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Murray native Kellie Overbey, right, is pictured with actor Patrick Dempsey on the set of the 1995 thriller "Outbreak," directed by the late Wolfgang Petersen. In the film, the two play a couple that becomes infected with a deadly virus, hence the realistically disgusting makeup.
Murray native Kellie Overbey, right, is pictured with actor Patrick Dempsey on the set of the 1995 thriller "Outbreak," directed by the late Wolfgang Petersen. In the film, the two play a couple that becomes infected with a deadly virus, hence the realistically disgusting makeup.
Upon the recent death of acclaimed director Wolfgang Petersen, Murray native Kellie Overbey recalled the time she spent working with him on the 1995 hit movie “Outbreak.”
Petersen died in Los Angeles on Aug. 12. Born in Emden, Germany in 1941, Petersen first gained crossover international attention for his 1981 World War II submarine thriller, “Das Boot” (“The Boat”). He soon made the jump over to Hollywood and directed several hit movies, including “The NeverEnding Story,” “In the Line of Fire,” “Air Force One,” “The Perfect Storm” and “Troy.”
“Outbreak” starred Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo and Morgan Freeman as Army doctors trying to find a cure for a deadly virus that begins spreading through a California town after an infected monkey is brought over from Africa. It was a hit upon its release in March 1995, but it gained renewed interest when the COVID-19 pandemic made it eerily relevant and many people quarantining at home were rewatching it and finding parallels to breaking news headlines.
Overbey had a small role in that movie as Alice, the girlfriend of Patrick Dempsey’s character, Jimbo Scott, who brings the infected monkey to the U.S. At this point in his career, Dempsey was arguably best known for the 1987 teen comedy “Can’t Buy Me Love” and was a decade away from becoming one of the best-known television characters of the last 20 years – Dr. Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd on “Gray’s Anatomy.” Long before TV viewers swooned over McDreamy, Overbey acted with him in a scene in which they embrace and kiss at they meet at the airport. Given the premise of the movie, it’s no surprise that this eventually leads to a later scene in which she is in the hospital dying from the deadly virus.
“I had two days (shooting) on ‘Outbreak,’” Overbey said. “I had the airport scene first, and that was a night shoot, and then some weeks later, I had a scene in a hospital where I was in the hospital bed with really gross makeup, having been infected by this terrible pathogen. I was fitted for contact lenses, and I think I had yellow eyes and was bleeding from everywhere. I was also very hysterically crying because Jimbo, played by Patrick Dempsey, was dying in the bed next to me.
“In that scene, I worked with Rene Russo, and she was very, very kind and very sweet to me – because I did have to spend the day crying, which is not easy. I’ve done that a lot (in my career) and it’s not fun. I usually get a headache by the end. They should offer hazard pay for actors who have to do that.”
Working on the film for only a short time, Overbey said she didn’t get to know Petersen well, but truly enjoyed the experience of working with him.
“Wolfgang Petersen was very professional,” she said. “I remember him as having a very lively, positive nature and just kind of happy. He definitely commanded the set. It was a big budget film that had a bunch of stars in it, and generally, I find that when the budget is high like that, the set is happy. People are being paid and know they have a job for a minute. I just remember being really grateful for the work and being treated well.”
“(Dempsey) was great; he was really sweet. Very cute,” Overbey added. “When we met that first night, we laughed about the fact that the scene was basically about us making out. Like, ‘Hey, hi. Nice to meet you.’ And so we just went for it, and he was totally professional and game and sweet.”
Overbey laughed as she recalled how Petersen directed Dempsey and her in the airport scene to make the kiss appear “viral.”
“He did that with sort of a wink in his eye, and we both laughed and were like, ‘OK,’” Overbey said. “He just wanted it to look like I was definitely not going to escape getting this illness! He was funny.”
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