Rebecca De Mornay slams 'Hand That Rocks the Cradle' remake: 'Betrayal'

New York Post

5 days ago

Don't mess with Peyton Flanders.
Rebecca De Mornay, the iconic actress who brought the deranged nanny to life in 'The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,' got candid on her feelings surrounding the film's reboot.
The 1992 thriller is getting a facelift by 20th Century, with Michelle Garza Cervera helming as the director and 'Longlegs' star Maika Monroe, 32, portraying Flanders, the role made famous by De Mornay.
12 Rebecca De Mornay spoke to The Post about her new thriller, 'Saint Clare.'
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Despite the buzz surrounding the remake, the 'Risky Business' bombshell admitted she wasn't thrilled when she learned about the news, exclusively telling The Post that no one from the new cast or crew reached out to her about redoing the legendary film.
'Nobody. I found out about it, and I kind of joked that I was quite perturbed. It felt like a betrayal, like how dare you [have] somebody else be playing that part,' she said.
That doesn't mean that De Mornay is boycotting the movie.
'I'm actually kind of curious to see it, to see if they can live up to what we did,' the actress added.
While she's gearing up for her latest thriller 'Saint Clare,' which also features Bella Thorne and Ryan Phillippe, the star shared that remakes are sort of a moot point in Hollywood, despite classics 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' (1997) getting rebooted.
12 She also discussed 'The Hand That Rocks the Cradle' reboot.
12 Rebecca De Mornay played Peyton Flanders, the deranged nanny, in the '92 blockbuster.
©Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
12 She told The Post that no one from the reboot reached out to her about the follow-up film.
©Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
In June, Rob Lowe even revealed they are working on a script for a 'St. Elmo's Fire' remake 40 years after the original one hit theaters in 1985.
'New stories seem to be impossible for people to come up with. That's why I really like 'Saint Claire.' It's new. I haven't seen anything like it before,' De Mornay told The Post about her new horror film.
'There's a kind of laziness of falling [into] 'Oh, well, that works. So let's just do that one again,' rather than coming up with a new story. So that kind of bugs me a little,' she added, while noting that she enjoyed the various versions of 'A Star is Born.'
12 Maika Monroe is stepping into the role that De Mornay made famous.
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12 'I found out about it, and I kind of joked that it was quite perturbed. It felt like a betrayal, like how dare you, [have] somebody else be playing that part,' she said.
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The musical romance has been remade four times since the original 1937 film. First, in 1951, there was a television adaptation featuring Kathleen Crowley and Conrad Nagel as the romantic leads.
Three years later, Judy Garland and James Mason remade it for the big screen, followed by Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson in 1976, and, finally, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in 2018.
'We tend to think a movie is one cast. I guess it doesn't have to be, if it's a really good story, a good script. I guess, it doesn't have to, but I just wish that there was also more imagination with new scripts, because it feels like people are just falling back on what once were,' De Mornay told The Post.
12 The original 'Hand That Rocks the Cradle' was a hit with a $140 million box office haul.
©Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
12 Rebecca De Mornay won her the Best Actress award at the 1992 Cognac Festival du Film Policier in France.
©Buena Vista Pictures/courtesy E
When asked if she had advice for Monroe on playing the character that earned her a Best Actress award at the 1992 Cognac Festival du Film Policier in France — and two MTV award nominations for Best Villain and Best Female Performance — De Mornay shared that it's best for the young star to navigate the role without any influence.
'No, no, because as an actor, you have to come up with the thing yourself, even if it has been done before,' she replied.
Referencing her 1988 portrayal of Billie Dawn in the stage version of 'Born Yesterday' at the Pasadena Playhouse, a role made famous by Judy Holliday in the original 1950 movie then by Melanie Griffith in the 1993 remake, De Mornay confessed, 'I, on purpose, didn't watch the movie before because I wanted to create character myself.'
12 Rebecca De Mornay as Peyton Flanders.
©Buena Vista Pictures/courtesy E
De Mornay got her big break playing Lana in the 1983 blockbuster 'Risky Business' alongside Tom Cruise. The film followed the sexual adventures of Joel Goodson (Cruise), a high school senior who meets a call girl (De Mornay) while his parents are on vacation.
The on-screen love interests started dating in real life after meeting on a different set in 1982, but their relationship fizzled out in 1985.
In 1992, De Mornay was once again launched into international success in 'The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,' with the flick bringing in a whopping $140 million box office haul.
12 Rebecca De Mornay during her interview with The Post.
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The actress continued to star on the big screen in flicks like 1985's 'Runaway Train' with Jon Voight and 1991's 'Backdraft' with Kurt Russell.
However, her chilling portrayal of the warped nanny in 'Hand That Rocks the Cradle' will always be remembered.
The original flick focuses on an obstetrician and his pregnant wife (De Mornay), whose life crumbles when he's caught sexually molesting one of his patients. With his personal and professional life unraveling, he takes his life.
12 Annabella Sciorra and Rebecca De Mornay in 'The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.'
©Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
The stress causes the wife to suffer a miscarriage. Posing as a nanny, she goes to great lengths to get revenge against the woman who came forward against her late husband and her family.
Actor Martin Starr, who stars opposite Monroe in the upcoming remake, shared in March that they're already done shooting the follow-up film.
During the interview with Collider, Starr confessed he wasn't sure if the movie would be released this year or in 2026.
12 Monroe's reboot has already wrapped filming but has no release date yet.
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'I don't know when they're trying to push it,' he told the outlet. 'I know she's (Cervera) already editing it, so we're going.'
De Mornay's latest film, directed by Mitzi Peirone, follows an isolated woman (Thorne) who suffers from dissociative identity disorder and is haunted by voices, which causes her to go on a killing spree in their small town.
While she seems to be getting away with murder, her last kill exposes her to a world she's not ready for. De Mornay stars as Arlene 'Gigi' Newberry and Phillippe plays Detective Rich Timmons.
'Saint Clare' is available to stream on Amazon Video, Apple TV, Fandango At Home.