Actor Linda Cardellini has taken on a dramatically gruesome role inCrystal Lakethe new prequel series to the famousFriday the 13thfranchise. She portrays Pamela Voorhees, the central antagonist of the original 1980 film who seeks vengeance for her son’s death. Reflecting on her initial experience with the heavy practical effects required for the project, Cardellini recalled holding a fake human tooth meant to be embedded in her character’s knuckle before being yanked out, realizing immediately the intense, graphic direction the production was taking. According to ‘T he first time I had the tooth in my hand,”, Linda Cardellini, “I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is what I’m doing. Which helps with your reaction, it’s what you’re actually looking at. Carol, for instance, is a part-time baseball umpire. “Since I’ve played an umpire, I’ve met so many people who have told me they are also umpires, and it’s people you don’t expect. It went somewhere else, in this beautiful, nuanced, very human way.”, every time I thought I knew where it was going. Also, the parent attacks that they have to weather are pretty funny. Could she still umpire a game? “Maybe Little League. I don’t know if I can handle the parents!”.
While casual viewers often associate the slasher franchise with the hockey-mask-wearing killer Jason, Cardellini points out that Pam was the true original killer of the saga, noting that Jason did not even wear his signature mask until the third movie. The new series features some adjustments to the original timeline, such as shifting the year of Jason’s drowning incident from the 1950s to the early 1970s. However, given the franchise’s history of wild narrative shifts, including sending its killer into outer space, adjusting the background timeline felt like a natural choice for the creators. Enough to have sent Jason into space at one point, a bit of timeline tweaking feels fair game.).
Showrunner Brad Caleb Kane, a dedicated fan of the original films, specifically wrote the part for Cardellini after watching her performance in the Netflix thriller seriesDead to Me. Cardellini admitted to being surprised by the offer, wondering how she became his primary choice for such a role, though she ultimately viewed taking on the iconic lore as a daunting yet exciting opportunity to explore an under-examined aspect of the original story. But hopefully it’s an opportunity to see more of something that didn’t really get its own avenue.”, did they feel any pressure in taking Friday the 13th on? “It’s daunting. She thought she knew how the story would go. “A love triangle between a married couple and a best friend, and somebody turns up dead,” she recalls. “But when I read it, I thoug, when Cardellini first heard about the show. DTF St Louis is a singular series: Carol is married to American Sign Language interpreter Floyd, but is having an affair with his best friend Clark, a TV weatherman who rides a weird bike and likes to pretend to be a robot during sex. Sweet meditation on loneliness, with an offbeat streak, the show is a strange.
Reflecting on her own youth in the 1980s and 1990s, the 51-year-old actor recalled watching classic horror movies on rented VHS tapes during sleepovers. She noted that watching characters like Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, or Jason Voorhees felt like engaging with forbidden fruit, where the combination of intense gore and mature themes created a rebellious, off-limits appeal that drew young audiences in. As Cardellini did (she is 51), will remember sleepovers with rented VHS tapes and a lot of screaming whenever Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees appeared on screen. “It was forbidden fruit, almost,” she says. “You weren’t supposed to be able to watch it, but you would, anyone who grew up in the 1980s and 90s.
That nostalgic embrace of fear made the demanding production ofCrystal Lakean enjoyable experience for her. The series relies heavily on practical effects rather than digital animation, including a memorable scene where a prosthetic face is pulled off a character using fishing wire right in front of her. Cardellini revealed that seeing the raw effect live on set made a lasting impression, calling the visceral, bloody sequence one of her absolute favorite moments in the show, describing the overall aesthetic as a full blood opera. One vivid sequence involves an astronomical amount of blood. “We reserved a whole week for that,” she says, which is highly unusual for TV, as it tends to move quickly. “Even the guy’s face coming off is done on the day with prosthetics, instead of CGI.
The production also set aside an entire week solely to film an elaborate, blood-soaked sequence, a rare luxury for a television schedule. The scene required precise planning and choreography, particularly because Cardellini’s lighter hair was easily stained pink by the massive amounts of fake blood used on set.
Addressing the current resurgence of horror across film and television, Cardellini suggested that the genre offers audiences a uniquely present, controlled environment for processing fear, providing a clear and satisfying resolution within a fixed runtime. She recalled a recent screening at New York Comic Con where the audience reacted with gasps, cheers, and eventual laughter, capturing the exact balance of fright and relief that made classic slasher films so memorable.
Cardellini began her acting career in California during the mid-1990s, with her initial television appearance occurring in 1994 as a contestant on the game showThe Price Is Righta memory she kept quiet for years. Her major breakthrough arrived with the critically acclaimed 1999 teen comedy seriesFreaks and Geekscreated by Paul Feig and Judd Apatow. Although the show was abruptly canceled by NBC in 2000 before finishing its first season, it later gained a massive cult following through DVD releases and word of mouth, launching the careers of co-stars Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, and Busy Philipps alongside her own. A fond, witty look at teenage rebellion, burned bright and fast and was promptly cancelled by NBC in 2000, before its first season had finished airing, the early 80s-set series.
Her television legacy continued when she joined the hit dramaMad Menin its sixth season as Sylvia Rosen, a character who engages in a secretive affair with lead character Don Draper. Creator Matthew Weiner kept the audition process so strictly guarded that character details were altered, leaving Cardellini uncertain of her role until the complex storyline unfolded. Most recently, Cardellini achieved a major milestone by winning her first Emmy Award in September for her role as Carol Love-Smernitch in HBO’sDTF St Louismarking a rewarding career peak shortly before transitioning directly into her physical horror work onCrystal Lake. Names and details were changed. “I had no idea what I would be doing and [creator] Matt Weiner said, ‘Just trust me, it’s gonna get great, there was such secrecy around this that when she auditioned. From films such as Obsession and Backrooms to Carrie and Widow’s Bay on TV, crystal Lake arrives on a new wave of mainstream horror. Why does Cardellini think horror is having a moment? “It’s a great question. I think it was the first two scripts I got – I had one line.
Earlier this year, Cardellini also completed filming onThey Knowa psychological horror film written by, directed by, and starring Bill Hader. While playing opposite Hader, she noted that the project strongly reflects his distinct creative vision. Despite working on back-to-back horror projects, Cardellini emphasized that she does not view herself as entering a single genre phase, maintaining that she prefers to constantly mix up her roles across different styles of storytelling.
