Laurie Metcalf Takes on Motherhood in ‘Big Mistakes,’ ‘Monster’ – and ‘Scream’ Again

Laurie Metcalf arrived for the first day of filming Netflix’s ‘Big Mistakes’ with something she needed to get off her chest. She doesn’t remember where she said it, but it was probably in the hair and makeup trailer next to series co-creator and co-star Dan Levy.

“We had barely met, but I told him, ‘I have extremely big shoes to fill, and I know that in my heart because I’m playing your second TV mom,’” Metcalf says. Variety.

She was, of course, referring to Levy’s previous TV mother, played by the late comedy legend Catherine O’Hara on “Schitt’s Creek.” In O’Hara’s hands, the character of Moira Rose was a larger-than-life presence in her son’s life, learning to love him more than the spotlight — or at least just as much. In “Big Mistakes,” Metcalf is tasked with playing an equally big role on screen, and she wanted Levy to know that she understood the weight of that responsibility.

“We never talked about comparisons or anything like that, and I think he wanted the dynamic to be different,” Metcalf says. “But I wanted to be there for his character as much as Moira Rose was for him on ‘Schitt’s Creek.'”

As frenetic mayoral candidate Linda Morelli, Metcalf is both a blessing and a curse to her son Nicky (Levy) and daughter Morgan (Taylor Ortega). The siblings definitely don’t need the level of stress she brings, as they inadvertently descend further into a world of organized crime. Linda is brash, wears her moral superiority like a badge of honor, and is fiercely protective of her children, whether they like it or not. She’s a force in the Morelli family, but she’s hardly the only difficult mother in Metcalf’s recent filmography.

Also on Netflix this year, the Emmy winner played Augusta Gein, the mother of infamous serial killer Ed Gein (Charlie Hunnam) in “Monster: The Ed Gein Story.” Augusta is a deeply religious woman who haunts her son’s psyche before she dies – and he brings her back to life with the exhumed body of another woman. It’s perhaps the darkest role Metcalf has ever played, at least since 1997’s “Scream 2,” when she was cast as the mother of another serial killer, Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), and ultimately broke down herself.

But in “Monster,” Metcalf wasn’t interested in playing a bad mother who was cruel to her child just for the sake of it. She needed depth, something more to hold on to.

“The challenge for me was that the darkness came from their dysfunctional relationship, and knowing that her influence on him was part of why his life went a certain way,” she says of playing Gein’s mother. “That’s a huge responsibility to accept, to know that your character is responsible for sending him into darkness. That, and of course his mental illness. The challenges can’t just be black and white. She can’t just be pure evil and he’s pure good, and she just beats him down and beats him down. So Charlie and I in every scene tried to find a little bit of heart in that, a little connection, and a little bit of how he looked up to his mother, how she treated him.”

When choosing any role, the Tony-winning actress – who was nominated again this year for ‘Death of a Salesman’ – is always looking for the thrill of being on stage. She said both “Big Mistakes” and “Monster” gave her that opportunity.

In the case of “Monster,” Metcalf’s scenes with Hunnam are essentially a two-hander play. Their interactions are tied to the house, where he is haunted by the ghost of her influence, criticism and ill will, before and after her death. Director Max Winkler worked closely with the two actors to create a rapport that could inform their confrontations, which tap into anger and fear.

“Any scene in film or TV that has any length, I really appreciate it, because that’s where you can find some traction,” says Metcalf. “That’s where you can get some momentum going as an actor and really connect with your scene partners and find a pace. It was basically just me, Charlie and Max on set. We did a lot of exploring. Nothing was set in stone and everyone’s idea was welcome. The best idea wins, and that’s a very comforting way of working.”

Becoming Augusta Gein was a leap of faith for Metcalf, who says no scripts were available when the role was mooted. “I didn’t know what to expect when I walked in,” she says.

“Big Mistakes” was a different kind of leap. The fast-paced pilot script from Levy and co-creator Rachel Sennott had long scenes and lots of moving parts, Metcalf says.

“I think the more we rehearsed them, the more all the actors got into the groove and found our own rhythms,” she says. “We found where we could overlap, cut each other off and cross the camera in front of each other. It was very organic, very present in the way that theater is. I’m intimidated by cameras in the room, but less so by working that way.”

Metcalf says she immediately figured out how Linda was supposed to burst into her children’s lives. “Dan wrote my first line of the entire series in capital letters,” she says, laughing. “I knew what to do with that. It got loud right away and we just kept building from there.”

The confidence in the process has paid off. Metcalf’s entire “Big Mistakes” family came to see her in Broadway’s “Death of a Salesman” on opening night.

Navigating the darkness and light of both roles brought back memories of her “Scream 2” experience. As Debbie Salt, a fake journalist turned vengeful killer, Metcalf got to play in the meta-sandbox of Kevin Williamson’s humorous horror. Nearly thirty years later, she looks back on that production as even more challenging than the bleak depths of “Monster.”

“I was very new to filmmaking at the time, so the ‘Scream’ experience was a huge learning curve for me,” she says. “It was intense, and there were days where there wasn’t really a lightness on set because we do such heavy stuff.”

After three decades, Metcalf briefly reprized her role in “Scream 7” this year. And just like Mamas Gein and Morelli, her “Scream” matriarch still has something to say.

“I find super quirky people very funny and fun to play because they give 110 percent no matter what,” she says. “Right, wrong, I can’t read the room no matter what. They’re giving it their all.”

Just like Laurie Metcalf.