When Jennifer Tilly starred in Bride of Chucky, she gave the killer doll a partner in crime. Tilly played Tiffany Valentine, the girlfriend of Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) before he placed his soul in a child’s doll. 19 years and three movies later, Tilly is still playing Tiffany in Cult of Chucky.
“I did not expect to be in every Chucky movie ‘til the end of time,” Tilly laughed.
What a role it’s been for Tiffany. In Seed of Chucky, Tilly played herself as Tiffany the doll tried to possess her. She showed up for a credits scene in Curse of Chucky but returns, still in Tilly’s body, in the latest sequel.
“I’m so used to Tiffany, I usually wear a lot of my own clothes,” Tilly said. “I show up in a trashy outfit and [writer/director Don Mancini] goes, ‘No, no, no, now Tiffany’s classy.’”
Classy was a new direction for Tilly, but Cult of Chucky is full of surprises.
“Then he explained that Tiffany was in Jennifer Tilly’s body,” Tilly said. “She lives in Hollywood and Tiffany is a little more ambitious than Jennifer Tilly is.”
In the world of Cult of Chucky, Jennifer Tilly set her sights on her Oscar winning competition.
“She’s aspirational and she wanted to get the parts that Cate Blanchett was getting,” Tilly explained. “So she dresses sort of like Cate Blanchett in Carol in this movie.
Cate Blanchett is not the only highbrow influence on Chucky’s girlfriend. Tilly fancies herself a Hitchcock femme fatale in Cult of Chucky.
“I also think that I was going to be his Tippi Hedren because the way my hair is and everything is very Tippi Hedren-esque,” Tilly said. “[Mancini] really gave me the hero’s entrance where he pans up from my feet all the way up my body.”
It was the same entrance, in fact, that Tilly had in Bride of Chucky. “[Mancini] said that was an homage to Bride of Chucky where Ronny Yu introduced me by starting at my feet and panning up my body.”
In Cult of Chucky, Nica (Fiona Dourif) has taken the fall for Chucky’s murders in Curse of Chucky. She’s in therapy, but then Tiffany shows up with a Chucky doll and ruins her recovery.
“When I showed up, [Mancini] wanted me to wear this red suit,” Tilly said. “I think it’s sort of like a visual metaphor for this sort of haunting dream-like grim stark environment and then Tiffany comes in in the red suit and pretty soon there’s red everywhere, like blood and the Chucky dolls and the Chucky shoes. I even love that Tiffany has a vintage red car.”
Cult of Chucky is now streaming and available on Blu-ray and DVD for Halloween viewing.