SPOILER ALERT:This post contains major spoilers from the 2026 series “Carrie,” now streaming on Prime Video.
Kate Siegel knows how to speak Stephen King. She was reading his work long before she probably should have, and has often retreated to it in times of need.
“He was my dad’s favorite author, and when he passed away, I must have read ‘The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon’ 50 times just to get through the grief,” Siegel tells Variety.
Her familiarity with King’s vast writings also meant
Her familiarity with King’s vast writings also meant she knew exactly which of his characters to draw upon when asked to play something completely new within his sandbox. Prime Video’s new version of “Carrie” isn’t the first adaptation of King’s classic tale of a childhood gone wrong, nor is it Siegel’s first time working with series creator Mike Flanagan. She’s married to the fellow King whisperer, and previously starred in Flanagan’s film adaptations of “Gerald’s Game” and “The Life of Chuck” –– not to mention all of his original Netflix series.
Courtesy of Prime Video
But when it comes to “Carrie,” she isn’t playing a single King creation, per se. Anyone familiar with the “Carrie” story knows exactly where the new series ends up after eight episodes. A reluctantly reclusive and telepathically gifted Carrie White (Summer H. Howell) tries to assimilate into high school, only to be ridiculed and manipulated by the savagery of her peers. When she thinks she has finally won them over by being crowned prom queen, she’s doused in pig’s blood and unleashes fiery hell on her town. Nearly all the show’s storylines and characters are pulled directly from King’s text.
But among the exceptions is Siegel’s character, who is only heard as the narrator throughout the first seven episodes before making her onscreen debut in the finale.
Popular on Variety
The character’s name is Adelaide, seemingly the headmistress
The character’s name is Adelaide, seemingly the headmistress of a home for gifted young women and the person behind the camera of the talking head interviews that have teased the terror to come all season. She’s interviewing the survivors of the prom night massacre, in search of the elusive culprit behind the carnage, Carrie, and her astral projecting enabler, Emaline (Thalia Dudek).
“It was an honor to step into this idea of a character that I’ve seen hints of in different stories [from King],” Siegel says. “There’s a woman like this in ‘The Institute.’ There are women like this in ‘Carrie,’ the original novel. There are some women like this in ‘Firestarter.’ But we don’t know which way Adelaide’s going to go. We don’t know whose side Adelaide is on. We don’t know a lot about her, but I’m familiar enough with the type of women that Stephen King likes to write that I could sort of hum the melody of who she is.”
Siegel and Flanagan spent plenty of time discussing the character, but he initially held back anything that might reveal who he wants her to become should the series continue.
One of his favorite answers when I would
“One of his favorite answers when I would ask about her past or her future or who she is, would just be, ‘Yeah, it’s crazy, right? Great question,’” she says. “And then he’d just move on!”
Siegel has since been clued in on Adelaide’s potential, and she’s gotten quite skilled at the art of the dodge as the series leaves viewers with few answers. “The questions people should be asking are, why is Adelaide filming these interviews and who is she telling this story to?” Siegel says, teasingly. “Of course she is interested in Carrie and wants to know everything about her, but to what end? We don’t want to give away too much, even though right now it’s only Season 1 — and we don’t know if anything else will happen.”
The other major clue viewers get about Adelaide is that she is also gifted, and she’s not afraid to wield those gifts as she sees fit. In the final moments of the season, she interviews Margaret White (Samantha Sloyan), Carrie’s religious mother who, in this version, survives her daughter’s prom night wrath thanks to her own repressed telekinetic abilities. But when Margaret refuses to even consider exploring these newly rekindled gifts further, Adelaide deems her unworthy of this unexpected second chance. Using telepathy, she instructs Maragret’s mind to slowly stop her own heartbeat, ultimately killing her. It’s a calculated act that lets Adelaide flex her own powers.
Siegel says that scene is key, not just
Siegel says that scene is key, not just because of what Adelaide does, but how she does it –– or rather, says it. Siegel narrates the cold opens of each episode, but she was very mindful of Adelaide’s onscreen voice, which is measured and changes its cadence when she goes from interviewing Maragret to killing her. She found inspiration for that voice in an unexpected place.
“You know the show ‘Couples Therapy’ on Showtime?” Siegel says. “The therapist who runs that program, Dr. Orna [Guralnik], has a very neutral kind of questioning tone until she gets to something that she’d like to dig a little deeper on. She’s also always touching her face while she’s listening. I just love the way she does it. That was the beginning of putting on Adelaide, as if it was just gently suggesting that we go a little deeper.”
One such instance is when Adelaide casually drops the word that will send King fans into a frenzy. Speaking to Margaret, she says, “A lot of people have a little bit of shine and don’t even know it.” That, of course, is a reference to the psychic abilities featured in “The Shining” and other King books. But the word “shine” isn’t in the original “Carrie” novel.
I was so happy that we were allowed
“I was so happy that we were allowed to have that word, because Adelaide sits there on a throne of chaotic neutral,” Siegel says. “She doesn’t care if you’re good or bad. She’s really looking for this one thing, and she believes every woman could have it. She’s waiting, and she’s thinking, and she’s seeing. And then she says that word. I think Adelaide’s voice has a lot of power, so she’s very careful with it.”
While the series has not yet been renewed for Season 2, if this is all “Carrie” gets, it has been a family affair for the entire Siegel/Flanagan household. In addition to Siegel’s debut in the finale, the episode also features their daughter Theo as a young Margaret, during a flashback to the first time she conjures her gifts. Episode 3 also marks the first time Siegel has directed an episode of television (she previously made her directorial debut on a segment of “V/H/S/Beyond”).
Her episode, titled “Social Studies,” is among the season’s most important, as it depicts Carrie’s first high school party, a rite of passage that has ripple effects all the way to the finale. But due to the production schedule, it actually shot after her onscreen debut as Adelaide. Episodes 1, 2, 7 and 8, all directed by Flanagan, were shot as a super block at the top of production. Then, Siegel was up next to direct Episode 3.
To prepare, she plastered her workspace with photos
To prepare, she plastered her workspace with photos of her and her friends at high school parties in the early 2000s for inspiration. It also gave her an excuse to revisit the classic ‘90s parties depicted in movies “Can’t Hardly Wait” and “10 Things I Hate About You.”
“It’s a very specific type of joy, because there’s anticipation, right?” Siegel says. “And nine times out of 10, a house party doesn’t quite deliver. But when a house party does deliver after the whole day of anticipation, and you’re a teenager and you’ve never really experienced this joy, it is so magical. That is what I wanted for Carrie.”
Not only does Carrie dance with her classmates, but also has an intoxicated (and intoxicatingly) platonic bonding moment with Tommy (Joel Oulette), the dreamy boy who genuinely befriends her as they lay on the front lawn of the party and talk about the stars. When Tommy dies as collateral damage of Carrie’s violence in the finale, his final words will be about those same stars. Having seen the finale before she got behind the camera, Siegel was able to consciously stitch these moments together.
After leaving the party, Tommy drives Carrie home
After leaving the party, Tommy drives Carrie home and the bliss of experiencing a good night out after a life of captivity literally causes her to levitate his car off the road.
“One of Amazon’s favorite moments in the script was that car lift, and same for me,” Siegel says. “There’s a beautiful dichotomy in Episode 3, where with Carrie’s confusion and frustration and concern, she can lift a raindrop. But with her joy, she can float a car. It has a built-in melancholy, because we all know how this story ends. We know it ends in the death of Tommy. We know it ends in carnage, and it makes it even worse to see them that happy and that joyful.”
One of Siegel’s proudest directorial decisions was this scene’s other half. At the same party, Chris (Alison Thornton), the chief designer of Carrie’s torment, has the worst party of her life. As Carrie hangs her head out Tommy’s window to take in every last euphoric second of the night, a blacked-out Chris stares blankly into the future.
That back-and-forth shot between them was not
“That back-and-forth shot between them was not in the original script,” she says. “That was something I pitched to Mike. The weight of Chris’ grief and sadness about her parents’ divorce and being replaced, and all these concerns about who she is and who she will be, cut with the lightness of Carrie feeling like she found her people. We really need that as we move forward in the story, and see these two butt heads.”
Because she played Adelaide first and then went behind the camera, Siegel held a great deal of power in guiding the viewer from the best night of Carrie’s life to the worst. In a way, she shares that bit of control with her character, whoever she is.
“Adelaide is the narrator of this story,” she says. “And the reason I like that is because it means one thing for the first seven episodes. But once you realize what she’s doing in the eighth, you see she’s been molding and framing this story. Adelaide controls this story — and never let it be said that Kate Siegel doesn’t love control.”
