Blair Witch "Spells" It Out

Four years ago, three actors went into the woods and came out with The Blair Witch Project, the most crudely shot — and, arguably, most lavishly admired — independent film in, like, ever. And, according to leading lady Heather Donahue, even if the godawful sequel hadn't killed the franchise, there could never have been another Project anyway.

"On a regular set, you've got all these [crew members], and you have to be working on their schedule, because they've all got their jobs to do," she explains to TV Guide Online. (Well, duh.) "On Blair Witch, it was just the three of us out there. So we pretty much made that movie however we damn well pleased!

"If we wanted a break, we took a break," she continues with a laugh. "When we were ready to shoot a scene, we shot a scene. We didn't have to do a million takes or take anybody's direction; we just did it the way we wanted, and that's what they got [to work with in the editing bay]!"

Even as a silver-screen neophyte, the actress — who has since appeared as another nasty gal in Sci Fi's Taken epic — was well aware that what was happening was very unusual... and not because she and her castmates were being pursued by unseen forces of darkness, either. "That creative autonomy that we had is something I'll never have again," she muses. Then, sounding more than a little like the control freak she played, she adds: "I certainly enjoyed it."