With the long-awaited arrival of Crystal Lake, showrunner Brad Caleb Kane shines a spotlight on Pamela “Pam” Voorhees (Linda Cardellini) years before the events of Friday the 13th. And while Pamela rightfully steals the show in the latest horror series to arrive on Peacock, a brand-new character created specifically for the show matches her scene-stealing power: Chief Levon “Lee” Brooks (William Catlett).
The guiding voice of reason and heart amidst a growing sea of carnage in the tiny New Jersey town, Chief Brooks is a grounding force. Even as things escalate beyond his control, his approach to life and the law is one of fairness, even though life isn’t always fair or as just as we’d like it to be. His presence and experience give Pamela something to hold onto, but the question remains whether that is enough to keep her from giving in to her killer instincts.
Get BWT in your inbox!
Get BWT in your inbox!
Ahead of the world premiere of Crystal Lake at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, we participated in a roundtable discussion with Linda Cardellini and William Catlett. During But Why Tho’s moments of questioning, we asked Catlett about establishing the baseline for Chief Brooks, a brand-new character entering the Friday the 13th universe, and how Cardellini and Catlett navigated their characters’ journeys with grief.
Read our review of Crystal Lake
When it came to the decision to take on Chief Levon Brooks, there was so much that attracted the character to Catlett on the page, many of the qualities that make the character so powerful and strong onscreen.
“Levon, his charisma, his gentleness, his awareness, his will to try to get things right, is what really attracted me to him, and try to correct things that he feels that he’s done wrong,” explained Catlett.
Taking on the new character, William Catlett shared that he couldn’t see it as pressure when stepping into an unfamiliar space or role: “I believe that every role that I’m destined to do, I will do, and that I have the capacity to carry that role.” In his scenes with Cardellini as Pamela, the natural way they worked and interacted helped solidify the connection between the characters and also nail down Levon’s overall wants and desires.
“When [Pamela and Levon] are walking and talking [at the camp], and we are having a little tit for tat, you can tell that he really wants this thing to work, whatever it may be. [He] really wants this town to work, whatever it may be. want a new start. [He] wants a new beginning,” he explained, before adding, “That allowed me to really connect with those ideas.”
Grief allowed Linda Cardellini and William Catlett to cement the bond between their characters.
One of the bonding tenets that brings Pamela and Chief Brooks together is their shared journey with grief, with each at different stages at the start of Crystal Lake.
“We can all, unfortunately, relate to grief,” shared Cardellini. “I don’t think anybody handles grief the same. But sometimes, when you find somebody where grief is written on their face, and you recognize it in them, that becomes a bond. That is something that [Levon] and [Pamela] unfortunately can bond over, and become something that [they] sort of move together with.”
“With the stages of grief, one of them is acceptance, and one is still being in denial, and I think Levon is in the portion of acceptance. Pam is still in denial that Jason’s gone,” continued Catlett. “That’s what merges us together. Levon looks at her, and it’s like, wow, you got to let it go. When are you gonna let it go? But [he] knows it’s hard to let go, and I think that gives the character so many different layers within each other.”
The biggest obstacle was surprisingly getting the hair right.
Despite the weighty themes both actors had to play with within their performances, one factor emerged as arguably the most difficult, and it might surprise viewers everywhere. “The only hard thing about doing this was, and we both went through this, it was getting the hair right,” shared Catlett with a smile.
Set in the early ’70s, the fashion of the period changed rapidly, with varying countercultures and the like competing for space (as viewers will see reflected in Crystal Lake). This rightfully extended into the hairstyles seen onscreen.
“I started off with a wig,” he explained. “I was just like, I just don’t think she falls in love with a guy that has that wig on. So me and Brad went back and forth a few times, and then he’s like, you know what? No wigs for nobody!” Thankfully, William Catlett and the team nailed down a hairstyle that worked and reflected Chief Brooks’ personality and profession in one go, while maintaining a clear connection to the time period.
In the end, this latest character to enter the Friday the 13th franchise easily stands on his own two feet thanks to William Catlett’s multifaceted performance in Crystal Lake. As a foil to Pamela Voorhees, Chief Levon Brooks emerges as the beacon of good and light Pamela can’t help gravitating toward, even when her instincts tell her to stay away from everyone. Hopefully, audiences fall behind and root for Chief Brooks as much as I did.
Crystal Lake is now streaming, exclusively on Peacock.
