US magazine, Oct. 30, 1989
"In the Spotlight, Jill Schoelen."
Tell Jill Schoelen to "break a leg" and you may wind up signing
her cast. After dodging a knife-wielding stepdad in 1987's The Stepfather,
she screeched her way through a string of blood-and-guts flicks. Now she has
the starring role opposite Robert (Freddy Krueger) Englund in a remake of
the classic drama The Phantom of the Opera (not the Broadway musical).
Along the way, the scream queen suffered several casualties of gore. "While
shooting The Stepfather," the Burbank native recalls, shuddering,
"I went through weeks of having very bad nightmares of a man chasing
me." Last year, Schoelen, who is single, was immoblie for three days
after a stunt jump injured her spine. "I swore I'd never do a stunt again,"
she says. Her fingers must have been crossed, for in Phantom, Schoelen's
passion for peril made her the hottest actress in town. "I had one scene
in a fire," she says, "and all of a sudden hot wax fell on my body
and burned my shoulder and arm and everything! I freaked!" Even
after witnessing this, Phantom director Dwight Little asked the actress
for two more takes in the flames. "You wanna know the sick part?"
says Schoelen, grinning. "I said yes." L.B.