Summer H. Howell has opened up about that iconic bloodbath scene in Prime Video’s Carrie adaptation.
Summer H. Howell was “covered in blood for 12 hours a day” while filming Carrie.
The 22-year-old actress, who has taken over Sissy Spacek’s iconic role for Mike Flanagan’s new adaption of the 1974 horror classic for Prime Video, has opened up about the gruelling process to make the memorable scenes look just right.
She told SFX magazine: “I’d be covered in blood for 12 hours a day when we had those scenes. It was a whole process.
“We had a blood tent, which they called the Dexter tent after a while.
“In there, our incredible makeup team would apply blood to me when we weren’t doing the big blood drops.
“They would apply it precisely and I would stand in the tent for 45 minutes with goggles on, so it wouldn’t get in my eyes.”
Summer admitted it wasn’t easy to get rid of all evidence of the fake blood from the shoot.
She added: “I was covered in blood for about 12 days and my eyebrows were not letting that blood go. I kept finding it in my ear, too. There was a lot of blood.”
Summer revealed that people often have a misconception about the fake blood used on film sets.
She said: “Really sticky! Thank you for saying that word. Some people assume it’s not sticky, but it really is.
“The prom took about two weeks to shoot, and they dropped the blood on me three times for the cameras.
“There was blood before that, but the drop was the big blood moment. Between shots, I did a lot of sitting on my fingertips on a chair covered in plastic.”
While Summer knew all about Carrie’s iconic bloodbath prom scene, she had never read King’s book or seen its original 1976 movie adaptation.
She recently told Entertainment Weekly: “I didn’t know about the telekinesis or the bullying or anything.
“It was just a new story to me. It is for a lot of people my age. So it was just about connecting with the words on the page, how she feels.
“A big part of my Carrie is that she’s open and curious about the world and wants to experience things.”
Mike told the outlet that Summer stood out among over 1,400 actors auditioning for the role of Carrie White because she took such a unique approach to the role.
She was still aware of the movie’s memorable pig’s blood moment at prom night, which became something of “a fever dream” on set.
She recalled: “Mike took some time just to get everyone to appreciate the moment and remember where we are right now: ‘We’re in Carrie White’s prom’.
“I was happy to see them slow down for a bit and not rush everything too much. Although, we had a lot to do with only so much time.”
Carrie star Summer H. Howell was ‘covered in blood for 12 hours’ during filming
