By now you’ve probably heard the incredible buzz on one of Netflix’s newest shows:The Haunting of Hill House. The ten-episode series, based onShirley Jackson’s iconic horror novel of the same name, was created, directed, and executive produced byMike Flanagan, whose credits includeOculus,Gerald’s Game, andOuija: Origin of Evil. The story explores a group of siblings who grew up as children in what would become the most famous haunted house in the country. Now adults, the family must come face to face with their past in a very ghostly way.
Shortly before the series premiered, I got to sit down withMichiel Huisman—who stars as the oldest sibling, Steven Crain—for an exclusive interview after seeing the first few episodes. During the wide-ranging conversation he shared how theDavid SimonHBO seriesTremechanged his life, what it was like joiningGame of Thronesand his theory on how the show might end, getting to work with Mike Flanagan onHaunting of Hill Houseand the long eight-month shoot, how he figures out the character he’s playing, the way he likes to work on set, and so much more.
While there are a lot of great choices on Netflix right now, I absolutely recommend checking outThe Haunting of Hill House. It’s extremely well done and absolutely worth your time. The series also starsCarla Gugino, Timothy Hutton, Henry Thomas, Oliver Jackson-Cohen,Elizabeth Reaser,Kate Siegel and Victoria Pedretti, Lulu Wilson, Mckenna Grace, Paxton Singleton, Violet McGraw, andJulian Hilliard.
Collider: I was a big fan ofTreme.
MICHIEL HUISMAN: Thanks.
I’m curious what you remember about making that show, and how that impacted your life.
HUISMAN: I think nothing I’ve done has impacted my life as much as working onTreme. Because it was the first project that I worked on in the United States after being an actor in the Netherlands my whole life, basically. It was like hitting the jackpot, because the show was so well made and so well written. On top of that, because it lasted for a couple of seasons, it gave me the time to sort of get my feet on the ground and lay a foundation upon which I’ve been trying to build a career ever since.
Also, this guy David Simon is apparently talented.
HUISMAN: Yeah.
I had been to New Orleans prior to seeingTreme. After seeing the show, you go to that city and it’s a completely different city.
HUISMAN: Yes.
I can absolutely attribute it toTreme.
HUISMAN: Yes. Well, I feel like in those few years that we lived there, we actually, my family and my wife and our daughter, we stayed there for a couple of years after we wrapped shooting the show, because we love the city so much. That was, in big part, due to his writing and the way they, the writers sort of opened the city, opened my eyes to the beauty of the city.
Also, I heard you became a crack addict for beignets, and so that was the reason you really stayed.
HUISMAN: [Laughs] Yeah, exactly. I had to eventually leave.
Yes, of course. I mean, once it’s out of your system, you got to just move away. You go from there, and you land this small project calledGame of Thrones.
What is it like? Because when you signed on, it was popular, but I’ve spoke to a number of the actors on the show, and they’ve all talked about how the first year or two was no big deal, and then each year, that it’s been going-
HUISMAN: Yes, it’s true.
It’s been just life changing.
HUISMAN: Yeah, it’s true. Because when I signed on, I hadn’t even watched the show. I knew that it was a thing, but I had no idea that it was going to be or that it was already such a big thing, and I had no idea that it would have such an impact on my career and the opportunities after that show.
Of course, I have to ask you, I don’t think you were on the last season.
HUISMAN: No, I wasn’t.
Are you in the upcoming season, or are you not allowed to say?
HUISMAN: I’m not allowed to say.
I’ll just say it like this, because I figured you could probably answer this. How does the show end?
HUISMAN: [Laughs].
Are you even allowed, even if you are or aren’t on the show, a lot of people online are all debating on how the show willend.Are you even allowed to say, personally, how you want the show to end? Or are you not even allowed to say that?
HUISMAN: Oh, yeah, of course, I would be allowed to say that.
I think the show has been building towards something, and I’m just curious what your take is on it, personally.
HUISMAN: Yeah. For the longest of time, I thought it was going to be one of the sisters, one of the Starks that was going to be on the throne, that was going to end up on the iron throne.
HUISMAN: I don’t know if that’s still … Maybe it’s going to be Daenerys, I don’t know. That also seems a little obvious so, yeah.
I think, and this is just my own personal take with no inside information – I actually think the most badass way the shows ends is with the Night King sitting on the throne, the villain winning the throne. I think that’s the end. Obviously, I have no inside information, but that’s what I think the show’s been building towards. I’m just curious what you think.
HUISMAN: I have no idea.
Anyway, we’re off on a tangent. Jumping into why I get to talk to you today, when you signed on, did you know it was going to be an eight-month shoot?
HUISMAN: [Laughs] No, not quite.
Because when you said earlier it was eight months, I’m like, “Get the fuck out of here.”
HUISMAN: Yeah. No, no, no, no, no. That sort of gradually happened, because just logistically, when you have one director shooting all 10 episodes, and there’s only so much prep that you may do before you start shooting, and then at some point you need to catch up. That eight months wasn’t just eight months of shooting. It was also periods in-between where we would break for a week or two, and the Director would have the time to prep the next two or three episodes, et cetera.
That’s amazing that he had that, because I’ve talked to a lot of –I just spoke to Chris McQuarrie fromMission Impossible, and because Tom broke his ankle, they had to take a hiatus. He said it was the greatest thing that happened on the movie.
HUISMAN: Because they had time.
Because he had time to look at all the footage, figure out what was missing, do some more writing, tweak the second act. I asked him, I said, “How come more movies can’t put a two week break in the middle to figure things out and not have to go back for additional photography?” He’s like, “Because it just costs so much and no one wants to talk about it.”
HUISMAN: Yeah, exactly.
Talk a little bit about what that’s like as an actor. How long did you think it was going to be signing on, and what was it like when it became a little bit more? If you know what I mean. Was it something that you relished, like because the role was so good?
HUISMAN: Yeah, and also, once you start it, once you’re in it, you’re going to finish it, right?
Completely.
HUISMAN: Whether you wrap like end of February, or whether it turns out to be the end of May or something along those lines, it is what it is.
A lot of actors I speak to, when they’re getting ready to play a role, they all talk about how the first thing, like figuring out the character, the first thing they figure out, it’s just like a domino where everything comes into place. Do you find that to be the case?
HUISMAN: Sometimes, yeah. Sometimes it’s nice to find one thing. One thing that makes it easy for you to relate, whether it’s a physical thing or whether it’s a manner, or like a way of talking or something like that. You always find something. For me, for Steven, I think I found… I tried to find a tone in which he would be reading from his books. I studied a couple of different writers that would be reading from their own work. I think there’s always, there’s a beauty to that, there’s a quality. When you look at writers reading their own work, sometimes like how plain it is, how straightforward. How they don’t really need to elevate anything because it’s already there. I thought, Steven is not that brilliant of a writer, but he wants to be.
HUISMAN: He tries to work on finding that tone. That was a great place to start, because that is sort of like quintessential to the guy. He wants to be this success, and he wants to look like he’s the sibling that has his shit together, basically, but it’s all super thin. The success came by selling out his family, and they all hate his guts for it. He basically, he pretends to have his stuff together but he fears that him and his family are all suffering from like a serious form of mental illness. He basically thinks he has found ways to keep a lid on that fear, but once the lid comes off, who the hell knows what happens?
Completely. When you sign onto a show like this, I’m not sure because I haven’t seen the 10th episode, I’m not sure if this is the kind of thing where Netflix is envisioning future seasons, or if each season could be like its own anthology, telling a different story. Is it an anthology show, or is it one of these things where you guys could all be coming back?
HUISMAN: I think it could very much be an anthology show, and that excites me too. We’ll have to wait and see.
Because it’s interesting because, for example, Netflix didAltered Carbon, where each actor could be a different actor playing the same role in each season. That is kind of cool for an actor to be able to sign on for one year and-
HUISMAN: Right, right. There is a … I mean, that’s one of the cool things about the climate right now, or Netflix. The freedom it’s giving its makers in this regard, but also in like when you look at times of each episode. Like each episode has a different length. Some of them are like slightly shorter, some of them are a little longer. The finale is a hundred and … Or it’s like an hour and 10 or something. Also, like even within the episodes, like did we talk about episode six earlier today?
I don’t remember which room I talked about episode six in. There were four cuts.
Some of the takes are 18 and 24 minutes.
HUISMAN: Yes. Yep, that’s true. To be able to, I mean, to be allowed to do that, it’s like … Because, I mean, it’s, that’s just really exciting. It’s why I didn’t need much convincing to be a part of this, because I believe this is where it’s happening right now.
Completely. The only issue I have found right now, and maybe you found the same thing, is there’s actually too much quality television to keep up with.
It’s just unbelievable. Like, and Netflix is putting out so much of it. Some of the stuff is incredible.
HUISMAN: Yeah, it’s a champagne problem to have.
Oh, first world problems. If you don’t mind, talk a little bit about the way you like to work. Some actors I’ve spoken to love the Eastwood method of shooting the rehearsal or a take or two, and others love the Fincher method of like as many takes as they can do. Where do you fall in that spectrum, and has it changed through your career?
HUISMAN: Probably somewhere in-between. I’m probably more of the first kind of guy. Like I mean, I’d love to work with a filmmaker like Fincher, but it also scares me to be doing like 30 takes of something.
There’s 10 episodes. Obviously, episode six must be like the standout, I mean, for everyone-
But is there another one or another two that you really want to like push or say. “Oh, wow. That was just a great episode”?
HUISMAN: Oh god, I mean, there’s so many though. One that comes to mind is, it would be the episode that … Because the first five episodes basically follow or feature one sibling most. One of them features our youngest sister, Nell, who suffers from, amongst other things, from sleep paralysis. There’s a couple things that happen in that episode with her while she’s going through like an attack of sleep paralysis that I just thought was so brilliantly written. Do you remember seeing that? What I’m talking about really, without wanting to give it away too much. When her husband is suffering from like a stroke, and she’s lying in bed and she can’t get up because she’s paralyzed.
HUISMAN: I thought that was brilliant writing.
This guy Mike’s also pretty good.
HUISMAN: Yeah, he’s good, yeah. He’s a well of ideas, because I mean, yeah, it’s endless.
I don’t know if you sawHush. He’s produced movies like every year. He is clearly someone who has a lot in his brain.
HUISMAN: Yeah, absolutely.
What is it like working with someone like that, and what do you think would surprise people to learn about Mike?
HUISMAN: What is it working with … Well, it is really inspiring to work with someone like Mike. When you look at our story, 10 episodes with like two timelines, the current timeline, basically only takes place over the course of a couple of days, maybe a week at the most. Family comes together, there’s a funeral and then they go back to the house. Then there’s so many different timelines in-between, and so sometimes, it would get so complex that I would write down timelines in the back of my script and stuff so that I have like a reference. Every now and then I would lose track, and I would ask him, thinking like, guy’s writing it, editing it, directing it, and he would always know exactly where we’d be. Even though I sometimes couldn’t figure out how he did it, I guess it’s really his baby and he knows everything, all the details very intimately, so that was very cool.
