Dangerous, But No Longer Dead

The journey of actress/producer Ellen Sandweiss from remote haunted cabin to “normal” suburban home (and from Michigan to L.A.)

 
“When we made ‘The Evil Dead,’ I didn’t think anybody was ever going to see it; I mean, for God’s sake, we made this movie before video rentals!” said Ellen Sandweiss with a laugh more hearty than wicked.

The Michigan-born-and-bred actress was reminiscing about the start of her professional film career, when she played Cheryl in the legendary cult horror flick, which also marked the professional debut of director Sam Raimi (the “Spider-Man” trilogy, “The Quick and the Dead,” “A Simple Plan,” “The Gift,” and the current fright-fest “Drag Me to Hell.”) Sandweiss was responsible for some of that film’s most memorable moments, including the infamous sequence when she was, er, sexually assaulted by a tree.

But, despite only moderate success in its initial theatrical release in 1981, “The Evil Dead” defied Sandweiss’s (and most everyone else’s) expectations when renting videos became a popular passion a few years later — it steadily gained a word-of-mouth reputation as a truly original film and a classic of its genre.

“It’s funny, because in ‘Evil Dead’ lore, there are some rumors that the film ruined me — that it was so difficult, it killed my desire to act,” said Sandweiss. “Which is not true. Before we started filming, I was studying acting and theater at U of M [the University of Michigan], and after we finished shooting, I went back to finish school. It wasn’t ‘The Evil Dead’ that made me decide to stop acting at the time. It was the fact that I wasn’t convinced I had what it takes — in terms of talent, drive, the ability to accept rejection, and the kind of lifestyle that acting demands — to make a living as an actor.”

After receiving her bachelor's degree in theater and drama, Sandweiss went on to earn a master’s in arts administration, a field she subsequently worked in for many years. “I felt, perhaps mistakenly, that the best thing I could do was to stay in the arts so I could at least keep my finger on the pulse, but use my business skills to actually make a living,” she said. “But I didn’t really like that, because I always wanted to do what they were doing — those people who I was supporting behind the scenes.”

Still, Sandweiss forsook film acting from the time “The Evil Dead” wrapped until she co-starred in Dante Tomaselli’s rather less successful “Satan’s Playground” in 2005. In the interim, she got married and raised two daughters, keeping her performance skills sharp by acting in musical theater, singing, doing commercial voice-overs, modeling and speaking at seminars.

Fortunately for Sandweiss’s fans, however, the specter of her first major role eventually raised its ghoulish head during her long absence from the screen — along with two of her “Evil Dead” co-stars (Betsy Baker and Theresa Tilly), she began making appearances as “Ladies of the Evil Dead” at horror and pop-culture conventions throughout the U.S. and Europe.

“Besides the conventions, we’ve actually sat and done live commentary at screenings, which is so much fun,” she said. “The cool thing about ‘Ladies’ is that all three of us are nice, middle-aged moms, but we were in this incredibly gory, over-the-top film. So we’ll be sitting at a convention next to what I call ‘vampire sluts’ with the black leather, etc., and we just crack up. When we started doing this seven or eight years ago, we were all raising kids, and we’d say ‘Bye, honey,’ and go out and get absorbed in this horror thing — it was kind of like leading a double life.”



To Sandweiss’s delight, her appearances with Baker and Tilly led to the trio starring in “Dangerous Women,” a Web-based series for Strike.TV about three suburban housewives with a secret. In addition to playing the role of Cheryl (the name of her character — like those of Baker and Tilly — is a sly nod to their “Evil Dead” alter-egos), Sandweiss is co-producing the series with creator and writer David O’Malley.

“David is a friend of mine, who’s also a Michigander, and he directed me in a movie called ‘The Dread,’” Sandweiss said. “He had always wanted to write a vehicle for Theresa and Betsy and me, because he likes the rapport and the shtick we have together. At first it was going to be a feature film, but when the writers went on strike last year, they created Strike.TV, and he decided to make it a Web series instead.”

“Strike.TV was born on the WGA picket line,” continued Sandweiss. “The idea was to have a web site for writers and creators that would let them own their own stuff and retain creative control of their material. So a bunch of people volunteered their time and worked their asses off to get it up and running. Initially there was also a charitable aspect to it: The first three months of advertising income was donated to a fund that helped Hollywood crew members who were affected by the writers’ strike.”

Sandweiss explained that there are two things that differentiate Strike.TV from other Web TV sites. “First, unlike YouTube, you can’t just upload your own material; it’s a curated site. Second, it’s all-original content created for the site by professional Hollywood writers, directors, producers and actors. It’s really a one-of-a-kind site.”

To date, six episodes of “Dangerous Women” have been produced and put up on the site. “It’s gotten a great reaction from the people who’ve seen it,” said Sandweiss. “We’ve had really good online press coverage from all the horror fan sites. I think people have read that coverage, and because they’re fans of ‘Ladies of the Evil Dead,’ they’ve gone to Strike.TV, watched ‘Dangerous Women,’ and realized that it’s not horror, and maybe it’s not their cup of tea. It’s kind of dark and kind of twisted, and it’s got a sci-fi aspect to it, but essentially it’s not a horror series. So it hasn’t gotten the views we’d like it to get because, for the most part, middle-aged women are not watching Internet entertainment.”

Sandweiss thinks there is a lot of additional potential for the series, especially if it can reach that target audience. “I think it would do better on cable,” she mused. “It would be great for Lifetime, Oxygen or even Sci Fi. What we need is to find a sponsor or somebody to buy it.”

As far as Sandweiss is concerned, perhaps the biggest fringe benefit of her participation in “Dangerous Women” was the chance to meet one of her longtime idols. “David O’Malley wrote a movie called ‘Fatal Instinct’ for Carl Reiner, and they’ve been friends ever since. Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks did ‘The 2000-Year-Old Man, which is one of my favorite comedy routines, and they are my favorite comic writers and directors. So David had promised me that at some point he’d introduce me to Carl Reiner. I had told David I wanted to try to talk him [Reiner] into appearing in ‘Dangerous Women; I honestly think he could play my father, because we kind of look like we could be father and daughter. I finally got to meet him at a retrospective of his films in L.A., where he spoke. David introduced me to him, and we talked a little bit. He’s an incredible man: he’s 87, totally fit, together, smart and articulate — and he hasn’t slowed down a bit. Meeting him was a lot of fun.”

 

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“Dangerous Women” is Sandweiss’s first project since she moved from Michigan to L.A. last year. “My move to California was kind of the beginning of the next chapter in my life,” she said. “Here’s the order of events: got divorced, sent my youngest daughter off to college, decided to pursue acting on a more full-time basis, and wanted to pretty much start over. L.A. seemed like the logical place to go because it’s where most film is happening, even with the recent upsurge of activity in Michigan.”



“The bottom line is that I never gave acting full-time a chance,” she continued. “I’d occasionally do a play or a singing gig, and then I’d say, ‘Okay, that almost killed me; I’m never doing this again.’ But then a couple of years would go by, and I’d say, ‘Oh, I really want to perform.’ So now I want to at least give it a real try. I’m still not convinced that I have what it takes. I’m still not good with rejection; but, fortunately, I don’t feel like I’m going to live or die by whether or not I make it as an actor. At least I will have given it my best shot.”

The move has been a good experience, Sandweiss said, but not an easy process. “I spent a lot of time finding a place to live, settling in, finding an agent, finding a manager, getting a new head shot, and getting all my tools together.”

“My timing, as usual, was exquisite,” she added with more than a note of self-effacing sarcasm, “because I moved to L.A. just in time for the writer’s strike. And then when the strike was over, the economy tanked, so…” she trailed off with a gesture of resignation and another of those hearty laughs.

Sandweiss’s relocation may not have gone exactly as she’d wished, but the journey itself wasn’t nearly as long as the one she took after leaving the eerie Tennessee cabin that served as the main location in “The Evil Dead.” Looking back at those early days, she’s amazed at the unusually high number of people she grew up with who’ve gone on to successful careers in film and TV.

“I don’t have a good answer to why there were so many talented people in my high school [Birmingham Groves],” she said. “From ‘The Evil Dead’ alone, there were Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Josh Becker. There was also a guy named John Cameron who worked with the Coen brothers and is a huge producer. Scott Spiegel is also doing really well in film. These guys were all making films from when they were 12 years old. I guess in some ways they kind of egged each other on, and together they created a force to be reckoned with, and then they all kind of splintered off.”

Sandweiss may be at somewhat of a loss to explain that mystery, but she’s quite sure about how her first feature has continued to pick up new fans over the years. “I think in every generation, there are going to be people who go for anything, in every genre, that’s really over the top, that pushes all the boundaries, and that’s just balls-out craziness — and I think that’s what ‘The Evil Dead’ is. It’s timeless in that respect. Of course, it is very creative, but I truly think the reason it’s stood up the way it has is that it’s so over the top.”

Asked what advice she would give to a fledgling actor from Michigan, Sandweiss answered, “Do as much acting as you possibly can. If your friend has a camera, and somebody can write a script, and you can make a movie, do it. Create your own projects; don’t wait for the phone to ring. That’s why I did ‘Dangerous Women.’”

“Certainly, in addition to getting some acting experience, you want to study,” Sandweiss added. “Most actors in Michigan will start off in theater, but film and TV acting is a whole different ball game. There are some skills you really need to take classes for.”

Once they’ve got the experience and the training, does Sandweiss think a Michigan-based actor should stay in the state to capitalize on the burgeoning film industry here, or follow her example and head for Hollywood? “It seems to me,” Sandweiss said, “that they’re casting mostly the smaller roles in Michigan, at least for now, and beginning actors certainly should start out with smaller roles, even if they can’t always make a living from it at first.”

“So,” she concluded brightly, “I think it’s the best time ever to be an actor in Michigan.”


Tim Cohan is an independent advertising writer, composer and musician.


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