Photo from Prime Video and imdb.com
LOS ANGELES – Siena Agudong’s portrayal of Sue Snell in “Carrie” is one of the strong reasons why creator Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of Stephen King’s debut novel succeeds.
The Filipino American actress Agudong, who fully fleshes out Sue so she’s more than just Carrie’s best friend, along with Summer H. Howell in the title role, Samantha Sloyan (who humanizes Carrie’s religious extremist mother), Alison Thornton, Amber Midthunder, Tim Bagley and Matthew Lillard lead the uniformly excellent cast of the fifth film and TV adaptation of the horror tale that’s fresh, vital and urgent.
We know how “Carrie” ends, immortalized in the indelible image of Sissy Spacek, a bullied high school outcast, drenched in pig’s blood in Brian De Palma’s 1976 horror classic, “Carrie.”
Summer H. Howell, in the title role, in ‘Carrie’s’ tragic denouement | Photo from Prime Video
It’s the getting there in Prime Video’s eight-episode miniseries that elevates Flanagan’s 2026 take and hooks us. The opening scenes, with Siena’s Sue, one of the prom night massacre survivors being interviewed by an investigator and tearfully recounting the events that led to the tragedy in the town of Chamberlain, right away got us curious about the actress.
Flanagan’s addition of bullying via social media and the threat of school shootings to the story gives “Carrie” an extra dose of urgency.
Breakout role in ‘Carrie’
“There’s one thing no one understands about what happened here in Chamberlain – two-hundred deaths, the destruction of an entire town, it’s so easy to forget we were kids,” a remorseful Sue recounts, in one of Siena’s best moments in “Carrie.”
Although Sue was originally part of the mean girls who taunt Howell’s Carrie, we sense from the get-go that she is kind and is only succumbing to peer pressure, especially since Thornton’s Chris is her friend. So Sue eventually becoming Carrie’s friend is convincing – a credit to Agudong’s acting talent and Flanagan’s direction.
In a recent video interview with Agudong, we learned more about the young actress who is only 22 and is going places. Aside from getting noticed in “Carrie” (“amazing,” Multiverse of Color praised her), Agudong is starring in “Extraction 3” with Pierce Brosnan, Chris Hemsworth and Idris Alba, “Sidelined 3” with Noah Beck, which she is executive producing for the first time and “The Upside of Unrequited.”
Siena, who played the young Billie Wesker in “Resident Evil,” talked to us from Thailand, where she is shooting “Extraction 3.” The actress, whose family roots are from Ilocos Norte in the Philippines, revealed that she auditioned for another role in “Carrie.”
“I actually auditioned for Emaline (a new character creation) and then about a month later, I auditioned for Sue,” she said. “But I remember getting the sides. It’s very cheesy but I remember connecting to Sue in a way that truly felt different from any other audition that I taped for.
“I taped it for four hours and with two different readers – my friends – just because we were having so much fun. I didn’t know what I was putting out there for Mike. But it genuinely just felt like I was doing it for myself because of how much I loved it. I loved the role.”
At the time of our chat, the rising star said she had not seen De Palma’s classic version of King’s novel about a misfit high school girl who discovers she has telekinetic powers. The film marks its 50th anniversary this November.
Siena Agudong (right) and Alison Thornton in ‘Carrie’ | Photo from Prime Video
“I didn’t watch the original ‘Carrie,’” she admitted. “I did read the book and I carried it with me everywhere. But I didn’t watch the movie on purpose because I didn’t want to have any other iteration in my mind.
“I still have yet to watch the original and I keep saving it for an occasion because I’ve waited and I’m like, I don’t know when I want to watch it with my whole cast.”
Timeless themes
On why she thinks “Carrie” is timeless, Agudong answered, “It’s a classic story. I think that this ‘Carrie’ proves that it is timeless. And it can be adapted in every generation. And for this, our ‘Carrie’ is in the modern world.
“Ultimately, ‘Carrie’ is about kindness versus cruelty at its core. And now it is relevant to our young world and actually not even just our young world or our world today but for all generations.
“It’s a story about womanhood but it is also about being human and what that means, even though it has supernatural elements. Somehow, the story itself brings us back to what it truly means to connect to someone as human to human.”
Agudong shared her backstory of Sue, who convinces her good-natured boyfriend Tommy (Oulette) to take Carrie to the prom as a way to make amends and to let the bullied girl enjoy a normal night out:
“I think from the beginning, Sue comes from a place of performative kindness. And that is something that I feel we have gotten so used to in society. We’ve kind of taught it to one another and we can get by that way.
Siena Agudong and Joel Oulette in ‘Carrie’ | Photo from Prime Video
“I really loved playing this character because I found this transition from performative kindness to kindness that asks something of you or that feels like it’s just ultimately about being present and empathetic for someone in front of you.
“And what was so powerful for me playing Sue is that I ended up going on my own journey to find these realizations in real time, to figure out these questions in a way that my individual interpretation of Sue felt real for me.
“And ultimately, it became just being kind was being present and empathetic to someone in front of you and whatever that means. And however that comes out, that was enough. My understanding of Sue was learning that.”
The rising star agreed that smartphones, social media, YouTube and TikTok further add to the challenging environment of high schools and youth life.
“Absolutely,” she chimed in. “You have a profile. That’s the first thing you do. You pick a name, your photo and you make this identity for yourself. You’re forced to know who you are so quickly.
Siena Agudong (third from left) in ‘Carrie’ | Photo from Prime Video
“And there’s that aspect that it feels like you are already performing for other people. You’re like, this is who I am. And someone’s able to judge you based on a few photos, words or captions, however you present yourself.
“I think that has also conditioned us all to believe that that’s all we are to one another. It is a box that we put someone else in. We have stopped learning that there’s more to people than what they present us – a profile.
“And obviously, that has become an easy way for people to quickly judge one another. And our show talks about that and shines a light on the worst of it all.”
Agudong beamed when she talked about having a friendly competition with her sister, Sydney, who is a singer-songwriter and also an actress. The two sisters became the two final choices to play Nani Pelekai in the 2025 live-action. Sydney, who got the part, will reprise Nani in “Lilo & Stitch 2.”
“We had a really healthy competition growing up,” Agudong recalled. “When we got older, people sort of expect and wait for us to brawl it out. It has been nothing but the greatest gift that I could ever have to watch my sister win and to walk a carpet with her.
“Thinking about it is the coolest thing, that both of us are still living our little kid dreams together and just on a grander scale. And ultimately, we get to come back home and be like, wasn’t that so cool? And she’d be like, look at this.
“And we’re on very different sides of the industry. The coolest part is it just feels like we’re expanding and we’re just kind of an extension of each other. And I get to visit her set. She gets to visit mine.
“I’m out here filming ‘Extraction 3’ and she just came to set and I’m going to go visit her on ‘Lilo & Stitch 2.’ So it’s the greatest gift.”
Filipino roots
She’s more than just Carrie’s best friend. Siena Agudong fully fleshes out her equally important character. Photo from Prime Video
Siena, Sydney and another sister, Kayli, were born and raised in Hawaii. The “Carrie” star proudly talked about her Pinoy roots.
“Serena Agudong – that’s my grandma’s name,” she began. “She’s Filipino and my dad (Kenneth) is Filipino. My mom (Karen) is Caucasian. So I’m half Filipino. My grandma was from the Philippines, Ilocos Norte side.
“And my dad was born and raised in Hawaii. I’m not native Hawaiian. You get these mixed cultures. I obviously grew up with my dad, who is Filipino and he is so proud that he is.
“I didn’t realize much I was built off of, Filipino culture, being raised in Hawaii. I didn’t know what the separation was. I grew up with all of my dad’s cooking. He was the cook in the house. I’d come to school and my plate looked different than those of a lot of other kids.”
Finally visiting the Philippines for the first time was a sweet epiphany. “I got to visit the Philippines last year and it felt like I found a puzzle piece that was missing. We all can’t wait to go back. We talk about it all the time.”
When we brought up that she may enjoy DreamWorks Animation’s “Forgotten Island,” which taps Filipino culture and mythology, she was enthusiastic: “Thank you. I was just saying to my dad. We were talking about how there’s not a lot of media out there for us to watch.”
Agudong was only 8 when she landed a part in ABC’s series, “Killer Women,” the first of a succession of mostly TV roles. “We shot that in Albuquerque,” she said. “But funny enough, my dad told me that was booked after three weeks of being in LA. He was like, you have three weeks to book something. And if not, then you come back home.
“Obviously, that’s not how the industry works. It was just me and my mom and sister out in LA. He was just trying to prove a point. On the last day was when I booked it. And then we flew out to Albuquerque and filmed for eight months.
“But it was a great experience because I was surrounded by a bunch of veteran actors who were adults. I very quickly learned where I wanted to be at just the age of eight because I was working with people I looked up to.
“So I felt like I got to see the future in front of me and what it would look like. And so I always kind of had that in the back of my head. And in ‘Carrie,’ funny enough, we had Michael Trucco and Tricia Helfer, who were my uncle and aunt in ‘Killer Women.’ I worked with them again. It was a full circle.”
And now, she is in Bangkok filming the third installment of the “Extraction” action thriller movie franchise directed by Sam Hargrave and written by Joe Russo and David Well. “I’m not sure what I can say other than it is very much a dream job,” Agudong remarked about working with Brosnan, Hemsworth and Alba.
“I want to stay in the action space. On my days off, I’m training at the stunt gym because I’m surrounded by the best of the best. And I think every room I walk into is the best of the best. I feel like I’m learning at two times speed right here. I’m pinching myself and I hope to continue staying in this space.”
“Funny enough, I do,” Agudong broke into a smile when asked if Bangkok reminds her of Manila. “There is so much similarity. And everybody over here, they keep speaking Thai to me. Then someone else came up to me and they’re like, ‘Filipino?’ And I was like, you got it. That’s funny.”
Identity and representation
Just a generation ago, Vanessa Hudgens, Darren Criss and Hailee Steinfeld were among the talents of mixed-race heritage who coped with their identity issues and broke through. They helped pave the way for actors like Agudong and H.E.R..
“I pinch myself because obviously, growing up, I didn’t see a lot of mixed kids on screen,” Agudong pointed out. “It’s an identity that I’m constantly battling with over the years because you don’t really know where you belong.
“But there’s a lot of stories that are being made and I hope they will continue to be made. I’m happy to be a part of that representation. It’s not something that I carry on my shoulders because I’m not thinking about that often.
“I’m still looking for my role models in this. But I hope we tell those stories and talk about the difficulty of having to pick an identity. Being mixed, you sort of have to belong somewhere but that is like a subcategory in itself as well.
“I think all mixed kids maybe feel that displacement. I’m loving that the industry is including this. I’m grateful that I’ve recently had opportunities that I can’t speak about yet that I am able to represent Filipino culture and actually my ethnicity on screen, which I carry with pride.
“That’s something that I hope to continue to do but it felt rare when I was younger and now it feels like it’s actually possible. So I like this direction.”
Looking forward, Agudong said, “I’m hoping for more seasons of ‘Carrie.’ I’m hoping for more action movies. I’m hoping for more producing opportunities. I’m not sure where it’s all going but I’m loving this direction.”
All eight episodes of “Carrie” are now streaming on Prime Video.
Ruben V. Nepales is an LA-based journalist whose honors include nine first prizes from the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards and the Los Angeles Press Club’s Southern California Journalism Awards. He authored “Through a Writer’s Lens,” which won first prize in nonfiction at the 2020-2021 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. In 2004, he became the first Filipino voter of the Golden Globe Awards. He is a member of the Golden Globe Foundation, one of Hollywood’s biggest philanthropic organizations.
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