[Editor's note: The following contains some spoilers for Hysteria!]
The Big Picture Peacock's 'Hysteria!' follows a high school band exploiting the Satanic Panic, leading to a witch hunt in a small town. Actress Anna Camp enjoys playing complex villains like Tracy Whitehead, diving deep into their past and motivations. Camp's transformation into Tracy, from wardrobe to persona, adds layers to her performance and explores the character's survival mechanism. ✕ Remove Ads
The Peacockhorror series Hysteria! is a wild tale set during the Satanic Panic of the late 1980s, where a small town suddenly believes current events are being caused by supernatural activity. When a struggling high school heavy metal band decides to play up the fear spreading through their community and use that Satanic gimmick for attention, it works so well that folks actually start to point the finger directly at them.
As one of the residents of Happy Hollow, Tracy Whitehead (Anna Camp) is an overprotective single mother and devout Catholic who's most vocally leading the fight against the perceived dark forces in town. During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Camp shared her love of playing the villain, wanting to really explore what makes Tracy tick, naming her period wig, the mother-daughter relationship, her first go at villainy with True Blood, and raising the stakes as twins on the final season of You.
Collider: Was it just the most fun to play this character?
ANNA CAMP: It was the most fun. I kept getting script after script and I was like, "She does what? Okay, let's go!"
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Before getting those scripts, what was the thing that enticed you? What ticked your boxes? How much did you actually know before you started getting more information?
CAMP: Great question. I signed on to do Hysteria! after only reading the pilot. First of all, I just loved the world they created - the eighties, the high school nostalgia, the coming of age story. My character introducing that religion versus rock clash was really exciting to me. And I knew something was going on with Tracy. I was like, "What's bubbling underneath the surface with Tracy? Something is happening." I did ask (show creator) Matthew Scott Kane to give me a little hint of what was going on. He was like, "Anna, we're gonna learn a lot about Tracy and what drives her and why she is the way that she is." That was exciting for me because when you play adversaries or villains, you don't really get to see what makes them tick. You don't really get to go back in their past that often to see why they are the way they are, and we got to do that in a certain episode, which I was really excited about. And then, I couldn't wait to put on her shoes and put on her hair and get down to work.
✕ Remove Ads Related 'Hysteria!' Stars Discuss Anna Camp's Crazy 'True Blood'-like Character [Exclusive]
Camp co-stars with Julie Bowen and Bruce Campbell in the Peacock Satanic panic thriller.
She feels like the character who you really change your perspective on the most, throughout the season.
CAMP: Good, I love that. That's exciting. That's what we want.
'Hysteria!'s Anna Camp Says Tracy Whitehead Is Authentically Herself in Her Villainy Close
You've talked about how you love playing the villain. When you played your first character that leaned toward villain, was it something you had always wanted to do? Had you been worried about pulling it off? What was that like to do, the first time you got to play a villain?
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CAMP: Oh, my gosh. The first time must have been when I played Sarah Newlin on True Blood. It was so with so many different layers and twists and turns. Is she just a religious preacher's wife? Wait, is she power hungry? Wait, is she completely salacious and sex-crazed? There were so many different amazing aspects of that, that it was just really fun. There was nothing basic about her, and there was definitely nothing basic about Tracy. I love approaching these characters. I never go into one of these characters going, "Gosh, I hope the audience likes me," because that's death to the character. I don't care what people think. I want to go in committed and full-on. Yes, maybe she's out there to some people, but I don't judge that. I think that Tracy is always 110% authentically herself, which is very liberating to play. Even if people think it's a little bit wacky, that's great because I would rather be that than boring. I also don't wanna just play mean. Why is she doing this? What is she struggling with? Why is she making these mistakes? Isn't that why we watch TV and film? We wanna go, "I would never do that," but live through these character and yell at the TV.
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'Hysteria!' debuts October 18 on Peacock.
The other thing that's so fun about Hysteria! is the time period. Between the feathered hair and the bangs, the wardrobe, and even the glasses, it's all quite transformative. How did that help shape Tracy for you?
CAMP: All those things are just the icing on the cake of this character that I worked on before I got to set. It's the final puzzle pieces. We named the wig Trace. When I would go into the hair and makeup trailer, I would go, "Oh, is it time for Trace?" And Katie Ballard, our wig designer, would come out and she would crown her onto my head. Everything would click into place, and I began to sit differently and walk differently. And then, I'd put on the dresses, button everything up, and put on the glasses. It all became this protective armor for me, each wardrobe piece, each jewelry piece, and the hair. Throughout the season, you see that's not really who Tracy is inside. She's using religion as a survival tool and a coping mech mechanism, and she's used it since she was a teenager. Everything that she does is calculated and a form of survival, down to the glasses that she wears. Ultimately, throughout the series, you're gonna get to see her stripped down and see who she really is because all of this is just this persona that she's created to survive.
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She doesn't want to admit to herself who she is under all that stuff.
CAMP: Yeah, she's walking around terrified, all the time. People who overcompensate are ultimately very scared people. Tracy is a very good example of somebody who is overcompensating and using religion as a shield. That is something very relevant in today's climate. Hopefully, people will watch and learn from her.
The Intense Mother-Daughter Relationship in 'Hysteria!' Developed out of Trust
What was it like to find this mother-daughter relationship and to figure that out with your TV daughter, especially with how intense it gets?
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CAMP: It was very intense. Nikki Hahn plays Faith, and I could not have asked for a better scene partner and a better daughter. She was so emotionally available and present and focused, as an actress. We went to places in some of those scenes that I was not expecting to go to, and I think it's because our relationship off-camera is exactly the opposite of what it is on. We laughed, we sang songs together, and we had inside jokes. She's my friend. She was a really good buddy on set. That way, when we would go into these really intense, hard, dramatic, emotional scenes, we could trust each other because she knew I had her back, and I knew that she had mine. It was a really thrilling place to be. We love each other, and I think that really translated. Hopefully, it feels like a real mother-daughter relationship. I know, with my mom, I love my mom, but there are times when I just wanna go, "God, mom, you just don't get it!" That's something everyone can relate to. This just happens to be that relationship, on a higher level.
I feel like there has to be some bonding involved when you have a slapping scene because you have to trust each other.
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CAMP: Oh, God, yeah. Anna didn't want to yell at Nikki. I just want everybody to be happy. I want everybody to be okay. That's my main thing on set. But I have to go to that place, and she really accepted that. It was really exciting to get to play. That slapping scene was one of my favorite scenes that I got to do in the whole show.
Anna Camp Never Wants to Play a One-Note Character That Doesn't Present a Challenge
When you play characters like this, where there are so many layers and complexities to them, does that raise the bar for you? Does it make your own standard that much higher for the next project?
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CAMP: Yeah, it's definitely raised for the next character I play. When you're given such a complex role with so much to tackle, so many twists and turns, and so much that I'm repressing and fighting against, you can't go back to just playing a one-note person. That's why for a lot of my career, I've had to turn down some jobs because they just didn't interest me or challenge me, at all. Of course, this has definitely raised the bar. Luckily, the thing that I did after actually raised the bar again. I was lucky to get to play something on [this next season of] the TV show You, which is really exciting. I've been lucky so far to get some really crazy, cool women to tackle.
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If you're going to tell a story with villains, You is certainly the show to do it on. How do you even match the level of villainy going on over there?
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CAMP: You can't match it, but you can try. I got to play twins on You, so I actually had scenes with myself, which was crazy. Joe Goldberg, we all know, is the ultimate charming villain. It's a really fascinating world to delve into. Those characters are also very well written and very nuanced, so we'll see what happens there. I've been very lucky this past year to work on some really intense, wild storylines. It's been a real gift.
Hysteria! ThrillerHorrorDramaComedy
Hysteria! is set during the "Satanic Panic" of the late 1980s, follows a struggling high school heavy metal band that capitalizes on the town's sudden interest in the occult. This leads to a series of strange events, including murders and kidnappings, resulting in a witch hunt that targets the band.
Release Date October 18, 2024 Cast Chiara Aurelia , Nikki Hahn , Jessica Luza , Eric Tiede , Jennie Page , Emjay Anthony , Allison Scagliotti , Brogan Hall , Anna Camp , Julie Bowen , Bruce Campbell Seasons 1 Creator(s) Matthew Scott Kane Streaming Service(s) Peacock
Hysteria! is available to stream on Peacock. Check out the trailer:
Watch on Peacock
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