Steven Spielberg is back in creature-feature territory with SUPER 8, which topped the box office this past weekend with an estimated $37-million take and harks back to the films he directed and produced in the 1980s. Back then, cult-fave actress Jill Schoelen (of THE STEPFATHER, POPCORN et al.) met with the filmmaker to be part of his oeuvre, and recalled the experience during a recent interview with Fango.

“I had gone in for BACK TO THE FUTURE to play Michael J. Fox’s girlfriend, and they kept me on hold for that for a long time, like two months or something,” Schoelen tells us. “Claudia Wells ended up doing it, and the final word was that I didn’t look all-American enough—I was too exotic! But they kept bringing me in for anything Steven was doing; there were three movies he was making around that time, THE GOONIES, BACK TO THE FUTURE and YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES, and there was nothing right for me in GOONIES, but they kept bringing me back. And eventually, at the last minute, they asked me to come in to meet with Steven and [director] Barry Levinson for YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES; they had practically given up on the idea of finding an American actress for that.

“I got a phone call after meeting with Barry that they wanted to screen-test me,” she continues. “Barry was leaving a day or two later to go to London, so Steven did it, and I’ll never forget that. One of my favorite moments was driving in late for a meeting with Steven Spielberg! I pulled my car up in the lot at Universal, and he was standing outside, waiting for me. And when I got out of my car, he went to me and picked me up, and twirled me around maybe three times. And it was like… [sighs] because, you know, E.T. was everything to me at that time. So anyway, we just spent the whole day together working on the scenes, and he said, “If this were up to me…but I’m not the director.” He was so sweet, telling me, “I love you for this part, I love you for this part.”

Sophie Ward wound up getting SHERLOCK HOLMES’ young female lead, but Schoelen would soon land the role in THE STEPFATHER that would make her a horror-fan favorite. She discusses her many genre credits in Fango #304, on sale now.

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