Carla Gugino 'The Fall of the House of Usher,’ 'Girls on the Bus’

Carla Gugino

Alexandra Arnold

When Mike Flanagan first spoke to Carla Cuccino about his latest Netflix production, The Fall of the House of Usher, he still doesn’t know what it will be beyond something inspired by the work of Edgar Allan Poe. “It’s going to be something around a family and elements successively,” Gugino recalled. who worked with Flanagan on several horror projects (Geraldine’s Game, The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Ply Manor And Midnight Mass), Gugino believed the writer-director would find the perfect theme for our current moment. „It’s more appropriate to destroy yourself than to open yourself up to really see your impact on the world,” says the actress in a story inspired by the Sackler family, which turns the Ushers from Poe’s 1840 short story into an elite clan that made their fortune. From the opioid crisis. „I’ve always been fascinated by his humanistic take on this genre,” Gugino says of Flanagan.

The series follows the disappearance of twins Roderick (Bruce Greenwood) and Madeline Usher (Mary McDonnell), the CEO and COO of Fortunato Pharmaceuticals, respectively. From episode titles (each named after a major work) to Usher’s Descendants, Peppert makes clever references to Poe’s work throughout. The Usher children suffer the most in the series, as their orchestrated deaths stem from their parents’ corruption.

And it’s Kugino who delivers the revenge, Usher ends the bloodbath for good. The shape-shifting Verna (an anagram for „raven”), a mysterious woman from the Ushers’ past, wanders through the current story of revenge on the Usher children – realizing a strange premonition delivered from Verna to Roderick in a flashback. In the first episode of the show.

„I’m not a horror fan,” Gugino admits. But bringing humanity into a narrative style that is normally centered around the supernatural appealed to her. „Be careful Dark comedy elements and flashy characters that horror usually lacks. It deals with social issues in very profound ways,” he says. „A lot of people in our business said to me, 'I’m not going to watch it, and I’m pissed off. I loved it.’ „

Perhaps less terrifying is the subject of Gugino’s other series this season: the recently canceled political drama Max . Girls on the bus. The actress plays seasoned journalist Grace Gordon Green, who holds her own among generations of writers following a group of presidential hopefuls. But with Be careful, picked up along the way in the series Gugino Discovering Humanity. „[The women on this show] Coming from different generations and ideologies, confined to a situation where the stakes are very high,” he says. „They have to become allies—the idea of ​​helping a friend, whether you believe it or not, is changing.”

This story first appeared in the June issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to subscribe.