Halloween isn’t just a holiday—it’s our entire October mood. So celebrate the best time of year with a month’s worth of stories that will keep you up all night long. (Binge-watching and eating candy, probably. Same, tbh.) Cheers, witches!
This post contains spoilers on Light as a Feather, now streaming on Hulu. Stream It
If you only have room for one more piece of horror entertainment this fall, please welcome to the stage: Light as a Feather. No, this is not an invitation to play the slumber party game in which at least four people lift a fifth with nothing but fingers while chanting, “Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board.” But you might be tempted to try the game at your nearest cemetery after watching just the pilot. Or not. Maybe not, actually.
Light as a Feather, Hulu’s new series based on writer Zoe Aarsen’s Wattpad story (that has since attracted nearly 3 million reads), follows a group of teenage girls who play the levitation game with Violet, a newcomer with a mysterious past. As with a common version of the game, predictions of how the girls will die are read out before each levitation, but it’s all pretend. That is, until the girls start dying, one by one.
Ajiona Alexus (who you recognize from her starring role on 13 Reasons Why) plays the outspoken and ambitious Candace, who plays the game and is immediately tested following the first death of one of the girls. “I really liked her,” Alexus says. “She was the one who was always like, ‘Listen to me.’ No one would listen to her.”
Light as a Feather is determined, moves at a pace fit for the age of viewing alongside simultaneous scrolling on Instagram, and oozes the right amount of nostalgia for anyone who’s missed the glory days of ‘90s horror. (Each episode is also a digestible 25 minutes long, give or take, so you’ve run out of excuses). Here, Alexus opens up about the “Light as a Feather” phenomenon, preparing for Candace’s big pool scene, and what it was really like to film a with a rotten apple.
On her knowledge of “Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board” before the show:
“I had zero idea. My management told me about it, and some of the girls knew about it. I looked it up but I didn’t really understand. I would never play. I’m a very adventurous person but certain things, I’m just not going to do.”
On the show’s portrayal of female friendships in high school:
“I think it’s very relatable. I like this project because it shows diversity of women, especially young females. I’m happy that the show celebrates all of that in one… showing we can carry a show. It definitely touches on parts of high school relationships and things a lot of girls I’m sure can relate to in school: weird things, bullying, creepy games. Maybe not to that extent where somebody’s cursing them, but you never know these days.”
On what she was like in high school:
“I went to a performing arts high school in Alabama so the kids were very different from what it would be at a normal school. We didn’t have sports or cheerleaders. I was always working more than being in school, so I was always so ready to get out of school so I could focus on my career more.”
On Candace’s big pool scene [Ed. note: Candace is the second friend to die following the game and as predicted, she drowns in a pool]:
“I was exhausted afterwards. There was so much screaming and so much energy to put out. That was also one of my last scenes before I left. They prepped it for me to be my last moment, to give my everything. For me, [it was] really making sure, mentally, thinking about what she’s been through and trying to convey that and trying to just give it all that I have in that moment in time.”
On preparing for jump scares in the show, including Candace’s bite into a rotten apple with worms:
“It’s really awkward, honestly, because you have to do it over and over. There was one take where I was really scared because they didn’t tell me that they actually put a real worm in there, so the worm fell out on my hand and I really jumped. Hopefully they used that take because I was not messing with that apple anymore. It was disgusting.”
On the Light as a Feather cast vs. the 13 Reasons Why cast:
“I feel like honestly our connection is stronger because there aren’t too many of us with the girls. Whereas with 13 Reasons, we have a group chat and there are 13 people texting at once. It gets so hectic, I can be disconnected sometimes. I can definitely say that because it’s an all-girls cast we all get along on a different level, where we go get our nails done. With 13, I’m sure some of the guys, they don’t want to get manis and pedis, but we all get along very well.”
