Mayfair Witches showrunners explain book to show changes: 'We had to make hard choices'
Warning: This post contains spoilers from Mayfair Witches episodes 1-4.
Adapting a beloved book for TV can be a tough task, but adapting one that's almost 1,000 pages is a whole other story. When showrunners and executive producers Esta Spalding and Michelle Ashford set out to adapt Anne Rice's Lives of the Mayfair Witches for AMC, they knew they had a lot of material to draw inspiration from but little time to do it in. "We were given eight episodes for a one thousand page book," Spalding says, referring to The Witching Hour, the first book in the three-part series. "It's an absolute cornucopia of deliciousness and we had to make hard choices."
Mayfair Witches details neurosurgeon Dr. Rowan Fielding's (Alexandra Daddario) discovery that she's a witch with deadly powers and a twisted family tree. Ahead of Friday morning's announcement that the series has been renewed for season 2, EW spoke with Spalding and Ashford about how they made those hard choices (and made changes to beloved characters from the novels) and to preview a bit of what's to come in the final half of the season.
Michael + Aaron = Ciprien
Alfonso Bresciani/AMC Tongayi Chirisa as Ciprien Grieve in 'Mayfair Witches'
In episode 1, we meet Ciprien Grieve (Tongayi Chirisa), a Talamasca agent who harnesses psychic abilities by touching people or objects. The Talamasca, comparable to the Illuminati, is a secret organization within Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles and Lives of the Mayfair Witches book series whose members keep watch on paranormal activity. Cip, as he's called in the show, is assigned to protect Rowan from any harm. Even though Rowan's skeptical of him at first meeting, a romance eventually blossoms.
Spalding and Ashford modeled Cip after two characters from the novel: Aaron Lightner, a member of the Talamasca, and Michael Curry, a civilian from New Orleans who falls in love with Rowan. Spalding explained that with the addition of the all-knowing spirit Lasher (Jack Huston), three male characters orbiting Rowan in the show would've been one too many.
"In a story that's eight [episodes] where you have to streamline, we really wanted Rowan to have agency," Spalding says. "And we debated long and hard whether or not to call the character Michael, because the character had so many attributes of Michael Curry." "And we didn't wanna call him Aaron, obviously," Ashford says. "So it seemed like, in a weird way, the most respectful way to proceed was to combine them and make him his own original character."
Cip wears a pair of gloves, similar to Michael in the books, to protect himself from being inundated with intense visions. "That that act of touching something and seeing memories gives real empathy to a character," Spalding says. "He has to wear the gloves because the world is so present. Touching things floods him with all kinds of people's pain, sorrow, and sadness."
Rowan rocks blonde hair and grey eyes in the books
Alfonso Bresciani/AMC Alexandra Daddario as Dr. Rowan Fielding in 'Mayfair Witches'
Rowan, the 13th Mayfair witch, leaves her job as a neurosurgeon, discovers she's a witch, meets her birth mother for the first time and then watches her die right before her eyes — all within the first half of the season. Spalding and Ashford say that staying true to the color of Rowans hair and eyes was not a priority when casting the role.
"Our job was to make sure that we get the best Rowan possible," Ashford says. "For us, the requirements for Rowan we felt were much bigger than that. It had to be someone who was smart enough to be a surgeon and had a sort of mysterious quality that you would really believe that that woman would find out that she's a witch. Alex, obviously being incredibly beautiful, but also just incredibly magnetic physically, we felt like this was a great choice."
Sibling Switch: In the books, Cortland and Carlotta are a generation apart
Alfonso Bresciani/AMC (2) Harry Hamlin as Cortland Mayfair and Beth Grant as Carlotta Mayfair in 'Mayfair Witches'
The TV series introduces Cortland Mayfair (Harry Hamlin) and Carlotta Mayfair (Beth Grant) as brother and sister, when in the books they're a generation apart. Similar to the condensing of Michael and Aaron into Ciprien, Ashford says that making the family as concentrated and tight as possible seemed to work best dramatically.
"You say brother or sister and immediately the audience has a visceral reaction, like oh, I know what that's like," she explains. "The notion that Anne created this family that was so complicated and so far reaching, twisted and sort of incestuous in so many ways, it is our job to make sure that the thing has as much sort of dramatic heft as possible."
Spalding adds, "And the primal relationships that exist between siblings, the rivalry, jealousies, and so on. We are trying to find ways to make these connections between characters."
Lasher, the all-knowing... rock star?
Alfonso Bresciani/AMC Jack Huston as Lasher in 'Mayfair Witches'
An evil spirit called Lasher has haunted the Mayfair family for generations, seducing the witches and using their powers for his own sinister motives. While not much about Lasher is really changed from book to show, Spalding revealed that they came to cast Huston because he had a certain rock 'n roll je ne sais quoi.
"How are you gonna have somebody who's both present and not present, who's seductive, but also evil? What does this person live like in a human body? And we would always talk about rock stars. The way a rockstar walks into a room and the air kind of bristles with the knowledge that that being is there, that's how Lasher would be in the Mayfair family. When we met Jack, we thought he has the most extraordinarily warm, charismatic, amazing presence, it felt like our Lasher had stepped in front of us."
Huston started his journey of transforming into Lasher by first nailing down the voice. "I think that was one of his ways into the character," Ashford says. "He found a really, very specific voice that transcends, it does feel sort of otherworldly."
Spalding reveals that we'll be hearing various accents from the dashing demon as the season progresses, including a Scottish accent that she says Huston modeled after a friend of his.
What's to come is under lock and key
AMC Viewers will soon find out why Lasher's necklace is shaped like a key.
The bond between Lasher and Rowan's late mother Deirdre (Annabeth Gish) is represented by a key-shaped gold necklace adorned with emeralds. The piece had been worn by generations of Mayfair witches in allegiance to Lasher, and in episode three we see Carlotta lock her maid Delphine in the basement with the necklace, only to find that Lasher kills her and gifts the necklace to Rowan. In episode 4, Carlotta sees Rowan wearing the key around her neck and sets her own dining room ablaze, locking herself and Rowan in.
The full significance of the necklace is still a mystery to viewers, but to readers of the books there's been an obvious visual change. The jewelry was originally just an emerald, not a key. When asked why the switch was made, Spalding hinted "that question will be very definitively answered in episode 6."
Until then, new episodes of Mayfair Witches stream Thursdays on AMC+ and air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.
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