In a recent phone conversation from Los Angeles, DeLorenzo said it all occurred at SkyCity, which includes a massive tower like the Seattle Space Needle, after Raimi wrapped up his work on the “Ash vs. Evil Dead” pilot.
“It was Sam’s last night in New Zealand and we were all celebrating. Bruce and his wife, Ida, were there, me, Jill (Marie Jones) and Ray (Santiago), as well as Sam,” DeLorenzo recalled. “We were at the Sky Tower and in the center of it — I can’t even give you the scale of it because it is so big – there were two escalators that were the biggest things I’ve ever seen in my life. They went on for days.”
At the end of the night, DeLorenzo said, the group was coming down one of the monster escalators when suddenly the jovial atmosphere turned into something that you would see in, well, “Ash vs. Evil Dead.”
“We were goofing around and dancing on the way down, and I’m the first one off the first of the escalators to turn and go down the final escalator. I was wearing this very loose, stretchy, spandex-y, very wide-legged jumpsuit, and when we got to the bottom I was starting to walk, and something pulled by leg back,” DeLorenzo said. “All of a sudden, because the jumpsuit was all connected, the elastic top – strapless, by the way – starts pulling down. It’s was truly like Kelly trying to get through The Rift and I couldn’t move forward, and the jumpsuit is slowly being ripped off me from the top to the bottom. This all happened in a split-second, but it was very slow in my mind as things very terrifying at the moment are, and I screamed instinctively. I screamed because in a second I was going to be standing in the middle of Sky Tower for all to see, naked!”
DeLorenzo said as she tried to hold her top on, Jones hopped in front of her to cover her chest, and “then comes this hero Sam Raimi.”
“He jumped off the escalator in his suit and gets down on the floor on his hands and knees and starts yanking the bottom of my jumpsuit from the evil, possessed escalator,” DeLorenzo said while literally acting out the madness of the moment. “He was pulling with all his might. He was ripping and grunting because it would not rip, and finally, on the third tug, they did, and half of my pants went up the escalator – they’re gone – but luckily, Sam Raimi saved my life. I was physically being pulled into the escalator because it was that strong. I was not only about to be dragged up the escalator, but humiliation-wise, I was about to be butt-ass naked in front of half the city of Auckland, New Zealand. After saving the day, Sam slowly stood up and started brushing himself off and said, ‘Well that was sobering!’ and everyone laughed.”