Kate Siegel On The Questions Around Her Mysterious ‘Carrie’ Role & Exploring “Feminine Rage” In Her Work; Plus Her Horror Directorial Debut: “A Story Close To My Heart”

SPOILERS: This post contains details about the Season 1 finale of Prime Video‘s Carrie

As Mike Flanagan‘s Carrie puts a modern update on the Stephen King classic, Kate Siegel‘s mysterious role represents a major twist.

Playing Adelaide, the guardian of a group of young women with the TK gene, the actress explained she was able to “make her whoever I wanted” while working with husband and frequent collaborator Flanagan on the series, all episodes streaming on Prime Video.

“She represents this framing device that’s never been fully realized in any of the other adaptations, which is Stephen King pointing to the fact that this is a bigger story,” said Siegel of the character. “Clearly this is something he’s interested in, the TK gene and just the concept of the Shine kind of harmonizes throughout all of his stories. And so, getting to portray that was very exciting for me.”

After narrating several episodes with a history of women who possessed the TK gene, which gives Carrie her telekinetic abilities, Adelaide is revealed as the person interviewing the survivors of the prom night fire. Ultimately, she kills Carrie’s mom Margaret (Samantha Sloyan) before going after Carrie and her mysterious new friend Emaline (Thalia Dudek).

With the unanswered questions around Adelaide’s motives, some have compared her to a Professor X of the Stephen King onscreen universe while awaiting answers in a potential Season 2.

Noting that she’s “a huge X-Men fan,” Siegel explains there’s a lot more to Adelaide. “Professor X always seems very grounded and in control of himself, and we’ve only seen Adelaide in this one situation, and so I’m excited to show people more of what’s actually going on with her,” she teased.

Siegel added, “The thing I would tell people to ask themselves is, who is Adelaide telling these stories to? Who is she filming this for? So, there are questions there. Who are the other girls in the room, and who sent those other girls to the prom, and why? There’s a lot of questions that Adelaide represents right now, more than just her seemingly calm demeanor when interviewing these people of Chamberlain.”

Carrie marks Siegel’s latest collaboration with Flanagan, having starred in his films Oculus (2013), Hush (2016), Gerald’s Game (2017) and The Life of Chuck (2024), as well as his shows The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass and The Fall of the House of Usher.

Next up, Siegel appears in Flanagan’s highly-anticipated The Exorcist: Martyrs, premiering March 12, 2027, a movie she says makes his 2019 horror Doctor Sleep “look like a Disney cartoon.”

Siegel praises Flanagan for having “never made me feel embarrassed about all the different sides of my personality, including my female rage and my female violence,” a dynamic that fuels their ongoing collaboration.

Meanwhile, having stepped behind the camera to direct the Carrie episode “Social Studies”, Siegel is preparing to take on her feature directorial debut Method, a horror-thriller passion project that she says is “close to my heart,” which she’s also producing through her newly launched Legitimate Pictures banner.

“I’m very much looking forward to exploring the future side of directing in a more long-form story than an episode of TV or a short film,” said Siegel. “I think I have a lot to say about this particular story of Method, and I hope it sees the light of day.”

Read on about Kate Siegel’s roles in Carrie, The Exorcist: Martyrs and The Last Temptation of Becky, as well as what’s next.

DEADLINE: I did a high school book report on Carrie, and I always loved the framing device of the interviews in the book, so I really appreciated that twist with Adelaide.

KATE SIEGEL: Well, what I loved about Adelaide is exactly what you pointed out, is she represents this framing device that’s never been fully realized in any of the other adaptations, which is Stephen King pointing to the fact that this is a bigger story, and he goes back and examines that idea multiple times in his career through The Shop and The Institute. You see it quite a bit. He talks about breakers. Clearly this is something he’s interested in, the TK gene and just the concept of the Shine kind of harmonizes throughout all of his stories. And so, getting to portray that was very exciting for me. And since there was eight episodes, there’s no real explanation about Adelaide, so I could make her whoever I wanted. All I had to do was deliver what was on the page.

DEADLINE: Well, I’m very intrigued by her as a character. She kind of seems like this Professor X for the Stephen King universe.

SIEGEL: It’s funny, people say that, and I’m a huge X-Men fan, and I always wanted to be a Jean Grey. My understanding of Adelaide actually takes her further away from that than you would think. … Professor X always seems very grounded and in control of himself, and we’ve only seen Adelaide in this one situation, and so I’m excited to show people more of what’s actually going on with her.

DEADLINE: Yeah, that’s what I was gonna ask, can you tease any of that, because like It seems like she might be a safe person for these young, psychics with like the TK gene—

SIEGEL: [delightfully maniacal laughter]

DEADLINE: But then she does kill Margaret in the end. So, I’m very curious to see how that will play out.

SIEGEL: Well, honestly, I don’t want to tease yet. I’ll be happy to give you that information when I have the go-ahead. But the thing I would tell people to ask themselves is, who is Adelaide telling these stories to? Who is she filming this for? So, there are questions there. Who are the other girls in the room, and who sent those other girls to the prom, and why? There’s a lot of questions that Adelaide represents right now, more than just her seemingly calm demeanor when interviewing these people of Chamberlain.

DEADLINE: Yeah, and I’m excited to find out the answers to all those questions as well. So, I really hope we get a Season 2.

SIEGEL: As of right now, there is nothing. I know nothing about nothing, so the story is fully committed for Season 1. I confirm nothing.

DEADLINE: I understand. I also know that you directed an episode. What was it like stepping behind the camera for this one?

SIEGEL: Oh, it was such a joy. I mean, I had done a handful of 20-minute shorts before that, and when I got this opportunity, I dove in with all of my Type-A planning and overachieving and really wanting to succeed. And that kind of instinct can be detrimental to an actor if you’re trying too hard. If you’re too prepared as a director, you can never be too prepared. You can start shot-listing a year in advance, and still, buyers will come up on the day that you have to put out. So, I didn’t find myself having to shut off parts of my brain that I normally do when I’m trying to work from instinct and listening in the moment, in an actor space.

DEADLINE: Speaking of directing, I know you’re also making your feature directorial debut with Method. Can you tell me anything about that?

SIEGEL: Oh gosh, Method is a story close to my heart. I have been in development with Method for a while, and I’m close to getting news that I can share. To be honest, I was coached on this yesterday because there’s so much I want to say, but I’m not allowed to reveal now, especially because I’m working with, Di Novi Pictures and Margaret French Isaac, and they’ve been incredible, and they are really championing this project, and our studio partner.

DEADLINE: Understandable.

SIEGEL: But I’m very much looking forward to exploring the future side of directing in a more long-form story than an episode of TV or a short film. I think I have a lot to say about this particular story of Method, and I hope it sees the light of day.

DEADLINE: Yeah, I’m excited to see it as well. Are you allowed to tell me if this one is horror?

SIEGEL: Yes, this one is definitely in the horror-thriller space.

DEADLINE: Love it. What’s it been like launching Legitimate Pictures with this female-driven mission?

SIEGEL: I love Launching Pictures because I’m getting lots of incoming calls from female creatives and female executives, and anybody who is an ally in that female-identifying space who are looking for a place to put their stories. And getting to hear these stories and read these stories and all the scripts I receive are so unlike what I see on TV right now. They’re so unlike what I’m watching, and there’s just a wealth of stories that are dying to be told. What I find the hardest is narrowing it down to the stories that I can champion at this time. … It’s amazing because it’s such a personal and intimate thing to do, screenwriting and so when I receive these like one-pagers or the outline or the script, it’s so individualistic, you feel like you’re looking at someone’s diary. The ones I respond to are always the ones that are the most authentic and revealing with a strong point of view, and that’s not saying they’re all autobiographical, but just that you learn so much about a person by the story that they want to tell.

DEADLINE: Absolutely. And speaking of platforming female voices, I saw an interview with Mike where he was talking about Carrie being a very femino-centric story and how he relied on the female writers and the women in the cast and the crew to help guide that voice. Can you tell me about collaborating in that way with him?

SIEGEL: Well, one of the things I love about Mike as a showrunner is that he’s curious, and so he didn’t approach the women in his writer’s room or those of us who were directing or even his cast being like, “Well, come into my world and tell me what you know.” It was just very much with an open mind and listening and watching and observing. He is an extremely supportive spouse, and he and I have been collaborating for our entire relationship, and I’ve never met a man who is more curious about the female experience from a place of pride and respect. And so it’s not like, “Oh, that’s so hard. Oh, being a woman, it must be rough.” It’s like, “Wow, look at all of this.” He often says he’s married to 1,000 women because I’m not your run-of-the-mill trad wife, and he’s never made me feel embarrassed about all the different sides of my personality, including my female rage and my female violence. And I think the joy that he gets from women’s expression in all forms shows in his hiring practices and shows in the show.

DEADLINE: Can you tell me anything about The Exorcist: Martyrs?

SIEGEL: I can tell you that without a doubt, it’s the scariest thing that Mike has ever made. Notoriously, when I was watching screenings of Doctor Sleep, I only watched the baseball boy scene once, and I normally watch Mike’s stuff hundreds of times with him, but after seeing it once, I walked out of the theater every time. And The Exorcist makes that look like a Disney cartoon. I was just sitting there going, “Jesus Christ!” But it’s so good. He was a fan of the original movie and of The Exorcist III, and so when this opportunity came around, he knocked it out of the park.

DEADLINE: Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of people pointing out like the Exorcist III inspirations and are really excited about that. So, I’m excited to see that as well. But also, I just saw the trailer for The Last Temptation of Becky, and I’m equally as excited about that.

SIEGEL: Becky was so fun. I got to step into one of my life’s goals of being like the grouchy police chief, Agent Kate Montana. They’re like, “You’re a loose cannon, Becky!” It was an absolute joy all the way through. I get to do one of those iconic scenes where I go through a table of weapons and I’m like, “You think this is a pen? It’s a knife. You think this is a knife? It’s actually a gun.”

DEADLINE: That sounds so much fun. I love those movies.

SIEGEL: Once again, highlighting feminine rage. I think Lulu Wilson is a dream to work with and just kicks the pants off of every single one of the installments of Becky.

DEADLINE: Also, I hate that it’s become so controversial to say that Nazis are bad, so I love that part of the movies as well.

SIEGEL: Yeah, I don’t know when it became a hot take that Nazis are evil. Jesus, help us all.

DEADLINE: Was there anything else you wanted to add about your upcoming projects?

SIEGEL: I want to say that it has been such a joy to see the support that I get from executives, being a female director in the genre space, having Di Novi Pictures come on and having my executives at Amazon be willing to go into this development on a story that is so female-centric and really highlights multiple parts of the female experience. It’s nice to feel that shift in the industry towards female-centric stories. And look, it’s not perfect. It’s never gonna be perfect. Progress isn’t perfect, but I am pleasantly surprised at every turn.