The Big Picture

Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with a returning guest, Kate Siegel!
Siegel appears on Ladies Night for the third time in celebration of her directing debut. She was behind the lens of the
V/H/S/Beyond
segment, “Stowaway.”
During her latest conversation with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Siegel recaps lessons learned about directing while working as an actor and also explains how she hopes to make her approach to filmmaking uniquely her own.

During her third appearance on Collider Ladies Night, Kate Siegel laughed and said, “It’s so cliché for an actor to be like, ‘Oh, what I really want to do is direct,’ but I think what I really want to do is direct.” With each and every interview I’ve done with Siegel, for Ladies Night and beyond, it’s become more and more clear that not only does she have a firm handle on her craft as an actor, but she also has a deep understanding of and enthusiasm for the entire filmmaking process. Now that she’s put that passion and skill set to use on her directing debut, the V/H/S/Beyond segment “Stowaway,” it’s undeniable. Siegel is meant to be a filmmaking multi-hyphenate.

Penned by Mike Flanagan, “Stowaway” features YouTube star, journalist and voice actor Alanah Pearce as Halley, a young mother who heads out into the desert in hopes of having and documenting an extraterrestrial encounter. After interviewing a number of locals, Halley does manage to track down a spaceship, but the thrill of discovery is short-lived. Halley’s eagerness to explore the unknown lands her in a nightmarish situation that forces her to confront what she’s left behind at home in pursuit of finding something out of this world.

Siegel has a wealth of experience in film and television. Not only has she starred in hits including The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, and The Fall of the House of Usher, but she also headlined and co-wrote the 2016 gem Hush. How did those titles and more tee her up for success behind the lens as a director? That’s what we dug into during her third go-around on Collider Ladies Night.

Siegel Had to Slay Babadooks to Become a Director
“You don’t belong here, no one’s going to like this, you’re not even gonna do it right.”
Image via Netflix

Our conversation kicked off with a simple, straightforward question; when did Siegel first discover her itch to direct? She laughed and admitted, “I would say about two days into prep.” Siegel was eager to get behind the lens when the opportunity to direct a V/H/S segment arose, but given her history in this business, she was well aware of the pressure involved in taking on such a role. She further explained:

“
Once I was asked to do it, I was excited, but I felt pressure. I knew what it took, the amount of work it took to make this. And I knew I was taking a smaller bite because I was technically doing a short film, which is
great
, and it was even a smaller bite because I was stepping into an established franchise, so there was a machine that was already running. But even then,
the pressure, the pressure, the pressure, the pressure. It ate me alive.
From the second I said yes and Mike finished the script and handed me the script, every day, I was like, ‘Tick, tick, tick.’”

Yes, at that point, Siegel had Flanagan’s script, but she was also hit with the next wave of blank pages — blank storyboards.

“It was just me alone with blank storyboards, and I had to fight through all of these Babadooks to get the work done — the
‘you don’t belong here,’ ‘no one’s going to like this,’ ‘you’re not even gonna do it right.’
All the voices we all have, I had to slay them in order just to get to a blank page. So that was me wrestling for about a month on my own and every day trying to figure that out.”

Siegel Has Operated Like a Director Well Before “Stowaway”
“This is what I was doing the whole time, and I didn’t know it.”

Siegel fought those Babadooks and hit the point when she could put one of her greatest skills to use, a skill we’ve highlighted considerably on past episodes of Collider Ladies Night. When Siegel takes on a new project, she goes above and beyond with her prep work, and it paid off big time on the set of “Stowaway.”

“Once I got on set, what I had afforded myself, what I had bought myself with all of that work was answers. People would come in and say, ‘Hey, do we da da da,’ and I’d go, ‘Da da da,’ and they’d look at me and be like, ‘Cool.’ And I was like, ‘Oh,
I have the answers because I did the work
,’ and that started to steamroll. Then people got excited because they realized they were working for somebody who had done the prep. It wasn’t just a first-timer who showed up and was like, ‘What do I, how do I, who do I …?’ Because, you know, I do the work. That started to feel really good, to see the immediate gratification of that work start to come to life. I was able to walk on set and say, ‘Calder [Greenwood], I love this build here. Don’t forget I’m gonna shoot this scene in this direction, so don’t worry about what’s happening [here]. Stop painting over here. We’re running out of time. We’ve got to move over here.’ I was able to guide people, just point them in the right direction without too much forcing or proving.”

Not only did Siegel’s understanding of how to execute her vision ensure that the “Stowaway” team was able to produce a lot with very little, but seeing all of that prep work pay off affirmed to her that her creative brain had been operating like a director’s all along.

“That’s when I started to go, ‘Oh, this is it. This is what I was doing the whole time, and I didn’t know it. It just didn’t fit into acting. It didn’t fit into writing. Because, as an actor, you are in service to the director. They point you in a direction. And so, I’ve told you this before about my backstories and
the stuff I would do to entertain my brain so that I wouldn’t get in the way of somebody else’s vision — that was directing
! I had no idea. Then, when I finally started doing it and letting that part that I had to use for fun to distract myself be the focus, all of a sudden, it was like I was in a bike or car, and the gear wasn’t quite hooked in, and it was like, [makes gear change noise], ‘
Oh!
‘”

The Directing Technique Siegel Took from Mike Flanagan
“It is 100% true of every set I will ever run; everybody is included and they matter.”
Image courtesy of Photagonist at TIFF

Siegel has spent a significant amount of time working as an actor on Mike Flanagan-led sets, and she isn’t taking that experience for granted. When asked for one particular thing she saw another director do that she wanted to incorporate into her own approach to the work as a director, she immediately pinpointed a Flanagan practice that heavily contributes to the positive team-first environment on his sets:

“Something that Mike does on set, before you start any scene — I’ve only seen him do this — he stands up in the middle and he goes, ‘Welcome to scene 13.4,’ and then tells the story up to this point so that everybody knows where they are, what they’re doing, and they feel committed to the story. He’s inviting everybody to come be a part of the team and like, ‘This is the story we’re telling. This is after all this has happened, and then this happens, and then she goes off to that.’ By bringing everybody together in that moment, it really sets that team mentality, and I was like, ‘That’s great. I’m gonna take that,’ and I did.”

Prioritizing a team mentality and making every member of that team feel heard and valued is a non-negotiable for Siegel.

“It is 100% true of every set I will ever run, is that everybody is included and they matter. You don’t have to be perfect.
You don’t have to crawl on your knees through broken glass to get here, but you will be respected when you get here.
Even if you make a mistake, you’ll be respected in the mistake.”

20:15 Related Kate Siegel Reveals Her Super Ambitious Deal-Breaker Idea for Her ‘V/H/S/Beyond’ Segment Filmmakers Jay Cheel and Virat Pal also discuss evidence of alien encounters and Bollywood horrors.

Siegel’s sets will mirror Flanagan’s in terms of them being safe places to try, fail, pivot and create as a unit. However, when it comes to the finished product, Siegel isolated a particular quality she’d like to define “A Kate Siegel Production” — telling stories from an emotional point of view. Here’s how she put it:

“I hope to always flirt with the avant garde in terms of shot structure.
I approach my storytelling from an emotional point of view as opposed to a technical point of view, which I think is what being an actor has brought me.
I want the camera itself to evoke emotional states. That will always be there because that’s how I speak to my DP, that’s how I speak to my gaffers, that’s how I speak to my sound designers, that’s how I speak to my color mixers, in terms of emotion … I’m a first-timer. I’m green. I’m here, I’m so excited, but I don’t know as much as somebody who’s been doing color for 20 years. But if I say to them, ‘The scene is feeling a little bit too open. I need it to feel more closed. I need it to feel harder to get to, she’s harder to access,’ and they’re gonna pull things in and out.”

How Working As an Actor Shaped Siegel’s Approach to Directing Actors
“There is a lack of respect for the actor as a person or artist, where everyone’s kind of annoyed with the actor’s process.”

Related Kate Siegel Welcomes a New Generation of Horror Fans With First ‘Dark Corners’ Images [Exclusive] The animated horror series, co-produced with Krsy Fox and showrunner Mali Elfman, will feature tales by Stephen King, Heather Langenkamp, and more.

Again, Siegel is a prolific actor. She gets it. She knows what actors need to be teed up for success while making a film. But, of course, there are always bumps in the road along the way, so she’s also well aware of what to avoid when working with actors, because she’s experienced those hiccups herself.

“I haven’t experienced this on Mike’s set. I’m thinking of a specific set that was not a Flanagan show.
There is a lack of respect for the actor as a person or artist, where everyone’s kind of annoyed with the actor’s process
because it’s a little time waste-y or it’s a little navel gaze-y, but we allow the lights to be moved for so long, we allow so many barn doors to go up, we allow so many moments of technical pause, we allow the sound department to adjust an actor after every take. But if an actor is like, ‘I just need a second to get in there,’ you can kind of feel, sometimes, the AD roll their eyes, and it’s just because, ‘Come on.’ [Taps watch.] It feels indulgent, but I happen to know that it’s not. When you need it, you need it. And so I want there always to be space for everyone’s process. Listen, if my sound guy was wasting time, I’d talk to my sound guy, but I’m not gonna talk to him on day one. I’m gonna see what it is and see if there’s a way for me to get in there and help.”

Narrowing it down to her own dialogue with actors as their director, Siegel emphasized the value of putting in the time. Yes, filmmakers are often pressed for time on set, but more can be made of the time that one has if others feel heard and like they’re part of the team.

“Learn how to talk to them, and that can take time because being an actor is a vulnerable thing.
Most actors I know create a series of layers in front of that so it doesn’t get hurt.
Then, plus the nerves of being on set and plus the expectations and da da da da. And so a lot of times I find myself wanting to let actors talk when they get to set early and give me all their ideas. ‘What if we move the camera over here and da da da?’ Even if I know it’s gonna blow up the whole day, I’m just gonna let them get it all out. And most of them will talk themselves back around to where it should be, but then at least they feel like — they’ve been sitting in a trailer for four hours! They need to come out and feel like a part of the team.”

Kate Siegel Found a Movie Star: Alanah Pearce
Pearce makes the leap from YouTuber, voice actor and journalist to lead actor in “Stowaway.”
Image via Shudder

While wrapping up her answers about her approach to directing actors, Siegel laughed and said, “I don’t know, man. I’ve only done this once. I worked with one actor!” Perhaps she has only directed one lead actor at this point, but that lead actor is a downright exceptional talent and the two of them had a hugely successful collaboration together.

Siegel explained she had someone specific in mind for the role of Halley, but given the non-union rules V/H/S had to abide by, she was required to select a pre-SAG actor. She could have found someone via the audition process, but then she realized the perfect candidate was already in her orbit, someone with a wealth of camera experience, but for YouTube, not for film — not yet at least. “Alanah had all the building blocks. They were just stacked in a different direction.” Siegel continued:

“I had the choice of going to auditions or finding someone that I thought I could mold, and immediately I was like, ‘Oh,
Alanah requires almost no molding. She just requires being put in front of
this
camera instead of that camera
.’ She’s very thoughtful with her work. I’m so glad she’s getting the accolades that she’s getting because she deserves them wholeheartedly. She was
very
easy to direct and required very little direction. You just kind of had to nudge her one way or the other.”

One particular nudge Pearce needed? She was actually too good at talking to camera. Siegel explained:

“The first time she’s on camera, she’s delivering a Flanalogue, which, you know how we love our Flanalogues, and all of those mistakes were
added
in. Those weren’t there.
She was running it and she was word-perfect, and I was like, ‘I think we need her to be a little less good at this.’
The only thing I was dialing her back from was the fact that, in the ‘90s, we didn’t spend all that time in front of the camera. It was harder. And so she was
so
comfortable, I kept saying to her, ‘Teacher. Teacher instead of YouTuber. Science teacher instead of YouTuber,’ because it got really familiar and I was like, that wasn’t a style until 2010. That wasn’t the way that people talked to the camera until then.”

That right there was the single significant note Siegel gave to Pearce in order for her to be able to craft a wildly honest and captivating lead performance, one that instantly envelops the viewer in Halley’s reality and makes you believe when things get extreme.

“Once [she] started doing those things,
she’s very much similar to me as an actress
in the way that sometimes you need to get in there and give her something really esoteric and really emotionally based, and sometimes you just say, ‘Hey, can you turn your face the other direction? You’re covering yourself with a shadow,’ and she responds to both equally well. It’s just a matter of reading her in a moment and being like, ‘I think she needs this,’ and sometimes like, “Oh, no, no, no. Not that. Sorry, it was the other one.’ I just loved getting to know her as a performer.”

Will Kate Siegel Direct More Movies?
“I’m very excited to see where this road goes.”

The answer to this question felt very apparent after watching “Stowaway,” and even more so toward the end of having this conversation, but it needed to be asked. Does Siegel have the itch to direct more? “Yeah, it’s like poison all over my whole body.” One big difference as she forges forward as a director? “Shorts will be safe. It’s time to move to features.”

So Siegel wants to direct again and she wants to make the leap to a feature film, but what kind of feature film? She’s beloved in the genre space, so is that where she’ll remain for the time being?

“I think I feel the same way about directing that I feel about acting; I go where the best story is.
As an actor, certain stories are available to me and certain stories are available to Natalie Portman.
And so the best stories that were available to me, and are available to me currently, are in the genre. As a director, wherever the best story is — because with ‘Stowaway,’ I could see it, I could watch it in my head when I read the script. And it wasn’t the exact same thing. It wasn’t a 1-to-1, but there’s a certain tone of a bell that rings, and I’m looking for that tone.”

When that bell rings in the feature format, hopes are high Siegel will roll into that endeavor with great confidence knowing what she accomplished making “Stowaway.” There are particular filmmaking feats achieved and creative choices made on display in “Stowaway” that signal with certainty, Siegel is meant to direct.

“I appreciate that because I feel my entire acting career, I would finish acting, and either the show or movie would come out, or even just finish the scene, and the first thing I would do is look towards the director or look towards the journalists or look at the judges in my head and wait for them to tell me thumbs up or thumbs down. With directing, I don’t have that. With directing, it’s mine, and I
know
that I love it, and I know I can tell a story now. The freedom I feel — and I’m hesitant to talk like this because it’s so cliché for an actor to be like, ‘Oh, what I really want to do is direct,’ but
I think what I really want to do is direct. Not to say goodbye to acting forever, but I’m very excited to see where this road goes
.”

Looking for even more from Siegel on her very first experience stepping behind the lens as a director of a film? You can catch our full conversation in the video at the top of this article, or you can listen to the interview in podcast form below:

V/H/S/Beyond V/H/S/Beyond explores a series of unsettling and interconnected stories captured on mysterious videotapes. Each segment delves into dark themes and eerie tales, presented through a mixture of found footage and archival film styles. This anthology continues the tradition of blending horror with suspense, challenging viewers’ perceptions of reality.Release Date September 20, 2024 Runtime 125 Minutes

V/H/S/Beyond is now available to stream on Shudder.

Watch Here