Ellen Burstyn’s insights into evil entities, negative energy

From left: Leslie Odom Jr., Ellen Burstyn and EJ Bonilla in “The Exorcist: Believer” —UNIVERSAL PICTURES INTERNATIONAL

In our recent chat with David Gordon Green, the writer-director was asked what he thought 90-year-old actress Ellen Burstyn brought to “The Exorcist: Believer” when she reprised her Oscar-nominated role as retired actress Chris MacNeil.

“The monologue that her character delivers in her house is very much inspired by the conversations that Ellen and I had when I invited her [to take part] in the moviemaking process for the first time,” David disclosed. “I was able to get her sense of what negative energy fields, vibrations and entities were and how to move energy around—she’s really explored a lot of those.

“So, we would share books with one another. I would share a book that was special to me, called “The Infinite View: A Guidebook for Life on Earth” by Ellen Tadd, or she would share with me “Conversations With God” [by Neale Donald Walsch].

“We also collaborated on where the various voices and perspectives of these entities might come from. So, that was a very valuable part of the insight I had into her and into what ultimately would become Chris MacNeil’s perspective on our approach to exorcism.”