Dee Wallace at Crown Center

I got to see Dee Wallace at Crown Center here in Kansas City. She was appearing in conjunction with the center's outdoor showing of "E.T." that night, and answered questions from a University of Kansas film professor before taking audience questions and signing autographs. She was really insightful and interesting, and talked about lots of things beyond being Elliot's mom:
She talked a bit about appearing in horror movies like Cujo, which she said was, "The hardest thing I've ever done in my career." In particular, she remembered a scene in which she was to smash her hand against an "unbreakable" car window. She said that the energy that filled her was the same fight-or-flight instinct she would really feel if she was in the scene's situation, and during the filming she actually punched her hand right through the prop. It was only after the director called cut that she realized she had cut her arm badly. The medic recommended she head to the emergency room, but the filmmakers asked, if before she left, she could do one more take. "I went so far beyond what I thought I could do as an actor (in that part)," she said.
She also spoke briefly about her work in the upcoming Rob Zombie remake of "Halloween," saying that though some friends advised her that the part would hurt her career, "I've never been hurt by a horror movie before." She said she had not met the director before or seen any of his movies before working on "Halloween," she really liked the experience. "He's got all the tattoos and everything, sure, but he is really very sweet," she said. "I mean, his favorite movies are, like, 'Little Miss Sunshine!' "
She also gave a really funny description of what actors in a movie go through: "We are just like racehorses. You wake up ready to race, but then they take you and groom, and then they saddle you, and you finally get to the starting gate... and it doesn't open," she said. "After about 15 times, you just want to break the gate down!"