After a brief but memorable turn in The Life of Chuck, Matthew Lillard has reunited with Mike Flanagan on another Stephen King adaptation: the reimagining of “Carrie” for Prime Video.
Speaking with GamesRadar+, Lillard shared enthusiastic praise for Flanagan, his fellow castmates, and the series as a whole.
“‘Carrie’s brilliant. Mike Flanagan, who I worked with on Life of Chuck, he is just the single greatest force of nature in this industry,” said Lillard, who plays Principal Grayle in the show.
“We rehearsed for three weeks. He had plotted out every shot in the entire film. He had it down to the minute in terms of he amount of time it would take to shoot. He developed an app so you could see where they were in shooting. I mean, he’s so prolific and profound and such a great storyteller.”
He explained, “It’s three different sort of sections. It’s the story Carrie written by Stephen King. It’s really a pure adaptation of the book [more] than the original movie was. The [Brian] De Palma film is really about sort of one aspect, but there’s a lot that happens in the book that’s been introduced to the show.”
Lillard continued, “There’s three different tiers: the teachers, and the parents, and the students. The teachers and the parents are kind of the varsity-level of actors; you know, old … And then the kids, the kids are freaking brilliant. They’re brilliant actors. I would watch them work, and I was blown away at their ability to be honest and truthful.”
He added, “We saw the first three episodes cut before we even left Vancouver, Mike had already finished and picture-locked the first three episodes, which was remarkable. But the show’s great. It’s really fantastic. The only thing that sucks is you have to wait a year to see it, because it’s so good.”
In “Carrie,” misfit high-schooler Carrie White has spent her life in seclusion with her domineering mother. After her father’s sudden and untimely death, Carrie finds herself contending with the alien landscape of public high school, a bullying scandal that shatters her community, and the emergence of mysterious telekinetic powers.
Flanagan serves as writer and showrunner in addition to directing select episodes of the eight-part series. Amazon MGM Studios produces.
Summer H. Howell stars as Carrie White, with Samantha Sloyan as Margaret White, Siena Agudong as Sue Snell, Alison Thornton as Chris Hargensen, Josie Toah as Tina Blake, Arthur Conti as Billy Nolan, Joel Oulette as Tommy Ross, and Amber Midthunder as Rita Desjardian.
Recurring guest stars include Heather Graham, Kate Siegel, Michael Trucco, Katee Sackhoff, Rahul Kohli, Crystal Balint, Danielle Klaudt, Tim Bagley, Tahmoh Penikett, Mapuana Makia, Naika Toussaint, Delainey Hayles, Cassandra Naud, and Rowan Danielle.
Lillard can next be seen in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, in theaters December 5, and Scream 7, due out February 27. Meanwhile, Flanagan is in pre-production on his new take on The Exorcist starring Scarlett Johansson.
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