Earlier this week, fans were given their first look at Season Two of The Haunting of Bly Manor .
Yes, that’s manor , not house, as the second season revolves around another spooky mansion. Some things will stay the same, though, like a few of the cast members returning.
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Before you forget the original ones who started it all, check out this list of 10+ facts about The Haunting of Hill House cast that fans didn’t know.
1. Elizabeth Reaser, who played adult Shirley Crain, watched a lot of embalming videos to prepare for the role:
“I play a mortician and a funeral home director, so I worked with a mortician in Georgia and I watched a lot of embalming videos and looked at pictures of dead bodies,” Reaser told Spot .
2. Oliver Jackson-Cohen, who played adult Luke Crain, was spooked while filming:
This was because the show was ” rooted in reality . “
“We are talking about ghosts and floating tall people and people with bent necks and all of these ghosts.” he said to Spot.
“But actually you swap that out for anything else traumatic as a child, and it kind of holds up,” Jackson-Cohen said.
“What’s more terrifying is the state that this family is in and the dynamics and how these events have completely shattered and completely changed the course of every single sibling’s life.”
3. Victoria Pedretti, who played adult Nell, was the Bent-Neck Lady:
They could have gotten another actor to play the freaky ghost, but that would have cost more money.
Instead, they disguised Victoria from viewers by painting her a dark shade of blue.
4. Michiel Huisman, who played adult Steven, was the first person cast for the show.
According to the director’s extended cut on DVD , this meant that the rest of the family’s casting had to be based around his looks.
Honestly, they did a pretty good job!
5. The show was Pedretti’s first acting gig:
It’s hard to believe this since she did so well, but she didn’t even have an agent. Instead, she sent in a self-tape for the role of Nell.
She also didn’t have a headshot.
As it turned out, she didn’t need it.
The show’s creator and director, Mike Flanagan, said this about watching Victoria’s tape: “A minute into her self-tape I knew she was Nell and that she was a star,” Business Insider reports.
A true talent!
6. Kate Siegel, who played Theo, is married to the show’s creator:
Flanagan said on the extended cut of the DVD that casting his wife was super important to him.
“I love working with Kate on and off-screen. The collaboration of my life, right there.” Aww! Is this a horror story or a love story?
7. Seigel discovered that she was pregnant while filming:
This made one moment in “Two Storms” especially difficult for the actress.
This was when Theo fell off the couch and hit her head. She called it ” incredibly stressful .”
8. After Seigel and Flanagan had their daughter, they ended up naming her Theodora, after Theo Crain:
Fans loved this.
“The woman who plays Theo in Haunting of Hill House just named her baby girl Theo. Very satisfying for some reason,” tweeted one person.
9. Reaser has been acting for a long time:
Twilight fans will recognize her as Esme, Edward Cullen’s vampire “mom.”
But she’s also had roles in other movies and TV shows, such as Grey’s Anatomy , Young Adult , and The Family Stone .
10. Carla Gugino, who played Olivia, had a reunion on set:
In “The Bent-Neck Lady,” the ghost that was seen over Olivia’s shoulder looks mighty familiar to those who saw Gerald’s Game .
It was Bruce Greenwood, who starred opposite Carla in the film.
11. Huisman was in *Game of Thrones*:
He played Daario Naharis, the handsome lieutenant vying for Emilia Clarke’s character’s love (how do you NOT fall in love with him).
He got the role after the original actor, Ed Skrein, left for ” political reasons .”
12. Pedretti was cast on *You* thanks to her role on *Hill House*:
“They [showrunners Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble] had told me about the character [of Love Quinn] and I was really excited about the notion of doing it,” she recalled to Harper’s Bazaar .
“I remember doing a chemistry read with Penn [Badgley], and it was like going through a tornado, and coming out and just being like, ‘Whoop, well, I did my best!'”
She’s even returning for Season Three!
It will obviously be fantastic to watch her perform!
13. Jackson-Cohen played the Invisible Man in *Invisible Man*:
He told The Hollywood Reporter that he got a lot of hilarious flack from friends for the role.
“They were like, ‘I can’t believe you’re doing this massive movie, and they’re going to take you out of it. Of course that would happen to you!’ It’s been very funny.”
14. Huisman does not believe in ghosts:
Turns out, he has a lot in common with his character.
“It was something that helped me relate to my character — who is the skeptic of the family,” Huisman told the Gentlemen’s Journal .
“Steven doesn’t believe that anything his siblings experienced in the house was real, and thinks their fear can all be explained away as mental illness,” he continued.
“I believe that the human mind is a very powerful thing, and that it can can allow us to feel energies”.
15. Gugino emancipated herself from her family at the age of 16:
She spent her childhood traveling between California and Europe.
This made her mature fast enough to take on the world on her own — something she has never regretted.
