Amber Midthunder’s Goalpost Is Always Moving

During the filming of Mike Flanagan’s Carrie miniseries in Vancouver last year, Amber Midthunder joined several cast and crew members to watch 28 Years Later in theaters. “All the trailers started playing, and I was like, ‘Wait,’” she recalls to Bustle over Zoom. She turned to writer-producer Alexandra Magistro to figure out what they were in for. “I go, ‘Is this movie scary?!’ And she just face-palmed. She was like, ‘Why are you here?’”

As it turns out, the 29-year-old New Mexico native isn’t much for horror. “I’m working on it,” she says. Midthunder has already seen the new Carrie twice, though. And fear not — while the modern-day Stephen King adaptation is distressing to watch, it was kind of a ball behind the scenes. On the day they shot the infamous locker-room scene, where telekinetic teen Carrie (played by Summer H. Howell) is relentlessly bullied by her classmates after getting her period, showrunner Flanagan walked into the cast tent with a box of Labubus.

He had just received a surprise shipment of Pop Mart’s viral monster figures and asked the cast if they wanted them. “We all got gifted Labubus that day,” Midthunder says. “We took pictures of them on our chairs, [and] there were just Labubus everywhere for the rest of the season. Mike was like a Labubu Santa Claus.”

Midthunder plays Rita, the sympathetic gym teacher familiar to viewers of past Carrie iterations. This time, she’s got a much more fleshed-out sense of her own values and personal life. “When the show first came to me, I was like, Oh, what mean girl am I playing? And then I was like, Oh! OK, I’m a teacher,” she says with a laugh.

But if it was a little jarring to play a grown-up job, it’s fitting, too, because Midthunder has more than proved her ability to hold her own on screen. She notably led 2022’s Prey, the fifth entry in the Predator franchise, for which she earned widespread acclaim. The latest stops on her genre-hopping résumé include 2025’s action comedy Novocaine and this year’s family drama How We Stand, which just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“I think I’m quite ambitious, and I have a lot that I still have yet to accomplish,” Midthunder says. “It’s sort of that middle ground. I feel the experience that I’ve earned, but I also feel like the goalpost is always moving. There’s still so much more ahead.”

Next, she’ll star alongside Walton Goggins in the action film Painter. And despite her own viewing proclivities, there’s more horror: reteaming with several members of the Carrie posse for Magistro’s feature directorial debut, Rot. She’d also love to do a romance movie, but when it comes to planning her next move, she’s not one to get bogged down by specifics.

“One of my friends was like, ‘I feel like you’re always doing cool things,’” Midthunder says. “And I was really proud of that.”

Learn more about Midthunder in her Bustle Booth questionnaire below.

In The Bustle Booth

What’s your coffee order?

Matcha or hōjicha latte, almond or coconut milk, no sweetener, iced no matter the weather.

What are the saved weather locations on your phone?

You know how people have so many alarms they scroll for miles through them? That’s me with my weather page.

What’s your sign?

Taurus.

Favorite overused movie quote?

“We’re gonna need a bigger boat.” — Jaws

What was your favorite cartoon as a kid?

The Powerpuff Girls.

What’s one movie or TV show you’re currently obsessed with?

Ted Lasso.

Who is your celeb idol?

Viola Davis.

If you had to be on a reality TV show, what would it be?

The Traitors.

Go-to karaoke song?

“No Scrubs.”

What’s something that’s inspiring you lately?

My family.

What is something you would want people to say about you?

That I’m thoughtful and kind.