MGM/20th Century Fox has just released
a 2-DVD set of director Philip Kaufman’s 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Cinema Retro Editor-in-Chief Lee Pfeiffer
recently caught up with one of the stars of the film, Veronica Cartwright for
her reflections on that Hollywood rarity: a
remake that in many ways equals or exceeds the quality of the original. Successful as a child actor, by 1978 Veronica Cartwright already had an impressive
acting resume, having worked with Audrey Hepburn in The Children’s Hour and been directed by Alfred Hitchcock in The Birds. She has worked consistently
in recent years, gaining Emmy nominations for The X Files and appearing in new, major motion pictures and TV
series. She will also be appearing in the new version of the Body Snatchers story, The Invasion with Nicole Kidman and
Daniel Craig. Veronica Cartwright has a
wealth of stories about working with giants in the industry as well as the
ups-and-downs most actors experience in their careers. She is unpretentious and
good-humored and all too happy to recall one of the major films of her career
for Cinema Retro.
CR: You started
as a child actor and over the years seem to have become associated with some
iconic TV shows and movies dealing with sci-fi and the supernatural. Did you
intentionally seek out work in this genre?
VC: I have no
idea why that is. At one point I had done so many that I thought to myself, “My
God, I’m the queen of sci-fi!†I was just accepting the work that came along.
Actually, I had done a couple of Alfred
Hitchcock Presents shows and I had appeared on One Step Beyond when I was seven or eight years old. I guess that’s
how the whole thing started. Then I did the Twlight
Zone episode called I Sing the Body
Electric that’s one of the classic ones that’s shown every Halloween.