Feminist 'Sabrina' aligns with Kiernan Shipka's female empowerment views

Victoria Ahearn, The Associated Press</span>
Published Friday, October 26, 2018 7:36AM EDT

TORONTO -- As young Sally Draper on "Mad Men," Kiernan Shipka played one of many female characters stuck in the patriarchal system of 1960s New York.

Now, the 18-year-old actress is taking on a decidedly more feminist role with the new Vancouver-shot Netflix series "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina."

Shipka's lead character is a half-witch, half-mortal who challenges the "dark lord" and the misogynistic conventions of her town of Greendale.

"The writers room is super women-heavy and I think the show then inherently has a feminist tone to it, so that's pretty awesome," Shipka said in a recent phone interview.

"It feels really good to be a part of a project that aligns very strongly with what I believe as far as female empowerment and all that kind of stuff.

"It feels like it's coming from a place of a lot of truth, which is wonderful."

Launching Friday, the series was developed by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, based on his comic 2014 book series.

Lucy Davis and Miranda Otto play Sabrina's witch aunts, who want her to undergo a "dark baptism" for her 16th birthday. Doing so would make her a full witch and force her to retreat from her mortal social circle that includes her boyfriend, played by Ross Lynch, and friends, played by Jaz Sinclair and Lachlan Watson.

Sabrina questions why she needs to let the dark lord control what she does with her future and her body (witch law forbids novitiates from "being anything less than virginal" at their baptism).

At school, she forms a "women protecting women" club to combat the bullying endured by her non-binary friend, played by Watson.

"Roberto and the writers are so good at mirroring what's going on in the world without really making direct references to it," said Shipka, a Chicago native whose other credits include the FX anthology series "Feud: Bette and Joan."

The series is dark but also comical, drawing comparisons to the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" TV show that ran from 1996 to 2003.

It's considered a separate entity from the "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" series, which ran during the same time period as "Buffy."

But it is billed as a companion to Netflix's Vancouver-shot "Riverdale," on which Aguirre-Sacasa is the showrunner. The two shows share many of the same collaborators as well as a similar spooky, foggy vibe.

"They've actually shot some stuff on some of our sets, redecorated for stuff," Shipka said.

"Our sets are, like, five minutes away from each other, so we definitely feel like sister shows in a lot of ways."

If the worlds of Sabrina and "Riverdale" ever come together, Shipka would like to see problem-plagued Archie be the vehicle.

"I feel like Sabrina and some of her aunts could brew him a cup of tea and calm him down," Shipka said.

Filming for season 2 is now underway. Shipka said they often shoot overnight, which adds to the dark vibe. They also often eschew visual effects, and build the real thing, to depict the supernatural elements.

"I think I've worked on a green screen once in this entire time on the entire show," Shipka said. "When the chairs are flying at me -- the chairs are flying at me."

She recalled shooting a scene in the woods, where her character falls and becomes entangled in branches that come to life.

"I think they made them a little more vicious in post (production), but it was still 2 a.m. in Canada and I was face-first in the mud and it was raining," she said. "It's still a great memory of mine."

Shipka said she keeps in touch with her co-stars from "Mad Men," which aired its final episode in 2015.

"After I wrapped 'Mad Men' there was this existential moment of, 'Oh my God, who am I? I've been on this show my entire life. It's been such a constant in my life,"' Shipka said.

"I just wanted to breathe and take one step at a time and not rush into anything, and take projects that were interesting or would be a valuable experience in some kind of way.

"So that's where I was for a long time, and then this came about and it felt like perfect timing."

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