Margaret and Carrie White have always had one of the most disturbing mother-daughter relationships in pop culture history. Carrie is the socially inept and bullied girl who just wants to be normal, but she’s under the thumb of her mom, who is a religious fanatic who hates her for simply existing. It’s incredibly sad to witness, whether you’re reading the original novel or watching a live-action adaptation. We now have a modern adaptation of Carrie, which keeps some of the foundation aspects of Margaret and Carrie’s story while adding some interesting changes. We caught up with Samantha Sloyan and Summer H. Howell to talk about finding their chemistry, social media’s influence on Carrie, and what they nerd out about.
Nerdist: Samantha, I’m going to start with you. This version of Margaret White is perhaps one of the most intriguing versions we’ve gotten of her yet. She doesn’t feel so overtly villainous, and it seems like she’s coming from a misguided place and really wanted to protect her daughter. Where did you draw inspiration from to build her characterization?
Samantha Sloyan: It was important to Mike [Flanagan] to write a mother and daughter who love each other. I pulled from my own relationship with my mother. We love each other even though sometimes we are two entirely different people. And sometimes what one thinks is best for the other is not correct. So I was just making sure I was always starting with that. I wanted to put Carrie first. Margaret wanted to put Carrie first, and that was just at the forefront of every decision that I made throughout the piece.
Love that. And the chemistry between the both of you is just so palpable. How did you build up that chemistry and that trust with each other as scene partners, especially having to act through some pretty difficult things together?
Sloyan: Mike gave us a rehearsal process, which is unusual for a TV show, and that goes so far. So we had weeks together to meet each other, to see how each other worked, to see the characters we had created. And also it was just a very instantaneous fit. So having that extra time plus the natural affinity for was part of how that all went down.
Summer H. Howell: Yeah, we had time to trust each other.
Love it. And for you, Summer, Carrie goes through a lot of really rough things on screen. I can imagine that some of the filming process for those things were pretty hard. Which sequence did you find to be the most difficult to shoot from an emotional standpoint, and how were you able to push through that to be able to deliver the scene?
Howell: I think episode four, when I’m screaming on the street, that night I was very emotional and tired from filming for so long, and we were right in the thick of it. We had two more episodes to go. And I’d been crying a lot and screaming a lot for a long time. And so just knowing that I had to keep doing that, it was a lot, but I pushed through because of the people around me. I knew we were creating something special and that we did. So just knowing that it was going to come together, I pushed through.
Indeed. Of course, the scene that everyone will be looking forward to seeing is the infamous prom scene. It’s different from anything we’ve ever seen before, Summer. This time we have that character of Emaline there and she has this influence over Carrie’s darker decisions. Do you feel like that choice maybe took away some of Carrie’s autonomy at that moment in a sense?
Howell: Yeah, Carrie got to shut down for a second and let Emaline take control. So it’s questionable whether she really did all the things in the prom or not, how conscious she was. Yeah, it definitely changes the story.
Yes, it does. And the story as a whole touches on so many important and relevant things right now, specifically social media. And we saw it from both sides. You see it with Chris and then you also see it with Margaret who becomes a little bit addicted to that attention and everything that she was getting from it. What do both of you think about Margaret’s storyline with social media specifically? And what does it say about the allure of becoming influenced by technology and social media?
Sloyan: I don’t think Margaret’s aware of it, but I think we very much are as the audience. We are seeing how her initial thing is “We’re going to use this tactic, our enemy’s tactic, against them,” like Ralph says. And that’s why she takes up these arms in particular. But I think we see how quickly the approval, being seen, the likes, the adoration, Margaret just becomes fascinated by it and I think addicted to it. And it’s so funny because yeah, she doesn’t see it, but we really see it start to take her over as well.
Howell: And that’s dangerous because you think about kids growing up with this technology and that’s just who they are from the start, even though they haven’t had the time to figure themselves out yet. So I just think it’s really relevant and it’s important and people need to learn how to put their phones down. Nobody teaches you that. So if you can teach yourself, I think you’ll be better off.
Yes, And focus on genuine kindness, too. I think that was such a striking line. When Sue was doing her interview, she said that it threw them off guard that Carrie was just a kind person. And I’m like, how sad is that? That is really reflective of what Gen Z and Gen Alpha are going through.
Sloyan: Yes, that’s so true.
At Nerdist, we nerd out about all sorts of things, whether it’s TV, film, horror, comics, or gaming. What do you both nerd out about specifically and why?
Sloyan: Well, right now, I guess you could call it nerding out… somebody got me into Dungeon Crawler Carl recently. I’m listening to it on audio and I think it’s Jeff Hays who does the voices and it just blows my mind that it’s one single person doing that. But I started not that long ago and now I’m in book three. So that’s my particular current nerd out.
That’s a big one! Very nice. What about you, Summer?
Howell: I watch a lot of anime, so I’ve binged One Piece and Hunter x Hunter and Attack on Titan and so many more. But yeah, a lot of anime. My hobbies, well, I jump around quite a bit. I love crocheting and other crafty things. I just try to find time for stuff like that.
And those things like crocheting totally count as nerdy! If you have a laser focus on something, you can consider it to be your nerdy or niche thing.
All eight episodes of Carrie are streaming on Prime Video.