Working with Clint Eastwood a real scream for Dale Dickey

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Dale Dickey may turn out to be the scream queen of Halloween this year.She exercises her vocal cords not in a horror flick but in director Clint Eastwood's "Changeling," now in theaters."It's a small part, but you definitely see my face and hear my scream," says Dickey. It's the first time she's ever gotten to let it rip onscreen."I don't think the public has, but certain members of my family and friends have heard it."Based on a true story, "Changeling" stars Angelina Jolie as a single mother in 1920s Los Angeles whose 9-year-old son is returned to her several months after he was kidnapped. Her joy evaporates when she realizes the boy is not her child, but the police department, anxious not to be embarrassed, goes to extremes to keep her quiet.At one point, the mother is put in a psychiatric hospital. That's when she meets the patient played by Dickey.The Knoxville, Tenn.-born actress, who has earned praise for her recurring role as Patty the Daytime Hooker on "My Name Is Earl" and for her work in such films as "Domino" and "The Pledge," was thrilled to be cast even in a "very, very tiny role" by Eastwood."To get to work with him was just tremendously wonderful," says Dickey, who moved to Los Angeles from New York in the mid-1990s.Dickey's agent had submitted her for consideration for several small roles in the film."I was put on tape for another role, and my understanding is that Boss -- Mr. Eastwood -- would watch the tapes and then cast off of those," she says. "I wasn't right for this role; I wasn't right for that role. They kept narrowing it down, and finally they called and offered me this part."I was excited. I'd sweep the floors for him. I don't care how small it (the part) is, I would do it. I ended up getting to be on set for an entire week, which was really wonderful."A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Dickey has worked as an actress for more than 20 years. Though she's had to take day jobs at times to stay solvent, she's been more fortunate than most stage-struck types who've tried their luck in New York or Hollywood because her goal was acting, not stardom."I'm a character actress," she says by phone from Los Angeles. "My face is very angular and very strong, and so out here, it instantly goes into a rough/raw kind of category. I enjoy it, and it's work, and there you go."Dickey rarely gets to doll up or look glamorous onscreen, though she finds those opportunities on the stage."When I met him on set ... I was already in makeup and hair," she says. "They wigged me in a crazy wig. They always put dirt and black out my teeth."So I'm going up to meet him, and I'm like, 'Oh, this is gonna be scary for him.' And he was just charming, as was Angelina."She's not sure Eastwood would recognize her if he saw her again."If I screamed my line at him he would," she says. "I have a very distinctive line in the film that I repeat 'cause I'm, you know, a crazy woman."He might think I looked a little nicer, I would hope. He made some comment when I met him. He goes, 'Ah, Rembrandt couldn't have done any better.' He was very supportive in all my unglamorous glory."(Contact Knoxville News Sentinel film critic Betsy Pickle at pickle(at)knews.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)