Ridley Scott's Returning 3-Part Horror Series Has A Very Timely Core, Explains The Terror Season 3 Stars

Among those in the hospital are Dorry and Miss Chris, one of the hospital's longest-residing patiens and the head nurse for the facility, played by Poker Face's Judith Light and NCIS: New Orleans' CCH Pounder, respectively. Dorry serves as a cautionary figure for protagonist Pepper, played by Legion's Dan Stevens, as her extended tenure at New Hyde points to her knowing the truth of the eponymous Devil's existence. Miss Chris, meanwhile, brings a no-nonsense approach to her position, even while fearing the entity that haunts the hospital's halls.

Alongside Light, Pounder and Stevens, the ensemble Terror: The Devil in Silver roster includes Evil's Aasif Mandvi, Daredevil: Born Again's John Benjamin Hickey, Barry's Stephen Root and Silo's Chinaza Uche. Having premiered on May 7, the series is earning rave reviews from critics, currently tied for the best score of all three seasons on Rotten Tomatoes with a 94% approval rating from critics.

Ahead of the show's premiere, ScreenRant's Grant Hermanns interviewed Judith Light and CCH Pounder to discuss The Terror: The Devil in Silver. When asked about her familiarity with LaValle's source novel, Light acknowledged that while she knew of the author, she hadn't read the book until joining the series, discovering it to be a "stunning psychological breakdown of all these people" in New Hyde.

More importantly, however, is that Light described The Devil in Silver as being "about a cultural moment in our country and around the world about people with mental health challenges," referring to Dorry and the other patient characters in the series. The three-time Emmy winner expressed that the core of the story is how such people are so often "forgotten, taken advantage of, discarded [and] discounted," giving it a very timely theme as much as being "entertainment":

Judith Light: I wasn't aware of this, but Victor really knows a lot about this. So it was great to work with him, and talk to him about the dynamics of this, and what he knew and what he created.

In looking at the creation of her performance as Dorry, Light acknowledged it was "really important" for her to closely work with LaValle, Cantwell and director/EP Karyn Kusama to balance her character's lack of lucidity without venturing into caricature territory. She further praised the show's cast as being a "group of people that worked together to make this family," denoting that the show's more prescient elements meant The Terror "couldn't just be horror," nor could it be "just a bunch of crazy people running around":

Judith Light: And I don't mean crazy in a pejorative way. I mean it in the sense of how people think about other people who have these issues. These are people with profound mental challenges, but they create some kind of family. So, we worked really closely with everybody. Our hair and makeup team, our other producers, everybody was on board to create this in the most psychologically thrilling way. And I give major props to Victor. It's his initial creation.

For Pounder, the four-time Emmy nominee acknowledged that part of "why and how I was cast" as Miss Chris for The Terror: The Devil in Silver is that she has "a sense of authority" in many of her roles, as well as "a sense of no-nonsense." Expressing that "whether I'm frufu or not is irrelevant" going into a role, she can "pull up no-nonsense very quickly," which made her the ideal candidate for the stern head nurse of New Hyde.

As she began thinking about the character and giving her additional layers, Pounder found she "wanted her to have blinkers" at all times, going through every day with the mentality that "I get up, I do my job, I get to work, I've got to take care of my kid and my kid's baby, and the pressures of life." Even more important, which further gave the show a timely core, is that the Emmy nominee "thought of her as an immigrant," looking at her "cluttered apartment" and close family dynamic being "her little lot in life":

CCH Pounder: She's living the life of many, many people."[In-character accent] Don't mess it up. You're not seeing that. Pick up those keys, get medication, non-compliance." She gets it, and she runs with that idea until she can't, until she's forced to. I was asked whether it was something within her that said, "This is wrong," or something supernatural. And I chose that something supernatural happened, because the way we're living now, it's going to take something supernatural to change what we've kind of accepted, we've swallowed, we cursed, we've mumbled, we've talked about, "Why don't they do? Why don't they do?" And here, she comes to a point where it's, "Why don't I do?" It's a huge, huge choice for somebody who says, "Look, I'm just doing my job." And that's the Miss Chris that I created.

The Terror Season 3 Was A Very Organic Experience For Light & Pounder

Emily V. Aragones/AMC

ScreenRant: Now, I've got to say, The Terror I've always felt has been this great little underdog horror series in that I always wanted it to get more love, more attention, and I'm so glad that it's back. The Devil in Silver is just fantastic. For you, what was your familiarity with the show and with the novel prior to coming on board?

CCH Pounder: I didn't know anything, Grant. I was as ignorant as they come. Literally, I had no idea. I met the writer for the first time, who I was like, "LaValle, you're the writer." Everything was sort of like, "Oh! Oh! Oh!" And I kept saying, "Oh, but I haven't really done any kind of horrors like that." And then people would just go, "You did Orphan, you did this, you did that." What's similar is that they're all kind of these psychological, scary things. I kind of went, "Whoa, I have been in the genre, hanging out for a bit, and it just reveals itself as different." You even think of X-Files, that was kind of that weird [tone]. There were so many of them that I have been dipping my toes in all this time. The Genre has a lot of layers. I missed the fact that I was doing that, but I've done quite a bit. Now that I say it out loud, all of these things are flashing back. [Chuckles]

ScreenRant: Since you talked about Dan earlier, I feel like Dorry spends a lot of time with him more than anybody else in the show. I'd love to hear what it was like just with Dan, finding that unique rapport and that unique rhythm for those characters.

Judith Light: He's a really profound human being. That's how I would describe him. He is so intelligent, and a creator of character that he understands in a way. So, without even speaking about it, we were able to bounce off of each other in so many different ways. Also, you have great scripts. When you have great scripts, you're able to do that. But the feeling level between the two of us was what I would say was the most important, and really the top note. So, we weren't saying, "Oh, what are you going to do in this beat? I'm going to do this in this beat." This was all about the level of feeling between the two of us. And that's how those characters got created. And also when you have great guidance by — whenever you have a great director, like Karyn Kusama, she was able to talk us through specific moments, and what we needed to be doing in those moments. So, that's how that came about. Sometimes people want to talk about it and want to say, "Oh, I'm doing this and that." I tend not to go there and neither does Dan.

ScreenRant: I love that, it creates a more organic atmosphere for you both.

Judith Light: Exactly. That's the perfect way to describe it, because otherwise, you're in your head. It's about what you feel. It's what you feel when you watch us. You don't watch a show, you feel a show. And all of a sudden, if you're feeling that between these characters, it makes for an entirely different kind of dynamic.

Be sure to dive into some of our other Terror: Devil in Silver-related coverage with:

• Victor LaValle, Chris Cantwell & Karyn Kusama break down their approach to adapting The Devil in Silver
• Dan Stevens offering a brief tease of his Dexter: Resurrection season 2 villain
• Stevens on how The Terror: The Devil in Silver includes subtle nods to both Legion and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
• Judith Light addressing the chances of a Law and Order return
• Kusama reflecting on her scrapped "new take" on Dracula and potential revival at Blumhouse

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  Release Date 2018 - 2025-00-00

  Network AMC, Shudder, AMC+

  Showrunner David Kajganich, Soo Hugh, Christopher Cantwell

  Directors Tim Mielants, Edward Berger, Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, Fred Toye, Karyn Kusama, Michael Lehmann, Josef Kubota Wladyka, Lily Mariye, Toa Fraser, Meera Menon

  Writers David Kajganich, Shannon Goss, Tony Tost, Steven Hanna, Andres Fischer-Centeno, Benjamin Endsley Klein, Danielle Roderick, Alessandra DiMona, Josh Parkinson

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    Ciarán Hinds

    Sir John Franklin