Today, Mayfair Witches returns to AMC with season two. In the second season, Rowan (Alexandra Daddario) faces the challenges of raising Lasher (Jack Huston) while discovering new facets of her powers. Ciprien (Tongayi Chirisa) grows independent from the Talamasca but is drawn back to its mission against Lasher. Moira Mayfair (Alyssa Jirrels), a mind-reader with a vendetta against Lasher, returns to New Orleans and clashes with Rowan while seeking justice for her sister’s death. Meanwhile, Cortland (Harry Hamlin)’s past crimes resurface, influencing the ongoing conflicts. The season also sees the introduction of Sam “Lark” Larkin (Ben Feldman), who provides scientific insight into Lasher’s nature, aiding Rowan in her quest for answers about her family’s dark ties.

Recently, stars Chirisa and Hamlin, as well as newcomers Jirrels and Feldman, spoke with the media about working on the series.

Read the transcript below. More to follow with Harry Hamlin that includes spoilers for later in the season.

***edited for length and clarity***

SCIFI VISION:    To start off, can you each talk about your character in relation to Rowan this season? Because obviously Alyssa and Ben, your characters are new, but Tongayi and Harry, they definitely have different interactions [with her] this season, let's just say. So, if you could each talk about that.

HARRY HAMLIN:   Who wants to start?

BEN FELDMAN:   I'll go, I'm new. Sam “Lark” Larkin - Lark is in quotes - is Rowan's ex-boyfriend, and he runs a genetics company. I don't know how much I can say about any of this, but he's sort of reeled back into her life for the story that takes place over the season, and there's a lot of nuance and subtext to their relationship, because it didn't work out once, and now they're back together. Will they or won't they? That's what I want to know.

ALYSSA JIRRELS:   I am Moira, and Moira is Rowan's cousin. So, she basically wants nothing to do with the family, but is again, reeled back in because of her sister Tessa being killed. All she knows is that Rowan has quite a bit to do with that. So, she really doesn't trust her at the top, and they sort of go through a process of a bit of a power play together. Then, it's also a bit, will they or won't they, in a different way. Rowan's two love interests, just kidding.

TONGAYI CHIRISA:    Well, you know what was going on with me, and Rowan wants nothing to do with me. She walked off at the end of season one. Now, I'm left to figure out a couple of things about who Sip is and what his relationship is with the Talamasca. And I think we start to see him just making some more informed independent decisions outside of the organization and his feelings towards Rowan concerning Lasher. But yes, as far as season one goes, they're not seeing eye to eye right now.

BEN FELDMAN:   It's a real, did they or didn't they?

TONGAYI CHIRISA:    Did they what? What are you, what are you talking about? What do you mean?

BEN FELDMAN:   I don't know. I haven't seen the show.

[laughter]

HARRY HAMLIN:   So, yeah. That's very interesting to find out who you guys are.

BEN FELDMAN:   Harry's zoomed his entire performance.

HARRY HAMLIN:   Cortland is the supposed patriarch of this family of witches. And I'm not sure whether I'm the father of Rowan, the brother of Rowan, the uncle of Rowan. I know I'm related in many ways to many of the witches in the family. Anne Rice had her own idea about exchanging bodily fluids among family members. So, I’m definitely finding out with each season and each script, how weird the relationships between Cortland and all the other witches are. And it's always fun to read these scripts because they don't tell us in advance where we're headed at the end of the season, so we find out that we're not really who we thought we were. And…Cortland makes a pretty dramatic change during this course of the season, which is really fun for me as an artist to have two canvases to play with…You'll find out when you see the rest of the show. It's been a really fun season for me, and getting to know Ben and Alyssa and Tongayi a lot better was really fun this season. You guys are great inspirations for me as an artist and as an actor. I just hope that we do a season three.

ALYSSA JIRRELS:   Your answer was so much better than all of ours.

BEN FELDMAN:   He's been doing it since like, you know, Prohibition.

QUESTION:    Ben and this is such a darker role than we've seen you in lately. Were you looking to do more dramatic work these days, or is this just a project that found you, and you couldn't pass it up?

BEN FELDMAN:   Kind of both. I mean, I haven't done a lot of this. I mean, I've done horror films, which this often felt like, but it's weird. It's a weird show and it's crazy. Everything is just bonkers. And I think that's what appealed to me specifically. I can't speak for the rest of the cast, but it was just unlike anything that I'd done and unlike anything that I watched. And I liked the idea that I could be in this world where sort of anything is possible, and it's dark, and it's creepy, but at the same time, I don't have to do a lot of running and screaming and magical witch stuff. I'm sort of an observer, which made it really interesting to me. I could still kind of be me and not have to learn any Latin chants.

QUESTION:    [Anne Rice’s] worlds are colliding…The world of the vampires is now kind of colliding with the world of the witches. Is this change exciting for you guys?

TONGAYI CHIRISA:    Yeah. I think Esther mentioned in one of the panels that we had a vampire, she didn't say who, but there was a vampire that makes an appearance on our season. So, yeah, very excited to see more of that. And hopefully at some point we'll see one of us, you know, [crossing] over to interview hopefully for their season three, who knows?

QUESTION:    This is such a huge franchise and such an important [part of] pop culture. What does it mean to each of you to be part of a franchise that's so huge?

HARRY HAMLIN:   You know, I'm going to just going to jump in quickly on that. From the inside out - and I've been in some franchises before, some shows that were considered big. We don't really know that on the inside. You have that perception of what we're doing. We are just showing up for work every morning and doing the next indicated action. Then, you guys form your opinion about whether it's a big franchise or not. So, I'm glad to hear that you think it is a big franchise. That's great. How do you guys feel about it?

ALYSSA JIRRELS:   That's a great answer.

TONGAYI CHIRISA:    Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's actually pretty true. It's like the pebble effect. You throw something in the water, and it ripples out, but you don't quite understand or quite know how far reaching it is until you start to get the feedback. So, I haven't personally heard anything, but I think, if anything is the testament, I think, with it being released on Netflix a couple of months ago and being in the top 10 for six to eight weeks or something like that. I don't know what those numbers translate to, but I think that's a big deal to be top 10 for that long. So, hopefully that will translate to something monumental at some point. We’ll know these numbers, but [we’re] very excited nonetheless.

BEN FELDMAN:   I'll also say, for me personally…and specific to this particular universe, Anne Rice was my mom's favorite. My mom passed away a couple of years ago, but when she was around, she had Anne Rice posters all over her walls and pictures of her going to Anne Rice parties and vampires licking her cleavage and just, like wigs. She read all the books, and my mom considered herself a witch, and she did tarot cards and she wrote in [Wiccan]. So, for me, it's an incredible universe you could be a part of. I think this is such a really interesting and strange and bizarre one to be a part of, and that's how it connects to me specifically. It was one of the reasons why I joined.

HARRY HAMLIN:   So, you grew up with pictures of witches licking your mother's cleavage?

ALYSSA JIRRELS:   How have you not heard this story before? Of course.

BEN FELDMAN:   It wasn’t a witch. The main picture. [laughs] in her office, like the biggest picture framed, was this guy, I think he had like a leather collar with spikes on it. Like it was a real S and M kind of dom situation. It was an Anne Rice party, and my mom had this like sequined, super low cut dress and like a wig on and a witch hat. And he was groping her. So, that's if anybody wants a little window in how I grew up. [laughs]

ALYSSA JIRRELS:   That's really sweet. I mean, I echo, I think, what Harry said and what everybody said really, I wasn't super aware of Anne Rice, but it's a cool thing to sort of watch people come out of the woodwork. People are so passionate about this genre, like people who love the genre, love this genre. So, that's very exciting to sort of get to see various friends and families’ obsession with things like this. And it was exciting to be in New Orleans as well, because they're so proud of Anne Rice, and this is so the culture of that. So, yeah, it's really a blessing to be able to kind of go into a new world in that way.

QUESTION:    One of the things about the show is getting power, keeping power or seeking power. Talk about that, how it relates so far, maybe with the first season, and if you want to hint about season two, that's fine too. It's for all of you…All the different aspects of power. It's like, once you have it, you're addicted to it. All of that.

ALYSSA JIRRELS:   Yeah, it's so interesting. I mean, I think on my end for Moira, she's very suspicious of specifically the Mayfair's relationship to that power, and I think she's very used to it being used for all the wrong reasons, but it's also, it's a tempting thing. So, yeah, I think she's kind of the only one, and maybe that's not your guys' perspective, but I feel like she's one of the only ones who has perhaps a correct understanding and suspicion of how it can be used in all the bad ways.

BEN FELDMAN:   Yeah. If you completely ignore my character's existence, I would argue you're the only moral compass in the show.

ALYSSA JIRRELS:   Yeah. Sorry. You're so easy to forget about.

BEN FELDMAN:   Definitely a good point. You're the moral north star.

ALYSSA JIRRELS:   Yeah, I am.

BEN FELDMAN:   No, you're right. You're also in the family. I think, I mean, I don't know, I wasn't here last year, but this season feels more of, to Alyssa's point, a morality play, because it's not just getting power and keeping power, it's what you do with power, and what justifies what. Once you've gotten to a super dark and dangerous place, is doing something bad for the greater good morally just? And I think there's a lot of exploration of that in this particular season.

HARRY HAMLIN:   The end justifies the means. Is that what you're saying?

BEN FELDMAN:   I mean, that's the question, I think, a lot of times in this season, does the end justify the means? Certainly from my character's perspective, who's an outsider, and is just watching all this bat shit, crazy stuff happen in front of him and wondering if Rowan is as good as he thought she was.

HARRY HAMLIN:   Well, I think her answer to this question would be the seminal one, because she's the one who did not know she had these powers, now has them, and has to figure out what to do with them and how to deal with that. So, from Cortland's perspective, I don't really have any powers. I live forever, I guess. I mean, they can change that whenever they want.

But right now, I have job security. So, I was very happy to hear that. But aside from that, I don't have any powers. So, I can't really answer that question.

QUESTION:    Well, you actually have a power, but not necessarily a witch power, but you kind of position yourself in a way in the family, where you're very cordial and very nice, but you have all these different little agendas going on, and that can be powerful in itself.

HARRY HAMLIN:   Okay, I'm going to take that all the way to the bank.

TONGAYI CHIRISA:    And I think for Sip's character, like you said, some people, power was bestowed onto them, like Rowan, who didn't know. But I think for Sip, he's starting to grow into that knowledge, not only for himself, but I think the position that he faces, and he finds himself with the Talamasca and the opportunity to grow into the status quo power that he might eventually have and to see what he would do with that based off of his experiences, not only with himself, but within the context of the Mayfair family and every other supernatural entity that he might encounter. So, I'm excited to see what that looks like, because he most certainly hasn't tapped into everything, but he's starting to understand and learn.

QUESTION:    Ben, you and Alexandra get pretty close in this season. Talk about working with her.

BEN FELDMAN:   Alex is fantastic, is a really fun hang, which I think first and foremost is important to me. But she's a great actress.

You can kind of see, she could be going through whatever in real life, and then the camera will turn on, and she's like locked. She's just can turn on a dime in a way that I wish I could. I carry baggage everywhere I go. But we had a lot of fun. What was cool for Alex and I specifically on this show, without giving too much away, is that I would show up to a scene and she'll be like, “Oh, thank God, it's one of your scenes.” She's like, “All day long, I've been commanding a thunderstorm.” [laughs] And, and we just get to have this kind of almost rom com moments…before things get a little out of hand. It's just a character relationship study, essentially. And so it was lighter, I got a much lighter experience. And whenever Alex and I were together, it was a lot of fun, because it felt like almost a different story than the bigger, greater, scarier, creepier one.

QUESTION:    What is it like to have Buffalo Bill himself, Ted Levine, join this cast? I mean, what did you find particularly special about his work?

HARRY HAMLIN:   Well, I guess I spent probably the most time with Ted. And I mean, talk about a commanding presence and also, you know, someone who can shake you to your bones with a look. I mean, all he has to do is give you the side eye, and my blood would run cold, but what a great guy. And we had a tremendous amount of fun on the set. I won't go into our last scene together…he's a fantastic dude to work with. Yeah.

ALYSSA JIRRELS:   Yeah, I went and watched him a couple of the days that he was working. I just went and sat in video village, and he would do something completely different every single take, just little subtleties or big swinging choices, completely different. He's really quite a lovely guy, like he's very sweet, but a very intense presence for sure. And yeah, extremely commanding on camera. But I just really loved watching him, because I thought he just has the ability to completely turn a scene over if he so chooses, which is really exciting to watch.