Carla Gugino Worried ‘Gerald’s Game’ Would Be ‘the End of My Career’

Samantha Bergeson
·3 min read
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Carla Gugino worried that by playing “Gerald’s Game,” she might lose her career forever.

The actress revealed to Buzzfeed that first collaborating with future “Haunting of Hill House” showrunner Mike Flanagan on the 2017 indie Stephen King adaptation was a daunting task.

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“It was always considered an un-adaptable book by Stephen King,” Gugino said. “Also, someone was attached to play the role before. So, from the moment that I spoke to Mike Flanagan to the moment we were filming ‘Gerald’s Game,’ it was literally two weeks. So, to come on to that role in that project, in which I was chained to a bed within that period of time, was a real risk. And I thought, ‘We’re either going to do something really special here, or this is the end of my career.’ You know what I mean? There’s no middle ground here. I’m so thankful that it was the former.”

Gugino starred as one half of a BDSM couple looking to reignite their marriage. However, their planned vacation goes awry after her husband (Bruce Greenwood) keels over dead mid sex act, and Gugino’s character is left stranded to fight off both her personal demons and a very real monster.

“I’ve never gravitated toward horror, per se. Meaning, I love any genre done well. So I’m in for all of it,” Gugino said of being a later-in-her-career scream queen. “But it was funny; I wasn’t looking to do that, even though horror has obviously been an extremely successful genre for quite some time now. But what I was really compelled by was Mike’s voice as a filmmaker. Really, it was me talking to him when he was scouting in Atlanta via FaceTime. I didn’t even know until later that it was sort of the movie would fall apart shortly thereafter if I couldn’t have gone on board. His ideas, his clarity of vision, and the way into the story, it was just so precise. It made perfect sense to me. I aligned with it right away, and I thought, I really want to come help this person bring their vision to the screen.”

Flanagan wrote and directed “Gerald’s Game,” and later went on to adapt fellow King novel “Doctor Sleep.”

“That was the beginning of that relationship with Mike,” the “Girls on the Bus” star said. “And since then, it has just continued to be a really easy and inspiring collaboration. I love to come in and help him tell his stories. He’s such a wonderful writer and director, and editor. I also think because he has this sort of gentle perfectionism and he has a real strong sense of what he wants it to be, he is also therefore very collaborative. I always find the most confident people in their art are actually collaborative, you know? So I love what we get to create together. There’s not one that I haven’t really enjoyed.”

And Gugino, who recently was a “Lisa Frankenstein” scene-stealer, teased that she still thinks of “Gerald’s Game” often thanks to a special prop from set.

“I have the handcuffs from ‘Gerald’s Game,'” Gugino said.

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