The Haunting of Bly Manor’s Rahul Kohli Breaks Down the Most Ambitious Episode

The Haunting of Bly Manor is officially available to stream on Netflix, and while the new Mike Flanagan series isn't getting quite as much love as The Haunting of Hill House, it has still been well-received by both fans and critics alike. While some actors from The Haunting of Hill House returned for the new story, there were also plenty of fresh faces, including Rahul Kohli who played the loveable chef, Owen. During a recent interview with GQ, Kohli was asked about the show's fifth episode, "The Altar of the Dead," which followed Hannah (T'Nia Miller) through a series of memories until a dark truth is uncovered. The actors had to act in the same memories multiple times throughout the episode, and Kohli broke down some of their performance decisions.

"That was my favorite," Kohli revealed. "I remember reading through that and just having my mind blown. Even as an audience member, I was reading those scenes thinking, 'What the hell is going on?' For those interview scenes with T'Nia and myself, we were in that space all day long, and we created the foundation. We did the first one where we would say that's the blueprint—I think that's the closest to what reality was. It was actually easier than I thought it would be because once you lock that, it becomes very easy to make it just a little bit different. It's cheating, but all you have to do is change your body position and do the scene and it's different. Once you know it that well, you can start throwing in these extra little shades."

He added, "We hadn't rehearsed what we would do with those scenes, so we were finding it out in the moment. We were in the moment deciding this is how much is real. That was one of the most interesting exercises—it felt like drama school—but it wasn't as daunting because you get to start with that blueprint. And once you've learned and rehearsed that and it's muscle memory, it becomes very easy to just start f*cking with it and start cranking up notches."

Have you seen The Haunting of Bly Manor yet? What did you think about episode five? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!

The Haunting of Bly Manor and The Haunting of Hill House are both available to stream on Netflix.