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'Blair Witch' Cast Claim They Were Sent a Fruit Basket as Reward for the Film Grossing $100 Million

Joshua Leonard, Rei Hance and Michael C. Williams, the cast members of 1999's 'The Blair Witch Project,' are detailing their lack of compensation in the 25 years since the success of the indie horror hit.

To advertise it ahead of the Sundance premiere, Myrick, Sánchez and producers at Haxan Films opted for posters and trailers that suggested its three central characters — who shared the names of the actors playing them — were real people who had been missing since their footage was found. That meant that Leonard, Hance and Williams, non-union performers who answered an open call on casting service Backstage, stayed out of the spotlight as the film went on to earn a worldwide gross of $248.6 million (over 4,000 times its original budget). According to Variety, Artisan Entertainment “took maintaining that illusion so seriously that the actors were barred from appearing at its Cannes Film Festival premiere that May” or booking press interviews that would reveal the conceit.

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