By Janet Susan R. Nepales
Siena Nicole Agudong was just seven years old when she was cast in a local production of “Willy Wonka” at the Hawaii Children’s Theatre.
Her older sister, Sydney, who portrayed Nani Pelekai in the live-action film “Lilo & Stitch,” inspired her to pursue acting.
Today, the charming and talented Kauai, Hawaii-born actress is enjoying being part of the Amazon Prime Video series “Carrie,” a supernatural horror drama based on Stephen King’s bestselling novel of the same title and the franchise’s first television series adaptation.
The 22-year-old Fil-Am actress portrays Susan “Sue” Snell, a popular student who experiences remorse for participating in the bullying of Carrie, portrayed by Summer H. Howell.
In an exclusive interview, Agudong explained why she wanted to be part of the project.
“I wanted to be part of this project because the story of Carrie has survived over time, but it is more relevant today than it ever has been,” she said. “In a world where we always talk about casual cruelty in this series, and now we have so much access, and it’s so easy for people to do that online and to affect one another in a matter of seconds and over miles. This story, at least from my character, is very much about kindness. I felt very drawn to explore that on screen.”
Agudong, who appeared in the films “Upside-Down Magic” (2020) and “F9” (2021), admitted that she had not watched the original 1976 film starring Sissy Spacek.
“I did read the book,” she revealed. “It was glued to my hip up until it fell apart because I was carrying it around so often. But I didn’t watch the original before playing.”
Agudong, who has earned several Young Artist Award and Young Entertainer Award nominations throughout her career, also spoke warmly about working with lead actress Summer Howell.
“I love Summer and everyone on that project; they are my forever family,” she confessed. “I like the cast and crew. Summer is a very beautiful Carrie on screen, and she is my own superhero off screen as well. She carries herself with so much strength as a woman and knows herself. I think the strength you see in Carrie, she’s able to access from her own powerful vulnerability. But that is real for her.”
As for her character, Sue, Agudong reflected on how much of herself she brought to the role.
“It’s funny because you always bring a big part of yourself to your character. I feel like from the beginning, when I was playing Sue, I was obviously in a hard project.
“All projects feel that way, but playing Sue felt like something that I had always wanted to do, but I didn’t know that a role like that existed. I think as Siena, I’ve always centered my world around the question of what does it mean to be kind or what kindness is?
“I’m from Hawaii, and we say aloha. I feel like those two are very tied. So that’s what I’m built off of. To play a character that’s quite literally built off of that principle, it’s powerful and I think overlooked in film and television.
“I think as someone who’s young and growing up and trying to find herself, that question is something I was grateful to explore and find an identity through. I hope that that’s what people also take away, finding their identity through kindness.”
Asked whether she had ever experienced bullying or discrimination during her career, Agudong was careful about how she characterized her experiences.
“Not to the extent that we talk about in this show,” she pointed out. “I don’t want to say that I have been bullied. I know that I’ve definitely had experiences that shaped me that were not friendly, but I don’t want to say that I have been.”
Did her older sister, Sydney, give her acting tips?
“Yes, she did,” she revealed. “Oh, my goodness, she’s held my hand throughout the years and will continue to hold my hand. And yeah, I look up to her a lot. I think her strength is as a person; she’s a very strong, feisty person. I think that’s definitely come into my work and the way that I kind of go out and have the courage.”
Aside from being inspired by Sydney, what made her pursue acting?
“I wanted to start because I loved making people laugh, and I didn’t realize that I could do that for a living,” she replied. “I think that job after job just led me here. But I think when I was seven, I really felt like I was just putting on a show for my parents in the living room, and I got to do it for a living. It’s just a bigger audience.
“I don’t like to think about everyone who gets to watch it. I’m just kind of still performing for the people I love, and it still feels like the proudest parts of my career are when I come home, and I’m like, hey, look at this clip that we have from set. I get the joy from just showing my family; that’s what brings that. It’s still just play for me.”
The daughter of Karen and Kenneth Agudong, the actress has Caucasian, Filipino and Polynesian roots. She spoke about her family background and her growing appreciation of her Filipino heritage.
“My paternal grandma’s from the Philippines. I was born and raised in Hawaii, and my grandmother sort of carried all of the Filipino culture. She’s passed now, but my dad has kept it alive for me. It’s funny because, being born and raised in Hawaii, I’m not Native Hawaiian, I’m Filipino and I’m Caucasian. But being born in Hawaii, you get Hawaiian culture, and it’s such a mixed background over there that I had no idea what was Filipino culture, what was Hawaiian culture, what was Portuguese, Samoan.
“It was only when we went to the Philippines about a year ago for Christmas, and I got there and looked around, that I saw so much pride. I remember looking at my dad, and I think we could all feel it, my sister, my dad and I.
“I think we all looked at each other and we were like, oh my goodness. Like, wow, something feels homey here. I feel these are my people. There’s a lot more to that. I hope to explore and understand Filipino culture. I’ve always had a lot of pride, and I feel very accepted by my Filipino people. They always point me out.”
She shared that her father’s family comes from Ilocos Norte and that her mother is American.
Asked what impressed her most about the Philippines, Agudong recalled the country’s natural beauty and the warmth of its people.
“What impressed me most was the beautiful islands!” she exclaimed. “I think we went to Coron, Palawan, and it was gorgeous. But I think, especially being from an island, I didn’t know it could get more beautiful than that. When we went over there, I thought it was gorgeous. But the people over there were just, like, always ready to giggle. And that’s the way I grew up. I didn’t realize how tied that is to our ethnicity.”
As for her acting goals, Agudong said she prefers to remain open to opportunities rather than follow a rigid career plan.
“I’m always still trying to figure it out and keeping the love alive by not really necessarily having a set plan,” she candidly answered. “But right now, I’m doing ‘Extraction 3’ for Netflix, an action movie. That’s always been a big goal of mine, coming from an athletic background.”
Agudong, who also holds a Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) certification, has long been interested in physically demanding activities.
“I started out doing parkour because I wanted to be an American Ninja Warrior. That was like a big dream. This is the blend between the two. The big dreams have always been to bring work home to Hawaii and be able to produce something out there with a local crew.
“But also, I do really love telling stories that I grew up on, like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. I sat in the room with my dad growing up, and that was what was playing every night. In the back of my head, it’s still what I want to be. So, action is where I want to be, but I also care to tell a biopic about Rocky, his real-life story.”
Agudong, who admires Florence Pugh as an actress and enjoys eating adobo, acknowledged that she still has much to learn about her Filipino heritage.
“There is still so much to discover about my roots because I didn’t grow up in the Philippines. But that’s what I am by blood. I think there was in my grandma’s past, and there’s so much of my culture that I’m still rediscovering.
“I think my dad is constantly teaching us about our history. I was just having this conversation with him last night, actually, where he was like, it’s really difficult. I find it difficult to learn anything about my roots and my culture because there is so much swept underground, and the media, we don’t have a lot of movies about Filipinos that I can watch to understand my culture. If I didn’t grow up there and I’m trying to learn Tagalog and it’s not on Duolingo, I’m struggling to reconnect with the culture that isn’t mainstream. There’s so much pride that’s being built, but it feels like we kind of have to lift it ourselves.”
Janet Susan R. Nepales is an award-winning journalist and the first Filipina voting member and Associate of the Golden Globe Awards. She has been a member since 2008 and is the first Filipina to be elected to the Advisory Board. She is the author of the coffee table book “FASHION. Filipino. Hollywood. The World” and the co-author of the first FWN book “DISRUPT: Filipina Women: Proud. Loud. Leading Without A Doubt.” A graduate of UST (AB Journalism, cum laude), she is based in Los Angeles and is a Hollywood entertainment journalist and TV correspondent.
