‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’ Star Tati Gabrielle Was Just as Scared Filming as You Are Watching
“We were like genuinely terrified, and a little like freaked out by what we were doing,” actress tells TheWrap
Ashley Boucher | October 27, 2018 @ 3:30 PM
Last Updated: October 27, 2018 @ 6:51 PM
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If you’re a little freaked out by what happens in Netflix’s new horror series “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” you’re not alone. Star Tati Gabrielle, who plays Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka)’s nemesis Prudence, says that some of those bewitching scenes were “genuinely terrifying” to shoot.
Gabrielle, although she plays a witch on “Sabrina,” is self-described as being “horrible when it comes to horror things.” Just how horrible? “Like, ‘Jurassic Park’s not even a horror film and I couldn’t even watch it until I was 16 just because I was so terrified,” she told TheWrap ahead of the show’s release on Netflix.
Of all the crazy scenes in “Sabrina” (we won’t go into much detail to avoid spoilers), Gabrielle said the craziest to film was a ritual scene with her fellow Weird Sister, Agatha (Adeline Rudolph). “It gave me literal chills,” “The 100” alum said, adding that “a lot of the spells and things that we do are actually real spells that they’ve pulled from, like, the Wiccan faith.”
“It was kind of, like, wild to, yeah, be in like a literal ritual with real symbols everywhere and real spells happening,” she said.
Luckily, however, using real-life spells didn’t cause any real-life problems for the cast and crew.
“We’ve never had like ‘Exorcist’-type incidents or like weird things happening around the set, like thank God,” Gabrielle continued, though she did say that walking through the Spellman house by herself creeped her out. “If I have to cross through one [set] to get to another, and I’m by myself, I will literally, like, run, terrified, like through the set and to the next one.”
Thankfully, Gabrielle worked out a good palette cleanser for those super-scary scenes: “Some of those nights, I would go home and watch ‘Family Guy’ for a bit,” she said. “And just kind of decompress, get back on the lighter side of life. [I’d tell myself] ‘It’s not real, it’s not real, you’re gonna be fine!'”
So who was the bravest on the spooky set? Fittingly, the series’ titular star.
“Well Kiernan [Shipka] is like, the hardest person to scare,” Gabrielle said. Case in point: In Season 1’s opening scene, Sabrina and Harvey (Ross Lynch) are watching an old horror movie, and Sabrina is laughing and eating popcorn while everyone around her is visibly scared. “That is literally Kiernan.”
“Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” Season 1 is now streaming on Netflix.
'Chilling Adventures of Sabrina' Season 1 Photos: Check Out Harvey Kinkle, Aunt Zelda and More
Get ready for a deep-dive look at the residents of Greendale. Netflix released new character photos for "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" this week, making us even more excited for the series to arrive than the trailer did.
See below for Netflix's official character descriptions. "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" premieres on Oct. 26 on Netflix.
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Harvey Kinkle (Ross Lynch) is Sabrina’s boyfriend. The prince charming of this dark fairy tale, Harvey is the son of a coal miner, a dreamboat and a dreamer, completely unaware of the dark forces conspiring to keep him and Sabrina apart.
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Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka): An empowered young woman, half-human, half-witch, Sabrina is just beginning her dark education as a sorceress, even as she tries to maintain a normal life as a sophomore at Baxter High. Intelligent, compassionate and brave to the point of recklessness, Sabrina is all that stands between us and the forces of darkness that threaten our world. Pictured with Lachlan Watson (as Susie Putnam), Jaz Sinclair (as Rosalind Walker) and Ross Lynch (as Harvey Kinkle).
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The Weird Sisters: Agatha (Adeline Rudolph), Prudence (Tati Gabrielle), Dorcas (Abigail Cowen): The three Weird Sisters—a trio of powerful, uncanny teenage witches at the Academy of Unseen Arts who look down their noses at Sabrina for being half-mortal.
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Hilda Spellman (Lucy Davis) is one of Sabrina’s two witch aunts. More nurturing than Zelda, Hilda’s motherly nature and warm sense of humor belie a wicked, ghoulish streak. She is as adept at brewing spite jars against her family’s enemies as she is at concocting love potions for the students at Baxter High.
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Father Blackwood (Richard Coyle) is High Priest of the Church of Night and Dean of the Academy of the Unseen Arts. Ruthless and ambitious, Blackwood hides a terrifying dark agenda that will put him in direct conflict with Sabrina and other members of the coven.
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Zelda Spellman (Miranda Otto) is Sabrina’s sterner witch aunt. Proud and devout, Zelda believes there is no greater honor than serving the Dark Lord as a member of the Church of Night. She is the family’s disciplinarian, fiercely protective of Sabrina, and very much Cain to Hilda’s Abel.
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Nicholas Scratch (Gavin Leatherwood) is a young, handsome warlock at the Academy of Unseen Arts who befriends new student Sabrina Spellman. An acolyte of Sabrina’s father’s teachings, Nicholas is drawn to Sabrina, as well, and there are immediate sparks between them.
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Sabrina's friends, Rosalind Walker (Jaz Sinclair) and Susie Putnam (Lachlan Watson): Rosalind is the brash, empowered and outspoken daughter of Greendale's minister and Sabrina's best friend at Baxter High. Susie Putnam is one of Sabrina’s friends at Baxter High and a founding member of the school’s newly formed WICCA club. Brave and optimistic despite being bullied at school, Susie lives on a farm at the outskirts of town and deals with a terrifying supernatural threat at home.
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Mary Wardell / Madam Satan (Michelle Gomez) is Sabrina’s favorite teacher and mentor at Baxter High. When she is possessed by the Devil’s handmaiden, Madam Satan, Ms. Wardwell turns into a sultry, cunning manipulator, always trying to lure Sabrina down the Path of Night.
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Ambrose Spellman (Chance Perdomo) is Sabrina’s warlock cousin from England. Placed under house-arrest by the Witches Council, Ambrose is forbidden from leaving the funeral home where he lives with the Spellman women. Witty, puckish and pan-sexual, he is one of Sabrina’s partners in crime, always up for mischief.
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Netflix also releases images of Aunt Hilda and Sabrina’s cousin Ambrose
Get ready for a deep-dive look at the residents of Greendale. Netflix released new character photos for "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" this week, making us even more excited for the series to arrive than the trailer did.
See below for Netflix's official character descriptions. "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" premieres on Oct. 26 on Netflix.