Kate Siegel is teaming up again with husband and frequent collaborator Mike Flanagan for The Life of Chuck, which she says still holds some fears amid its powerful drama. Siegel and Flanagan first began working together on his 2013 breakout horror movie, Oculus, with the star going on to appear in nearly every subsequent project of his, including The Haunting anthology and The Fall of the House of Usher. The two have also collaborated behind the camera, co-writing the 2016 horror-thriller Hush and Flanagan penning Siegel’s directorial debut, the V/H/S/Beyond segment “Stowaway”.

Based on Stephen King’s novella of the same name, The Life of Chuck is a reflection on the meaning of life through the perspective of Chuck Krantz, a banker with a proclivity for dance, who also seems to have an impact on the world around him. Told through a reverse chronological order, Siegel stars in the film as Miss Richards, one of Chuck’s teachers who helps him embrace the possibility of being more than just one thing expected of him. Also starring Tom Hiddleston, Mark Hamill and Karen Gillan, among many others, The Life of Chuck has garnered some of the best reviews of any Stephen King adaptation.

Prior to the movie’s release, ScreenRant interviewed Kate Siegel to discuss The Life of Chuck. The star shared why there are still some horrors to be found in the film, in spite of its focus on human drama, while also sharing her interpretation on one of the movie’s key lines of dialogue, as well as one scene which she found surprised her the most with its emotional resonance.

Life Of Chuck Still Has A Somewhat Terrifying Undercurrent

“We’re Just Living And Terrible Things Happen.”

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Up to this point, the entirety of Flanagan and Siegel’s collaborations have been within the horror genre, thus making The Life of Chuck an interesting tonal departure for both the filmmaker and star. As Siegel jokes, though, there are still “horrifying things” happening in the King adaptation, namely that “it’s the end of the world” in the story’s final act. That being said, she still does feel it to be “such a beautiful movie“, while also explaining that she doesn’t “ever perform a Mike Flanagan project like something terrible is happening“.

“I think that’s the beauty of them,” Siegel expressed. “He writes them about people, and then the circumstances are secondary, right? So, Theo Crane was somebody who was traumatized as a child, and is trying desperately to connect in any way she knows how, despite her traumas, and that, to me, is so beautiful. And even Camille, when she’s having her face ripped off by a monkey, I was playing that as the best day of her life. She was going to get her sister, it was going to be a problem.“

While she acknowledges that “terrible things” still end up happening to her various characters in the past, she points out the relatable question of “isn’t that life?“. Going on to explain that everyone is “just living and terrible things happen“, she also denotes that “wonderful things” can happen just in the same vein, and that, regardless of what comes for people, “you just keep going“.

One key example within the film that she points to as showcasing this duality is Matthew Lillard’s scene, in which he’s “going through this whole litany of things about the end of the world“, only to later look up and see the skywriting saying, “Thank you, Chuck“. “There’s such joy in that discovery for him“, Siegel opined, “and it really makes me tear up, because it’s the very human truth that when everything is falling apart around you, there will be a moment of beauty. Even in the worst, most terrible days of your life, something will happen that will make light glint off the water, and you will go, ‘Oh wow’.“

The Movie’s Most Thoughtful Line Of Dialogue Is Also Its Most Layered

“You Contain Mulтιтudes.”

One of the movie’s key lines of dialogue, first uttered near the end of Chuck’s life while later being shown as having been told to him by Siegel’s Miss Richards, is that of “I contain mulтιтudes“, inviting him and the audience to recognize they don’t have to be defined by one thing. In reflecting on what the line means to hear, Siegel admits that “Mike Flanagan and Stephen King say it better than I can“, while also pointing to another line of dialogue in the movie in which “every single person is a universe“.

“When you see Chuck walking up before he dances, and he’s wearing his suit, and wearing the armor of accountancy, as they say, and going to a businessman meeting, carrying a businessman briefcase, you would never think that there’s a dancer inside,” Siegel detailed. “When you see Mike Flanagan and Stephen King’s names on a poster, you would never know that this gem of a tender movie is inside unless you open up your heart.“

Siegel went on to denote that when a person walks down the street, “you are experiencing the multiverse, because every single person you encounter is their own universe“. She also expressed that “there are billions of different ways to be a person, and billions of things that happen to every billionth of a person on the planet“, and that even while the world may be “huge“, it still “contains me“, which is “wonderful“.

You get both. You get the expansiveness of the multiverse, and you also get you, and that’s what it means. You contain mulтιтudes.

More About The Life Of Chuck

From the hearts and minds of Stephen King and Mike Flanagan comes The Life of Chuck, the extraordinary story of an ordinary man. This unforgettable, genre-bending tale celebrates the life of Charles “Chuck” Krantz as he experiences the wonder of love, the heartbreak of loss, and the mulтιтudes contained in all of us.

Stay tuned for and check out our other Life of Chuck interviews with:

• Matthew Lillard
• Mark Hamill & Benjamin Pajak
• Mike Flanagan & Taylor Gordon (TIFF)
• Annalise Bᴀsso (TIFF)
• Matthew Lillard (Pre-Release)

Source: Screen Rant Plus