The Big Picture

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff chats with
Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches
showrunner and EP Esta Spalding and cast members Harry Hamlin, Tongayi Chirisa, and Alyssa Jirrels at NYCC.
Starring Alexandra Daddario, Season 2 of AMC’s
Mayfair Witches
premieres on January 5, 2025, and will continue Rowan Fielding’s journey and exploration of her newfound powers.
During this interview, they discuss how the new season expands on character dynamics, filming in Scotland, and what we can expect from Rowan.

At this year’s New York Comic Con, Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches celebrated its official Season 2 premiere date on the Main Stage, where lucky attendees got to see a special screening of the season premiere. If you weren’t able to check out the panel for yourself, that’s okay! Collider’s Perri Nemiroff was on the ground at NYCC and had the chance to chat with series showrunner and executive producer Esta Spalding, as well as returning cast members Tongayi Chirisa and Harry Hamlin, and Season 2 inductee Alyssa Jirrels.

On January 5, 2025, Rowan Fielding’s (Alexandra Daddario) journey will continue. According to Spalding, she’ll not only grapple with her newfound “dark powers” but harness them “as the story goes on and the villains amass.” She’ll have to face the birth of Lasher (Jack Huston) and make sense of what he is and how to use him to her advantage, as well as do everything in her power to protect her family.

During their conversation, Spalding, Chirisa, Hamlin, and Jirrels serve up some Season 2 teases about the show filming in Scotland and what we can expect from their characters going forward. Jirrels discusses the aspects of her character from Rice’s novel she kept for Moira, and they each reveal who can be trusted (if anyone) and what their goals are for Season 2. You can watch the full interview in the video above or read the transcript below.

“Chaos Ensues” In ‘Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches’ Season 2
The story continues when Season 2 premieres on January 5 exclusively on AMC and AMC+.
Image via AMC

PERRI NEMIROFF: Esta, one of my absolute favorite things about this business is how, when you’re continuing a series, you can learn more and evolve every step of the way. What is something you learned while making Season 1 that made executing something on Season 2 even easier?

ESTA SPALDING: I learned how fun it is when Rowan’s bad, when she uses her witchy power, when she mixes it up, and chaos ensues. I think she’s learning that, too, so it’s nice we were learning the lesson together. The second season is all about leaning into the ways in which she’s a witch. She’s torn about some of the things she’s doing, but as the story goes on and the villains amass, she has to use the darker powers that she’s been given, and that’s exciting.

I feel like “dark” and “weird” are my personal keywords, so that was an excellent answer!

The other cool thing about evolving every step of the way is that it means, in a new season, you can level up, in a sense. What is something that you did in Season 2 that you would call “upping your game” with Mayfair Witches ?

SPALDING: We really explore the backstory of the family, the dynamics of the family in New Orleans. We get very much into the world that made Cortland, the father that made Cortland, and all of that twisted drama in the background leads to a great deal of twists in the front in the present.

13:34 Related Will Power Corrupt Rowan in ‘Mayfair Witches’ Season 2? Alexandra Daddario Weighs In Harry Hamlin, Tongayi Chirisa, Ben Feldman and Alyssa Jirrels also tease big powers, new characters, and more at SDCC.

I’ll veer into some character specifics now. I’m sure you love all the characters on this show, but when it came to crafting Season 2 arcs, is there any particular one that wound up being more creatively fulfilling than you ever could have imagined at the start?

SPALDING: Now I’m on the spot.

ALYSSA JIRRELS: Pick your favorite child! Who’s your favorite kid?

SPALDING: I feel like the Wizard of Oz! Cortland is really fun because Cortland carries the past, and of course, Cortland is a stone statue when we meet him, so he’s very much considering his past. That was really exciting and a great way to go into the books. But Moira also comes on the scene, and to write a mind reader is incredibly challenging and very, very fun. Then, writing for Alyssa was really fun. Then we have Cip, who keeps us all grounded, thank goodness. These are three great characters, but honestly, Rowan is divine to write for because she’s just getting badder and badder.

Tongayi, I had read a quote from Alex in another interview. She said, “I think Rowan’s main thing in this season is herself.” What do you think Cip’s main thing is in Season 2?

TONGAYI CHIRISA: Same thing. Absolutely. He’s been through the wringer. After the last [episode], when Rowan walks away with the baby, his mandate is to recover Lasher and bring him back to the Talamasca. But with everything that’s going on now, he doesn’t know who to trust. The Talamasca has been giving him the shifty eye, so now he’s having to discover for himself for the first time and think independently of the Talamasca — who he is, what his objective is, and why this baby is so important to them.

Image via AMC

To build on that a little more, last we spoke, you mentioned that Season 2 is the first time he’s thinking for himself and not for the Talamasca. At the very beginning of the series, what do you think his priorities were when working for them, and how have his priorities shifted now that he’s finding his own voice?

CHIRISA: He’s confused when we first meet him. He doesn’t know who to trust. He’s waiting for the storm to settle before he can make his next move. That’s interesting for Cip’s journey, discovering that for himself and seeing where this actually goes, because, at this point, he’s ready to risk it all. Where that lands is what we’re going to see in the second season.

Poor dude is stressed! In Episode 1, I feel for him.

New Faces In ‘Mayfair Witches’ Season 2 Bring New Energy
Season 2 adds Alyssa Jirrels, Ted Levine, Thora Birch and Ben Feldman.

Harry, I want to ask a little bit about adding Ted Levine as your father to the equation here. This is true in a show and in real life; whenever someone’s parent is around, it changes how they act and how they carry themselves. How does Cortland’s vibe change when his dad is near him?

HARRY HAMLIN: Cortland gets very dark and weird. That’s kind of your go-to, right? Cortland spends the second season investigating his past and his relationship with his father, which leads him into a very strange and very unusual future, which you only get to in the last couple of episodes of the season.

Because I think Ted Levine is an icon, I’m curious about working with him. What is something about Ted as a scene partner that you appreciated and maybe helped you reach something in Cortland that you wouldn’t have been able to access without him?

HAMLIN: Ted has a very dark and weird side to him, as I’m sure you know, and that comes out in the show when we’re working together. I had never met Ted before he showed up on the set, and everyone was saying, “Oh, Ted Levine is coming!” He was a sweetheart, a total sweetheart, but there’s a side of Ted that is kind of unknowable. I think that’s something that we were able to work with very well during the show. There’s a very enigmatic part of Ted Levine that comes out in the show.

Related ‘Mayfair Witches’ Stars Tease Cortland’s Fate in Season 2 It looks like Cortland is in for one hell of a season.

Alright, we’re gonna make this really awkward for you, Alyssa. Tongayi and Harry, I want you to talk about adding her to the mix here. It can be a big challenge for a new actor to come in and jump aboard a moving train. What was it about the way she joined the Mayfair Witches family that impressed you, and what’s something about her vibe and approach to the work that added a new layer to your collaboration?

HAMLIN: I would say it was seamless. She came in and brought so much beauty and so much joy to the set and also to her character. We are blessed to have her on the set.

JIRRELS: Thanks, Harry.

CHIRISA: What I like most about working with her is just the energy. She’s a high roller, and it’s always good to have fun when the cameras are not rolling, because then it just makes it easier when you have to do what you have to do in front of the camera. Good people! I think that’s very important when you are working with people, and you just come and are ready to play and have fun.

I love that.

JIRRELS: You guys! Keep going.

Alyssa, I’m bringing back the “weird” word because, in our other conversation, you had mentioned that you read the book, and you were really enjoying the weird qualities of the character. You said that more broadly though. Can you give me some specific examples, things you picked up from the books that you knew you wanted to hold especially tight to in your performance?

JIRRELS: Her rebelliousness is the part of it. Moira, as a character in the book, is very different. She’s 13, she’s very deeply sexual, which is interesting and very Anne Rice, but there’s a different story going on here. So, I think the rebelliousness and just the set-apart-from-the-crowdness was something that I wanted to hold onto. Everything else was challenging to show on television, I think.

Image via AMC

There are a bunch of characters in the show that are up to curious things on different sides of the divide. At the beginning of the show, which other character would you say she trusts the most, and who does she trust the least?

JIRRELS: I don’t think she trusts anybody but her little sister. Genuinely. I don’t think she trusts Rowan. I think she can’t stand Rowan, honestly. Not “can’t stand her,” — well, to a degree — but she just doesn’t understand the motivations of her actions, and I think that she just disagrees with her fundamentally. She doesn’t trust anybody.

It’s probably the better approach to navigating this world.

JIRRELS: I agree.

Actually, I’ll throw that to both of you two, as well, because it’s an interesting thing to consider. Who do your characters trust the most and the least?

CHIRISA: Trust the least? My boss, Albrecht.

Fair enough!

CHIRISA: Don’t trust him! Trust the most? I trust me, or Cip trusts himself right now.

That’s such a healthy answer.

HAMLIN: I don’t think Cortland trusts anybody, and definitely not himself. No, he’s an untrustworthy fellow. Do I like anybody?

Image via AMC

SPALDING: Your daughter, Jojo.

HAMLIN: I like Jojo. That’s true. Do I trust Jojo, though? No, I’m sorry. I don’t trust anybody.

Again, an understandable answer when you’re playing in this kind of situation.

‘Mayfair Witches’ Is Heading to Scotland in Season 2
“Everything is off the wall in Anne Rice’s world.”
Image via AMC+

For all of you, we’ve obviously spoken about dark and weird, and another term I’ve heard thrown around is “off the wall.” To tease what’s to come this season, can each of you say the single most off-the-wall thing you got to do while making Season 2 that you’re excited for viewers to get to see when it comes out?

HAMLIN: Cannibalism?

JIRRELS: I got to wear a really interesting costume piece. I’ll just say that.

SPALDING: One of the things that happens in the season is that five episodes in, we go to Scotland.

JIRRELS: Oh, well, if I can say that, then I wear a milkmaid dress. Whatever!

SPALDING: Yeah, Moira dresses as a milkmaid. Yeah, we go to Scotland, so a lot happens in the Highlands that is just so deeply the fabric of the novel and so very, very strange and wonderful, and terrifying.

More keywords I love. You’re just acing this interview today. How about for the two of you? Anything off-the-wall that you want to highlight?

HAMLIN: Everything is off the wall in Anne Rice’s world. There’s nothing on the wall, as far as I know.

That’s what keeps me coming back for more.

Related How Does ‘Interview with the Vampire’ Connect to ‘Mayfair Witches’? As the Immortal Universe expands on AMC, so do its references.

I’ve gotten in the habit of ending on this lately because, recently, a director who was working on something horror fantasy-related said that one of the most incredible things for him was seeing his actors take such joy in their work while tapping into darker material. For each of you, can you single out the most joyful moment you had on set making Mayfair Witches Season 2?

CHIRISA: I don’t know if I can say this, but it’s just these adorable kids. It was so cool. They were fun. Couldn’t understand a lick of what they were saying.

JIRRELS: Very Irish children.

CHIRISA: Very. But we were just here with each other, so that was fun.

HAMLIN: I have to say the most joyous moment was getting to know my dad, Ted Levine. Our first scenes together were extremely… I’m not sure “joyous” is the right word, but as an actor, perhaps it was joyous.

JIRRELS: There was a scene that we did with me, Harry, Ben [Feldman], Alex, and it was just us in a living room. It was an endless scene. This must have taken, like, two weeks to shoot, and the amount of stories that Harry Hamlin told in that time period. We were sitting around on the ground like children. That takes the cake for me.

SPALDING: It was such a delight to shoot in Ireland. It was so divine. There were some places that we shot that were deep, deep, deep down in valleys, no cell service — I don’t know how any of the equipment was running. We had this pageantry of beautiful, beautiful costumes by our costume designer, Carol Cutshall, these incredible actors, and various magical entities, like Highland cows and ducks and geese. There were weddings, and there were practically funerals. Every day was like getting to be in this terrifying fairy tale. It was very fun.

Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches Season 2 officially hits AMC and AMC+ on January 5, 2025. In the meantime, you can binge-watch (again!) Season 1.

Mayfair Witches (2023) Follows a neurosurgeon who discovers she is the unlikely heir to a family of witches. She must contend with a sinister presence that has haunted her family for generations.Creator Esta Spalding Franchise Immortal Universe Creator(s) Esta Spalding , Michelle Ashford Distributor AMC+ Story By Anne Rice Writers Michelle Ashford , Esta Spalding Expand

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