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Award-winning actress Crystal Balint has over two decades of experience on the stage and screen. She’s captivated audiences in projects including The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco, Prison Break, Mech-X4, and more.

This fall, she stars in Mike Flanagan’s highly-anticipated new series Midnight Mass.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to chat with Crystal about her career, Midnight Mass, and more.

Career

PC: How did you discover your passion for storytelling?
Crystal: I grew up on movies and TV. I was a child of the ’80s. I spent countless hours watching television, whether on my own or with my mom or my grandparents. I have really fond memories of watching shows or movies with the people that I love.

Plus, I think that the fact that I was an only child and needed to discover ways to keep myself busy made me just fall in love with the whole medium. I would watch certain movies over and over again. I learned the lines and memorized the scenes; I still do that.

At twelve or thirteen years old, I joined the theater company in my small community, which was a blast. I went into the drama program in high school and had an incredible teacher who challenged us to use our imaginations and question the norms. So by the time I graduated, I was not only hooked but it was pretty much unavoidable that I would try my damnedest to carve out a living in this world that I loved so much.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Crystal: That’s an excellent question! I’ve had so many influences on my career, and they’ve mostly been the people that I’ve worked with in this industry. I’ve had the good fortune to work with a tremendous number of really talented, passionate people and also to be coached by and taught by some really terrific folks. So I feel like those have been the biggest influences on not necessarily the direction that my career has taken but definitely on the way in which I approach it and my work.

A couple of notable people that have been pivotal would be my wonderful friend and teacher Ben Immanuel, who is not only an excellent actor himself but also a really tremendous storyteller, director, teacher, coach, and support. He’s someone who really loves the arts and has a passion for it. He helped push me outside of my comfort zone so that I could start to branch out into some areas of my craft that I hadn’t always been comfortable with.

I also have a really amazing partner who is also a tremendously talented actor (Nicholas Lea). He’s been so integral to my really being able to fine-tune my work by asking those deeper questions when I’m approaching roles. He’s got a terrific eye for uncovering the more nuanced ways to bring my characters to life, and it’s often in ways that I hadn’t considered. I feel like I grow a little as an artist when I work with him on things, even when we don’t see eye to eye, because he just brings a unique view to my process.

PC: You’ve had a lot of success throughout your career. When you look back, is there a particular moment that stands out?
Crystal: I’ve been very fortunate to have had a lot of really terrific opportunities in the course of my career so far. Honestly, it’s really difficult to isolate just one experience that stands out, but I can highlight a few that are really special to me for different reasons.

The first would be a stage play that I was a part of called Helen Lawrence; it was an original piece that was a hybrid of film and stage. We toured and performed it in a number of cities all over the world. It was an incredible ride to be a part of, not just because of the worldwide adventure that I got to go on and the unique work that we did on stage but because I also met my partner Nick working on it. Not only did we bond during the run of the show, but we got to travel the world together and now he’s the love of my life and we have a family. So that experience quite literally changed my life.

Working on The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco was a really pivotal experience for me career-wise because it was my first time being one of the leads of a show. I was fortunate to work alongside three incredible female actors: Rachael Stirling, Julie Graham, and Chanelle Peloso. They will forever be a part of the circle of people whom I trust, love, and respect. They not only kept me afloat throughout that production but they taught me how to be a lead on a show, and I’m just forever indebted to what I learned from them.

And of course, working on Midnight Mass was just truly one of the most amazing experiences of my career because there was nothing like it. Shooting it during a pandemic immediately makes it stand out from the pack, but also the show itself is so gorgeously written and realized and the cast was just…I mean, they are all incredible human beings and stellar actors to boot. So from all points, even standing in the cold and wet at 4 a.m., it was a blast and a treat and I’m just so thankful for every moment of it.

Midnight Mass

PC: Speaking of Midnight Mass, can you tell us about the series and your character?
Crystal: Midnight Mass is this incredible series that was created, written, and directed by Mike Flanagan (it’s worth noting he also produced and edited it). It’s really a wonder of a show for a myriad of reasons—chief amongst them is that it’s remarkably well written and incredibly performed. I couldn’t be prouder or more grateful to be a part of it.

My character is a woman named Dolly Scarborough; she is a resident of Crockett Island, where the show takes place, and her husband is the mayor of this tiny community of just 127 residents. When we meet Dolly at the beginning of the series, she’s in a pretty dark place. She’s had a very difficult few years; her family has gone through some tremendous hardship as her daughter was injured in a “hunting accident” and was left paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. This has been a really, really hard adjustment for Dolly, coupled with the fact that her community has been struggling to recover from a tragic ecological disaster, which has stripped her home of its dignity.

Dolly is a person who truly loves two things—her family and her community—so it’s been really hard for her to accept and reconcile the way things are around her and she really needs a miracle. Dolly is a quiet woman, but she’s a true believer, a good, God-fearing, faithful woman whose modus operandi is love; she really just wants to do the right things and to see her daughter and her community healthy and thriving. So when things start to shift for her, after all she’s been through, she is one of the first people who just falls in line with the changes that start to occur on the island.

PC: You’ve done it all throughout your career. What was it about this script and character that stood out to you?
Crystal: Well, I wouldn’t say I’ve done it all yet! There are a ton of things I’d still love to do. When I was offered this role, I hadn’t seen The Haunting of Hill House yet, so I wasn’t familiar with Mike’s work. But after watching Hill House (which I promptly did after I signed onto the show) and seeing how incredible that series was, I was so excited to get to work with both Mike and some of the cast whom I’d already become a big fan of.

Then when I read the scripts…I mean, I couldn’t put them down. I literally binge-read the scripts. It was so beautifully written; even on the page it gave you shivers, made you cry, shook you, and took you on this crazy ride. Add in the look of the show, the feel of it, and all these uber-talented actors to breathe life into the characters? I mean, it was so exciting. So I was really compelled by just the depth of the writing on this personal and truly human story—and I was really moved by how much everyone brought to the show.

PC: Dolly has a transformative journey with her faith throughout the series. How did you prepare to tackle that arc?
Crystal: When I first took the job and had my very first meeting with Mike Flanagan, he had asked me to take a look at some of the things that were happening in Jonestown. So I did some research on Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple and also sought out and listened to what is often called the “Death Tapes,” which is a devastating recording of the final moments during what took place in Jonestown in November 1978.

What I found most interesting about that recording was the fact that even with all that was going on around them, the death and horror that they had initiated, there are these voices chanting phrases like, “He’s with you” or “Have faith.” They’re representative of how these people still remained really connected to this faith and belief that what they were doing was true and good and necessary for everyone’s well-being, even as people were dying around them. So that’s an interesting moral place to try to uncover for Dolly. She’s given these tremendous gifts very early on in the show and those are like a trail of breadcrumbs to take her to this very scary place later on. It’s ultimately her love and her faith that motivate her choices. Like many of those people who were led to this scary place in Jonestown by their faith, Dolly is a believer who in the end is duped by her own devotion.

PC: There are so many incredibly relevant themes within the series. Was there one in particular that hit home for you?
Crystal: I mean, they’re all so rich and there’s so much to mine in this text that is relevant and applicable to the times that we’re living now. The age-old questions about religion: Is there a God? How far do we take religion and how far is too far? And who is right and who is wrong?

But there are also some really deep life questions being posed: Is there life after death? What is good and what’s bad? What will we do for love? You know, all these things we consider as we face the balance of our own mortality. Really, I’m just impressed with how well these conversations were brought to the table in the show, and I’m still having conversations with people who have watched it; people of all faiths I’ve been finding have been moved by the topics raised by the work. But I guess the main thing that I really took away from it is that the things that we often believe are the issue, such as religion or faith, those things that tend to divide us are not really to blame: it’s people and their interpretation that is ultimately the problem. Human nature and human morality is flawed, and that’s really what gets us all into trouble.

PC: The series has been incredibly well received. What do you think is resonating most with audiences?
Crystal: That’s hard to say because the audience is so varied. Mike has a huge and loyal fan base who really know, trust, and love his storytelling approach, which is amazing. But I think we’re actually getting some attention from people who maybe never have seen Mike’s shows before, people like me who aren’t typically horror fans—full disclosure, I don’t generally watch horror shows because I’m too much of a scaredy-cat!

So if you just watch this show on its own with no other reference, it’s hard not to be moved by the tone of the show and how it really takes its time creating this tangible world. Mike has been pretty candid about how personal this project is to him and how much time, energy, and effort he put into it—really painting with this delicate brush all the characters and the connections and the imagery—and I think that’s really compelling.

Plus, there is something really relatable about the people of Crockett Island, both in the way that they were written and the way that they’re portrayed by the incredible cast of people who I feel are all at the top of their game. Everybody is so believable; I believe every moment that I see on the screen. You can sort of find a piece of yourself in at least one of the characters on this island. That doesn’t happen with everything you watch, and I think that makes you want to hang in and go on the ride with them, especially because the journey takes such a fascinating and ultimately dark twist. Because if you see yourself in one of these people, regardless of who that is or how much you see of yourself in them, you can relate to a little of what they go through. And that’s just good, thoughtful television-watching that keeps you wanting more.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: Guilty pleasure TV show?
Crystal: Legendary on HBO. I can not get enough of that show and will binge a season in like two days.

PC: Guilty pleasure movie?
Crystal: I Love You, Man. Ask me how many times I’ve seen it and I might blush a little.

PC: Favorite book?
Crystal: The Unauthorized Biography of Henry VIII (or anything about the Tudor dynasty, really).

PC: Favorite play or musical?
Crystal: Chicago. I saw the film eight times in the theater. Playing Velma Kelly is a goal of mine, but I think I’m too old now…bummer.

PC: A band or artist that fans would be surprised to learn is on your playlist?
Crystal: Nine Inch Nails. The whole discography. Trent Reznor just gets me.

PC: Who would play you in the story of your life?
Crystal: Me? I mean, if I’m available.

To keep up with Crystal, follow her on Twitter and Instagram. Watch Midnight Mass on Netflix today.

Photo Credit: The Portrait Sessions