Heather Langenkamp

At the age of nineteen, Langenkamp worked for The Tulsa Tribune. She saw an ad looking for extras for Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders in the summer of 1983. Auditions took place at a nearby elementary school where Langenkamp gave the casting director her polaroid. She got a call back to appear in a high school scene. Amidst what seemed like "hundreds" of other adolescents, she had to wear 1950s based attire. The same summer, Coppola was shooting another film, Rumble Fish. Her friend got a phone call to appear in a street scene. Her friend's mother felt more comfortable with Langenkamp going with her to the set at night. The assistant director informed her that they had dialogue and wanted to give it to her. She did several takes of her saying dialogue to Matt Dillon's character. The scenes didn't make it into the final product of neither film. Despite this, these extra parts helped her get into the Screen Actors Guild.[8]

Langenkamp stayed in close contact with the casting director, her assistant, and the producer. While studying at Stanford University, she would travel to Los Angeles to pursue acting opportunities. Her first official Hollywood audition was for Drew Denbaum's Nickel Mountain (1984), an adaptation of John Gardner's 1973 novel. During the audition, her rented car got hit by a runaway truck on Cahuenga Boulevard. Denbaum and the casting director helped Langenkamp during the ordeal. She bonded with them and got cast in the lead role of Callie Wells.[9] She has expressed regret for doing the nude scene as she feared voicing her discomfort at the time of filming.[10] She later got cast as Beth alongside Joanne Woodward and Richard Crenna in the CBS television film Passions (1984).[9] The direction towards her character received praise.[11]

Langenkamp became aware of auditions for a horror film known as A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) in the winter of 1983.[12] Casting director Annette Benson was familiar to Langenkamp as she had brought her in to read for the lead role in Night of the Comet (1984) although the part ultimately went to Catherine Mary Stewart.[13] She auditioned for the highly sought after role of fifteen-year-old heroine Nancy. There were not enough chairs to accommodate the number of actresses auditioning.[12] Her reading impressed both Benson and director Wes Craven enough that she was called back to read with another actress auditioning, Amanda Wyss.[12]

During her audition with Wyss, she improvised a clawing motion with her fingers and a screeching sound. This natural approach to the character ultimately caught Craven's attention leading to her obtaining the part. Craven stated that he wanted someone very "non-Hollywood" and someone who embodied the "all-American, girl-next-door" for the role and believed that Langenkamp had these qualities.[13] Craven informed her that she got the part that winter, although shooting didn't begin until June 1984.[12] She beat out more than 200 actresses auditioning for the part. She won the Best Actress Award at the Avoriaz Film Festival for her role as Nancy.[14]

In 1985, Langenkamp was cast in Suburban Beat, a TV pilot that was not picked up for a full series, where she played Hope Sherman, the youngest housewife.[15] That year, she starred in the music video for ZZ Top's "Sleeping Bag".[16] In 1986, she guest-starred in CBS Schoolbreak Special and ABC Afterschool Specials.

Langenkamp at the Fan Expo Canada in 2014

In 1986, Craven approached Langenkamp to reprise her role of Nancy in the sequel A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1986), about the survivors of Freddy Krueger's previous attempts.[17] The film was a box office success in 1987 grossing over $44 million.[18] Film critic Kim Newman of Empire, who praised her performance in the original, described Langenkamp's portrayal as a grown-up Nancy as "miscast."[19] Later, she had a guest appearance as Tracy in the television series The New Adventures of Beans Baxter. She subsequently had a guest role as Monica on the soap opera Hotel. Both episodes were in 1987.[20]

Following Nancy, Langenkamp obtained further recognition when she portrayed lead character Marie Lubbock on the ABC television series Just the Ten of Us, a spin-off of the popular ABC situation comedy Growing Pains (on which she guest-starred), from 1988 to 1990. Both shows won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lighting Design / Lighting Direction for a Variety Series.[21][22] That year, she and her castmates were nominated for the Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor/Actress Ensemble in a Television Comedy, Drama Series or Special. In 1989, she had a cameo role as the first victim of Horace Pinker in Wes Craven's horror film Shocker.[23][24] In the film, she is on a news report being pulled away on a stretcher. In 1994, Langenkamp returned to the Elm Street franchise, playing a fictionalized version of herself in Wes Craven's New Nightmare, then portrayed the figure skater Nancy Kerrigan in the NBC television film Tonya & Nancy: The Inside Story, which focused on Tonya Harding's husband's attack.

In 1995, Langenkamp starred in Robert Kurtzman's low budget superhero film The Demolitionist.[25] In 1997, she portrayed Lou Ann Solomon in one episode of the short-lived science fiction/horror television series Perversions of Science. She later starred in the direct-to-video film Fugitive Mind (1999). In 2000, she had a guest role in 18 Wheels of Justice as a waitress. The following year, she and her husband, David Anderson, launched the Malibu Gum Factory which sold locally manufactured chewing gum that featured trading cards of local surfers inside each package.[26]

In 2002, Langenkamp played Janet Thompson in an episode of JAG. After this, she took a break from acting to focus on her family.[27] In 2005, she was cast in the Wes Craven horror film Cursed. The film had to be reshot and rewritten, causing her to leave due to scheduling conflicts.[28]

In 2007, Langenkamp portrayed a fictionalized version of herself in the indie mockumentary film The Bet. It was released as a web series with the same title in April 2020. She starred in, executive produced, and narrated the 2010 documentary Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy. The following year, she produced a documentary entitled I Am Nancy, which focused on her experience portraying Nancy in the A Nightmare on Elm Street films.[29]

In 2012, Langenkamp portrayed Dorothy in the horror film The Butterfly Room. As a partner in her husband's Special FX Make-up company, AFX Studio, she worked on the horror-comedy film The Cabin in the Woods. In 2013, Langenkamp appeared as herself in the documentary Fantasm[31] and had a small role of an alien in the film, Star Trek Into Darkness in which her husband David Leroy Anderson designed all of the Special FX make-up.[32] In 2014, she made a cameo appearance in the fourth season of the horror anthology series American Horror Story, titled Freak Show, as a Tupperware party lady.[33]

In 2015, Langenkamp was cast in the short film Intruder, portrayed Sharon Monroe in four episodes of the drama series The Bay, and narrated the short horror film Vault of the Macabre II.[34][35] In 2016, she starred in the horror drama film Home.[36]

In 2017, Langenkamp had a cameo role in the short horror comedy film The Sub and appeared as herself in the documentary Unearthed & Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary. She has a cameo appearance in the horror sequel film Hellraiser: Judgment. Also that year, she portrayed the adult version of the "final girl" Donna Boone in the Syfy television horror film Truth or Dare, guiding a group of teenagers with their battle with a deadly spirit that left her physically scarred several years prior.[37]

She is confirmed to have the anchoring role in the Mike Flanagan written, directed, and executive produced Netflix series The Midnight Club (2021).[38]