‘If I’d known the skeletons were real I’d have been even more disgusted’: how we made Poltergeist

‘Spielberg waded in and said: “If you get electrocuted, it’ll kill me, too”’ … JoBeth Williams in Poltergeist. Photograph: Pictorial Press/Alamy

JoBeth Williams, played Diane Freeling

When my agent said, “We have a script called Poltergeist”, my response was: “Is it horror? I’m not interested.” Then he said: “Well, Steven Spielberg is producing.” So I read the script, which Spielberg had also written, and loved the family in it, and the fact that there were so many strong female characters: Diane, Dr Lesh, Tangina the psychic. Zelda Rubinstein, who played Tangina, was a dynamo. Spielberg was busy prepping ET, so even though he was often on set, Tobe Hooper, who made The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, directed. I’d never seen that because when it comes to horror, I’m a nervous Nellie.