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Fox’s TV version of The Exorcist stars Hannah Kasulka as Casey Rance, who has been possessed by a demon and requires the attention of Ben Daniels and Alfonso Herrera’s priests to save her soul. In the week of the final episode Kasulka chatted with Paul Simpson about the many challenges – and rewards – that the part brought…

How did you get involved with The Exorcist?

It was pilot season, and I’m at the point in my career where I don’t really get to pick and choose the parts that I do but I just got lucky with this one. This came along, and I saw the email which said The Exorcist, and I was like, “oh no” – which I think was everybody’s first reaction to it. I thought, “not interested, they’re doing a remake, this is going to be bad.” But then I read the sides and I was proved very wrong because [show creator] Jeremy [Slater] did an awesome job with the pilot creating complex characters. It wasn’t just about jump scares, and it definitely wasn’t a remake.

I was really drawn to it, went in and did the audition. I booked it pretty quickly, within a week, and then I was in Chicago a week later. I think they’d had difficulty finding Casey.

I had to do the demon scene from the pilot for my audition as one of my scenes, which is a really tough one when you’re in an audition room. There are bright lights, there’s no make up or effects and you have to really put yourself out there in a weird way. I didn’t know what they were going to expect or how they were going to react to it, but I guess it was positive.

That’s the scene with Marcus and the possessed little boy…

Yes, the possession scene in Mexico City. It was much longer originally, and they had to cut it down just for time. I got that and was like, “Oh no, this is a lot.” I was pretty scared how I was going to tackle it. But ultimately I thought, “if I feel weird about this, it’s going to look weird”, so I had to just go for it. My goal was to make them feel uncomfortable in the audition. I think, maybe I did that.

What do you think you did differently? Possession has been a staple of the genre; how did you approach it?

Maybe luckily or unluckily I didn’t have a ton of time to do a lot of research or watch anything. I grew up in the church, so I knew quite a bit about this from bible stories, and things like that, so I took that from my own experience, what I knew about it…

I didn’t have a lot of time to watch stuff but I don’t like scary stuff, so I didn’t have a lot of frames of reference for what this looks like on film so it wasn’t a copy of something that had already been done, and I was able to do my own thing. I think that was an advantage. I worked with a coach at my acting studio who was really helpful and helped me make choices, and then I went from there.

Were there elements in the way the church is portrayed and the way the whole series treats God and demons that surprised you?

I thought it was very accurate, and I thought Jeremy did a very good job of keeping it grounded, and based off of real teaching from the Bible. I think that’s what makes the show so great: it’s not so far off from what people believe. They depicted an accurate representation of people’s faith and this mythology. Even my grandmother, who’s a pastor and a minister of the church, she’s been watching it and she says it’s got parts of the Bible down, and the pastor of her church watches it with his wife and they love it. I think that’s a testament to Jeremy and all the other writers of how good of a job they did of keeping this truthful.

Obviously they created the whole thing that there are demons in the Catholic church, but I think what makes it interesting and so appealing is that it is working from people’s faith in reality. It’s grounded in reality and then they embellish from there.

It treats Christianity with respect, rather than making fun of the priests…

Exactly, it’s not pointing fingers or shaming anybody. I think they wanted to get under these people’s skin and create living breathing personalities.

Everyone has their “demons” and that’s what makes it so interesting – these characters are so flawed and still trying to serve God, and that’s okay. That’s possible. Especially in 2016, nobody’s perfect. It doesn’t portray picture perfect characters, but at the end of the day they’re still likeable and still aspirational. You want to root for these guys.

What was the biggest challenge of playing Casey?

The physical part of it – I didn’t anticipate that. I knew it was going to be hard, because I was going to be playing two parts at all times: I’m playing Casey and also Captain Howdy. I knew that was going to be difficult and I was nervous about that. I didn’t anticipate how sore I’d be and how that would affect my day and my weekends. I didn’t have a lot of time even then – I think I got two massages and that was a big luxury. I got one massage and the woman asked me if I was a weightlifter! I said, no, I haven’t been to the gym in months. She said I was very tense!

I didn’t anticipate all the stunts and how the character would manifest in my physicality.

And quite an emotionally tiring role as well – you’re put through the wringer throughout the whole series…

Yes, it was really challenging, but a good challenge. As an actor, you wish for that. You want the kind of parts you can sink your teeth into. I was excited but also terrified because then you have to do the work and really go there. Sometimes it was, “Why did I wish for this?” When you’re covered in slime and chained to the floor and having to speak Aramaic – I’m like, “oh really?” But I asked for it! It was definitely challenging.

The last two episodes, you’re playing the normal, unpossessed Casey – was that hard to do? Did you have to treat that almost as a different character?

Yes, I had gotten so used to playing possessed Casey, and I’d got it down to a rhythm of this is what this character is. I was comfortable, and I felt I could really go for this. I didn’t have any real hesitation about how to play this character.

Then I was not possessed any more and I had to play real Casey and real Casey has been through this horrible trauma. Real Casey made me nervous. I’d kind of forgot how to be a person, but I think that helped, because I think she did too. I just played it like someone who has been through a horrible tragedy. She’s not only been in a coma for the last few weeks, but she’s undergone torturing and all sorts of brutality, so I had to play her really broken. That was another fun and hard challenge.

The final episode, we see her stepping up almost as a junior exorcist, helping Tomas in that last sequence. What did you think when you saw that in the script that she was going to get out of the house, but then turn round to go back to fight?

I thought it was so bad-ass of Jeremy! I thought there might be inklings of her becoming an exorcist, but it didn’t really surface, and then when I saw that, I was like, “Yes!”.

She’s been through the wringer and had no ownership of her life for the past… well, it’s been years because she’s been in contact with the Salesman, I think, for a long time, and he’s manipulated her the whole time. I think she’s been tricked and essentially captured and not had any comeuppance against it. She’s not been able to do anything against it; she’s been powerless.

I thought it was really cool that she finally got the courage or the strength to say, “No I’m going to do something about this, I’m not going to sit back and let him ruin my life and take my mom…” But at the same time I didn’t think it would work.

I don’t think even Casey thought that she would be able to do it. I think she thought she had to try or die trying. For me, I went to it as, “This is sort of a suicide mission; I’m not going to let this thing take us without a fight.” That was my take on it.

Then when her family comes in – Henry and Kat come in – they see the demon waning, and they realize maybe they’ve got something here, they’ve got a shot at this, and a little more strength comes from there.

I also don’t think she anticipated, when she ran into the room, going back and seeing her mother lying there, what she was even doing and the demands of it. When she saw it she was like, “Uh-oh, what did I do?!”

You have a lovely final scene with Ben outside the house – was that filmed mid-shoot of the episode, or was that at the end?

Something in the living room was our last scene, when me and Kat and Henry run to Angela – she’s fallen on her back. That was the final, final shot for me of the season, but that was just a pick-up.

The last official scene was the one on the steps. That was really emotional already. I didn’t have to do much. Jeremy wrote a beautiful scene and because I was sad about it all ending, I didn’t have to do a ton to get there.

It was hard for me to memorize those lines because every time I read the scene I would just cry. And I didn’t want to be crying, because then the whole scene doesn’t work!

That was a really beautiful scene and I’m really glad that made it in – it wasn’t in the first draft of the script we got, and then when they sent us a newer version, that was in there, and we were really excited to see that.

It was a nice moment: Ben and I had the most battlefield moments together and to go from trying to bite him and screaming in his face to that I think was such a nice contrast. It really shows what they’d both been through.

Both characters had earned that moment – and both actors had as well. What’s been the best thing for you about the whole experience?

I think the people that I’ve got to meet and work with. If you would have asked me a year ago if I was going to be shooting with Geena Davis, I would have told you to shut up! I didn’t know Ben or Alonso or Brianne and I’ve had the chance to make friends and form real relationships on my first real show. I felt really lucky – everybody, the writers, the directors, the whole crew, everybody was so great to work with and make this whole experience just a dream.

Are there moments that sum up the whole experience for you?

I was waiting for the phone call saying “I’m just kidding; they don’t want you”; I was a little gunshy and afraid to say this was really happening. ComicCon was one of those things – “wow, I have a poster” – and watching it with an audience that made it official for me.

The first day on set: there are cast chairs, and when you’re a regular on a show, you have your name on it, and I’ve never had that. Seeing that really cemented it for me, and I cried. I knew it was going to happen, but seeing it just made it real for me. Little moments reminded me that this was happening. It’s something I’ve wanted for a long time, and worked really hard to get. It’s nice: little things like that just made me appreciate it more.

The final episode is going out only a few hours after we speak and I’m expecting the internet to explode…

It’s pretty intense. It’s a doozy – we throw it all out there. I hope people like it. I think they will.

And maybe a cameo for Casey in season 2?

Fingers crossed!

The Exorcist is available on FOXNOW in the US, and concludes on Wednesday 21st December on Syfy UK

Thanks to Erin Moody, Michael Roach and Charlene Young for their help in arranging this interview; and Hannah Kasulka for redoing it after the tape recorder was possessed!