‘Watcher in the Woods’ Star Lynn-Holly Johnson’s Bette Davis Regrets and ‘Crazy’ On-Set Accident (Exclusive)

Lynn-Holly Johnson started her career as a professional figure skater at the age of five. Her years of training served her well when she landed the lead in 1978’s ice skating drama Ice Castles — but they also helped when, in 1980, she shared the screen with Hollywood legend Bette Davis in Disney’s 1980 The Watcher in the Woods. Her skating training prepared her to “just keep working hard,” Johnson told ReMIND. “And Miss Davis really liked me for that reason.”

Watcher earned cult fame not just for being one of the final film outings of Bette Davis, but because it was unusually dark for a Disney film — so much so that after its initial release on April 17, 1980, it was pulled from theaters, re-edited, and re-released on October 9, 1980.

Johnson played Jan Curtis, the curious daughter of a family beset by eerie supernatural events — a role that nearly ended prematurely when she was thrown by a horse during filming.

To celebrate the film’s 45th anniversary, Johnson sat down with ReMIND to discuss her on-set accident, the conversations she wished she’d had with Davis, and memories of sharing the screen with future Real Housewife Kyle Richards.

Watcher in the Woods was a departure for wholesome Disney Studios.

Disney was trying to get rid of the idea that was Disney. We were only allowed to say the film was being released through Buena Vista Pictures; we’re not allowed to use the word Disney and they wanted to get rid of that flavor of Disney.  They wanted to make a movie that would be enjoyed by 20-year-old college students, that was the goal.

While we were shooting, they would say, “Wait, we can’t do that the way that’s written. We have got to make this more dramatic or change something.”  So, for instance, when my horse is spooked and takes off, there originally was a cut away to the truck driver who was eating a berry pie. Then it cuts back to me on this wild spooked horse. Suddenly, the truck driver sees the horse and tumbles off and the truck flips off the bridge. I keep riding the spooked horse.

The next scene was supposed to be a close up of the dash with the driver looking up with blueberries all over his face. Which is very Disney-like. They said, “We can’t do that — there’s no way.”  It became a big argument.  [The Disney corporate heads] were always arguing, how are we going get rid of the Disney flavor?  So, they couldn’t put in this close-up of the blueberries. It was way too cute.

©Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy: Everett Collection

How was it working with Bette Davis?

I certainly knew who Bette Davis was. And with my background being a competitive figure skater since I was five years old, all I knew was to train hard. Just keep working hard. And Miss Davis really liked me for that reason.

Nobody on the set thought, “Oh, my gosh, there’s Bette Davis — I’m walking right past her.”  It never occurred to anybody, because everybody was just working. There was only one time she lost a little patience with the crew and reprimanded the assistant director. I think everybody was on their toes because they anticipated she could blow and it never happened, except that one time and that was just for about 30 seconds.

In fact, in some of the interviews she [Davis] was doing while we were shooting, she said I was the most solid and serious hard worker that she’s ever worked with. Over the years, people have said it must have been really something working with her. But at the time, it was just the focus of doing a good job. Since then, a decade later, I really realized it was cool that I worked with her. Wish I had sat down with her and chatted about life … but I never did.

Mike Pingel

Do you remember working with Kyle Richards?

Yeah, Kyle played my little sister. She was very experienced compared to me. She had done many projects and been around many film sets because of her sister [Kim Richards] who worked for Disney.  When we reshot the Watcher’s ending at Pinewood Studios in England, I was already there shooting 007’s For Your Eyes Only.  One funny thing I do remember was that when we went to reshoot, Kyle had grown about 6 or 8 inches taller in that year since we had wrapped the film.

Any accidents happen on the set of Watcher?

Yes, during the horseback riding scene. I was practicing galloping like every other day.  I kept telling the stunt coordinator, “Let them use me. I don’t want a stunt person. I can gallop.” So I got to shoot the scene, it was on a wooded path with some trees and a road running parallel to the path.  The camera on a truck is going to go down the road and I’m going to go down the path. They are just going to film me going at the same speed as the truck. That sounds easy, right? We walked the path with the horse so the horse would realize what the path was all about. Then, we go to shoot it.

The stunt coordinator and the director on the truck kind of forgot I’m this actress and I’m supposed to be spooked.  When they said action, I start screaming and the horse hears the screaming, and the horse gets spooked and goes crazy and gallops really fast.  The director on the truck is going “Wow, she’s really going — it’s just great.”  Of course, the path comes to an end much quicker when you’re going that fast, and the horse put out the front paws straight to stop, and I flipped off the horse and landed in a bunch of leaves.

Nobody anticipated the 15-minute scene of me galloping would only be 7 minutes of girl galloping twice as fast, screaming, and the horse going crazy.   I was fine and they said in the dailies it was funny that I just flew out of frame and told me they were “glad we’ve hired an athlete for this role.”

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