AMC premiered the second chapter in their Anne Rice universe. Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches introduces Rowan Fielding (Alexandra Daddario), a neurosurgeon who discovers her family legacy in a different sort of craft. To make sure that witchcraft was accurate, the show’s creators also hired consultants.
Daddario and writers Michelle Ashford and Esta Spalding were on a Television Critics Association panel on Aug. 10. Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC.
Getting witchcraft right in ‘Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches’
Whether or not you believe in witchcraft, it’s certainly real to those who practice it. Rice wrote a fictional tale, but as showrunner, Spalding wanted to ensure accuracy in the practices Mayfair Witches depicts.
“We had a witchcraft consultant and in fact, we also had a Latin consultant,” Spalding said. “A Latin expert helped us figure out exactly how that would work. And then, the magic consultant kind of told us the way in which it would be said. And there are lots of spells we’ve been given help on. I mean, we’re shooting in New Orleans. The book is set in New Orleans. The city is full of all of this mythology, and we’ve tried to tap into it everywhere we can.”
Alexandra Daddario speaks Latin in ‘Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches’
The earliest trailers for Mayfair Witches showed Rowan speaking Latin incantations. Even with the Latin consultant, Daddario still could only learn it phonetically.
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“I wish I could say I learned a full language,” Daddario said. “But it was great fun. I mean, it’s hard, but it’s really fun because obviously, I never get to do anything like that in real life.”
Modern day medicine meets witchcraft
The clash of worlds between Rowan’s practice and the magic of witchcraft also sounded like juicy drama to the writers.
For someone who’s so versed in genre like Anne is we thought that’s a really curious choice. Why would you pick a doctor? So then we started doing research, and we found out that, in fact, the history, the real history of witches goes back many, many centuries, of course, and they started off, even before they were called witches, what they really were were they were healers. And then so we got very excited about this, and we realized, oh, she made her a witch because she really knew what she was talking about in terms of starting her off as a doctor, So it’s very steeped in research of what witches were back then, and what happened to them as healers when they encountered a patriarchy.
Michelle Ashford, Television Critics Association panel, 8/10/22
Spalding elaborated on the conflict witchcraft will pose to Rowan.
“To make Rowan this doctor who has a gift of healing and then also discovers a gift to destroy biologically, she’s really kind of in the fulcrum of this question of how do you use power?” Spalding said. “Do you heal with it? Do you destroy with it? As female power emerges will women begin to find ways to use power differently or will what they begin to construct be like patriarchy? I mean, that’s the sort of the central, big, huge question of the show is how should and will women use power? And it’s answered in various ways over the course of each episode and through this first season and beyond.”
