Kate Siegel heading to Fan Expo in Toronto: Don't call her a 'Scream Queen,' she's the 'Scream President'

While Kate Siegel is one of the most captivating actors in the horror/thriller genre, don't call her a Scream Queen when you see her at Fan Expo in Toronto (August 22 to August 25). Starring in projects like the Netflix hits The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass and The Fall of the House of Usher, Siegel says her status as one of horror's greatest leading ladies really comes from the fans.

"It's actually a Scream Republic, because I'm voted into office by people just watching my stuff, and so it's more of a Scream President," Siegel told Yahoo Canada. "I think it's time for a female president and I think it's time for the phrase Scream President to take root."

"You have to be voted in by the fans. It's not something that is passed down through bloodlines, necessarily."

The Scream President is now headed to Toronto to speak to members of the Scream Republic at Fan Expo, alongside her husband and frequent collaborator Mike Flanagan.

"I myself am a huge fan of horror, so getting to interact with people who like the same things I do is always really fun," Siegel said. "I always also get a lot of new insight on different characters, people come with things they thought about, really thoughtful analysis of the shows and of the movies, and I love hearing those as well."

'Horror is a feminist medium'

Looking at Siegel's work, it exemplifies how women in the horror genre, particularly more recently, are crafting a space where their characters are powerfully complex. Siegel stressed that "horror is a feminist medium."

"It is a place where, since its inception, ... women were allowed to be complicated creatures who make mistakes. The story depends on the fact that a woman isn't perfect," Siegel said. "She has to make mistakes and then she has to deal with the consequences of those mistakes in real time, for the most part."

"That is not necessarily something that we afford our female characters in dramas. Women who make mistakes in dramas tend to be punished for those mistakes, as opposed to they get to come out the other side. And so it's always a very exciting opportunity to play women who are allowed to be flawed in that way, and who are allowed to struggle and who are allowed to survive, and I feel grateful to play every single one."

In stepping into these women, from Camille in The Fall of the House of Usher to Theodora in The Haunting of Hill House, Siegel has revealed she has a process of working through a thorough backstory for her characters. And it all comes from a place of fun for the actor.

"I do that for fun, I don't consider it like a part of my process, I consider it sort of an added bonus, an extracurricular that I get to do, just to entertain my mind," Siegel said. "Because I think for me, acting is a very physical thing to do. I'm more of an outside-in actor than an inside-out."

"I like to be in the state of the character and that creates the emotion, as opposed to me remembering a really terrible time, and that creates the state of the character. And so one of the things I do to keep my acting really instinctive is distract my brain in a variety of ways. Sometimes I do that through music and sometimes I do that through Rubik's Cubes, but the best way to do it is to just let my mind wander off into these backstories, and it often gets lost in these wonderful mazes and creating these sandcastles that has to do with the people that I'm surrounded with."

'We were making something that we were leaving for our children'

Out of all the roles Siegel has played, a character that is particular special for the actor is Erin Greene from Midnight Mass.

"She was the character that felt furthest away from me," Siegel explained. "As a human I am big. I love to get in there and get messy and solve problems, have fights and be passionate and devour things whole. Erin Greene works in tiny moves. She is a gentle character, a gentle soul, who has a core of steel. And so with Erin I felt this process of constant stripping away and really trusting stillness, really trusting doing less."

"And when making Midnight Mass, Mike and I both said that we were making something that we were leaving for our children. At a certain point, it is their father writing sort of a meditation on what happens when we die, performed by their mother. And I felt the weight of that in the performance of it and the creation of this character, that some day our children would interrogate the show to get a sense of what me and Mike believe."

Kate Siegel teases directorial debut in 'V/H/S/Beyond'

Looking forward in her career, Siegel is moving into the role of director for the upcoming V/H/S/Beyond, which will land on Shudder's streaming service on Oct. 4.

"I fell immediately in love with directing," Siegel said. "I had pushed it off for a long time because I would keep saying that sounds like a lot of work, and boy was I right."

"I am so proud of what I can share with horror fans, it comes from my deepest heart and love of a specific type of movie. It comes out of my love of The Fly. It comes out of my love of Contact. I've made jokes about Kate in space for years, and I always thought I would be acting Kate in space, but here I am directing Kate in space."

Fan Expo takes place in Toronto from August 22 to August 25. Kate Siegel and Mike Flanagan have a panel on August 23.