Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) might have been back in Terrifier 2 for more murder and mayhem, but that doesn’t mean he was going in alone. Art was joined by a mysterious and otherworldly ally, the Little Pale Girl (Amelie McLain). Talking with Bloody Disgusting, writer/director Damien Leone said that he has been dying to speak about the character because she was just so excited.
“I always had this idea that when I was going to resurrect Art, there would be this physical apparition. It wasn’t just going to be this evil force, or whatever brought him back. I wanted it to be a character. So initially, this character was always going to be a creepy little girl to represent this demon, perhaps even Satan itself. We’ll explore that later. But she was supposed to be in a sundress with flowers, just like an early ’60s get-up."
However, the year before they went into actual principal photography, it was Halloween and the director was getting tagged in all of these pictures of people, both men and women, getting dressed up as Art. Eventually, Leone said, ‘You know what?’ I said, ‘I got to jump on this before it’s too late. This is amazing because girls love dressing up as Art just as much.” So they made her a mini Art the Clown character.
“I think the Pale Girl character in this is a new way of evolving the character further because he has a guide this time around. Someone that’s actually telling him what to do and where to go, but also giving him the freedom to have his fun, too. There’s definitely a dynamic there that we haven’t fully explained yet."
Indeed, beyond being an obviously sinister entity, many questions about the Pale Girl have been left unanswered. For instance, within the film, there’s a brief newspaper article about a girl named Emily who went missing at the amusement park where the film’s climax is set. The connection between that, the Pale Girl, and Art is something that will presumable be further fleshed out in a sequel.
“I liked having something else for him to play off of other than just victims. That was fun, especially with Amelie, our actress that was playing her. She was just great. She was so easy to play off. It’s unusual to find a child actor that is so willing to go to crazy places and can play off someone else that easily. It was a lot of fun working with her.”
The Actress Behind the Character
Leone described McLain as amazing. During the audition process, he gave her little direction. Leone merely said, ‘Can you make creepy faces in the mirror and smile and big white eyes to all these weird things.’ She sent him a video back and according to the director, not only was she having so much fun doing it, but McLain looked great too.
“I said, ‘She’s going to be so much fun. I can’t wait to get her and Dave together in the same room and see them go at it.’ The response to her has been pretty positive so far; we’re excited about that."
According to Leone, it was interesting to see McLain, as an actress, exploring and trying to figure out how to play the character. He knew would he would have liked McLain to do, of course, and would give her direction, but Leone also liked to allow them the opportunity to go off, play, and feel free.
“On the first day, when she was opposite Art, you could see her trying to mimic Dave and starting to see if she could play with his facial expressions, which made her feel more comfortable. You could see how she was discovering who the character was for herself and what she could bring to it from what Dave was doing. So, watching that from the sidelines was very fun.”
Thornton was also very complimentary of McLain’s performance:
“She is so observant, so observant. I just, I was blown away by her performance in this. She’s so good—the things she had to go through for this. I know I go through a lot with my makeup alone, but she had to wear those scleral lenses. Oh. I can’t stand stuff being in my eyes. In the first one, I had contacts for most of it until they ripped one night, and oh. I don’t know how she dealt with that; she did it without a complaint in the world.”