a leave of absence from college (she later graduated Stanford with a degree in English) to work in Hollywood.
Simpson would be an assistant on Craven's 1988 film "The Serpent and the Rainbow" when she told Langenkamp (then beginning a three-season run on the ABC sitcom "Just the Ten of Us") that she should meet one of the crew members.
It sounds like a cliche, but 18 months later, the scream queen married the makeup man.
That would be two-time Acad
emy Award-winning makeup effects creator David LeRoy Anderson, who won Oscars for "The Nutty Professor" and "Men in Black." Langenkamp joined him in the family business several years ago.
"We're here at (AFX Studio in Van Nuys, California), and right now we're making these adorable stuffed puppies for a movie called 'Santa Paws,' from the people who made 'Space Buddies,' " Langenkamp said. "It's a break after six months on 'Cabin in the Woods' (an upcoming horror film) making 200 or more effects, if you count all of the zombies and mutants and weird people we made up."
3 a.m. call
She and her husband live outside of Malibu, Calif., where he's lived for most of his life (the best man at their wedding: Anderson's pal Charlie Sheen). They have two children, a son, Atticus, at Stanford ("He's in the band, and I am so proud of him," she said) and a daughter, Isabelle, now in the ninth grade ("She is already a fantastic artist, like my husband").
"They've seen 'Nightmare,' but like most kids, they're not that interested in what mom did," Langenkamp said with a laugh. "They probably have a little pride about it and have told their friends. I tried to show them my sitcom, and they thought it was the stupidest thing they ever saw. Maybe I'll show them again someday, when they're more forgiving."
Langenkamp's most rabid fans aren't at home, but at horror conventions she attends, meeting those who want a photo with Nancy Thompson, the sole survivor of the first "Nightmare on Elm Street," the young woman who died fighting Freddy in the smash third film in 1987, "Dream Warriors," and who appeared in the series a final time in 1994's "Wes Craven's New Nightmare."
"They are the most loyal, devoted fans, telling me about how they rented the movies on Friday nights and invited their friends over and saw them again and again," she said, adding that she counts Jon Stewart among her fans, considering the frequency with which she appears on his program.
"It's amazing when I see 'Nightmare on Elm Street' references on everything from Stephen Colbert's show to Tiny Toon Adventures," Langenkamp said. "Sometimes it seems like there is one on 'The Daily Show' every week, like Jon saying Hillary Clinton was taking a 3 a.m. phone call, and they will cut to an image of me on that phone that has Freddy's tongue sticking out of it."
It's a unique legacy that Langenkamp would never have dreamed of years ago in Tulsa.
Documentary
Heather Langenkamp is planning
to make a documentary about fans of
hers and “A Nightmare on Elm Street,”
describing “I Am Nancy” as “a look
at how Freddy Krueger is this cultural
icon, and Nancy, who was so heroic, is
just kind of chopped liver in the background.
It’s a wry look, a bit of fun.”
Fans can take a quiz, offer photos and
more at her Facebook site, which can
be found at tulsaworld.com/heatherasnancy.
Heather Langenkamp’s favorite horror films
The Wizard of Oz
“I thought it was a
horror film. I have
such memories of
having to get a blanket
to cover my eyes when
the flying monkeys
came on the screen,
and the same with the
wicked witch.”
Burnt Offerings
“I remember seeing
this in sixth grade
there in Tulsa, this
psychologically scary
movie with Karen
Black that I still love
to this day. I want to
remake that movie
here in Malibu.”
The Omen
“That was a very important
movie to me,
in that Gregory Peck
was my favorite actor
and the reason that
I named my son Atticus.”
(Peck portrayed
Atticus Finch in “To
Kill a Mockingbird.”)
A Nightmare on Elm Street
“I love everything
about the
three movies
I was in, but
let’s go with
the first one.
That’s where it
all began.”
Dawn of the Dead
This would be the 2004
remake by Zach Snyder
(“300”), on which
Heather worked with her
husband on the makeup
effects. “That was the
first movie that I worked
on the other side of the
camera, and I loved it.”
Michael Smith 581-8479
michael.smith@tulsaworld.com
By MICHAEL SMITH World Scene Writer
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