Who could possibly forget the moment when ghost girl Samara crawls out of the television in 2002's "The Ring?" While the film might have been based on the 1998 Japanese film, "Ringu," the American remake had plenty of unique frights. A big part of that credit goes to the young actress who portrayed Samara, Daveigh Chase. Since she spends most of the film hiding her face behind her long hair, you might not have realized that you've seen the actress in plenty of other projects... and likely heard her voice in even more. Here's what happened to the girl from "The Ring."
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00:00 2002's The Ring rocked audiences everywhere with its terrifying premise of a cursed videotape
00:06 and a little girl crawling through the television set to kill whoever watched it.
00:11 "Seven days."
00:15 Based on the 1998 Japanese film Ringu, The Little Girl from The Ring goes by the name
00:20 Samara and is played by child actor Devae Chase.
00:24 Samara's appearance is inspired by the Japanese yurei, a ghastly entity seen in Japanese art
00:29 and folklore dating back to the 14th century.
00:31 Her white gown is inspired by traditional Japanese funeral clothing, and pairing her
00:36 ensemble with the tattered black locks of hair turned her into a horror icon.
00:41 She was awarded the MTV Movie Award for Best Villain in 2003, beating out Oscar winner
00:46 Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York.
00:49 This is sort of funny, considering Chase spent most of The Ring with her hair draped over
00:53 her face, even when we see her before her death.
00:56 "Can I see my mommy?"
00:59 "No, Samara, not until we understand what's wrong with you."
01:03 Because of this, Chase has continued to have a successful acting career right in front
01:07 of your faces, without you even realizing it.
01:10 Her first feature appearance was in 2001's cult classic Donnie Darko.
01:14 She played Samantha, the youngest member of the Darko family.
01:18 She later returned to the role in the sequel S. Darko, which revolves around her now-teenage
01:22 character.
01:23 While it's nowhere near as renowned as the original movie, everyone seems to agree that
01:28 Chase's performance is its best feature.
01:31 In 2001, just a year before The Ring, Daveigh Chase nabbed the role of a lifetime when she
01:37 was selected to voice Chihiro in the English dub of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away.
01:43 "Sit here.
01:44 Behave yourself, okay?"
01:48 The film was the first, and to date only, hand-drawn, non-English-language animated
01:53 film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, a prestigious honor that introduced
01:58 the average American moviegoer to the world of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.
02:03 Chase was chosen specifically by Disney, who handled the English dub, likely because she
02:08 was starring in their next animated feature.
02:10 The same year that The Ring frightened movie fans all over, Daveigh Chase lent her voice
02:15 to what would become one of Disney's most beloved animated characters.
02:19 If you didn't already know, Daveigh Chase is the voice of Lilo in Lilo and Stitch.
02:24 That's right, the same girl who scared us silly in The Ring is the voice that taught
02:28 us.
02:29 "Ohana means family.
02:30 Family means nobody gets left behind."
02:33 "Or…"
02:34 "Or forgotten."
02:36 She continued to voice Lilo in sequels, video games, and the TV series.
02:41 She even earned an Annie Award for voice acting in an animated feature production, tying with
02:45 Billy Crystal, who voiced Mike Wazowski in Monsters, Inc.
02:49 Chase did not return for The Ring 2, but continued acting long after she creeped her way into
02:54 pop culture history.
02:56 The success of Lilo and Stitch made her a sought-after voice actor, so she lent her
03:00 talent to the titular role in Betsy's Kindergarten Adventures and as the character Kiwako Seto
03:06 in the video game Let It Die.
03:08 "Welcome back.
03:09 So what do you think about our insurance offer now?"
03:13 In the live-action world, Chase has most notably played Rhonda Volmaire in the HBO show Big
03:18 Love, where she portrayed the 15-year-old bride-to-be of Juniper Creek cult leader Roman
03:23 Grant.
03:24 After her stint on Big Love, Chase pivoted back to her roots in independent releases,
03:29 starring in films like Yellow, Little Red Wagon, Wild and Blue, Jack Goes Home, and
03:34 American Romance.
03:36 Unfortunately, Chase's off-screen behaviors may have led to the temporary end of her career.
03:42 It all started in 2015, when Chase was a no-show at the popular convention Monster Mania, angering
03:48 fans and costing the promoters a large advance to guarantee her appearance.
03:52 Two years later, Chase was arrested for riding in the passenger seat of a stolen vehicle,
03:57 followed shortly by an incident where she left a man outside of a hospital, who later
04:01 died of a drug overdose.
04:03 Eighteen months later, she was arrested on charges of drug possession, and again six
04:08 months after that on similar charges.
04:10 Chase has managed to stay out of trouble since her last arrest in 2019, and seems to be taking
04:15 some time away from the spotlight to focus on her recovery and her sobriety, which is
04:19 always more important than an acting career.
04:22 [music]