Photo Courtesy of Joshua Shultz
Finding Carter, the MTV drama about a girl who was abducted at the age of 3, and then returned to her biological family (over a decade later) is back and crazier than ever. [Stop what you’re doing and catch the first 8 minutes of the new season on the MTV app, it’s pretty epic!]
Kathryn Prescott, who plays Carter Stevens, a confident, and popular teen who is ripped from the only life she’s known and forced into a new one with her real parents David (Alexis Denisof) and Elizabeth (Cynthia Watros), twin sister Taylor (Anna Jacoby-Heron) and younger brother Grant (Zac Pullman) has no shortage of struggles after learning this gut wrenching revelation. From a bad boy boyfriend, to dueling moms, season one was not overly kind to her. When we last left Carter, she was being abducted (for the second time) by Lori Stevens (Milena Govich), kidnapper and faux mom for the last thirteen years. The first time around Carter was hellbent on protecting the only mother she knew, but things gradually shifted as her bond with her biological family grew exponentially over the course of season one.
The 23-year-old actress, who is well-known for her role as Emily Fitch on Skins, is not only owning her portrayal of Carter on the hit series, but you quickly find yourself feeling a connection to this character no matter what she seems to be going through. Prescott chatted with me before the premiere about what’s to come in season two; crazy fake mom, new love interests, mind-blowing secrets and more! We even got to reminisce about her time on Skins (a personal fave of mine), and talked about her favorite fan theory– spoiler alert, it involves aliens…
MCKENZIE MORRELL: For those who may not be familiar with the premise of Finding Carter, can you tell us about it and the character you play?
KATHRYN PRESCOTT: It’s about a young girl who lives this great life with her single mom, and then one day she gets arrested for doing something silly, and when they look on the computer they find out that that’s not her real name and she’s actually this girl that they’ve been looking for in another state for about thirteen years. So, she gets returned to her real family and then, the whole season one is her trying to find her way and come to terms with the fact that her mom isn’t who she thought she was. At the end of season one, Carter gets kidnapped again by the same woman. The woman drugs her and somehow gets her to come with her, and then season two the abductor has got Carter on the run with her.
MM: Talk about bad luck! How do you think you’d react if you find yourself in Carter’s situation? You’ve already got the twin thing down! (laughs)
KP: Exactly! I don’t know what I’d do- do you mean this season or next season?
MM: Last season, just kind of leading up to her getting kidnapped again. She can’t catch a break.
KP: If I got kidnapped twice by the same woman, I would definitely freak out a bit. I would probably do the same thing that Carter’s doing in the beginning of season two, which is just trying to pacify Lori and just not set her off, because she’s obviously a lot more unstable than Carter previously thought. Even though she knew she was unstable, drugging someone is just kind of another level of instability. I feel like she’s just trying to not set her off for the moment and figure out how she can get away from her.
MM: You’re well known for playing Emily Fitch on Skins. Now that Finding Carter is in its second season, have you found that your U.K. fans have followed you across the pond?
KP: Yeah. It’s really, really nice. A lot of people who watch Skins, or a lot of people who come up to me and say they’ve watched Finding Carter and that they’ve “really liked Skins, as well.” So that’s cool that it had such a wide reach.
MM: It’s been a little while since Skins Fire ended. Did you have a favorite memory from filming that show?
KP: Oh yeah- I loved going back and seeing everyone again. It was really odd actually, because I lived with Lily [Loveless], who plays Naomi, for a year after we did the original seasons together. It was a bit weird going back and working with her, and pretending to be these people again, when we knew each other really well and who we actually were, but it was good. It was kind of a sad storyline, so it wasn’t really like a happy, happy thing, but yeah it was nice to go back and hang out with those guys again.
MM: Now, there are a lot of fan theories floating around about who Lori actually is to David. Do you have a favorite fan theory that you’ve maybe read or seen online?
KP: I read something about aliens. (laughs) I forget what the exact theory was, but it was something like David and Elizabeth are really aliens and Lori knows that, and so she took her. That was my favorite one by far.
MM: (laughs) That’s great. How do you think what happened to Max (Alex Saxon) last season is going to affect all of Carter’s relationships on the show, especially with her sister?
KP: Well, I don’t think Carter and Max’s relationship is going to be changing. I think it’s more Carter’s relationship with Crash when he comes back, and Max’s relationship with Crash when he comes back. Taylor can’t believe that anyone would forgive Crash, and she’s so angry about the whole thing still- understandably so. And to see Carter and Max not immediately dismiss Crash, and not want anything to do with him- I think she just doesn’t understand and gets angry at them and it will affect Taylor’s relationship with both Carter and Max. You know, they have a difference of opinion on how Crash should be treated after he did such terrible things.
MM: Right. It’s going to be interesting to see it all play out. Now, what attracted you to this show? What do you look for when choosing a project?
KP: Authenticity. I know there’s some crazy storylines in Finding Carter, and there are crazy storylines out there, but as long as they’re rich in ways that feel authentic to how real people are and real troubles people go through, physically and emotionally, as long as it feels genuine then I want to do it. I would never do something that I thought was just people saying lines, or a story for the sake of the story kind of thing. I’m lucky to choose the work that I’ve been able to do so far.
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- Alex Saxon
- Alexis Denisof
- Anna Jacoby-Heron
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- Kathryn Prescott
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- Milena Govich
- MTV
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- Skins
- Zac Pullman
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Former tech nerd and Producer at a Literary Publicity Firm. Just a gal with a B.S. in Journalism, who loves covering the Entertainment world. Credits include World Wrestling Entertainment as the Intern Online Content Editor, NBC Universal for both The Steve Wilkos and The Jerry Springer Show, and at Red 7 Media where I created content both online and in print for the company’s various publications.
In my spare time, I enjoy watching and reviewing my favorite T.V. shows, as well as interviewing some of my favorite celebs in the industry. I’m sarcastic, opinionated, and thrive off of technology and social media.