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Did You Catch That Bachelor Cameo in The Haunting of Hill House?

Mike Flanagan reveals the story behind the random appearance

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Sadie Gennis

If you were busy hunting down Easter eggs in The Haunting of Hill House, you might have been too distracted to notice a bizarre cameo in the back half of the season. Then again, even if you were at full attention, unless you're a particular brand of dedicated TV fan you still probably missed the hilariously random appearance.

In Episode 7, "Eulogy," the younger Hugh Crain (Henry Thomas) becomes obsessive about fixing the water damage throughout the house. In order to get a handle on the situation, Hugh calls in an expert to take a look at the damage and debate the likelihood of rats being the culprit behind the scratching sounds in the walls (spoiler alert: it wasn't rats). The man playing this expert? Why it was none other than Bachelor Nation producer Elan Gale.

​Elan Gale, The Haunting of Hill House
Netflix

If you're deep into Bachelor Nation, you're familiar with Gale, who has produced The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Bachelor in Paradise and even Bachelor Pad(RIP). If you aren't, you're probably confused as to why anyone would even care about the producer of a suite of ABC reality shows. But the thing about The Bachelor is that the people behind the camera become part of the mythology and fandom too, with fans often discussing the producers much in the same way they discuss contestants.

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This pretty much explains how Gale's cameo came about. As Hill House creator Mike Flanagan told us, he and his wife Kate Siegel, who plays Theo Crain in the terrifying Netflix series, became big fans of Gale's because they're both card-carrying members of Bachelor Nation, and things grew from there.

"Kate and I are huge fans of The Bachelor -- we watch it all the time -- and it turns out Elan is a big fan of Hush," Flanagan told TV Guide, referencing his 2016 film which also stars Siegel. "We tweeted some mutual adoration to each other, and then met and became great friends, which was a fantastic surprise. He's one of my favorite people and it was a real pleasure to have him on set."

So there you have it: The story behind Hill House's weirdest and greatest cameo. Because who cares about hidden ghosts when you could be spotting a Bachelor producer?

The Haunting of Hill House is available on Netflix now.

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