Alison Thornton Breaks Down Chris's Beauty Arc in Prime Video's 'Carrie'

Alison Thornton bleached her brunette hair blonde for Mike Flanagan's eight-episode "Carrie" adaptation on Prime Video, and she says the change alone rebuilt her posture. "As soon as my hair was bleached, I was walking around in my costume and holding myself differently," Thornton said. The dye job created distance. "It added a level of separation between me and the character that made it easier to look in the mirror and not see myself."

Thornton plays Chris Hargensen, the high school bully Stephen King created 50 years ago. Her Chris is cruel and wounded at once, and viewers have responded. People approach her in Vancouver. Family and friends text her: "I did not know you had that in you."

How did makeup track the character's collapse?

Makeup artist Brooke Fenton drew Chris's arc directly onto Thornton's face. Around episode four, when Chris holds peak social power, the glam peaks too: overlined lips, heavier makeup, a polished finish. As Chris's life spirals, the application loosens. "She gets more and more disheveled, and you can see it in her makeup," Thornton said.

Costume designer Tammy Joe ran the same narrative through the wardrobe. A powerful Chris takes fashion risks and shows more skin. A collapsing Chris dresses younger, with less color, more gray and darker tones. "So many beauty choices did so much storytelling," Thornton said.

What is fake blood actually made of?

Corn syrup, largely. Thornton distinguishes edible blood from skin blood; crews ask actors their preferred edible flavor, and she picks mint, "so it just tastes like mouthwash." The production used different formulas for different shots. The blood dumped on Carrie differs from the blood painted on skin, a choice Thornton says helps protect skin and hair.

Thornton wore blood for only a couple of days. Summer Howell, who plays Carrie, sat in it head to toe for roughly 21 days. Thornton calls the experience useful rather than grueling. "You look in the mirror, see yourself covered in blood, and your brain goes, 'Something is wrong!'" Fenton removed it nightly with, in Thornton's count, "a million makeup wipes." Some residue survived anyway. "There were definitely weeks where I was walking around with blood in my fingernails, going to coffee shops and trying not to alarm people," she said.

What does she actually use on her skin?

Not much. Thornton, who splits her time between Vancouver and Los Angeles, keeps a three-step routine: cleanser, serum, moisturizer, plus facials while working. "The simpler I've kept my routine, the better my skin has felt," she said. Her one travel tip costs nothing: "Drink so much water."

How is she handling the attention?

Carefully. Thornton limits phone time because of the noise around the show, but she enjoys the arguments. "My favorite part has been the conversations around the characters, seeing people fight online about whose side they're on," she said. The cast trades memes of each other in a constant group thread.

She credits the safe set for the performance. Flanagan built in three weeks of rehearsal, and after the darkest takes Thornton and Howell would high-five and say: "That was very dark, but we did it."

Thornton's credits run from Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce and Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency to Dare Me, School Spirits, Tracker and the Legally Blonde prequel Elle. The "Carrie" response, she said, is one the cast could not have better scripted.