‘Teaching’ a Learning Experience for Coughlan

Actress Marisa Coughlan had no idea she had a little devil lurking within her. That is until she had to make like “The Exorcist’s” snarling Linda Blair for her role in the just-opened teen comedy thriller “Teaching Mrs. Tingle.”

“Apparently, demon possession wasn’t much of a stretch for me, which was truly terrifying,” the 25-year-old Coughlan jokes.

If that wasn’t scary enough, she had to play the scene with the distinguished Emmy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated British actress Helen Mirren (“Prime Suspect”), an equally daunting prospect to say the least. But Coughlan, who was thrilled to be working with Mirren, holds her own opposite the actress in perhaps the film’s funniest scene.

“I am right in her lap doing this thing,” Coughlan recalled this week about the scene, which takes place in Mrs. Tingle’s (Mirren’s) bedroom. Coughlan thinks the scene works because of the close proximity between her character and Mrs. Tingle. “Her [Mirren’s] expressions are definitely what makes it all the more funny, because of her deadpan staring at me.”

In the film, the directing debut of Kevin Williamson (writer of “Scream” and the WB network’s “Dawson’s Creek”), Coughlan’s character, aspiring actress Jo Lynn Jordan, spoofs a scene from the 1973 horror thriller “The Exorcist” by rolling her eyes, gyrating on the bed and speaking in an animalistic voice while her evil high school history teacher, Mrs. Tingle--who’s being held hostage in her bedroom--looks on from her bed. The only thing that’s missing is the green pea soup.

Though the early reviews of the Dimension film have been mixed at best, the performances have been singled out. Coughlan was the least known of the leads, who include Mirren and teen idols Katie Holmes from “Dawson’s Creek” and Barry Watson from WB’s “7th Heaven.”

Though she acts like an old pro at conjuring up the devil, Coughlan saw “The Exorcist” for the first time just a few years ago. “I think I kept my eyes shut for nine-tenths of it because it kind of freaked me out,” Coughlan says. Before she had to do the scene as part of her audition, she quickly went out and rented the film.

She doesn’t have a clue how she came up with that harsh, hoarse and bellowing voice. “I think [the crew] were wondering that too. I am not exactly sure myself. It was one of those crazy mutations on what exists right now in my vocal range. I lost my voice the day I shot it.”

Of course, she couldn’t keep a straight face during the first few takes. Neither could the crew. “It was really hard to get through because the crew had never seen me do it before,” she says. “It was toward the end of production and we were all pretty tight. And here is little bitty Jo Lynn running around [playing the devil].”

Williamson gave her the freedom to “go crazy” during the scene. And she took advantage of his advice. Throughout the film, Jo Lynn is always acting out scenes and changing her voices for attention and effect.

“It was her take on ‘The Exorcist,’ ” Coughlan says. “Everything is a bit tweaked.”

Coughlan also shines in the scene in which Jo Lynn, dolled up as Marilyn Monroe, does a monologue in a near-perfect imitation of the legendary sex symbol. The actress admits she hadn’t seen many Monroe movies before production began.

“The scene wasn’t even a part of the original script,” Coughlan says. “But as production was approaching, I went into Kevin one day and he said, ‘How is your Marilyn?’ I said, ‘Ah, I gotta go.’ ”

Coughlan quickly gave herself a cram course in Monroe, watching her movies, as well as documentaries. “I worked a lot at home trying to get some of that stuff down,” she says. Everything jelled once she got into the halter dress, blond wig and Monroe makeup. “The whole deal was amazing,” she says. “I sent Polaroids to my family and they said, ‘It’s not you.’ ”

The actress says she was nothing like Jo Lynn while growing up in Minneapolis. “You know some actors are always on, no matter what time of day or location? I have always been a little bit shy about doing [outrageous scenes]. It was a little bit intimidating in ‘Mrs. Tingle,’ but it was a great thing to be forced to do these things in front of people I knew very well.”

Coughlan did a lot of plays in high school and acquired an agent before graduating. She even landed a small role in the Christian Slater film “Untamed Heart” but Coughlan ended up on the cutting-room floor.

She did more plays while attending USC, “but I actually spent more time trying to get things happening. I was juggling auditioning [for acting jobs], working and trying to do well in school.”

Her junior and senior years, Coughlan began to get more professional acting jobs, including three lines on the ABC sitcom “Step by Step,” five lines on the CBS comedy “High Society” and several TV movies.

Since completing “Tingle,” Coughlan has made another feature, “Gossip,” due for release early next year, and is one of the leads in Williamson’s new ABC youth drama, “Wasteland,” in which she plays a twentysomething virgin.

Until “Tingle,” she confesses, her career had endured a lot of rough patches. “Right now, I still wonder what is in my future,” Coughlan says. “It’s always scary, no matter what. It’s comforting to know I have employment for a few more months and I have the opportunity to work with people like Kevin.”