From show co-creators Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason and executive producer J.J. Abrams, the Hulu psychological-horror series Castle Rock is an original story set in the Stephen King multi-verse that mines his best-loved works and plays with themes of darkness and light, all while set in this small Maine town that is full of strange occurrences, mysteries and all manner of sin. Castle Rock is a place with a history that is clearly unsettling, and as its mysteries start to unravel, audiences will want to follow all of the twists and turns to its sure to be creepy conclusion. The series stars André Holland, Melanie Lynskey, Sissy Spacek, Bill Skarsgård, Jane Levy and Scott Glenn.
During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, actress Jane Levy (who plays Castle Rock local Jackie) talked about how secretive things were before she signed on for Castle Rock, why Jackie has been one of her favorite characters to play, how familiar she was with the work of Stephen King, why she loves the small town drama feel of the story, whether she’d want to visit the town of Castle Rock, if it were a real place, and how surprising the twists and turns of the season will be. She also talked about her experience working on Twin Peaks: The Return, and why it brought her to tears.
Collider: So, I’ve watched the first four episodes of the show and even though I’m still not entirely sure where things are going yet, I’m really digging it.
JANE LEVY: Cool! I’m so glad.
As a Stephen King fan, I love that this is inspired by his works, but it’s not a direct adaptation because then you have no idea where it’s going to end up. When this came your way, how exactly was it presented to you?
LEVY: Well, it was quite secretive, which I’m told is basic principle when it comes to Bad Robot projects. When I auditioned, I believe I knew that it was a Hulu show, that André Holland was attached, that my character was a teenager but could play older, that Dustin Thomason and Sam Shaw were writing it, and that J.J. Abrams of Bad Robot was producing, along with Warner Brothers. I’m pretty sure that’s all I knew. They barely gave me any information on my character. They said that she’s Goth, but not in a typical way. That was the only information that I got. And then, after I got the job, they let me read the pilot. I’m not in the pilot now, but originally I was. They moved things around, but I was only in one scene and I still didn’t really have a full grasp on who Jackie was. So, after I sat down with the creators and we flushed it out together, I was so honored to play this part. She’s one of my favorite girls that I’ve been given the honor to play, so far. She is a freak in a way that I find really funny and charming, and in a way that I also relate to. I am also a little bit obsessed with morbidity and darker stories and fantasy and underworld. I’m into secrets, I’m into gossip and I’m into the dark side, and Jackie is very much like that. I really like that about her.
If you didn’t even know exactly what show you would be making or what character you would be playing, what got you excited about the project?
LEVY: That happens a lot with TV. I was on a network show (ABC’s Suburgatory) for three years, and you don’t know what’s gonna happen until you have the table read, the week before you shoot the next episode. I know there are some television shows that, episodically, you don’t have to watch the last show, and that’s maybe more the world that I existed in when I was working on Suburgatory. I think it’s really fun that you’re always evolving together. With [Castle Rock], in particular, the writers, producers and directors were all such intelligent people that I just went along for the ride. I’m sure that when you’re a huge movie star, you are important and powerful, but I’ve always been of the mind-set that an actor is just another crew member, so I’m just showing up to work and doing the job that my boss has asked me to do. And so, when it comes to TV, I trust the writers, especially with a mystery. It’s pretty fun to discover as the audience does, but at a different time. Each time that we got an episode, it was the first time I’d ever read it.
How familiar were you with the work of Stephen King? When you come across the references in the scripts, do you pick up on them, or do you have to have someone point them out to you?
LEVY: There was a lot of talk about Stephen King on set, so I didn’t necessarily need people to point it out for me. Personally, I was not that familiar. I have only ever read Carrie. I didn’t even realize, until making the show, how many classics were based off of Stephen King books. I didn’t know The Shining was based off of Stephen King. I didn’t know that Shawshank Redemption was Stephen King. What a prolific man.
Did you know, from the beginning, that this would be a seasonal anthology series that would follow different characters in different seasons?
LEVY: Yes, I knew that. They let me in on that.
This show feels like a small town drama, with the tone of a Stephen King story.
LEVY: That’s a good way to explain it
Do you find yourself connected to that aspect of this story?
LEVY: Small town drama is my favorite, whether it’s Twin Peaks, Broadchurch or Top of the Lake. Small town drama is definitely something that lures me in. It’s so representative of everything about human nature. You can see it all in your small town and in your community. Especially if you’ve grown up someplace, there’s just so many layers, so much history, and so much drama to uncover. I love small town drama.
How would you describe this small town and the residents in it? Would you say that it’s a town that people would want to visit, or is it a town that you think people should try to stay away from?
LEVY: I guess it depends, since the town is haunted, metaphorically and literally. There are plenty of people in my life, that I know personally, that would love to visit a truly haunted town, and there are a lot of people that would steer clear. I guess it depends on your curiosity and your adventure, or your capacity for adventure and maybe death. Just kidding! If I had the choice, and I wasn’t on the TV show, and Castle Rock was a real town with those real characters, I would most definitely visit.
I feel like I would, too. I’m not sure what that says about me, but I feel like I would want to go hang out and meet everybody.
LEVY: It’s like wanting to go to Hogwarts. Well, obviously, it’s different, but Hogwarts is dangerous, also. It’s really exciting to think about magic and sorcery and voodoo, and Castle Rock has all of those things.
It also seems that everyone who crosses paths with Henry Deaver has a complicated relationship with him, in some way.
LEVY: Totally!
What does your character think of this guy showing back up?
LEVY: Well, for Jackie, Castle Rock is a really big part of her identity. She’s extremely proud of being from Castle Rock. Shaw gave me the analogy of, if you grow up in New York now and you talk about New York in the ‘80s, you’re talking about CBGB, the artists, what it was like to live downtown, and how cool it all seemed. You feel close to it when you’re in New York, but it’s not the same. I think that Jackie has grown up feeling extremely proud of Castle Rock, but at the same time, she’s disappointed in the fact that all the stories she’s grown up listening to are just folklore because she’s never experienced it, first hand. So, when Henry Deaver shows back up, it’s basically the moment that she’s been waiting for. It’s like, “Oh, shit, is this actually real? I have all of these stories that I’ve been told, my whole life, are going to finally surface for me. Am I going to get to experience what I think is the coolest thing ever?” When he shows up, she’s really excited, and she wants to figure him out. She likes to play with fire. For her, in some way, Henry Deaver is a rock star. He’s a rock star from her town’s past.
As we start to figure out what’s going on in Castle Rock, how shocking or surprising, or both, will it be for audiences?
LEVY: That’s a good question. I think it will be pretty surprising. I don’t really know how to talk about it any further, except that it will be pretty surprising. The audience is in for a treat.
How are you finding the experience of working with the co-creators and co-showrunners, Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason? Have they been very collaborative, throughout the process of making this?
LEVY: I was so happy to be there, every day. I really, really loved the actors. I’m friends with Melanie [Lynskey] from a movie we made together, two years ago, and we kept in touch. I respect her so much, as a performer and as a person. I had so much fun with her in New England. I loved working with Bill [Skarsgård] and André. I only got to work with Sissy [Spacek] once, unfortunately, but I had such a good time on the show. On this project, I didn’t necessarily feel that is was really my place to be contributing to anything, creatively. I just showed up and did my part. I was really excited about this character. I felt like she was just so idiosyncratic and funny and strange, and I was really excited to be the person who got to bring her to life.
You also got to be a part of Twin Peaks: The Return. You mentioned being a fan of the original series, and Twin Peaks is my favorite show of all-time. What was it like to get to be a part of not only the world of David Lynch, but as part of Twin Peaks?
LEVY: For me, it was really meaningful. I had one line, but I auditioned by making a tape, just talking. For this part that I “auditioned” for, his process is that you go to the casting director and you talk and he gets a vibe. I was in Budapest, at the time, shooting Don’t Breathe, and my agents were like, “If you just talk for five minutes into a camera, we’ll send it off to the casting director.” So, I just decided to talk about my favorite movies. I was actually in my trailer while shooting a movie, and I took five minutes to talk about my favorite movies. And then, my manager, at the time, was like, “The casting director said they have interest in you,” but I didn’t hear back for a year. And then, a year later, I got a phone call at 6:00pm, while I was eating and I answered the phone to my agent saying, “Do you want to be on Twin Peaks tomorrow?” I was like, “Absolutely!” And they were like, “Well, the part hasn’t been written and they can’t guarantee anything, so I’m not sure it’s really that valuable.” And I was like, “I don’t care, at all. I don’t care how many lines it is. Whatever my character’s name is and whatever I do, I want to do it, 100%. They were like, “Okay.” And then, I showed up and he had written the scene the day that I showed up. I didn’t get to read any script or anything. I just went in and said my one line, and didn’t get any background. I cried because I love Twin Peaks so much. I met David Lynch briefly. I’m a huge fan and I feel so cool that I even got to enter the Bang Bang Bar. That was my experience, being on Twin Peaks.
Do you have any idea what you’re going to do next?
LEVY: I was supposed to work on a project, at the beginning of the year, that fell apart because it was #MeToo’d. I think it was a very good thing that the project went away because it was at the expense of a woman’s trauma. I am supposed to make a movie, at the end of this summer, but it’s all coming together right now. As of right now, I have nothing on my plate.
Which sounds awesome and scary, and like the way things go in this business a lot.
LEVY: Totally!
Castle Rock is available to stream at Hulu on July 25th.
