William Chris Sumpter on Netflix's The Midnight Club

William Chris Sumpter describes the show as transformative, and speaks to us about filming his favourite scenes.

William Chris Sumpter looks confused when he joins the Zoom call. “Do you know how I can get rid of this green screen?” he asks, and I shake my head. We both spend the next few seconds laughing as he tries to get rid of the virtual background. After a few tries, it disappears, and he is sitting in what looks like a room with Hollywood art on the wall.

William Chris Sumpter by Matt Doyle/Getty Images

Chris Sumpter is one of the main characters in Netflix’s adaptation of Christopher Pike’s novel of the same name, The Midnight Club, co-created by Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong. In The Midnight Club, eight groups of teenagers living in a manor with various terminal illnesses meet every midnight to tell horror-themed stories. The show began streaming on October 7 and broke the world records for most scripted jumpscares in an episode. In a statement released by Guinness World Records (GWR), the episode had 21 jumpscares in total and “scared the pants off an unprepared audience” at the New York Comic Con, where the first episode premiered before its worldwide release on Netflix.

“Working on the show was transformative,” Chris Sumpter tells me. “You know when you watch a movie, and everything starts to go down? That’s what this show was like for me.” Chris Sumpter, who had dreamed of being an actor since he was a kid and acting in plays and the like since he was ten, booked this role when he was 18, fresh out of high school. “I was like, oh my gosh, this is going to be huge.”

For this issue, Chris Sumpter talks about The Midnight Club, his role, and more. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What was the first thing that drew you to the script?

I remember reading the scene where Spence, my character, was going off on Sandra, the Jesus freak, in that little group therapy session about her faith and immediately falling in love with him. I was like, wow, Mike Flanagan. He's got a pen, and he's going to use it. I think that's really when I first connected with Spence.

What would you say is the best part about the storytelling part of the show?

Okay. I think the best part about the storytelling aspect of the show is just watching all of my fellow co-workers come to life in so many different forms. It was so exciting to see Aya Furukawa, who plays Natsuki, put on wigs for an episode. She completely transformed and was different. So that was definitely a huge part of it. Another fun part about it is how I was able to play so many different roles while being grounded in quite a dramatic, heavy situation and expanding on my range as an actor. That was a lot of fun.

You mentioned watching your co-workers come to life. So what was it like working with them?

So amazing. And I felt so safe and comfortable around everyone, which is a crucial part of performing. I think you have to create a family with the people you work with, and this chosen family theme Mike Flanagan runs with in many of his projects was also present behind the scenes. We had just left home for the first time and had to live on our own and also grapple with these characters, so being with each other and going for drives at 12:00 am, listening to 90s music, and other little things helped bring us together.

So, do you have a favourite scene?

OOH, good question. I don’t think I have a favourite scene because I love a lot of them. However, I will say that I have been replaying the scene where I got pushed off the yacht repeatedly every few nights at 02:00 am.

What scenes were challenging to film?

Challenging to film? I think it has to be the scene in episode eight where Spence goes to talk to his mother. I remember I had watched too many sad things and had binged, like, every sad scene and all my favourite pieces of cinema that morning. So I just had such a heavy heart. I remember listening to a lot of sad music to bring me there too, and everyone gave me a lot of space on set that day. I really needed it, and everyone was so lovely about that.

Spence has no great relationship with his mom and lives with AIDS. So what was it like playing him?

Playing Spence was fun until you’re in the scenes and feeling all those things; like your hands getting sewn up and hearing you’ve got a year to live and probably won’t make it too. And so I think a lot of playing Spence was almost like unzipping him when I left set, leaving him there, and going home to find myself again. So it was a lot of fun, and I owe that entirely to my cast members because they brought me the most joy and happiness during filming.

Did you have to read up on what it’s like to live with AIDS?

Yeah, for sure. The research was important to me and everyone involved. AIDS is a real issue that isn’t frequently discussed, especially in the 90s. I had to do a lot of research on my own and got lost in YouTube rabbit holes, and had to speak with family members directly affected by losses. And during that time, I got closer to the experience than I anticipated. It was a mix of diving into the internet and listening to real-life stories about it.

Okay, I have this favourite scene where Spence cut himself, began to bleed, and ran off. It felt like Spence was going through a mix of emotions. So what was it like filming that particular scene?

That was honestly a pretty short scene. We tried a few locations before ending up at the library, and I remember staying in the hallway by the door after running out, not leaving for Mark’s office. And that’s how I had chills hearing Ruth Cod deliver that monologue to Ilanca about Spence. Her [Ruth Cod's] performance in that scene is some of her best work on the show.

It was just the second episode, and she was so new at the time with us just a few weeks in, and she absolutely killed that scene.

So do you have any hopes for a second season?

Yeah, of course. We're all open to a second season because the show was designed in a way intended to be a multiple-season thing, and I think these are beautiful characters that I've grown to love. So I would love to see them grow some more and hopefully see Spencer's at-home relationship develop with him coming to terms with who he is in new ways that we haven't gotten to experience yet. So, yeah, yes, to a second season!

Okay, so any upcoming project? What’s next for you while we await a second season?

After filming, I trapped myself in my room for a few months. Someone had told me this thing about postpartum and how it’s like giving you’ve given birth to a baby when you’re done filming a project. So it felt like I had just created something ripped from my hands, and I was like, oh my gosh, what am I to do? But in terms of future projects, after I went through that little dark night, I finally escaped my bedroom and filmed a road trip movie where I drove across the US. And yeah, hopefully, everyone will get to see that in the next year, I think.