‘Insidious 3’ star Lin Shaye’s fierce Ellen Ripley moment was real: ‘I had had it’

In “Insidious: Chapter 3,” Lin Shaye gets to show off her Ellen Ripley fierceness in one cathartic third act moment that in Leigh Whannell's words has made audiences “stand up and cheer.” So how did she muster the intensity to deliver the line in question?

“I had had it by then,” Shaye told me during the film's recent press day. “Even when we shot the scene…there's a section where I'm being accosted of sorts, and by the end of all the different takes and all the different issues with stunt work and a lot fo things happening, I had had it. [Laughs] I mean, in a good way. So hopefully that line is delivered with the gusto that I was really feeling.”

The film, a prequel to the first two entries in the supernatural horror series, marks not just writer/star Leigh Whannell's first time directing an “Insidious” entry but his first time directing at all. Luckily he had a good teacher in longtime creative partner and “Insidious 1 and 2” helmer James Wan.

“Try to get as much in the frame as possible,” said Whannell of what he learned from watching Wan on set. “Don't think that you can fix things in editing. If it's not there in the frame, you're not gonna have it in the edit room.”

For more from Shaye and Whannell, including their favorite jump scares and whether or not they believe in ghosts, watch the interview in full above.

“Insidious: Chapter 3” hits theaters on Friday.

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