Production Diary – The Curse, Part 1 – Pre-Production

Once a month I’m going to talk about a specific production, what it was like to film it, and what was involved in making it happen.  This month I’m going to talk about The Curse. However, since the Curse is a complicated TV Show with quite a bit of behind-the-scenes back story, I’m going to split this into two posts.

Okay now that’s I’ve written a lot of it I realize that it needs to be three posts – Pre-Production, The First Half of Production, and The Second Half of Production.

 The Curse was filmed and edited in the Winter/Spring of 2001.  It’s a landmark show for Sine Fine Films for a number of reasons, the first and most important being that it was the first production to be produced and filmed entirely outside of the Champaign-Urbana area.  Prior to this point everything was centered in CU including locations, costumes, props, and most importantly the actors. This made for a huge challenge in shifting the filming base of operations (so to speak) from CU in Central Illinois to Carbondale in Southern Illinois.  So there was a LOT of pre-production involved in finding new locations, new props, and of course most difficult of all – new actors.

Here’s how the typical process goes when I start 

working on a new production, from start to finish:

ü  Come up with an idea, flesh it out

ü  Create the characters

ü  Write the outline for the script

ü  Come up with titles – pick one

ü  Write the Script

ü  Look at the locations required.  Are they really available? If not, change them to something that is nearby and reasonable.

ü  Cast the characters based on who I would really like/can see playing the part

ü  Recast to be realistic for who’s actually around and available to film

ü  Contact actors to see who’s in or out

ü  Recast depending on yay’s and nays.

ü  Repeat the process until cast is full, leaving one minor character uncast in order to provoke last minute panic and the need to toss some stranger into the part.

ü  Call actors, get their schedules for filming availability

ü  Decide when to film

ü  Dissect script into breakdowns of scenes, locations, characters, costumes, etc.

ü  Starting designing costumes in my head

ü  Make shooting schedule

ü  Tell/send actors shooting schedule

ü  Redo schedule as many times as needed for maximum efficiency and feasibility

ü  Send scripts to actors, making sure not to proofread it first

ü  Assemble the cast for a read-through if possible

ü  Design, build, borrow, steal, or buy costumes and props

ü  Recast again because someone’s dropped out by now – repeat as needed

ü  Arrange for transportation to location

ü  Arrange for accommodations if necessary

ü  Arrange for food – nope, screw that just let them fend for themselves

ü  Day before shoot – block script, charge batteries, gather equipment, costumes, and props, pack snacks and water for actors (maybe)

ü  Hope for the best, be prepared for the worst. 

ü  Pray for good weather

ü  First big filming day arrives

ü  Curse weather

ü  Recast major role at the last minute

ü  Find extras at last minute (which usually results in no extras)

ü  Film film film film film

ü  Collapse

ü  Sleep (maybe)

ü  Do it all again tomorrow, repeat as needed

ü  When do I get to edit it?

THE IDEA

But let’s back up a bit, to how the story even started, since I like to think it’s not the most obvious idea for a series.  I think it’s kind of cool that for most of the productions (even short films) I can pinpoint the exact moment that started the process – the story and shortly after the script. I don’t know if it’s cool to anyone else, but it’s cool to me.  I don’t remember specific details about most of them, but the start of some of the productions is so clear in my mind I can literally remember it like it was yesterday.

Almost all of the productions have started with a thing.  That thing could be a certain actor I want to see in a certain type of part and then write a script to star them - like Pandora’s Box, or it could be a location I really want to use and write something with a large number of scenes set there - like King of Elflin’s Daughter.  It could be an activity that makes a story sort of grow in my mind – like The Gift Bearer, or even a song that inspires me to write the script – like Destiny.  Most often, however, that thing is a simple idea – a random thought that just drifts through my mind, then stops and screams at me to pay attention and get a pen – and it usually begins with the words what if.

 I was sitting in Anthropology 101 in late October of 2000, listening to the teacher talk about the four major disciplines: Archaeology, Cultural Anthropology, Linguistic Anthropology, and Physical Anthropology.  The last one – Physical (sometimes called Biological) – was the discussion of the day and the professor went into details about people who study bones.  My mind drifted to the idea of what if someone who could see ghosts became a physical anthropologist?  Why ghosts? Well, why not? It was around Halloween and I like ghosts.  After class was over I took the path through Thompson Woods back to the Student Center where I was planning to head up to SPC-TV and work on editing the final few episodes of Pandora’s Box.  As I walked I kept mulling the concept over in my mind. If a physical anthropologist saw ghosts, then why would she go into a profession that centered around digging up and analyzing bones?  Maybe she started her profession before she started seeing ghosts?  What would make someone suddenly start seeing ghosts when they didn’t before? A traumatic event? A near death experience? A curse?

And that was it – a curse; a curse to make a scientist who works with bones start seeing the ghosts of the bones she’s working with.  By the time I got to the Student Center I was already composing the basic storyline and got out my notebook.

ORIGINAL PLOT AND PREMISE

The initial outline for the book involved a dig in Central America, the bones of a young Mayan king from Tikal, and old woman and her granddaughter (Maria) who were descendants of the Maya, and a “sexist, pompous professor boss”. Zandra meets another ghost, 

and another and another and eventually realizes that the curse can be a blessing since she’s able to hear what the past was like from someone who lived there.

Obviously there were major changes that had to be made, given time, budget, and…um…reality?  The dig was moved to a site near the Cahokia Mounds, the Mayan king became an unlucky and selfish Spaniard who also got cursed by the woman who cursed Zandra.  However the woman not an eighty year old Mayan grandmother, but the powerful spirit of an American Indian woman named White Feather. The granddaughter became another student working on the same dig and the sexist professor became a supportive female department head named Professor Grayson. 

The basic premise of lots of ghosts and the realizations she comes to stayed the same and eventually I came up with this tagline to describe it to people – It’s like National Geographic meets Indiana Jones meets the X-Files.

THE CHARACTERS

My first thought was to write it as a book, but since I overall enjoyed doing Pandora’s Box I kind of wanted to try writing and filming another TV show, so I decided to write it as a show first and a book later (clearly the book part has not yet emerged).  The characters came first.  Here is the original character descriptions from my first outline for the book:

 

Zandra Celeste (aka Zandi or ZC) -- the paleo who is cursed.  Grad student.  Mom died, dad's an archaeologist prof working elsewhere.  Has wanted to be an anthropologist all her life.  Doesn't believe in ghosts at first, but does after she is cursed.

Cordelia Amberson (aka Cory) -- Zandi's best friend.  Grad student, roommates freshman year.  They get along great.  She is bouncy, adventurous, but extremely intelligent (as all the girls are).  Her mom's divorced and remarried to a guy who sexually abused her when she was 15-17.  (Wait, what?!? Um…forgot about that). She hates her mom and step-dad, but she and her dad are okay, even though he's somewhat distant to her.  Both her parents are filthy rich and throw money at her to get her to go away.  Trickster.  Uses energy and comedy to cover her depressing past.  Attracted to all kinds of guys.  She's a Linguistic Anthropologist.

 

Maria Ortez -- the granddaughter of the Mayan woman who cursed Zandi. She's gone to study grad school stuff at Zandi's university in return for helping Zandi learn to deal with her curse.  Very serious woman, and big on mysticism.  Archaeologist.

Mordachi - An extremely powerful sorcerer who sold his soul to the devil for power and a way to cheat death. His body is dead, but can be reawakened.  Zandi is seduced by his ghost into reciting an incantation and freeing him from his tomb.  he awakens in his body, now completely modern and alive and all that and runs off into the modern world. He becomes the major reccuring villain and uses magic to become the trillionare owner of several corporations.  Evil sorcerer in a suit and tie. Ancient Sorcerer -- Modern Corporate Executive.

Okay, so there were quite a few changes from this version – Zandra’s name became Alexandra Celeste Anderson and Zandra or ZC for short. Cory was not sexually abused and her last name changed to DeVro, but the rest stayed.  And Maria’s last name changed to Sanchez, she was instead of having being a descendant of the Maya she is part Cherokee, and she ends up at ZC’s university before agreeing to help ZC with her curse.   And they’re all undergrads, not grads.  The spelling of Mordachi's name changes to Mordecai (no clue why, I just like it better spelled that way), and he didn't sell his soul to the Devil, he's just one of many sorcerers and knows a spell to achieve immortality by going into a deathlike state, then being woken up centuries later by his soulmate.  

 Originally I pictured Zandra as a slender woman about 5’7 with long blonde hair.  Cory was small, about 5’2 with short curly brown hair, and Maria was a little taller than Zandra with straight black hair and looked 100% American Indian.

THE TITLE

Some shows have titles that are obvious like The Gift Bearer.  Some titles fit the first time like Dream Chasers. But with most productions, the first title doesn’t usually stick.   Sometimes I go through three or four titles for a show. Sometimes someone convinces me that the second title I thought of is better than the fifth one I’m currently using like with Pandora’s Box.  And sometimes the title is based on the nickname I have for the show like Destiny.  This show had several titles.  I first referred it as the Paleo Story before giving it the title of The Adventures of Zandra Celeste, which just didn’t work.  Then it was The Talking Dead, which I liked, but I kept referring to it as the curse show so in the end I decided to go with simply The Curse.  It summed up the show nicely.

THE SCRIPT

Writing the first episode of a series is never easy for many reasons – one of them is having to set everything up in a way that will be easy to recap as needed for each episode.  The first draft of the script included a voice over by Zandra before the opening credits of each episode, with two versions:

Version 1

ZANDRA:  I'm a student.  I'm going to be a physical anthropologist -- that's someone who studies human bones.  I could be normal -- I could be just like you or anyone, but I'm not because I've been cursed. 

Version 2

ZANDRA:  What do you do when your whole world changes in the flash of an instant?  When you start to see things that other people can't?  Do you know what's it's like to be cursed?

Obviously I scrapped the voice over thing in the end.  Another difference from the first draft was the wording of the curse itself - If you disturb the bodies of the dead, they will return to disturb you.  The more you disturb them, the more they will disturb you and it will only get worse.   Yeah, I changed that into the more concise and better sounding – As you disturb the dead, the dead will disturb you. If only I could condense everything I write into simple, cool sentences like that.

Another big difference between my original outlines and the final scripts is the romance between Mordecai and Zandra.  Originally I wanted Mordecai and Cory to end up together because I liked Cory’s character more than I liked Zandra, but the more I thought about it the more I realized it didn’t make sense for a romantic sub-plot to be with the lead’s best friend, instead of the lead herself.  

So I switched the pairing from Mordecai and Cory to Mordecai and Zandra which in my opinion does workout better, but we never really got to see them various stages of it.  As the show is now he just comes off as a creepy stalker and she comes off as a bitch – not really much romance there.

I wrote the first three episodes – Bone of Contention, Dream Catcher, and The Sorcerer’s Bones (which should have been the Sorcerer’s Tomb because combining college guys and the word “bone” only leads to awkward jokes and a set full of giggles) in December, mostly over Winter Break (of course three episodes turned into four in the editing process). 

One of the difficulties I encountered while writing the scripts was language.  We're dealing with ghosts from other time periods and cultures.  I didn't want a spanish conquistador speaking English because I hate the idea that all people magically speak English in a movie or TV show, but I don't actually know Spanish, so after I wrote the script I had to have someone translate Fernando's lines.  Thankfully one of my friends took Spanish in high school for four years so she and her friend did the translation for me. Many huge thanks to Rachel Anderson and Jamie Kurucar!!!  

I also had some Latin in episode three but I know just enough to church latin to fake it.  The spell to wake Mordecai is in Latin but if you know latin you'll realize it's really just gibberish.  For one scene where Cory is insulting someone in Latin I used a book I got as a gift from Peter Normand - How to Insult, Abuse, & Insinuate in Classical Latin by Michelle Lovric.

By the time I returned to SIUC in January I had decided that I would film The Curse there and embrace all the challenges involved with taking on a big project that this in a more or less “foreign” land.  I was totally prepared. More than prepared – I was psyched!

Then I found out that the student TV station where I was the Post-Production Manager was suddenly without a leader and I was sort of…shoved into the role of station Chairman and was now supposed to run the station as well as film my new show. Crap!  I’m not going to go into the difficulties of learning how to run a TV station while at the same time trying to build up a new branch of a filming company by doing a new show, just know it wasn’t easy – at all.  Keep this situation in mind; it becomes important later.

LOCATIONS

I was originally planning to film this in Central Illinois, but it became clear to me very quickly that the setting of a university was obviously more suited to filming it at SIUC then in CU.

Once I rewrote the outline to fit with realistic(ish) scenarios I could film, I took a look at the area around me in Southern Illinois to see what kinds of locations I could find.  Obviously I had a university at my disposal (more or less), and there were plenty of woods, hills, and lakes to work with there.  So a lot of the series takes place in the woods. Wait…how is that different from any of my other productions?

The amazing Peter Normand knew the area really well and was able to find me locations pretty close to what I needed.  Because I didn’t have what I call “location restrictions” when I was writing the show (since I didn’t know what was really available and Southern is so different from Central in Illinois) I included exotic locations like a tomb in a large cave, a burial mound, an airport in England, an anthro lab, and inside a tent.

  

Peter knew about a very large cave in Goreville at a place called Ferne Clyffe State Park, which was not what I pictured but turned out to be totally cool and had lots of natural light which was important since I clearly don’t know what a light is because I almost never use them.  There were lots of big hills around the area, so finding something that could pass as a burial mound wasn’t too hard, although we obviously couldn’t find one that looked like it was the site of an archaeological dig.  Peter found us a few classrooms to use, including one that worked for the anthro lab. The tent was able to be rented from the student sports center, and we just used a parking lot for the airport and put up a title stating it was in England, when in reality it was in front of the Student Center.  I still laugh at that.

CASTING

The hardest thing I had to do, by far, was cast the show.  I knew people at SPC-TV but I didn’t have a lot of friends outside the station and the vast majority of people at the station were boys.  Of course my script called for the three leads to be girls. In CU I always had more girls willing and able to film then boys, so I wrote for what I knew forgetting where I was going to be filming. 

When I write a script, I have an image of the character in my head.  Then I cast the characters with actors that I know who I want to see play the part, allowing for differences in appearance and being willing to change the script if needed to suit actor availability.  My original casting choices for the leads were Virginia McCreary as Zandra, Annamarie MacLeod as Cory, and Margaret Olson as Maria.  However, since I was two hundred miles away from those actors, I had to face the facts and recast. 

Finding a Cory was easy.  The beautiful, vibrant, and funny Michelle Chapman was a member of the station via her boyfriend Marc Ring, and mostly worked with Neil Cappetta and Marc on their TV show B- TV.  She was perfect for Cory and I was so happy when she agreed to play the part, she ended up having a lot more in common with the character than I realized when I cast her including being Jewish and speaking Spanish (score!).   Casting everyone else was the problem.

The first person I cast to play the role of the antagonist – a thousand year old sorcerer named Mordecai – was a guy named Kris Panik who ended up not being able to do the part from some reason that I can’t remember, but I wasn’t really upset about it and I recast him as Vincent Drake (in the unfilmed episode “Buried Treasure).  Another person new to the station was Mike D. who looked like he could be a good fit to the role.  I approached him about the part, showed him the script, and he agreed.  Mike D. actually did a lot of work with his character and we had talks about how to incorporate some of that into the scripts.

A part that I knew would be hard to cast was Maria Sanchez.  My original idea of her looking 100% American Indian had to be tossed out the window when I decided to make a TV show instead of a book, because I didn’t know anyone who would work for that role and I needed to find someone who was Native American (or who could pass for it) to play White Feather.  With a name like Sanchez, I figured if I could cast some who looked Latino that would work.  But again, I didn’t know a lot of girls and knew few to none who were or could pass for Latino.  So, for the first time in my life I actually put up flyers around the campus and the Communications building in the theater department asking for anyone who was interested in being in a TV Show playing a character named Maria Sanchez and who had dark hair to call me.

Surprisingly I did actually get someone to play the part.  She was part Irish and Italian, but had dark hair and was a good actress.  I was thrilled.  And I totally can’t remember her name.  She was a theater student and her boyfriend was a film student who volunteered to be the Cinematographer, and I was like “that’s cool, never really had one of those before” (well, not since Destiny).  I rewrote a scene in Episode one where Maria talks about her heritage to incorporate the multi-cultural aspects of Irish, Italian, and Cherokee.

 But the hardest role to cast, without a doubt, was Zandra.  That’s not too unusual with a show that more or less rides on a single lead character.  Pandora’s Box was an ensemble show where all the main characters took turns driving the story in various episodes.  The Curse is completely driven by Zandra’s adventures – it’s all about Zandra, her curse, how she deals with the curse, and how it affects the people and the world around her.  I needed someone charismatic, energetic, who was a good actor, and had a great screen presence (and being pretty would be a plus).  But the biggest requirement was the actor be able to spend a LOT of time filming.  Being the lead, Zandra was in the majority of every episode and required on almost every film shoot.  I was able to find a few girls who met three of the four main requirements but finding someone to accept the responsibility of being the lead and the time it would take? That was the problem.  Before I could even contemplate doing the show I had to know I had a Zandra.  Before winter break I asked a perky red-hair girl named Susan, who had just joined the station if she would be interested.  She agreed, and I thought it was all settled until she read the scripts and realized how big a part it was.  Then she backed out.  I had the same reaction from a few other girls and was starting to despair of finding a Zandra. 

By that point I had managed to cast the other three leads – Cory, Maria, and Mordecai – but still no Zandra.  Back when Susan had agreed to film I started setting up the shooting schedule, and even when she dropped out I was convinced that I could find someone before shooting started.  I rearranged the schedule for the first weekend to not require Zandra and pushed back the second filming day. That gave me two more weeks to find an actress.  I asked Brittany Ann Whalen who was a new member to SPC-TV to play the part (Ask isn’t quite the right word - I think beg is more appropriate).  She considered it, almost agreed, but in the end wasn’t willing to commit to that much time for a project (which is hilarious considering what happened with her in the next production), but agreed to play Vanessa Drake, one of the villains in the unfilmed episode “Buried Treasure”. 

So…no Zandra yet. Let the depression commence.

I was watching one of the SPC-TV shows – Nightmares 101(by Jeremy Corey, fantastic show by the way), thinking how I was about to fail to make the show happen, when I saw a girl in one of the scenes at the beginning.  She had a small part as a bitchy girlfriend, but she caught my eye.  I asked around about her and find out her name was Liz Schafer, and that she was an actress in the theater department.  I contact her and asked, very nervously, if she would consider playing the lead in a new TV show.  I think my heart stopped after I told her all about it and waited for her answer, and when she agreed, it almost burst.  YES!!  I had found a Zandra!  I could film The Curse after all!  And whatever else happened, I am and always will be grateful to Liz for agreeing to do the show.  She was literally my last hope and if she had said no than The Curse – and all the productions that resulted from it – would not have happened.  So THANK YOU Liz!

The other parts were cast as I could find actors able to play them, but there wasn’t the urgency I felt when casting the leads.  My only requirements for the part of Fernando Alvardo – the cursed conquistador in the first episode – were being able to walk, breath, and talk in Spanish (he could walk and breathe in English, I just needed some of the talking in Spanish).  I had trouble finding a guy who could speak Spanish and had dark hair, around the TV station and didn’t really want to randomly ask people who sort of looked Latino if they spoke Spanish and if so could be in a TV show. Luckily there was Kenny Gillman, who met all the requirements and agreed to play the part (yay Kenny!).  

I was originally thinking of casting Morgan Thomas as Madame Maggie, but when she got…um…drafted into another role I turned to Gillian King who did a great job.  A woman named Nicole was set to play the part of Labarta but canceled before filming and I was able to replace with the talented Bridgette Richards.  A sweet and shy guy named Logan Akers was willing to play Martin, a ghost addicted to potato chips, and Chas Andrews agreed to play the tomb-robbing archaeologist Dr. Atholton, while Rob Rion agreed to play his assistant.  I initially cast Professor Erika Hill, my teacher in Human Sacrifice class, to play Professor Grayson since the character was inspired by her, but she had to back out due to work restrictions (and probably the reality of the being in a student’s TV show weirded her out) so I ended up stepping into the role as needed.

White Feather was a real problem to cast and I knew she would be.  Before I began filming I contacted the Native American Student Organization to get their permission/approval of the image of American Indians as they were portrayed in The Curse – ie a dead Indian chick cursing a white girl.  I didn’t want to offend them with the portrayal of White Feather, and I also wanted to see if anyone would be willing to play that part.  I was able to talk to the president of the organization who patiently listened to my explanation of the character and the show premise, then looked at me rather blankly when I asked what I would need to get permission from her and/or her group.  She smiled, thanked me for asking and being sensitive to Native American culture in general, then politely told me that she had no idea what anyone else would think, but it sounded fine to her and she was pretty sure there wouldn’t be a problem.  And she would ask around the group to see if anyone wanted to play the part, but obviously no one got back to me.  So I threw someone in at the last minute who really didn't want to play the part and doesn't want to ever be reminded about it, so i promised not to say her name or use her image on the internet. Ironically she has actually appeared in four productions because I keep using the White Feather footage.  

COSTUMES & PROPS 

(Feel free to skip this section)

When I needed costumes previously, all I had to do was frolic through my mother’s extensive costume collection (well, not frolic exactly - trip, fall, and wrestle might be a better description) and pick out what I needed.  However her costume collection was in Champaign, not Carbondale, so any costumes I needed I had to take with me after Winter Break, and since I didn’t really have anyone cast yet, I had to guess on sizes and cast accordingly.  Luckily – intentionally in fact – it was a modern show so the actors could provide most of their own wardrobes.  But since there were historical ghosts some costumes had to be provided.

The main characters who required costumes in the first three scripts were Fernando, Labarta, and Mordecai.  Fernando was easy – I had the Balthazar costume in it’s original incarnation as the Don John costume from a production of Much Ado About Nothing set in the 17^th Century, with black boot tops and everything.  

For Labarta I wanted something that reflected her duel nature but was sort of non-specific in terms of period, so I chose a pseudo-medieval dress made for a Morris dancer in a production called Christmas Revels.  I added a cape and an under tunic since we would be filming in February and I didn’t want her to freeze (sometimes I’m considerate.)  

The costume I had the most fun with – and it’s still one of my all time favorites – is Mordecai’s Sorcerer’s Robes.  In the Curseiverse world, a sorcerer has a special set of ceremonial robes, which are worn to perform any kind of major spell and they it’s what they’re buried in .  That was planned from the beginning and appears in the costumes of both the prequel and sequel to the Curse, though I’m not sure it’s ever explained specifically that way.  I had purchased at the past Krannert Costume Sale a unique looking sort of kimono style brown robe with seriously big, long, over-dramatic sleeves and cool-ass trim.  I used this as the basis for the costume and built the rest around it. I also purchased a red velvet tunic at the same sale to wear underneath the robe, but it was actually too short so I added a wrap-around panel of red velvet to make it full length (and I’m not sure if I ever hemmed it for Mike’s height because I think he kept tripping on it).  

Over the robe was a coat-like drape of black, and some jewelry.  Wait…why am I describing this?  You can just look at the picture!  Now I feel stupid…but describing costumes is never a waste of time, right? Right.  Anyway, it took quite a while to get him dressed in the full regalia, but to me it was worth it.  Love that costume…yum…I still have it too.

There were some other costumes needed for random ghosts in other scenes, so I grabbed a few non-specifically sized items and took them along. I also brought a couple of flannel shirts with me because I pictured Zandra wearing flannel shirts over t-shirts a lot for some reason (90s grunge anyone?).  I still like that look for the character, even if it is dated now.  And I also brought a long skirt, a vest, and some accessories for Madame Maggie because I wanted her to have the hooky look of a student dressing up as a fortune teller.

Props were way hard than costumes on this show, because there were some very specific ones I didn’t happen to have.  Mainly bones.  All I asked for Christmas that year from my family were fake bones – a skull, some finger bones, a few arm bones or leg bones, just a whole lot of bones.  Some parents might worry with a Christmas list like that, but my parents are theater folks, so not only did they totally understand they also knew where to get them (Dallas & Co).  I needed lots of different books, a gun, and a couple of suit cases (which I had), a set of bottles and other stuff for the elaborate spell/ritual in Episode 3 (which I had to acquire), and a set of archaeological digging tools (which I never got and probably wouldn’t have used anyway).

READY TO GO

So with the cast more or less in place, the first three scripts finished, the costumes and props assembled, the shooting schedule set, and with the fantastic Peter Normand as my Location Manager, we were finally all set to film.

 Tune in next month for 

The Curse, Part 2 – The First Half of Production, where we’ll find out who really played Maria and how and when she got the part.  We’ll film in a big-ass cave, shoot some aerial footage, dig up a random hill, set up a tent at the end of a hallway in a dorm, and discover just how hard it is to film someone running, while running beside them – or driving beside them.  Either way it’s hard.  Also, stay tuned to learn more about Yibble’s downward spiral into madness which is all leading up to her implosion (and the incredible amount of emotional pain she inflicted on the cast) in Part 3.