Salem’s Lot Stars Lewis Pullman and Makenzie Leigh on Bringing Stephen King to Life

The journey to the screen took years and a lot of frustration for the latest iteration of Stephen King’s novel Salem’s Lot. The movie, which stars Lewis Pullman (Thunderbolts*) and Mackenzie Leigh (Gotham), was seemingly almost never released, in spite of what was very clearly a passionate cast and crew. Part of that cast is stars Makenzie Leigh and Lewis Pullman, who spoke with ComicBook about bringing Stephen King’s work to life onscreen.

Both stars have moved in between independent films and bigger, franchise films in recent years. According to Leigh, there isn’t much difference in terms of what you have to do as an actor, regardless of the size of the production.

“I mean, from an acting perspective, it’s all the same, I think,” Leigh told ComicBook. “If you love a story, you want to you want to do it justice. But but also Stephen King to me is a franchise — like Salem’s Lot is a standalone piece, but Stephen King is a franchise.”

Pullman flexed a little of his knowledge of the source material, telling ComicBook’s Chris Killian about a scene — spoilers ahead — that he wished they could have adapted from the book to the movie.

“The scene in which, Susan’s death — I feel like was initially done in a way that was more true to the book,” Pullman said. “We still, I think, maintain the threads of what made that scene so impactful, and I totally understand what made that scene occur how it did. Now we have this ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith,’ but you still have this heartbreaking moment where Ben has to kill Susan, and though it’s not Susan, there’s that moment in the trunk where Alfred is like, ‘it’s not, ‘it’s not her,’ but as a human, you can’t separate the physical form from what’s what’s been poisoned in the brain. So it’s a very interesting concept to try and wrestle with as an actor; I thought that was awesome.”

Other stars include Alfre Woodard (Dr. Cody), Bill Camp (Matthew Burke), Spencer Treat Clark (Mike Ryerson), Pilou Asbæk (Straker), and John Benjamin Hickey (Father Callahan).

The King story was first brought to life by The Texas Chain Saw Massacre director Tobe Hooper for a two-part TV movie in 1979. In 2004, another two-part adaptation of the novel was developed, which starred Rob Lowe. The Hulu TV series Castle Rock served as a blend of a variety of King characters and settings, with Jerusalem’s Lot, the town featured in ‘Salem’s Lot, being a key component of the series’ Season 2 storyline. In 2021, King’s short story “Jerusalem’s Lot,” a prequel to the novel ‘Salem’s Lot, was adapted into an Epix TV series starring Adrien Brody and Emily Hampshire.

The new Salem’s Lot is now on MAX.