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Comic-Con@Home: Chapelwaite's Adrien Brody & Emily Hampshire talk gothic horror and worm wrangling
Chapelwaite, a series based on the Stephen King short story, “Jerusalem’s Lot,” is making its way to Epix this August. We recently got a trailer to scare us up for the show, and the cast and creators took part in Comic-Con@Home to give us a bit more of a taste of the gothic horror tale, which takes place in 1850s Maine.
During the virtual panel moderated by Vanity Fair’s Anthony Breznican, stars Adrien Brody (Captain Charles Boone) and Emily Hampshire (Rebecca Morgan) as well as executive producers Jason and Peter Filardi got together and talked Chapelwaite.
The show takes place in the fictional town of Preacher’s Corners, Maine, where Captain Charles Boone (Brody) takes his three children after his wife dies at sea. Boone’s family home — Chapelwaite — has a sordid past, however, and Boone, his children, and their governess, Rebecca (Hampshire), have to face it together.
Check out the full panel here.
The panel talked about the making of the show, including what it was like shooting a Stephen King period piece. “It felt like it was a horrific time for something to go wrong,” Brody said. “And when things start to unravel for the characters, it just ratchets that up in a way that feels very truthful and inescapable, and I think that's really fun for the audience to jump into.”
The Filardi brothers also hope audiences will appreciate the mystery that unfolds as the series progresses. “That was important to us, from the start, to keep what’s truly going on inside Chapelwaite a mystery, and have people go along for the ride,” Jason said.
While the panelists didn’t reveal what that mystery might be, they did reveal some behind-the-scenes anecdotes. Hampshire — who said she thinks of her character as who Stephen King would be if he was a woman living in the 1850s (they’re both writers, for one) — shared how the gothic mansion they shot in had its own sordid past. “Several people died in that house,” she shared, going on to say that it was also rented out as an Airbnb when not in use for productions.
And then there were the worms, which apparently make more than one appearance in the show. One in particular also got very close and personal with Brody.
“At one point, I guess I can discuss, Charles finds a worm in his nostril,” Brody said. “Long story short, there was the option of doing this with computer-generated worms, and then I piped up and said, ‘Let's use a real one.’” We had a worm wrangler who handled these worms with her bare hands. I was more concerned about the hands touching my worm than the worm.”
Worms or no worms, however, Brody emphasized how scary he found the series. “The show is so exciting and frightening,” Brody said. “I love to scare people, and I love to be scared, and it’s such a thrill to have all of these elements come together.”
Chapelwaite premieres on Epix on Aug. 22 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
Click here for SYFY WIRE's full coverage of Comic-Con@Home 2021.
