Ellen Burstyn initially said “hell no” when she was asked to reprise her role in The Exorcist: Believer.

In an interview with A.frame, director David Gordon Green admitted the 90-year-old was sceptical about his new movie and originally declined to return as Chris MacNeil, the character she famously portrayed in The Exorcist in 1973.

“Her immediate answer was, ‘Hell no.’ I think people have approached her many times about sequels, so I said, ‘If you won’t be in my movie, at least be my friend,'” the Halloween Kills director recalled.

“Ellen and I spoke and shared literature and philosophies and had a few social conversations. When I then sent her the script, I think she was probably, in my eyes, pleasantly surprised that I’d incorporated some of the conversations that we had, that I’d personalised it for her and taken great lengths to pay respect to the Chris MacNeil character 50 years later. We had a tremendous collaboration, and I’m very proud to have worked with her.”

The Exorcist: Believer, which ignores previous Exorcist sequels and serves as a direct follow-up to the 1973 original, follows two teenage who become possessed after going missing in the woods. Their distraught parents seek out MacNeil for help.

Green noted that he could have made Believer without Burstyn but it was “a big relief” to have her onboard to “hold my hand as I step into sacred territory”.

He added that he was “looking forward” to showing William Friedkin, the director of the original, his new movie but he died before he was able to do so. Friedkin passed away in August aged 87.

The Exorcist: Believer is in cinemas now.

© Cover Media