From show creator/writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, the Netflix original series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina follows Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka), the magical 16-year-old half-witch/half-mortal who feels conflicted about both sides of her nature. While Sabrina is on her own personal journey of discovering what she stands for and where she belongs, her aunts Hilda (Lucy Davis) and Zelda (Miranda Otto), warlock cousin Ambrose (Chance Perdomo), high priest Father Blackwood (Richard Coyle), the Devil’s handmaiden Madam Satan (Michelle Gomez), human boyfriend Harvey (Ross Lynch), and even her familiar, Salem the cat, are each trying to influence her, in their own way.

During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, actor Bronson Pinchot (who plays Baxter High’s villainous principal George Hawthorne) talked about how he came to be a part of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, what he thinks of the dark approach to this material, what he loves about sitcom compared to single camera, why Sabrina Spellman is such a thorn in his side, what it’s like working with Kiernan Shipka, and one of the funniest moments that happened on set.

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Image via Netflix

Collider: I was a fan of the original Sabrina series, of which this is nothing like, and I’m glad about that because it can really be its own thing.

BRONSON PINCHOT: Oh, yeah, it’s true. People say to me, all the time, “What are you working on?,” and I take a long breath because as soon as I say Sabrina, they say, “So, what’s it like playing her cat?” And I say, “No, it’s not all cute like that.” It’s fabulously sexy and funny and nasty. The thing that I tell people to center them and get them to stop yapping about how cute Sabrina was, is about how they eat people in this. They eat people!

How did you come to be a part of this?

PINCHOT: I went in and auditioned. The funny thing is that I usually make a big federal case over auditions ‘cause I feel that I should represent myself properly, as if I’ve worked on it for weeks and weeks, so I always spend a lot of time finessing it. And this one, I looked at it, and for some reason unknown to me, I just thought, “Yup.” And then, I wanted to do it without my glasses. I didn’t want to be one of those people auditioning for a professorial type with glasses on ‘cause that’s too on the nose. And since I wasn’t going to use my glasses, I sat in the waiting room and copied it out in Sharpie that was big enough to read without my glasses. And then, I went in and did it, and they said, “That was just revelatory.” I said, “Okay.”

What were you told about what this version of the show would be and who the character would be? Were you given much information about any of that?

PINCHOT: I did not see a script or anything, but I was told with great enthusiasm by my manager that it was a super duper dark take on the material. I only saw the pages the character was in, so I saw maybe six pages, but the blurb from the casting director said that it was based on the dark graphic novels by Roberto [Aguirre-Sacasa] and not on the TV series. I’ll tell you, you know where you’re at as soon as you walk on the set. It’s very atmospheric. Many times in my career, I’ve wondered, “What am I going to do with this character?,” and then somebody hands you the clothes and, all of a sudden, you know who the character is. On this, you step onto the set and you know what to do. It’s so beautifully done and so atmospheric. It also helps that the directors are all amazing, and that the cast is the most professional cast that I’ve ever worked with.

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Image via Netflix

Because this guy seems a little bit mysterious in what his backstory is, once you were cast, were you told much about what his journey would be, over the season?

PINCHOT: They didn’t tell me a whole lot. The thing that I love about sitcom is that there’s a lot of people there and they’re all responding, so they can almost guide you where you ought to be going. The great thing about single camera, especially if it’s shot a little bit out of sequence, is that you can inject mystery and mislead anything you want. I don’t like to know ‘cause that’s what it’s like, as a human being. Honestly, I really don’t like to. Why should you know where everything is going? I don’t like to know, as a person. There are grey, muddy areas in this because Roberto loves surprises. That’s what makes it so fun. There are so many delicious surprises on this. To tell you the truth, I don’t even like to know where things are going, in a given scene. You can be in one mood, and then, in the next script, it seems like something else, but that’s typical of a TV series. I don’t know what Roberto does to come up with these twists and turns, but they’re marvelous. Every time I open a script, I gasp. He’s so nice and kind and paternal, but there’s gotta be something marvelous going on in that head of his. He has a little giggle, at the read-throughs, when characters have to do something that’s absolutely so naughty you cannot believe it.

As long as he keeps amusing himself, we’ll all be the better for it.

PINCHOT: Exactly! That’s the trick. I have noticed, many, many times in my career, that if I’m doing stage work and I want something to be really funny, as long as something makes me laugh out loud, I know that it’s gonna make other people laugh out loud. If your jaw drops open, then there’s a very good chance it will make other people have the same reaction. I can’t imagine that it’s linear. I think he just lets it surprise him. When we get to the set, we always look at each other and say, “Oh, my god, have you seen this?"

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Image via Netflix

Father Blackwood is the primary antagonist of Sabrina’s witch side, and the character that you play is the primary antagonist of her mortal-side. Why is he the thorn in her side? What is it about Sabrina?

PINCHOT: There are story reasons that were in Roberto’s head, but then there are actor reasons, which are in my head. We’ve had some wonderful directors, and they’ve made little adjustments. I’ve had directors come in and say, “Bronson, I just saw a look go across your face that was very naughty. Don’t let that read.” There was one episode, in particular, where I’m talking about forbidden books that I don’t think they should be reading, and one of the books is Lolita, and the director came in and said, “I love it, but no,” so I just pulled it back a little bit. I think there must be a reason that Roberto has him fighting her, but I have my own theories. He’s a descendant of the Puritans that settled the place, and she comes from a long line of witches.

What’s it like to share scenes with Kiernan Shipka?

PINCHOT: Kiernan was in a thing once where she had to be standing in a torture contraption that was spewing blood up on a platform, for five hours. And right before she was on the torture platform that was spewing blood, she was being strangled. She’s my hero. I love her. I call her Spice Dragon because the first time we ever worked together, they wanted a cup of something smoking on my desk, like tea or coffee. She’d sit there with those little puppy eyes, and they brought the smoking cup in for the 19th time. It was from a big thermos, called Spice Dragon, and I said, “Can that be your nickname?” And it’s for no reason, but she said, “Okay.” So, Spice Dragon was being strangled for hours, and then when the strangling was done, she was put in a torture device on a little platform that was streaming blood. It was a big deal for her to step down out of it because it was slippery, so all I remember, from that whole day, was that Kiernan said to the person strangling her, “Go for it and just strangle me.” She got strangled for five hours and she said, “I don’t want to come down between takes. I’ll just stay up here ‘cause it’s gonna take us longer , otherwise.” It was so hot, but nobody would have dreamed of saying anything about their own discomfort ‘cause there she was, our fearless leader. She’s such a pro.

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Were there any particularly funny moments on this shoot that stand out for you?

PINCHOT: I’ll tell you a funny little story about the set ‘cause I love this story. We shoot the show in Canada, and there’s nothing more adorable than a Canadian. They’re so nice. I had to be gagged and bound to a chair, and the young fellow that was doing the gagging was Canadian. He put the gag on very politely and bound my arms. I finally said to him, “Pretend you’re American and gag me!” He knew I meant it nicely, but I said, “Tie the dang thing and get it so I can’t talk. This gag is not mean enough, so be mean.” I swear, it took him six tries because he didn’t want to hurt me. He was adorable, and so nice. He just kept saying, “Sorry!”

Could you ever have imagined that you would find yourself on a show like this?

PINCHOT: There are just so many fun things. There’s a special magic trailer that belongs to the special effects people, which I finally got my turn in, where this young genius creates these marvelous, scary things. It’s just the best. He works very hard, creating these amazing creations, and then they show up on the set and everybody faints. I have to go by that trailer really slowly to see if I can see through the cracks because I’m dying to see. Finally, it was my turn, and I was so excited.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is available to stream at Netflix.