Lulu Wilson Was A 'Distressed Goose' On The Set Of Mike Flanagan's Fall Of The House Of Usher [Exclusive]

Mike Flanagan's ever-widening oeuvre primarily consists of horror adaptations infused with his trademark ability to imbue greater depth into characters and introduce fresh perspectives to already-promising premises. Take his films "Doctor Sleep" and "Gerald's Game" for instance — while both are somewhat faithful to the respective Stephen King originals, Flanagan uses these classic stories to flesh out the fictional worlds further, focusing on haunting atmospheres as opposed to traditional jumpscare tactics to elicit scares. This sensibility also bleeds into his small screen offerings, where Flanagan was able to make "The Haunting of Hill House" and "The Haunting of Bly Manor" his own, despite constructing the stories on the foundational tenets of the novels they were adapted from.

Continuing this tradition, Flanagan has currently set sights on the works of Edgar Allan Poe, whose short stories are often a mix of gothic horror and supernatural mystery, making it the perfect playground for Flanagan to improvise and experiment. Titled "The Fall of the House of Usher," Flanagan's next Netflix miniseries is expected to root itself in Poe's titular short story about Roderick and Madeline Usher, while incorporating parts of prominent shorts written by Poe, including "The Telltale Heart" and "The Cask of Amontillado."

Among the ensemble cast of "The Fall of the House of Usher," which features returning actors from previous Flanagan projects, is Lulu Wilson, who played a young Shirley in "Hill House" and Doris Zander in "Ouija: Origin of Evil." /Film's Ryan Scott interviewed Wilson for "The Wrath of Becky" at SXSW, and the actor relayed her experience of working with Flanagan again on the set of "The Fall of the House of Usher." Here's what Wilson had to say. 

Covered in blood and dirt

In Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote's "The Wrath of Becky," Wilson plays Becky, a 16-year-old who is trying to heal after a violent attack on her family by Neo-Nazis, but needs to fight back after he home is invaded by a fascist organization. Speaking to /Film at SXSW, Wilson called co-star Seann William Scott a "silly goose," owing to his sweet and sensitive nature. When asked about working with Flanagan later in the interview, director Matt Angel circled back to the "silly goose" epithet used earlier by Wilson, as she explained how she "goofed around" on set:

"I'm only in the first half of the first episode. It's nice because I get to kind of start something out, but yeah, it's a bunch of Edgar Allan Poe stories. From what I know, I honestly — it was a very short thing. I got to set and I goofed around, and did my thing, and then left."

When Angel jokingly interjected whether Wilson was a silly goose, she mused that she was "a distressed goose," as her scenes included being covered in water, blood, and dirt. Expanding on her experience on set, Wilson said that "it was really fun" shooting these intense scenes, along with one that included an axe, although she was not the one to wield it. As Wilson is only present during the first episode, her experience of filming was short and sweet, although a tad uncomfortable with the involvement of a rain machine in the cold.

Wilson's role in Flanagan's upcoming miniseries is undisclosed at the moment, and "The Fall of the House of Usher" is expected to premiere sometime around the fall of 2023.