Article Launched: 06/01/2006 01:00:00 AM MDT

Strange happenings haunt remake of "The Omen" for actress Stiles
By Cindy Pearlman
The New York Times Syndicate.

Julia Stiles knocks on wood. She avoids walking under ladders. She
crosses the street if she spots a black cat about to cross her path.

And when she heard that her new film, the remake of the horror classic
"The Omen" (1976), would open on Wednesday, June 6, 2006 - 6-6-06 - she
called her agent. She wanted to back out of making the movie.

"I'm very superstitious," she says, speaking by telephone from a New
York hotel, "and I kept seeing '666' in my mind. I didn't want to tempt
fate."

In the end she didn't bolt the production, but even now she isn't
entirely comfortable with the opening date for the new telling of the
story of Damien, the little boy who may be the Antichrist.

"I guess my fears were really a testament to the original 'Omen,"' she
says. "It's a powerful story about how the forces can swoop in and
control your life."

She learned that in spades during the months-long shoot, which took
place in the Czech Republic.

"I had horrible nightmares every single night when we were shooting the
film," she recalls. "I guess I tend to internalize things.

"My character is supposed to be very tormented by the whole situation,"
Stiles continues, "because I play the mother of this boy. She truly
loves her son, who happens to be the devil. This mom hides her fears
and is afraid to voice them. My character does actually admit, 'Yet,
when I close my eyes, I see grotesque things.'

"That line sank into my head," the actress says, "and I started seeing
grotesque things at night while I was supposed to be sleeping. It
didn't help that my hotel room in Prague was next to the oldest
cemetery."

The remake of "The Omen" stars Liev Schreiber as an American diplomat
who arranges to secretly adopt a baby boy after his wife (Stiles) has
had a miscarriage. Fast-forward to five years later, and the little boy
(Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) isn't all smiles and runny noses. In fact,
he may be the Antichrist.

Stiles is a fan of the original "Omen," which starred Gregory Peck, Lee
Remick and, as the sinister boy Damien, Harvey Stephens.

"I was too young to see it in the theater," she recalls, "but I watched
it on video when I was a teenager."

Nonetheless, Stiles says, she didn't have any qualms about the film
being remade.

"I do believe the film was ripe for a remake," she says. "There are so
many tragedies happening in the world. I think people are constantly
looking for answers. We're asking if there is a force greater than
ourselves. We want explanations."

The original "Omen" was notoriously plagued by strange, intimidating
circumstances: Both Peck and screenwriter David Seltzer were on
separate planes that were struck by lightning, while director Richard
Donner was hit by a car and also was staying at a hotel when it was
bombed by the Irish Republican Army. A plane to Israel on which Peck
had been scheduled to fly crashed, and some crew members were in a
head-on car accident. During postproduction special-effects artist John
Richardson was hurt, and his girlfriend was beheaded, in an auto
accident.

The remake had nothing so extreme, but an entire day's footage - 13,500
feet of film, including the pivotal scene in which the boy's identity
is confirmed - was inexplicably destroyed.

"I couldn't even believe it," Stiles says. "We had some footage
destroyed, and other footage from that day was murky and smudged-up.
This was strange, because the film has actual scenes in it where
photographs are murky and smudged. You can even see in the shadows of
these photographs how people will die. It's a major plot point - and
then the real film gets smudged.

"Strange," Stiles says with a nervous laugh.

Now 25, the actress grew up in New York as the daughter of an
elementary-school teacher and an artist. The oldest of three children,
she took dance and acting lessons, and by the time she was 11 she was
acting at the prestigious experimental theater La Mama.

"I feel like I had a very normal childhood before I started acting,"
Stiles says. "I did my theater work as an after-school activity. I went
to school during the day and performed with this company to do two
plays a year.

"Part of me was innocent and naive," she continues. "I grew up in New
York City, and my imagination was my playground. I'd dress up and
imitate what I saw on TV. Later on I loved hanging out with theater
people, because they also used their imaginations as their playgrounds.


"I never thought of acting as a long-term career."

Between films - her next project is the twisty thriller "'Little Trip
to Heaven" - Stiles remains in New York, where she lives the life of
what she calls "a student of the school of life." What she does, and
with whom she does it, are things she'd rather not share with the
media.

"It's a priority for me to keep my personal life a mystery," she says.
"I'm not judging anyone else's life. ... I believe it's more difficult
to believe an actor if you know too much about them."

http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_3884373