Mary-Louise Parker Enters Stephen King’s ‘The Institute’ [Interview]

At Dread, our Digital Features give us the chance to spotlight the creators, projects, and talent pushing horror in bold new directions. These profiles let us dive deeper into the genre stories we can’t stop thinking about. For this midsummer edition, I check into The Institute, the new MGM+ streaming series adaptation of Stephen King’s novel of the same name, to speak with its legendary star, Mary-Louise Parker.

The two-time Tony and Golden Globe winner became a household name as Nancy Botwin in the groundbreaking Showtime series Weeds; however, my admiration for Parker began with the brilliant, swept-away madness of her portrayal of Harper Pitt in HBO’s Angels in America. That performance left such an impression on my gay little heart that when I met her, decades later over Zoom, I was a bit uncharacteristically starstruck.

In The Institute, Parker viciously steps into her villain era as Ms. Sigsby, the cold and calculating director of a sinister facility that abducts children with psychic abilities for nefarious purposes. It’s a role steeped in moral ambiguity, but Parker didn’t flinch at the risk. She describes the character as someone with “no moral compass,” a woman entirely disconnected from the emotional consequences of her actions. “She has no sense of other people and how they feel,” she tells me, “or what might happen as a result of her bad behavior.” It’s a level of detachment she admits is a struggle to fathom.

When the conversation turns to the nature of evil, Parker doesn’t offer a definitive take, crisply telling me she’s “not a moral authority” and therefore in no position to decide such a thing. Still, she finds the ways that Sigsby justifies her actions fascinating, especially her belief that she’s preventing an apocalypse by sacrificing a few for the many.

“Human life is human life. It’s where we get into trouble when people start treating others as statistics. When we think in terms of numbers instead of empathy, that’s when it all gets a little dangerous.” I’m inclined to agree.

That tension—between logic and horror, bureaucracy and brutality—is at the heart ofThe Institute. It’s a level of human cruelty Parker calls “so debauched it’s kind of unfathomable.” She notes that the original novel had even younger children at its center, a detail that was adjusted slightly for the adaptation. “It’s more palatable with teenagers,” she says, though the cruelty remains deeply biting.

And no matter how closely the series was to align with the novel, it’s possible to summon that same sense of tension. We talk about the particular terror of reading horror versus watching it. Parker believes books hit differently because they demand more imagination. “You’re creating your own visuals,” she explains. “They embed in a different way. You’re conjuring from your imagination, and that makes it resonate longer.”

In The Institute, as in many of Stephen King’s other novels—Carrie, Firestarter, IT—psychically sensitive children take center stage. When I bring up the idea that young people might be more attuned to intuition or hidden senses, Parker is blunt. “I think we did them a real disservice giving them phones,” she says. “I wish they’d never been invented. I wish I’d never given them to my kids.” Despite holding off on social media as long as she could, “it still got in,” she adds. “There’s a million roads in. And it all just leads to decay.”

I ask if she thinks artists, especially actors, might be more metaphysically or emotionally sensitive. But Parker doesn’t romanticize her instincts. “I’m usually trying to keep my impulses under control,” she says with a rare laugh.

As we wrap up, I ask about her relationship with the supernatural, as I usually do with talent who are promoting a project themed around the subject. She doesn’t claim belief, but neither does she rule anything out.

“I think I experience that every day,” she says. “I can’t explain the world. I marvel at everything. Why do we have knees? Why are there dead stars? Why is there matter? Nothing isn’t worth marveling at.” She’s skeptical of those who position themselves as experts in mysticism, but concedes, “Some people are in touch with other things. Sometimes information just falls on them. Who knows? Anything is possible. The fact that we’re even talking is wild—so why not?”

It’s not that Parker was rude or condescending. Not at all. But there was a distinctly honest way she communicated with me during this interview. There was no fake laughter, no pod person pretense, and no pretending to be interested in the uninteresting. Due to this sharp authenticity, I didn’t have a precise read on the room with Parker until we wrapped up.

Before signing off, Parker narrows her eyes and says, “Your questions were really unusual. I appreciate it.”

And I leave the room as starstruck as when I entered it.

You can now stream The Institute on MGM+. New episodes drop Sundays at 9/7 central until its finale on August 24th. The series was developed by Benjamin Cavell and is executive produced by Jack Bender.

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