'The Craft's' Rachel True talks racism and being excluded from fan conventions

Rachel True, co-star of The Craft, talks to Yahoo Entertainment about why she fought so hard to be included in top billing and fan conventions. "It's less about me, Rachel True, it's not about that. It's about all the black girls or boys, or young actors coming up, because when they put up a posted of the four of us, mention the three girls and then skip down the call sheet, I think this is how black actors get underpaid, this is how they get forgotten." True goes on to say that this "wouldn't happen today."

Video Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

BUS DRIVER: You girls watch out for those weirdos.

BONNIE: Heh. We are the weirdos, mister.

ETHAN ALTER: Let's talk about "The Craft." I love how you say in the book, like, some actors don't love talking about their past roles, but you love talking about "The Craft."

RACHEL TRUE: It's a big movie in terms of my career. But it's also a big movie for black people out there. "The Craft" came out before "Scream", before all those things, and we had a main black character. Which is why I fight to get mentioned in billing sometimes. It's less about (AFFECTS SELF-IMPORTANT VOICE) me, Rachel True. (RETURNS TO NORMAL VOICE) It's not about that.

It's about all the black girls coming up-- or boys, or whoever-- and young actors coming up. Because when they put up a poster of the four of us, mention the three girls, and then skip down on the call sheet, I think-- this is how black actors get underpaid. This is how they get forgotten. And it's part of why I mouthed off about the publicity back in the day that I was excluded from, which wouldn't happen today.

ETHAN ALTER: And what's so interesting is that Rochelle was originally written for a white actress.

ROCHELLE: And I told her, like, you're white, honey. Just deal with it.

ETHAN ALTER: And then you came on, you auditioned, you made it your own. And they added, apparently, the racial element to the story because of you.

RACHEL TRUE: When I was cast in it, I remember seeing the new script and thinking-- actually, originally, I was bulimic to begin with. That was in my original audition. Then they turned it into racism. And I remember thinking-- this is my young brain, not my adult brain-- thinking, do they see Blackness as a problem?

But, you know, once I really thought about it, when I got older, I thought, no, it's really good they had it in there.

LAURA LIZZIE: Oh, god. Look-- there is a pubic hair is my brush. Oh, no. Wait, wait. That's just one of Rochelle's little nappy hairs.

ETHAN ALTER: The Christine Taylor role-- which is your main antagonist in it-- she uses some really racially-charged language. I wonder if it was harsher, originally? How did they sort of deal with that character as your obstacle?

RACHEL TRUE: I think they don't ever say the n-word with a hard r.

LAURA LIZZIE: Because I don't like negroids.

RACHEL TRUE: I feel like that was always the language, to be honest. You know, it wasn't the first time someone called my hair a pubic hair. That's the truth. So to have that in the movie was fitting, I think, as far as how people think.

ETHAN ALTER: The great scene with Christine Taylor is when her hair's coming out in the shower, and--

RACHEL TRUE: Yeah.

ETHAN ALTER: --you're looking at her. What do you remember about shooting that, and how they did that?

RACHEL TRUE: I do remember about deciding how to play that scene. Because I wanted to play it more torn than glee. It could have been glee. But I think my choice was, oh, god, I've realized I've done to them what they were doing to me. And because I know how that feels, being black, I have mixed emotions about it. Rather than just, like, woo-hoo! It's great!

ETHAN ALTER: And then, at the end of the movie, Rochelle has her own hair coming out.

RACHEL TRUE: Actually, when I was designing the deck, my hair had been really long, and then it broke off, and I had to cut it all off. And I actually designed this card. I don't know-- can you see it?

ETHAN ALTER: Oh, yeah.

RACHEL TRUE: So I designed this card after my hair broke off. I mean, in the traditional one, it's a person tied to a sword. Here, I've got little-- I love the octopus shape we came up with because that's to say entanglements, right? But then little bits of the hair at the end are tied to the sword as if to say-- it really doesn't hurt to leave, to extricate, yourself from the situation. All you're doing is cutting off a bit of split ends, right?

But when I had to cut all my hair off, I wanted to keep every scraggly bit because we have ego. Every time I'm in the shower, and there's a handful of hair, which I always lose, I'm like, it's just like the movie!

BONNIE: Did you guys ever play that game Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board?

ETHAN ALTER: What can you tell us about the levitation scene?

RACHEL TRUE: That one, they built a two story house inside a soundstage on the Sony lot. And so they had a hydraulic platform on the first level of the house, and there were stairs that we all climbed up to the second floor set. And it was basically like, you know when you see people getting rescued from a helicopter? When they're on that thing they strap them into? I was strapped into something like that. And I did ad-lib some of those lines.

ROCHELLE: You've got to try it.

RACHEL TRUE: That one, I ad-libbed, for sure [LAUGHS].

[LOUD CRASH]

[CACKLING]

ETHAN ALTER: How about the flying scene, where you all three fly in on Robin Tunney?

RACHEL TRUE: Oh, my god. That was classic, old-school, Peter Pan, Broadway flying. Literally the most painful harness you've ever felt. I think one of the actresses cried at one point because it was so painful.

ETHAN ALTER: You mention in the book that Fairuza Balk could be a little intense on set.

RACHEL TRUE: [LAUGHS] Now, listen-- Fairuza Balk is one of my good friends. I adore Fairuza Balk. We became closer, though, not when we were shooting that movie. Because I had literally been told by my team-- stay away from her. She'll get away with stuff and you will get fired for it. Like, I was literally told, you're Black-- don't say [BLEEP] you, mommy, like the white girls. That's literally what I was told.

But here's the thing people don't understand about Fairuza Balk. She is a consummate artist who's been working since she was a child. I don't know who else could have played Nancy. Just to sing her praises-- I mean, she makes that movie. Right? What people wouldn't guess about her-- she's so supportive as a friend.

BONNIE: You ever heard of invoking the spirit?

ETHAN ALTER: How long have you been interested in tarot? And when did that start for you?

RACHEL TRUE: People are hitting up my DMs like, can I get a reading from you? And I'm like, no. You can't afford me, first of all. I don't really read publicly anymore. But the idea with the book is no, no-- you learn to do it yourself. That way you don't have to freak out all the time, or go to people, and spend all your money on that. You can heal yourself.

ROCHELLE: Hail to the guardians of the watchtowers of the West, powers of water and intuition! Hear us!