Actress Bonnie Morgan
scares her way out of screens and into our hearts. Or perhaps into our nightmares.
Horror fans enjoy reminiscing about the first films and
scenes that scared them. Maybe it was Pennywise peering through the street
gutter, or the white face of Michael Myers appearing in the dark. In 2005, Bonnie
Morgan scared a generation of fans as Samara chasing Naomi Watts’ character
with her infamous “spider crawl” in The
Ring Two. Now, a decade later,
Samara is back in Rings, and Bonnie
Morgan plays the role in its entirety, bringing back the crawl that made the
character epically frightening—no CGI required. Contortionism is one of Bonnie
Morgan’s specialties.
“Buckle in for the ride. Samara is here to stay. She never
sleeps. The first sequence will terrify you,” Bonnie told me. I had the honor
of speaking directly to Bonnie to get the inside scoop on Rings, learn about other upcoming projects, and received some
inspiring advice for making it in Hollywood.
“I’ve played many scary monsters, but Samara has been my
favorite to create. I enjoy doing terrifying more than anything else. Samara is
near and dear to my black little heart,” Bonnie states.
As a little girl, Bonnie loved to scare her sister and her
sister’s friends. Bonnie would pop out from behind the couch and laugh as the
other kids screamed in fright. They called her “Gollum” because of the way she
could creep and crawl. Bonnie’s the daughter of third-generation circus
performers and is also a trained stunt-actress. She’s deeply connected in the horror
genre, too. Her father famously played the stunt-double to Cujo, and her aunt
was Jason Vorhees’ first victim.
From scaring her sister to scaring the world, Bonnie
delivers terrifying like no one else. In a
Rings prank, the actress played Samara in a department store and crawled out of a television
display to scare unknowing costumers—the video went viral and had over 200
million views in less than 24 hours. She’s also known for the possessed Rosa in
The Devil Inside. Every part of Rosa—vocals, spasms, twists and
turns—is played by Morgan. It’s a great role to watch to see her diverse
talent.
Her acting career started early—she was an Oscar Meyer
Weiner kid and had roles in several favorite shows from the 90s, like Quantum Leap, Blossom, Step by Step,
and Dr. Quinn.
But the turning point, Morgan told me, was her role as a Who
in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. “It
was that movie where I played and created innovative movement,” she says. The
live-action movie with Jim Carrey as the Grinch and Ron Howard as the director
got her noticed by lots of other Hollywood stars.
When you get the amazing opportunities that she’s had,
Bonnie says, “Make yourself invaluable. Be ready. Train hard. Work hard. Find
people to train with. Ask who they train with. Have a specialty. Pitch in and
help out, and always do what makes you happy.” On the phone, Bonnie’s
enthusiasm is as powerful as Samara is scary. Her love for her work and fans is
genuine, and it’s easy to tell that she’s someone who goes above and beyond.
“It takes six and a half hours to get into Samara’s make-up,”
she says. “I’m at the studio by 4:00 a.m. or earlier. In total, I wear 43 appliances.”
Her legs, arms, neck, chest—every part is covered to bring Samara to life. She’s
also hooked up to hoses because Samara is always weeping—she’s the girl in the
well, after all. In addition to the 43 individual pieces and attached hoses,
she’s covered in paint and gels. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it to make
Samara genuinely terrifying.
Morgan’s evolution becoming Samara is now a legendary story.
The director, Hideo Nakato, originally wanted to go with CG. The stunt
coordinator, though, had a better idea and contacted Morgan. That’s when Morgan
created the spider walk. “Real is always more scary.” The spider walk originated
on her living room floor, and when the director saw Morgan’s work, she was
hired to create the spider crawl for The
Ring Two. Now, she not only plays Samara in Rings, but she’s also the inspiration behind possession movies using
contortionists instead of CGI to create more realistic and haunting movements. As
a contortionist, she also holds a title in the Guinness Book of World Records for
staying in a two by two box for nearly three minutes with two others. And after
so many stunts and rolls, there is one only thing that scares her: being buried
alive.
Morgan’s skills landed her parts in a variety of successful Hollywood
projects. She’s had roles in Minority
Report with Tom Cruise, a hilarious part in Piranha 3D—remember the victim eaten alive through the inner-tube?
That’s Bonnie Morgan. In Men in Black II,
she became known as Jabba the Butt—she’s the one with a head-like appliance
placed on her rear. The list goes on and on with stunts and roles in films like
Hellboy II, Fright Night, and Peter Pan,
and television roles on hits like Terminator:
The Sarah Connor Chronicles, CSI,
Criminal Minds, Castle, and more.
Morgan has a variety of new projects coming, too. In the
spring, she’ll be on the small screen for Sundance’s Hap and Leonard, a “swamp noir,” she says. Among other things, “you
have a gay black cowboy hunting down a murderer who is killing children,”
Morgan says.
Additionally, Morgan is thrilled to have just joined a major
sci-fi franchise overseas. “I can’t tell
you what it is yet, but it will be amazing.”
What’s Morgan’s favorite horror movies? If you don’t love
her already, you will after her first response. “IT. I love Tim Curry. Also, Pet
Semetery. That scared me because we had a pet cemetery near
our house. I also love Killer Klowns from Outer Space, even if it’s not really
scary.”
Rings opens in
theaters February 3.
Hap and Leonard
season one is available now on
Amazon, and season two premiers March 2 on
Sundance TV.
About the author:
Joe Chianakas is the author of
Rabbit in Red, a horror trilogy.
Rabbit in Red won best horror book of 2016. It was picked up by
Horror Block and sent to thousands around the world. The second
book,
Burn the Rabbit, hit #1 on
Amazon’s hot new horror releases and is available now. The trilogy concludes
this fall with
Bury the Rabbit.
Follow Joe on
Facebook or visit his
webpage here.
Readers will find a fun tribute to Samara in the book.
