Posted in: AMC, TV | Tagged: Alyssa Jirrels, amc, mayfair witches, Tongayi Chirisa

Mayfair Witches Season 2: Chirisa & Jirrels on Showrunner, Crossovers

Mayfair Witches' Tongayi Chirisa and Alyssa Jirrels discussed showrunner Esta Spalding, possible "Immortal Universe" crossovers, and more.

Tongayi Chirisa certainly has a chip on his shoulder trying to play empath and Talamasca agent Ciprien Grieve on AMC's Mayfair Witches, especially when his character didn't even exist in the Anne Rice work but was a combination of characters Michael Curry and Aaron Lightner adapted for TV. That is thanks to the tireless efforts of creators Michelle Ashford and showrunner Esta Spalding to help weave that supernatural world Dr. Rowan Fielding (Alexandra Daddario) finds herself in unraveling the secrets of the Mayfair family, and among the newest additions for season two is Alyssa Jirrels' Moira Mayfair. Chirisa and Jirrels spoke to Bleeding Cool about working with Spalding and her open-door communication policy, production challenges, and how soon we could expect Mayfair Witches to cross over into the other Immortal Universe shows like Interview with a Vampire.

Mayfair Witches Stars Tongayi Chirisa & Alyssa Jirrels on Showrunner Esta Spalding, Filming Season Two and Crossover Teases

Bleeding Cool: How is Esta as showrunner and how well she and Michelle [Ashford] were able to pull off adapting 'Mayfair Witches' to TV?

Jirrels: Esta's wonderful and so available from the get. She's a lovely human person, which, to me, is the most important thing and incredibly easy to talk to. If you ever have any questions, she's receptive to collaboration. There's a lot to keep track of, and she's got the whole thing in her head, which is super admirable. I love her, not to mention a great lady, too.

Chirisa: I echo everything she just said, wonderful individual, and collaborative. That's the one thing I appreciate where I remember one scene we filmed in Ireland, but the location didn't fit the narrative of the script. So literally, ten minutes before we had to start rolling, we rewrote the scene and it was just me, her, the head writer at the time. [Esta's] like, "Let's think of something and figure this thing out." That was a testament to how open she is to making the material that much better. Sometimes, it'd be like that where you got five minutes before the camera goes up. It's like, "Let's make this happen!" so I enjoyed that. It makes for a fruitful experience when you have a showrunner like Esta steering the ship.

Jirrels: Totally.

What have been your biggest challenges during this upcoming season?

Chirisa: Not so much for me. The biggest thing was…and I wouldn't call it a challenge, but it was having to keep the young children entertained for three hours while we had to do one of our scenes. Working with kids can go either way, so I had to be like this giant swing for like three hours to keep them entertained and happy and forget they were filming. That, in and of itself, was quite a challenge, but I loved it. The kids were amazing, so we had a good time. That's as much of a challenge as I had from season two.

Jirrels: The first thing I thought of was the humidity. That was the biggest challenge [laughs]; everybody was like, "Your hair! Oh my God!" Everybody was so freaked out about that. The thing that comes to mind is. We had like a sequence in Ireland that we shot, for like one to two weeks. We kept coming back to the same place. That was like an hour to an hour and a half outside of where we were all living. It was rainy and cold and it was like it was primarily weather challenges. If that's what your problem is, then you know you're doing pretty good.

Since both shows are out there [with 'Interview with the Vampire'] and the development of a third series, have there been any teases of a possible crossover?

Chirisa: There's been teasing about that idea. In our season, we do have a vampire. I'm not sure who it was, but he made an appearance in season two. Those are the little carrots they're dangling in front of us, and hopefully, there'll be a lot more coming. Inevitably at some point, it's going to have to happen in this Immortal Universe. We should expect that. If not season three, then season four. I look forward to seeing that happen and the introduction of many other wonderful characters that Anne Rice has from the myriad of books she's got.

Mayfair Witches, which also stars Jack Huston, Harry Hamlin, Ben Feldman, Ted Levine, and Thora Birch, premieres January 5th on AMC.

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