How Hannah Anderson became a Canadian scream queen

The horror genre has treated Hannah Anderson well. The Winnipeg born and raised actress — who has starred in the terrifying films Jigsaw, What Keeps You Alive, The Curse Of Audrey Earnshaw, and Dark Nature, as well as the horror series The Purge — admits to Flatlander, “Horror has been so good to me.”

But after appearing in so many entries to the genre, Anderson actually told her agents, “I don’t want to do any more horror. Don’t send any more horror stuff my way.” She then spent a year pursuing other roles and different types of films, only for Anderson to humbly return to them and declare she was once again interested in horror. 

That’s when they sent her the script for Return To Silent Hill — the third installment to the franchise, following on from 2006’s Silent Hill and its 2012 sequel Silent Hill: Revelation. A huge fan of the original film, which she was frightened by as a teenager, Anderson instantly jumped at the chance to be involved. “The imagery of the original film always stayed with me. Reading the script really transported me back to that time. I was so happy when I found out I’d actually got the part.”

Anderson’s joy quickly turned to fear, though, when she learned she had to play several characters in Return To Silent Hill, which revolves around a broken man returning to the titular ghost town after he gets a mysterious letter suggesting his lost love is there. When he gets to Silent Hill, though, he starts to question his sanity, as haunting figures appear before him. “I’ve done a lot of horror work, but I’ve never played multiple characters before. I was really scared to do it. But I knew I just had to move through the fear and get to the other side.”

Anderson has been confronting and overcoming her fears all the way through her acting career. Growing up in Winnipeg, where she attended St. Mary’s Academy, she initially planned to be a surgeon because she just didn’t think becoming an actor was possible. “I remember I didn’t think I was good enough to even audition for the school play. In my first year at school, I didn’t even try. Then in the second year, I got close to becoming the lead. At the same time, drama was becoming my favorite class.”

As her interest in performing grew, she pleaded with her parents to take her to numerous plays at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, even though she was still way too young to be seeing them. “When I was 12 or 13, they took me to see Lady, Be Good. I remember watching the actors and being in awe. They looked like they were having so much fun. I just had this tingly feeling running through my body.”

With her ambitions now set in stone, Anderson began taking additional theatre classes and even started to get work as an extra on films and shows that were shot in Winnipeg. A particular highlight was being a stand-in for Clemence Poesy. All of this helped make an acting career feel like a real possibility, especially once she was accepted into the prestigious George Brown Theatre School in Toronto. 

Even studying there came with its own hurdles. So much so that, when it came time to depart, she didn’t know if she was ready. “I was so scared to leave. Because it wasn’t exactly nurturing. I actually feel like I lost my sense of self and came out of it more confused than ever. So I was both afraid and at the same time excited because I was craving my own artistic freedom and I didn’t want to be marked on my craft anymore.”

While she initially aimed to be a theatre actor, she was quickly pulled into the world of film and television, as she secured roles in episodes of The LA Complex, Saving Hope, Reign, and Lost Girl. From there she was cast in Jigsaw, The Purge series, and X-Men: Dark Phoenix. “I have a friend who says I was fast-tracked and catapulted into the industry. But you quickly realize there’s no clear path. You can take a big step forward and 10,000 steps back. The job requires so much resilience and therapy.”

The most challenging aspect of her life, though, came at arguably the highest point of her career. After being cast in The Purge, she had to film the show as her mother was dying of cancer. “It was this weird juxtaposition of having worked so hard to get this thing, getting it, but now I’m losing the thing that’s actually the most important thing in my life. That was a real wake up call for me. After that I really started to reevaluate what was important in my life.”

Now Anderson is in a place where she not only has a much healthier work/life balance, but she’s much more intentional about the roles she wants to play. As a result, she’s not actually sure what’s next for her and her career. “I’m just really interested in exploring my own creativity,” she admits. “I want to experiment. I’m currently painting and doing choreography more, while creating and auditioning. At this point, I just want to see what naturally pops up for me.”