Kate Siegel is finding the fun in the found footage genre.
But before her guest starring spot on The Creep Tapes’ season three premiere, it was husband and The Exorcist: Martyrs director Mike Flanagan who was pleading to appear on Mark Duplass’ horror anthology series.
“Mike was desperate to be on Creep Tapes. He would email Mark, [who] was like, ‘Cool, cool, cool. Can I have Kate’s contact number?’” Siegel revealed in her exclusive chat with SYFY Wire. “This has literally never happened. It’s normally people emailing me trying to get to Mike.”
The call was about playing Crystal, a doomed documentarian hired by Duplass’ unnamed killer to film a sex tape. And Siegel’s love for the franchise led to an exception proving a rule.
“Notoriously, I will not do sex or nudity. I refuse,” she noted. “I don’t even want to kiss on camera anymore. I don’t do any of it since I’ve had my kids. I just don’t think they want to see that.”
The season three premiere was one of the show’s most graphic stories, solidified by the reveal of a phallic toy that was “slightly less realistic” than Siegel had imagined from the script.
“I was picturing more of a d—o, st–p–n situation,” she explained. “To see it in real time, it gave me the giggles every time I looked at it.”
That said, Siegel felt unexpectedly empowered by the scene, in which Crystal turns the tables on Duplass’ mercurial sociopath by donning the “giant hairy prosthetic” herself.
“I was sort of obsessed with [the prosthetic], because I got to embody that,” she pointed out, “which is such a counterculture thing to do as a woman. To be in charge of that was so exciting.”
Meanwhile, Duplass’ murderous predator also embodied a real-world evil for Siegel, who connected with Crystal’s survivor mindset.
“I think she has encountered this type of man over and over and over again,” the Hush actress said, “because as a woman, I’ve encountered dangerous men one on one over and over and over again. Especially in sexual situations, things can turn.”
“I think as an adult woman that fear is present as soon as you become a sexualized creature,” Siegel continued. “That a man could just kill you. We’re told that all the time. I wanted to tap into that for Crystal.”
Meanwhile, Siegel also pulled double duty on Flanagan’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie, directing and starring across the eight-episode series premiering Oct. 7 on Prime Video.
“Like all of Mike Flanagan’s adaptations, you have no idea what you’re in for,” she teased. “It takes what you love, remixes it in a way that is exciting and pulls on your heartstrings.”
A TV season’s worth of story will allow the horror maestro’s debut novel to play out on screen like never before, as Summer H. Howell follows in the bloody footsteps of Sissy Spacek and Chloë Grace Moretz.
“Summer’s Carrie White is brand new in more ways than one,” Siegel raved. “It’s going to be the beating heart that pulls you through this series. Every viewer will become obsessed with Summer Howell after this show.”
Until then, the first two episodes of The Creep Tapes season three are streaming now on Shudder and AMC+, with new episodes dropping Tuesdays.
