When you hear the name Dee Wallace, fond memories of the lovely mother from the classic movie E.T: The Extra Terrestrial may immediately spring to mind.  If you are a horror fan, maybe it’s Cujo or The Howling. But Dee Wallace is an actress with extensive film and television credits.  Her most recent appearance as the feisty Mildred in Supernatural earned her even more fans who are eager for a return appearance for the actress and character.

I spoke with Dee recently and in addition to talking about her acting work, we discussed her teachings of self-love and self-esteem, in which she is very passionate.  This quote from her sums up Dee’s belief on self-love:

“Love yourself beyond anyone or anything else. Love yourself so much that you can’t do anything that doesn’t make you love yourself more.”

-Dee Wallace

She is an amazing lady, and I feel honored to have spoken with her. Read below to find out what she had to say.

You have appeared in many iconic horror movies. Did you feel it typecast you as you went out for different types of parts?

“I think that people know that I can do a little of everything.  I do a lot of tv that’s not horror. I have a substantial body of work in the film industry that isn’t necessarily horror.  Do I think that perhaps they might think of me instanteously in the horror world? Absolutely (laughs).  In the film world outside of the genre, I think that when it comes to vulnerable mothers or sweet mothers that’s where they go.  Everybody wants to put you in a cubbyhole and I try not to stay in there. (laughs).”

Can you share with us a favorite ET memory?

“Oh, my gosh…a favorite memory (laughs). I think probably it would be working with Drew doing the Peter Pan scene.  When we were in bed and I was reading Peter Pan, working with Drew I really had to be a mother working with Drew.  I was very careful and considerate of my work with her.  When the child is that young, fantasy and reality cross over pretty easily.  And so, I was very vigilant about taking care of her and being gentle with her especially with the scene where ET was dying.  I love the scene where ET is walking behind me in the kitchen and I didn’t know he’s there.  There were so many fabulous moments in the movie, how do you pick a favorite really?”

What’s your favorite scary moment from filming Cujo?

“Oh my gosh, wow (laughs).  It’s a toss up between two. The very first scene where the dog keeps attacking the car.  Danny was screaming and you think the dog is going to get in the car when the camera comes around.  It was scary just because the dog was full out and the trainer was really getting him to…they were all trained to go after toys.  They were going after the toys but it was all a big game for them.  But it was very loud and Danny was screaming.  It was the first scene where we worked with the dogs and we really didn’t know how controlled they were.  Put it all together and it became pretty out there for us  too.

The other scene is when you think I hit the dog and the dog falls on top of me.  In order to do that scene, the nurse for the dog…the veterinarian had to put him under.  Now they didn’t put him under all the way so there he is a 100 pound dog laying on top of me.  And his eyes are a little bit open.  I could hear him breathing.  Is he going to come to and freak out (laughs). I’m already into the scene.  I’m already taking myself into freak out mode and then the woman says to me ‘Dee, you have to lift him up and down.’ I bench press him (laughs).  I’m all like in left field and I can hear the dog moaning.  It got pretty intense for me inside of that character I gotta say.”

Were you a General Hospital fan prior to being cast as Patricia Spencer?

“Oh yes, sure.  I’ve got a lot of friends on General Hospital over the years.  I have to say that I’m not a huge fan of soap operas, but I am a fan of General Hospital.. And to be able to go in and have those awesome scenes with Anthony Geary and all of the very talented cast members, that was kind of daunting for me, actually. When I got the script, I went ‘Holy Hell, I don’t think I can do this’ because there’s so much work in one day, so many lines to learn.  I called my agent and I said ‘Is it too late for me to get out of this? (laughs)’  He started laughing and said ‘Dee, you just got the script’. It’s a huge amount of work you have.  You get there, you go in, you rehearse on camera once.  You go down into hair and makeup.  You go over the lines with cast members.  You read it once and you shoot it.  That’s it (laughs).  You’ve got to be on your ‘A’ game.  I’m telling you…all those people were great. 

 Anthony, especially, is so giving, so wonderful to work with.  It was just a magical experience.  He’s a lovely, lovely actor.  I was very impressed.  I’m sure if you do it day in and day out, you get into the rhymth.  And learning dialogue becomes a lot easier for you.  My brain synapses weren’t quite there yet (laughs).  

 It’s interesting to me because they called and they wanted me to submit myself  for a Daytime Emmy.  And ABC is backing me.  It would be ironic to me if after all my body of work, this was the thing that made me stand out.  But whether it is or whether it isn’t, I had a great time doing it.”

Let’s talk about your role on Supernatural.  Did you bring any aspects to your personality playing Supernatural’s Mildred?

“Oh, sure…I’m sexy and I guess what some people would call a senior citizen (laughs).

I do a lot of healing work and life coaching, and I had some interesting lines there like “You want to know the secret to a happier life, keep your heart open.’  I teach that every day of my life.  I thought it was interesting all of my different worlds came together and yeah, I’ve dated younger guys (laughs). I said to Jensen this isn’t so far fetch from what I know and he kinda looked at me with a twinkle in his eye.”

You had great chemistry with Shoshannah

“Shoshannah and I really got along well.  She’s a beautiful, great girl.”

How hard was it learning the sign language for your scenes with Shoshannah?

“I knew a little of it.”

How was it working with series stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles?

” They were great to work with. They were just amazing and friendly.  The whole company is.  They’ve been together eleven years and have made it such a great place to work.”

I’ve been on your website and it is such a positive, inspirational site.  How did you get involved with the whole coaching, teaching, spiritual aspect?

“I’ve been teaching all my life.  I was a high school teacher. So teaching comes naturally for me.  I had my own dancing studio, I’ve had an acting studio.  When my husband died, I didn’t want to be pissed off  or a victim, I wanted a way in which to heal myself.

Those were the magic words. I started thinking about the messages ‘Use the light within yourself to heal.’  I kind of knew what that was, I was raised in the Methodist Church, and I know about light.  I had worked with spirituality, kind of on the outskirts throughout my life.

I came to realize that what I was doing was channeling which was what I had learned how to do in my acting.  So I really learned how to channel in acting first and then went ‘Oh My God, this is what I’m doing when I’m receiving messages (laughs).’  So again, the two worlds of me are much closer than most people think.

Sometimes interviewers say to me ‘Well Dee, how can you justify doing all this healing work when you do all these horror films?’ I explain that I’ve been studying horror my entire career and the thing we’re most afraid of is ourselves.  

It just blossomed and created itself.  I do private sessions for people all over the world everyday.

My new passion is my little bear, BuppaLaPaloo.  I created it because of all the thousands of people that I work with and tutored. The one thing we all have in common is we don’t know how to love who we are and we don’t know how to value who we are. We’re taught that it’s self-righteous and self-centered to do so. But if you truly love yourself as that special package of energy that you are that can serve the world with who you are, that’s a whole different thing.  And you can look out into the world and see what an awesome world that it is, you can really create so much more for yourself. I have a great quote from a psychologist that says ‘If there’s one thing that you want to give to your child so that they make better grades and have a healthier body and have more successful relationships, it’s to love who they are.’

And if you know anything about Bruce Lipton’s work and Epigenetics, who actually says it in his book, ‘To be healthier, love who you are.'”

 For more information, check out Dee Wallace’s Website

https://iamdeewallace.com/