Linda Blair and 'The Exorcist' come to Tampa Theatre

She's 55 years old and she's still most famous for something she did when she was 13 and 14. And she's OK with that.

Linda Blair was just a kid when she played Regan MacNeil, the victim of demonic possession in "The Exorcist."

On Thursday, she'll be in Tampa for a screening of her best-known film. Afterwards, she'll lead a question-and-answer session with the audience.

There's a lot to talk about, she said, and it goes beyond the horror.

"The movie starts in Iraq," she said. "We're still at war in Iraq. And what are we fighting wars over? Religion. This movie is so much deeper than people realize. There's the content that is real and the content that is supernatural. The people who made it are the best of the best."

Blair was speaking by phone from her office in California. She runs the Linda Blair Worldheart Foundation, which rescues and shelters stray animals and advocates for animal welfare.

"This is what I do now," she said. "I don't act anymore. I don't do anything. I'm trying to change the world."

She worked steadily in film and television for decades after "The Exorcist," but nothing she did had the kind of cultural impact as that film.

Even when she was still a teenager, she said, it was immediately obvious to her, she said, that the film was something above and apart from even the most popular movies of the day. People seemed to believe that she was the character, or that she was deeply involved in the supernatural.

"People thought I could spin my head around," she said. "People would ask if I believed that people could be possessed by demonic spirits. They're asking a 15-year-old girl this. I'd tell them, 'Well, I think that if you don't allow

the dark things into your life, the darkness won't be able to get inside you.' "

She speaks rapidly, in a stream of consciousness that shifts from "The Exorcist" to the plight of animals to her other films ("Ruckus" is a really good, little-known film she said) to activism to her own veganism to the body-shaming perpetrated by the fashion industry to her annoyance with the promoters of the tour that's bringing her to Tampa.

She learned she was coming to Tampa when the Bradenton Herald contacted her and requested an interview. A couple of weeks before she was scheduled to be in Tampa, she still had no contract, even though Tampa Theatre was touting her appearance.

"I don't have any paper work," she said. "I know it's being promoted, and I'm definitely going to go, because people are going to be expecting me."

She's slated to do a meet-and-greet afterwards with 150 people who shell out big bucks for VIP tickets.

Still, she's looking forward to the event, she said. She's never done anything quite like this before. She did a panel discussion about "The Exorcist" for its 25th anniversary, with director William Friedkin and writer William Peter Blatty (whom she calls "Billy" and "Bill," respectively), but never this kind of screening combined with an audience Q&A.

She's glad to do the event, she said. It's "The Exorcist" and the fame that it brought her that have allowed her to follow her passion for helping animals.

She rails against national organizations, which she doesn't specifically name, that rake in huge sums of donated money but don't really do much for animals. She urges people who care about animals to work through their local shelters, clinics and rescue organizations, where their donations and volunteers work can make a noticeable difference. She urges people to get pets from rescue organizations and pounds rather than from breeders. "Don't shop, adopt" has become her mantra.

Her conversation is interrupted by co-workers and volunteers and dogs who need her attention. It's 7:30 p.m. in California, and her assistant says Blair sometime works until 4 a.m. at her foundation, and then comes back the next morning.

There's still a lot to say about "The Exorcist" after all these years, and she's looking forward to sharing stories and observations when she comes to Tampa.

"I want to let everyone know," she said, "that if they come to see me in Tampa I think they'll have a lovely evening."

Details: 7:30 p.m. Oct 29, Tampa Theatre, 711 N. Franklin St., Tampa. Tickets: $43 plus service charge; VIP tickets $103 plus service charge. Information: 813-274-8981, tampatheatre.org.

Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919. Follow twitter.com/martinclear.

This story was originally published October 23, 2015 at 4:40 PM with the headline "Linda Blair and 'The Exorcist' come to Tampa Theatre ."