Dog Death Gave Coolidge An Edge As Cage's Mum

The American Pie star was fighting to get into character as Cage's unkempt stepmother when the death of her pooch made it all come together.

She tells WENN, "Some things personally were happening to me at the same time, so I sort of felt that the timing couldn't have been better with what my character was doing.

"I lost a dog the day before filming, in a terrible way. There's a book of photos that (director) Werner (Herzog) and his wife took and there's a picture where I look like Linda Blair from The Exorcist. I would like to say it was prosthetics but it was just some tragedy that helped it all.

"I think there were days I didn't bathe or wash my hair for a long time, so I did feel disgusting. I did become that person. If you could time it right in your life where you play someone tragic when something really awful is going on, it really works."