Summer H. Howell has told the full story of how she became Carrie White, and she saved it for her first-ever podcast interview. The 22-year-old star of Prime Video’s Carrie sat down with The Zach Sang Show for a 52-minute conversation published Monday, covering the audition that changed her life, the reality of filming television’s most famous prom, and the action movie she has already finished since. All eight episodes of Carrie are streaming now on Prime Video, and the series was renewed for a second season last week.
The audition story alone is worth the listen. Howell won the role over roughly 1,400 other actresses, and she did it her own way: she had deliberately never read Stephen King’s novel or watched any earlier version of Carrie, and she kept it that way so nothing would influence her take. After three self-tapes spread over a few months came an hour-long work session with the casting team, running four big scenes. One scene called for tears and she did not cry. She told them through casting that if Mike Flanagan wanted tears, they would happen on the day. Later that same day, while she was running bath water, a text arrived: Flanagan wanted to see the monologue with tears. She got back on the call that day rather than wait out the weekend, and when the tears would not come, a note from casting did it: picture her dad watching her give the speech. Flanagan himself later called with the job, on April Fools’ Day, without realizing what day it was.
As for the prom, the blood was less dramatic than it looks and more of a daily grind. It went on cold, then simply became part of her. “It’s just very sticky,” she said. She spent about 45 minutes most mornings standing in a blood tent while the makeup team applied it precisely, and for about two weeks she could not really use her hands, with blood worked into her fingertips and knees. The famous drop took at least three takes; one knocked her tiara off, and another fell the wrong way. And the hardest shoot of the season was not the prom at all. It was Episode 4, a nightmare sequence in a muddy trench, filmed outdoors in the cold after she had already shot episodes 1, 2, 7 and 8.
She saved some of her warmest words for Samantha Sloyan, who plays Carrie’s mother, Margaret White. Howell said she loved filming with Sloyan and that every scene together was fun, closet scenes included. She also pushed back on calling Margaret evil, describing her instead as a deeply protective mother who has been locked inside her house for 15 years and sees the outside world as a threat to her daughter.
Watch the full conversation here:
Howell also confirmed one of the production’s smartest moves: Flanagan brought real high school students into the writers’ room to talk about their daily lives and how teenagers actually sound, so the show’s bullying and social media storylines would hold up. She called the result shockingly realistic, and said the show’s message is a simple one: be kind when you can, because it is really easy to be mean, especially growing up.
She also made a promise about the show’s biggest open question: viewers will get answers about Emaline in Season 2. The mysterious presence with a dark past, who steps in for Carrie at the prom, has barely been explained so far. On the show’s future, her answers suggest the conversation was recorded before last week’s Season 2 announcement. Asked about returning, she said the production tells her nothing and that her Instagram is full of Season 2 questions. “I would love to go back,” she said. She also recalled being caught off guard in a joint interview when Flanagan, who she says is not great at keeping secrets, let slip a plan that could run maybe three seasons, though she stressed it is not up to her.
Her next screen role is already in the can. Runaway, an action movie with Josh Duhamel due out next year, was her first action film, and she has the bruises to prove it. She took a hit to the face from a prop gun as her first on-set injury, narrowly missing her eye, and fell on her last day of filming and kept going. It is a long way from where she started: growing up in Manitoba, she landed her first role, Alice in Curse of Chucky, on only her third audition ever.
The interview closes on the habits behind the rise. Howell keeps a manifestation journal, and what she has written and wanted, she says, she has gotten. Right now the journal is asking for rest and time at home in Manitoba, plus adventure and fantasy roles, the kind with a bow and arrow or a sword. “The universe is always listening,” she said. She is not a method actor, calling that idea insane for a role like Carrie; instead she uses breath work and a quiet word with herself before the cameras roll. Stephen King, who approved her casting, sent her a signed book, though the two have never met. She even explained her middle initial along the way: the H stands for Helena, for a grandmother she never met. And between the tarot readings, the Hunter x Hunter marathons and at least five crocheted cat hats, the through line of the whole conversation is the one Flanagan set on his set: his only expectation, she said, was kindness to each other.