Haunted Mansion attempted to film Jamie Lee Curtis' head inside a real Madame Leota crystal ball
The scariest thing about Disney's new Haunted Mansion movie might've been that time they tried to film Jamie Lee Curtis' scenes with her head inside a real crystal ball, director Justin Simien tells EW.
"It absolutely was," Simien explains of first attempting to shoot the Oscar-winning actress in a way that most accurately replicated the way her Madame Leota — the iconic psychic whose floating head appears in the Disney parks ride upon which the film is based — appears in the film. "It was certainly encased in a lot of motion detector cameras. There was a ball on set. I think we had it so that if Jamie wanted to get in this thing and suffocate in order to act off of the other actors, it was technically possible, but I don't think that lasted."
Simien says that, even though the finished product is a composite of different elements, Curtis was always on set to vibe off of the other actors, even though her head inside a CGI crystal ball is the only thing viewers see for most of the movie.
"It was attempted and possible," he says, laughing as he recalls trying to use the practical ball. "And then we were kind of like, 'Yeah, no. We're just going to do it like this.'"
In addition to William Gracey (also known as the "Ghost Host" who narrates the ride), Jared Leto's menacing Hatbox Ghost, and the exterior of the movie's mansion itself (modeled after Disneyland's New Orleans-style version), Madame Leota is the most recognizable element that made the jump from attraction to screen in Simien's film.
Originally portrayed in the ride by Disney Imagineer Leota Toombs Thomas upon the attraction's 1969 debut, Leota has become a fan-favorite staple, though Curtis stresses that she collaborated closely with costume designer Jeffrey Kurland on a "new interpretation" that defies what most viewers know.
"[With] the history, the lore of the house, we decided and found out that Madame Leota is Russian. Look at her costumes! Her costumes have this beautiful Russian influence. So, no, she was a total creation, primarily of Jeffrey Kurland," Curtis tells EW. "I feel like his interpretation partnered with Justin's allowed me then to come in and do my thing. But, I really took my cues from him rather than the attraction himself."
Together, they plotted a backstory for Leota that's not present in the ride. In the film, the Russian medium originally worked under the titular estate's owner, William Gracey, to help contact his deceased wife in 1800s Louisiana, before getting swept up in a sinister plot involving Hatbox Ghost. In modern-day New Orleans, an eclectic band of paranormal experts (comprised of LaKeith Stanfield, Rosario Dawson, Danny DeVito, Owen Wilson, and Tiffany Haddish) summons her from her crystal purgatory to help vanquish an army of evil spirits.
Simien, a former Disneyland employee, says that his deep appreciation for the ride (and character) prompted him to expand on Leota's origins, and that included making her as iconic in the world of the film as she is to Disney parks fans.
"Tiffany Haddish's character [Harriet] worships Madame Leota, and already knows who she is by the time we discover that Madame Leota is in this mansion. If you look at Harriet's costume, you can see that Harriet is trying to dress like Madame Leota, but without access to any of those specific cultural references. We created a bit of a costume story," Simien says. "[Even] when she's not in the ball [in flashback], how do we still create that kind of ball shape around her head? That took us on a journey to very specific headpieces, and we just created a backstory for her that made sense for what we knew about her but made her still feel lived in, but also made her come alive in a way that was a little unexpected."
Curtis found levity in the conflict of Leota's existence as an esteemed psychic in the 1800s, versus the state she's reduced to in the contemporary timeline.
"She thinks she's been in the ball a day, and she's been in there hundreds of years," Curtis says. "There was comedy to be played with the funny part of the fact that she's been in there a long time."
One piece of direction she says Simien gave her as she barked Leota's lines from the ball?
"Be funnier, is the only direction I ever got from Justin," Curtis says. "It was just, 'Jamie, can you do it again, but be funnier.'"
See if Curtis' efforts paid off when Haunted Mansion hits theaters nationwide on Friday.
These interviews were conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike.
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