Samantha Sloyan says, Mike Flanagan, Stephen King are ‘kindred spirits’

Los Angeles: Hollywood actress Samantha Sloyan, who is receiving a lot of positive response to her work in the recently released streaming miniseries ‘Carrie’, has shared her experience of working with the show’s director Mike Flanagan. She said that Mike and the author Stephen King, on whose eponymous novel the series is based, are “kindred spirits”.

The actress spoke with IANS along with her co-actress Summer H. Howell during the promotions of the series.

The series follows the socially isolated teenager as she navigates high school, bullying and the oppressive influence of her mother, Margaret, while discovering her telekinetic abilities. Flanagan updates the story for the social-media era, bringing cyberbullying, online humiliation and modern teenage pressures into the narrative.

Sharing her experience working with the director, she said, “I've worked through this, my seventh project with him, and it's always a joy. And I think what you had mentioned, Stephen King, that they just, they're so kindred spirits in so many ways”.

She told IANS, “So, this is actually the 2nd Stephen King adaptation I've worked on with Mike. I think they understand each other so well. And Mike's vision is always in line with that of Stephen King”.

When asked about how she cultivated the camaraderie with Summer to do justice to their parts of a mother and a daughter, she said, “Mike's shifted our mindsets to be a loving mother and daughter. And so, that really changes everything. And so, the time that we got to spend in rehearsal and Summer being a wonderful person, that connection was a lot easier to form”.

The series expands several characters and explores the psychological roots of cruelty, victimhood and revenge more deeply than earlier adaptations. While Brian De Palma’s 1976 film remains the iconic version, the series format gives the story considerably more room to explore its characters and themes.

The series is available to stream on Prime Video.

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