‘Blair Witch’ star faced hate. A reunion offers healing | Exclusive

Gene Myers, NorthJersey.comThu, October 22, 2026 at 9:38 AM UTC

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When the horror film “The Blair Witch Project” came out, strangers approached Heather Donahue — one of its three stars — and asked for their money back.d

Marketing for the movie led audiences to believe the stars were missing filmmakers whose footage had been recovered in the woods. Using the actors’ real names was part of that campaign. Moviegoers felt deceived, Mental Floss reported.

“I just got tons of hate,” said, Donahue, who has since changed her name to Rei Hance.ce

Decades later, she's traveling with her former castmates and meeting fans who love the movie. It’s been healing, she said in a recent phone conversation.

Hance, Joshua Leonard and Michael C. Williams will appear at bergenPAC in Englewood on Oct. 30 for a screening of the innovative movie. It will be followed by a Q&A with the audience.

Today’s fans are “kind and appreciative and respectful,” she said.

Hance says she thinks the 1999 movie’s staying power has to do with how closely audiences experience the story through her character, a filmmaker who keeps recording even as the situation becomes increasingly desperate and grim.

Viewers are looking through the lens of her shaky camera as she’s screaming, crying and running through the woods.

Hance hasn’t watched it in more than 25 years.

“I know how it ends,” she said.

Her affection for her castmates, however, has endured, she said.

“It was such an odd experience to go through and I think it would be hard for anybody else to really understand it. I'm very grateful that we have each other,” she said.

The biggest challenge for Hance was to make audiences believe in her character, a woman who kept shooting even when she thought she was going to die. It may sound strange, but Hance had a way into the character’s mind.

She based her character on an independent filmmaker she had worked with, someone who kept shooting in punishing conditions. She remembered the temperature reaching 120 degrees one day. One of the crew passed out on a tripod and cut his eye. The filmmaker would not stop.

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That determination came to mind when Hance read the casting notice for “Blair Witch.” The role required someone who would find a reason to keep recording even when things took a turn for the worse.

“That's a very particular kind of personality,” Hance said.

She brought this attitude to her audition. Without introductions, she said, the filmmakers put her in an improvised parole hearing. She had served 10 years of a 20-year sentence, they told the young actor. They wanted her to improvise. Why should they let her out?

“I don't think you should,” she said.

Hance thought that response showed how she could make the character’s relentlessness believable.

“You have to believe that this woman is going to keep shooting,” she said.

Then there’s the Blair Witch confession scene. Hance's distressed face fills the frame, eyes full of tears. The directors left instructions for Hance on a note in a film canister. Her character realized she had brought this on herself.

“As a human being, I can relate to that experience more than I can relate to being scared of a pile of rocks,” she said.

Hance is proud of her work, even though she’s left acting behind.

Roles were sporadic, so in her early 30s, she moved to Northern California and began growing cannabis. Then she practiced Zen. These days she lives off the grid in Maine.

Returning to “Blair Witch” feels like visiting a much earlier life.

“It's always strange and beautiful and nostalgic,” she said.

The event starts at 7 p.m. Visit bergenpac.org or Ticketmaster for ticket information.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: ‘Blair Witch’ star faced hate. A reunion offers healing | Exclusive

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”