You won’t see Jack Nicholson’s name in the credits for When a Stranger Calls, but Camilla Belle insists it should be.
In this thriller, Belle plays Jill Johnson, a babysitter in a remote house who is harassed by phone calls from a madman.
“I had my copy of The Shining, which I would play before I’d go on set. Nicholson from The Shining became my stranger,” says Belle, whose films include The Lost World: Jurassic Park and The Ballad of Jack and Rose.
“I’d think of Jack lurking in the hallways … and I could get properly scared.”
When a Stranger Calls is based on the 1979 thriller of the same name, but Belle says her director Simon West had a different thriller in mind when he gave her direction. “Simon’s inspiration … was Wait Until Dark. I had to be a modern Audrey Hepburn.”
Wait Until Dark was the 1967 suspense thriller based on the popular play by Frederick Knott in which a blind woman must outsmart a psychopath who is in her apartment.
“Simon told me that what made Wait Until Dark so powerful was that Hepburn created a very strong, resourceful character. He said our film wouldn’t work unless I could do the same thing.”
Eventually, Jill faces her tormentor which results in several intense fight scenes.
“I ended up with so many bruises and welts, and I have a scar on my hand.
“I wear it with pride because when people see the movie they know it is actually me getting beat up and not some stunt person in my costumes.”
