Jeff Heller
Anna Camp is best known for her role as the villainous Sarah Newlin in the HBO vampire drama True Blood, as well as Aubrey Posen in the Pitch Perfect series. Camp’s newest project is Peacock’s pop horror series, HYSTERIA!.
When a beloved varsity quarterback disappears during the “Satanic Panic” of the late 1980s, a struggling high school heavy metal band of outcasts realize they can capitalize on the town’s sudden interest in the occult by building a reputation as a Satanic metal band, until a bizarre series of murders, kidnappings, and reported “supernatural activity” triggers a leather-studded witch hunt that leads directly back to them.
Camp portrays Tracy Whitehead, an overprotective and extremely religious single mother who takes it upon herself to take on the evil forces that are plaguing their town. We talked to Camp about what drew her to the rile, keeping her character grounded, and what frightens her the most.
Can you talk about what you drew to the role?
Yes, absolutely. First of all, the script I thought was fantastic. I love nostalgia. I love the world it was set in. And then once I read Tracy, I thought, “Okay, something is really going on here with this woman.” I just loved the way she was written. Obviously, I played characters kind of similar to this back of the day, with True Blood, but I love playing a character that has such inner conflict going on.
At the end of the day, she really, really loves her daughter and wants to protect her daughter. But she might not be going about it in the healthiest of ways, as we see throughout the season. But yeah, I just found her to be a fascinating person and what she presented to the world versus who she really is inside.
Well, I always I think about the the adage that a good villain doesn’t think they’re the villain. I kind of felt that was the case here.
Yes, you can’t go into a role that was quote-unquote, the villain of the series thinking and being in on it, right? I approached this role as she’s doing God’s work. She’s doing good work. She’s doing it for the best of the town and for herself. And then throughout the season, you get to see there is a bit of a twist there, which is really exciting. But from the beginning, she’s doing this from the goodness of her heart, fully 100 percent committed.
I also felt that the character could have been written more of a caricature, but you kept it really grounded. I was wondering if you could talk about how you managed to keep that balance.
Yeah, you know, it’s it’s a fascinating kind of role to play because she’s not normal. Definitely an extremist. Julie Bowen’s character does say at times, she’s a little kooky. Everybody looks at her like she’s a little kooky in the town. So she is a heightened person. But it’s coming from a place of being grounded because, she’s a real woman living in the town, associating with the people in the town. It’s a delicate balance to play because I wanted her to be extraordinary in some ways, but not be a cartoon. So, I walked that line and I’m really glad that you noticed that. It’s always a risk sometimes because I don’t want to play just a normal, boring kind of type of person. I wanted to be extraordinary in some way.
Did you draw from any inspirations for the character at all?
I think off the top of my head, when I played Sarah Newlin in True Blood, she was the kind of the first very heightened religious woman that I’ve played. But besides that, I did some research and Tipper Gore is someone that I looked to because she was one of the first women who really wanted to put the parental advisory stickers on all of the heavy metal bands and the rap groups. And she’s she’s more religious than Tipper Gore was. But those are kind of the women that I look to play Tracy.
Was there anything that you brought to the role that maybe wasn’t on the page?
Yeah, I think originally, you can look at her as just being like a mean person, a mean, controlling mother. But I feel as if I played her very sweet and kind and loving, which is probably scarier because Tracy doesn’t believe that she’s doing anything wrong. And she really does think that she’s coming from a place of love and goodness. I think that she’s also kind of funny. She’s also self-deprecating. She doesn’t have a lot of confidence. And I think that one of the greatest arcs of the season for me is that I find real confidence towards the end of the season. So, she’s really down on herself a bit. She’s not dating anybody. No one’s coming to her group. She’s not good socially, and she knows that she’s not. And, then she really finds confidence throughout the end of the season.
So I don’t know if that was necessarily on the page, but I think that I found that just when I put on the wig and the, and the hair, and the costume, and everything was buttoned up. You know, she’s scared. She’s got a lot of armor on her because I think she’s carrying a lot of shame for who she really is inside.
One more quick question before I let you go. What frightens you the most?
Oh, my God, so many things. I’m going to say something kind of like an Instagram hashtag, but not reaching my highest potential. And spiders.
You can watch our interview with Anna Camp below.
All episodes of Peacock’s pop-horror series HYSTERIA! are currently streaming.
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