To celebrate the highly anticipated release of Midnight Mass, Mike Flanagan's latest Netflix show, we sat down with Zach Gilford, Kate Siegel, Hamish Linklater, Samantha Sloyan, Kristin Lehman, and Annabeth Gish to chat about crafting the series.
Here's everything we learned:
🚨There are spoilers for the ENTIRE series ahead, so if you haven't finished yet, you might want to come back later.🚨
1. First, in 2016's Hush, Kate Siegel's character wrote the book Midnight Mass, and Kate said for a while it was just "Mike Flanagan's great unfinished novel."
2. At first, Midnight Mass was going to be a film before it was turned into a Netflix series.
3. While going through the casting process, Zach Gilford knew "basically nothing" about Riley's journey on the show.
4. Meanwhile, Samantha Sloyan knew "quite a bit" before getting the full scripts. However, she explained that until you read how Mike "makes it happen," you don't really know everything.
5. Kristin Lehman had one audition scene before being cast as Annie Flynn, and she knew "very little" until she got all the scripts at once.
6. Midnight Mass is the third time Annabeth Gish has worked with Mike Flanagan, and she said Mike sent her a text about a role in the show.
7. Zach and Hamish Linklater were good friends before they were both cast in their roles, and they didn't know the other person had auditioned.
8. When Hamish was auditioning for Midnight Mass, Kate "begged to be the reader" in the room because she just needed to see what he would bring to Father Paul.
9. Zach and Kate were together for the first two weeks of shooting, and that is when they filmed all of Riley and Erin's monologues from Episode 4 and the finale.
10. When the day came to film their monologues, Kate and Zach just sat down, looked at each other, and went for it. Kate even said she doesn't think she "could have done it with any other human being but Zach."
11. Zach recalled filming Episode 4 with Kate, and said even when she wasn't on camera, Kate was "sitting on the dolly with the camera doing the one tear."
12. Zach and Kate filmed Riley's tragic death in Episode 5 on the second day of filming.
13. In order to get the position for the special effects shot of Riley burning in the sun, the Midnight Mass team created a "wire dummy wearing Zach's clothes rigged up to some strings" and they cut the strings so the dummy would collapse in the boat.
14. Bev and Annie's big confrontation in the finale was actually the first thing Kristin filmed.
15. And Samantha said it was super windy while filming the Bev and Annie scene, and because the town is burning, the crew had to keep repositioning the scene because there were "embers flying through the air."
16. Annabeth felt "a lot of pressure" to deliver the scene when Sarah is explaining all of the medical stuff to Erin and Mildred just right.
17. One of Samantha's favorite scenes to film was Erin and Bev's confrontation, and then when Erin is taken by the angel and Bev acts like nothing is wrong.
18. Hamish's favorite scene actually happens in Episode 1, and it's when Bev calls out Father Paul for wearing the wrong colored chasuble.
19. Kate's favorite behind-the-scenes memory was from filming the scene between Erin and Bev in the school's supply closet.
20. Zach loved any scene he shared with Henry Thomas because Zach "couldn't keep a straight face."
21. And finally, one of the scenes Zach is most proud of is when Riley and Ed talk on the boat. He knew they did a good job when the crew remarked on how great it was.
Check out our full video with Kate, Zach, Hamish, Samantha, Annabeth, and Kristin below!
