Alison Thornton Weighs In On Carrie Fans Shipping Chris & Sue
“There’s so much love between them, in whatever form audiences want to interpret it.”
For half a decade, Chris Hargensen from the Carrie universe has existed as the paragon of cinematic bullies. Alison Thornton is changing that. In the 2026 Prime Video adaptation, the 27-year-old actor explores a previously unseen side of the world according to Chris, mining the emotional motives behind Ewen High’s most conniving mean girl.
“Weirdly, I don’t think it has much to do with Carrie,” Thornton muses about why Chris chooses her victim. “It’s mainly that Chris doesn’t have any coping mechanisms and is too young and sheltered to understand the consequences. Carrie just entered Chris’ life at a really unfortunate time when she’s feeling replaced by everyone she loves.”
The new series reimagines Chris’ bullying tactics for the modern age, giving her a Gossip Girl-esque anonymous Instagram profile where she posts incendiary gossip about the students and faculty behind an embarrassing photo of Carrie. Toward the end of the season, Carrie confronts Chris about her confusing motives, leaving Chris herself to wonder why she felt so antagonized.
“I don’t actually think Chris knows why she targets Carrie,” Thornton says. “It’s so layered and complicated.” She cites Carrie’s resemblance to Chris’ stepsister as one piece of the puzzle, plus the desire to push Carrie away from Sue. “But mainly, Chris is just so confused and envious of Carrie’s optimism and hopefulness. That’s so threatening to Chris’ worldview and how she’s been taught to gain popularity and power. The more she bullies Carrie, the more people flock to Carrie, and to Chris it’s just like, ‘That’s not how this works!’’’
Unlike Stephen King’s novels and the other famous adaptations of Carrie, Thornton’s Chris is explicitly going through a ton of turmoil at home. Her dad ignores her amid a financially ruinous embezzlement scheme; her mom fawns over the daughter of her new boyfriend; and her best friend Sue Snell has begun prioritizing a friendship with Carrie over herself.
Basically, Chris’ world is falling apart at the same time Carrie’s is opening up, and Thornton points to Chris’ most pivotal relationships to really explain the character’s psyche.
Chris & Sue: More Than Friends?
The imagined ship between Chris and Sue has been an ongoing topic within the Carrie fandom for years, and new fans have also caught wind of potential romantic feelings from Thornton’s performance as Chris. There’s not real evidence for this reading — aside from Chris’ world-destroying anger at losing Sue’s undivided attention — but Thornton is here for the shippers. Although, she read this relationship differently.
“I love that fans are shipping them and finding things that I didn’t necessarily even realize when filming,” Thornton says. “But I’ve always thought of Sue as Chris’ parent in a way. She’s been the person really looking out for Chris’ well-being instead of her real parents. Like in the first episode, Chris doesn’t get breakfast from her dad, but Sue gives her a burrito at school.”
“Maybe there’s something else,” Thornton adds. “There’s so much love between them, in whatever form audiences want to interpret it.”
A New Shade Of Billy
Unlike Chris’ deep bond with Sue, her chaotic relationship with Billy has always been depicted as more of a circumstantial fling rather than an actual love. However, the new Carrie shines a different light on the anarchic menace. In a key scene, Billy unlocks the vengeance festering within Chris by holding a brick over a freeway, similar to how the newly created character Emaline unleashes Carrie’s powers through dangerous provocations.
“Once Sue leaves the picture, Chris kind of replaces her with Billy and goes from being influenced by a force of light to a force of darkness,” Thornton says. “That overpass scene is very parallel to Carrie and Emaline’s dynamic. They both have external forces guiding them towards the wrong choices.”
An Altered Ending
Although Emaline controlled Carrie during the bulk of the prom massacre, Carrie creator Mike Flanagan emphasized that Carrie was in control when she crushed her tormentor in Billy’s car right as Chris was finally about to apologize. The Emaline element is a huge change from every other version of Carrie, and it makes the murder of Chris feel even more personal.
It’s a story about a girl finding power and deciding how to use it for good or evil.
“Chris has been wanting to apologize for a while but never felt like she could until then. Her saying, ‘I’m sorry,’ is true remorse, and she really wants to make things as right as she can in her last moments,” Thornton says.
“I like that Carrie is not fully responsible for killing the whole prom, but she does still kill Chris,” Thornton continues. “Is it a villain origin story? Is it a hero origin story? It’s so morally gray. I don’t think it’s ever justified to kill someone, but it’s a story about a girl finding power and deciding how to use it for good or evil.”
Sadly, Chris’ death means it’s unlikely that Thornton will return if Carrie is renewed for another season, but she’s holding out hope for some supernatural twist. “I would love to go back, but I also don’t know how that could happen,” Thornton says. “Maybe there’s a flashback at some point or something? Fingers crossed.”
