Summer H. Howell opened up about landing the iconic role of Carrie White, filming the infamous prom scene, and bringing a 21st-century perspective to Stephen King’s classic story.

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Amazon's new series puts a modernized spin on the story, introducing Carrie White to the world of 21st-century high school, complete with social media, parties, cyberbullying, and more.

Summer H. Howell, who landed the role after auditioning alongside over 1,000 actors, brings a fresh perspective to the iconic character. Her portrayal of Carrie is a wide-eyed, fascinated teenager as she discovers everything from Instagram to the full extent of her telekinetic powers.

From the long process of getting cast to filming the infamous prom scene, Summer opened up about what it was like making Carrie — including watching the original movie with the cast, dealing with fake blood, and even a fart machine on set.

Here are 8 behind-the-scenes stories Summer revealed about Season 1.

Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity and is spoiler-free for those familiar with the basic story. If you want to go in completely blind, come back after watching!

Summer: I read the scenes and originally questioned, like everybody does, "Why are we making it again? What's special about it? What's different?" Then I saw that it was a show. I got really into the writing, and I started to understand what [showrunner] Mike [Flanagan] was going for. 

In this version of Carrie, she felt so optimistic and bright and excited to get out into the world. She’s been in her house her whole life. I think what helped me stand out was that I hadn't seen the original or read the book, and I decided not to. I wanted to create my own version of her from the start, and I think Mike appreciated that.

Mike also said that I was never naive. Carrie learns really quickly, and even though she may come off as naive to her peers in high school, she really isn't. She adapts quickly, she takes notes of how to dress and how people talk, and she slowly grows.

Summer: It was a long process. I auditioned and sent three self-tapes over a few months, and after the last one, I thought, I think they’ll want to talk to me.

All of a sudden, I was on a work session, which was an hour-long call with the casting team. I got off the call and thought I was done. Half an hour went by, and I got a text from my manager saying, "Can you get back on the call? Mike wants to see the monologue, but with tears."

I was like, "Okay, I’ve got this!" I laid on my floor for a while in my room, and I told myself all these affirmations about why I deserve this: "I've come so far. I've made it happen."

Mike called me on April Fools' Day. My team told me, "The director wants to talk about the character," and I was ready to audition again if I had to. My team knew I got the part, but they wanted him to surprise me. When I got on the call, he told me I was going to have the part, and he thought I was magnificent. I had no idea!

I was mind-blown. I told my family it’s a core memory. I can picture it all still.

Summer: After filming, we all got together at the Rio Theatre. Most of the cast, Mike, and a bunch of Vancouver locals came out and filled the theater, and we all watched it together. It was the coolest way I could have watched it.

It's incredible. Sissy Spacek is just marvelous. I understand why the movie is iconic and why people love her so much.

A couple of months later, I went back and read the book that Mike actually gifted me. It’s this beautiful artist's edition, so I carefully read it because I don’t want it to crack or get too worn. It’s very important to me.

(Laughs) It felt super bizarre to film a whole show and then see where Carrie came from.

Summer: Oh, it's so hard to pick a favorite. I will say the car roll was really cool to watch. We did that scene twice, and it was pure luck. I mean, it's not even me. I wasn't even out there. I was just watching in a tent, hoping that it landed on the wheels like they wanted.

It was a long reset, and luckily it worked! It was really late, and we didn’t have time for another. I have a video of us in the tent, cheering when it landed. That was just so cool.

Also, floating off the stage in the prom scene was a lot of fun. It was my first time being in a harness for filming.

Summer: I got so, so lucky with this cast and the crew. Mike tried really hard, and he succeeded in hiring good people. We really enjoyed our time together, playing games and just messing around. Even when the scenes got really dark, we always kept it light on set. 

Mike had many Labubus that he would randomly gift us. He saw that Amber [Midthunder, Miss Desjardin] specifically loved them, so they became like our mascot of the show.

(Laughs) There was also a fart machine that Michael Fimognari, our DP, was gifted, and I guess that's his and Mike's humor at the end of the day. They would prank us, and I was in on it sometimes. They'd give me the button, and that was the most anxiety I felt on Carrie. Don’t mess up pressing the fart button, otherwise everyone's going to be disappointed, you know?

Summer: The actual "blood" drop happened three times during filming. They tested it on me once before, and on some other people before me. We did one drop at the end of a "clean" day. We had to film the clean prom scenes, and then they dropped it on me at the end of the night. Trying not to blink before the "blood" hit me was a big thing.

Then the next day we did two of them, so I had to get back into my look, get back on stage, stand in the perfect spot, and make sure I don't move. They would shine a laser at my head, and a tennis ball would come down to perfectly line me up. During one of the shots, my tiara actually fell off, and we wanted it to stay on, so we needed to go back. Everything was so well thought out, and, luckily, it worked out.

I focused on staying in the moment. It was interesting acting out what Carrie's feeling while knowing what’s about to happen. Some stress there, but it was really fun. 

Summer: Carrie comes from a house with no modern technology. She's just amazed by everything. She's so excited to use the computer for the first time, but then she sees what phones and social media can do. It can be horrific.

Bullying has only gotten worse with social media becoming such a thing. People hide behind their phones, and they get away with it. They don’t see how they impact people on the other side of it.

Back in the day, before I was born, people could go home to a safe place where they could just shut it all out. But nowadays, you don't really have that. You always have it in your pocket, and it’s up to you to shut it off and put the phone down.

My generation is kind of programmed to be addicted to it all, so nobody's really teaching us that. I think it’s important to have shows that dive into that more and show you the bad that can come from it.

Summer: I think the main message of our show is to choose kindness. We make so many choices every day, and no matter how small they are, they have an impact.

Your actions and words mean things. You really don’t know what people are going through in their own lives, and your impact on them. Try to make a positive one when you can.

Keep up with Summer on Instagram, @summerhhowell.