Earlier than Jennifer Aniston turned America’s sweetheart on Mates, (which is streamable with a Max subscription), she lower her tooth within the leisure enterprise with a cult basic. The film in query is Leprechaun, a low-budget 1993 horror flick the place she performed a personality that squared off in opposition to a gold-obsessed goblin performed by Warwick Davis. And, in response to Davis, a few of her on-screen terror may’ve been the true deal. That apart, although, Davis additionally revealed what stood out about Aniston at that time.
Warwick Davis chatted with Leisure Weekly on the opening of Common’s Epic Universe in Orlando. It was in the course of the occasion that he shared his ideas on filming what some may name a not-so-great however nonetheless a enjoyable and campy superior ’90s horror film. Davis talked about simply how stunned Jennifer Aniston was when she noticed him in his full costume on set. Based on the Willow star:
She was a fantastic actress, however whether or not the worry on her face was actual. I believe it was at occasions, as a result of it was fairly intense, that make-up and the stuff we had been having to do. Having me in that getup with the nails and the whole lot, chasing her. It is obtained to have been fairly terrifying.
Davis was buried underneath layers of grotesque prosthetics and lengthy, sharp nails to play the evil Leprechaun, and he admits the entire course of was bodily demanding. Contemplating how Davis’ look for the movie, I can perceive how Aniston or any of their co-stars can be unnerved. Nonetheless, it was impact for what the movie was going for. Whereas the horror-comedy hybrid didn’t wow critics, it clawed its method to a field workplace take of $8.5 million on a shoestring finances underneath $1 million, per Field Workplace Mojo.
After all, Leprechaun might not be the position anybody anticipated to launch the profession of somebody who would star in top-of-the-line sitcoms of all time. Through the years, Jennifer Aniston has poked enjoyable on the movie for being one among her worst roles, even famously calling it “embarrassing” in a 2021 InStyle interview. Regardless of all of that, Davis wasn’t shocked when she landed the life-changing position of Rachel Inexperienced quickly after. He noticed one thing early on that others may’ve missed:
I bear in mind Jennifer, as a result of I believed, ‘Oh, she’s positively obtained one thing particular about her.’ You possibly can inform she was gonna grow to be a giant star in the future. She had that high quality about her, that energetic efficiency.
So, as Aniston was keeping off a demonic fairy in an outdated farmhouse, Davis was already clocking the charisma that might flip her into one of the recognizable faces in Hollywood. Regardless of the We’re the Millers star’s occasional quips about her debut in horror films, Leprechaun’s director, Mark Jones, instructed EW in 2014 that the actress later assured him she didn’t thoughts the movie and had been misquoted previously.
Greater than thirty years later, Jones’ 1993 horror movie stands as a campy cult basic and an enchanting footnote in the in any other case polished résumé of the Morning Present actress. However, for Davis, the movie isn’t simply horror nostalgia; it’s a time capsule of two careers on very completely different trajectories, colliding for one bizarre, great, and barely terrifying film.
Jennifer Aniston isn’t the one Leprechaun alum who’s made it large. Warwick Davis is a film icon, from enjoying an Ewok in Star Wars to starring in Willow and its Disney+ spinoff and enjoying a Hogwarts professor within the Harry Potter films. Davis has really had a unprecedented profession, and I am grateful for his work, together with the A+ manner he spooked Aniston and co. on display screen.
Take a look at Leprechaun for your self by streaming it without cost on Tubi.