Having read and watched five different interviews with the cast of Carrie where they're all basically saying the same three sentences about their characters and the show over and over again--and the fact that Rahul Kohli couldn't even confirm which character he's playing on IG--got me thinking that they're not allowed to tell us anything more about the show. That's all we're going to get until October. Or at least, until the real trailer comes out.
Well, I think for Margaret, which I do think is one of the most different representations, I think what I loved is that she loves Carrie and that is where she starts from. And I think to get to--because even though we are telling--we're getting to the same point via a different path and I think that this path to see how Margaret gets where she's going starting in a different spot, starting with love, starting with fiercely protecting her, starting with wanting the best for her and to see how that mutates as the piece goes and how different things affect her choices and then lands her where she ends up. - Samantha Sloyan, an interview with the Carrie cast
I highlighted the bits I thought were important; the fact that they made Margaret and Carrie's relationship different won't change the tragic ending and it doesn't change that the fact that it's a story about abuse. Margaret might start off as a mother who loves her daughter, but that love will mutate (love Samantha's choice of the word there) into something toxic. I believe that Margaret's choice to keep her daughter locked inside their home for fifteen years without anyone knowing she even existed is extremely toxic and abusive, too. So, Margaret's character isn't fundamentally changed, she won't be the loving, caring mother of the year, she just starts off from a different point than her character in the book and she will tread a different path to get to the same point. In one of the interviews, the interviewer jokes with Samantha that Mike wrote the role of a crazy villain for her and not a single cast member corrects her, they all just laugh. Anyway, I don't think they are going to strip the show off the religious trauma and abuse, they are just trying to modernize the story.
Besides, if I described Beverly Keane as a zealously religious teacher who cares about her island and who is fiercely protective of the local priest, I wouldn't be wrong, technically.
