Discover the Immortal Universe of Anne Rice in "Mayfair Witches": Exclusive details from the showrunner.

"... it feels like a love letter to Anne's books and the city that Anne loved and wrote about so beautifully."

The actress Alexandra Daddario (True Detective, The White Lotus) portrays Dr. Rowan in "Mayfair Witches," the character created by writer Anne Rice for her trilogy focused on a family of witches whose fortune has been guided by a spirit named Lasher throughout several generations, and which has been adapted into a series format. This new production, consisting of eight episodes, is part of the catalog of the Lionsgate+ platform in Latin America, since June 16th.

The creator, writer, and executive producer, Esta Spalding, shared details of the creative process of this series and the evolution that the main character, Rowan, undergoes throughout the season, as well as what it meant to film in New Orleans, the chosen location where Rice wrote her famous Victorian house and these gothic novels.

- This is another addition to Anne Rice's Immortal Universe that comes to life on the screen. The author herself wanted the worlds of "Interview with the Vampire" and "Mayfair Witches" to be interconnected. How did you become part of this series, and which elements of the source material attracted you the most?

Mark Johnson is producing the entire Immortal Universe series and had worked with Michelle Ashford, who is a wonderful screenwriter. She recently created "Masters of Sex," and I worked with her on that show. Mark thought Michelle would be interested in the material of "Mayfair Witches." It is quite difficult as a feminist to resist writing about all of this. Michelle and I were looking for a way to work together because we had a great experience working on "Masters," so when Mark approached her, she called me and said, "Hey, do you want to read this book and see if you're interested?" She was not inclined to be the showrunner because she has many other projects underway, while I love showrunning. It's what I always want to do, I love getting involved in a particular show, so it also seemed like an excellent way to divide the roles.

So, I read the material. I hadn't read the "Mayfair Witches" books before; I knew the vampire books but not the witch books, and I was immediately absorbed. Not only was I completely absorbed by the main character, Rowan, and her journey through that particular first book, but I was also captivated by the fact that Anne Rice had turned her witch into a doctor. I thought it was incredibly innovative and an interesting choice. I researched the history of witches and, in particular, the genocide of women healers and midwives in Medieval Europe by the Church. These women were accused of witchcraft and were mass-slaughtered—drowned, hanged, burned, and all sorts of things. As I read more about that history, it seemed like a brilliant choice by Rice to do this because it made Rowan come out of that legacy of midwives and healers. I loved that choice! I loved that story! And it felt really important to include that in the first season of the show.

- When we meet Rowan in Episode 1, she is an incredibly successful neurosurgeon, but there are certain things that suggest she is not as centered and organized in her life as she projects. Can you tell us about how Rowan finds her true north in this season and the journey she embarks on?

Her success as a doctor is a big part of the book. When Michelle and I wrote the pilot together, we really worked from that image of Rowan as that absolutely brilliant and accomplished surgeon who seems, as my mother would say, to have everything under control in her life and at the hospital, but at the same time, she hides a part of herself that is much wilder. She has this boat where she lives. She loves being outdoors and in the open air; she doesn't want to meet men who are doctors or intellectuals like her. She wants to have unique nights with people she meets at a bar (in the book, they are mostly firefighters and policemen). We weren't that specific, but she goes to a bar on the dock. She just feels like she has another, more turbulent side and doesn't show it to most people in her life.

In the book, you feel that she doesn't really know who she is or doesn't fully understand herself, and she has always felt like she's hiding a part of herself. So she has tried to appear as the good girl, tried to be the outstanding student and the successful doctor and all that, but in reality, there is an unknown part of her that she is repressing and hiding. Her journey in the first season is to truly understand who she is, not only who she is in the family she comes from but also what her powers are. She hasn't fully recognized or understood these powers. She has the power to heal but also the power to cause great harm, and in some way, she takes delight in that destructiveness. It's something she doesn't admit for a long time, but she has that wild side.

- Is it true that the First Street house in Mayfair was inspired by Anne Rice's real-life mansion, which she bought with the advance she received for "The Witching Hour"? Can you tell us about the role the house and New Orleans play in the series?

I passed by that house almost every day. When I was filming, I would go there daily. Then, as production became more hectic, I couldn't go every day, but it was about eight blocks away from where I was staying. It's the most beautiful and inspiring house, surrounded by all these crazy, twisted oak trees with crows all around. You just feel the magical presence of that place. It was very, very exciting to write about it and imagine it there. In interviews, she spoke about waking up in the morning, opening the shutters, and sitting down to start writing and writing all day until night, at that desk, in that house. It was really exciting to think about her writing the book there and then trying to do everything possible to live up to that storytelling.

It was also very exciting to film in New Orleans for New Orleans and really open our eyes and our hearts to the city. We hired almost exclusively local staff. We had a production designer from the city. We were looking for ways to make New Orleans inhabit the space of the show. Just to give a small example, I was watching a documentary about food in New Orleans, and I saw this young Filipina burlesque dancer called Grandmafun who performs in New Orleans, and I wondered if she could be in the show. I went to our casting guy, who is also local, Ryan Glorioso, and asked him if he could find her, and he did! So she ended up being in the show.

We found the Skull and Bones Gang to come and perform their music for our second line parade, to make it really distinctive but very, very local and original to the city. We were filming in all these buildings and locations in New Orleans, and wherever we went, there were people who loved Anne Rice's work and loved the "Mayfair Witches" books. We drew inspiration and excitement from everyone. The extras in the scenes were so excited to be there because of how much the books meant to them, so it feels like a love letter to Anne's books and the city that Anne loved and wrote about so beautifully.

I hope that when viewers watch it, they feel that way because it is certainly what we intended.

- In the first season,there is a recurring theme of trust, both in whom Rowan should trust and in questioning her own trust. Is that correct?

That's right. How can you trust yourself when you don't really know who you are, when you're surprising yourself? I mean, she kills someone in the first episode, so she never really trusts herself or this power she feels has taken hold of her. She initially looks to Ciprien because he offers a version of someone she believes she can trust, as he has information about her powers. But the entire season revolves around dilemmas like: Should Rowan trust Ciprien? Should she trust Lasher? She is torn between these two versions of what her power can be, if she can control it or enhance it and use it to its full extent. As Lasher says, "You are you, and I am a part of you, and you have to see this hidden part of yourself that you don't see." So, there is a real question of trust at the heart of that triangle.

What I loved about the book, and I hope we reflected it in the show, is that she is getting herself involved in this huge and expanding family, filled with very warm, loving, and jovial people, but everyone has an agenda. I mean, there is power at play, in the form of Lasher, in the form of money, houses, inheritance, and all that, so whom can Rowan trust? What I loved when we were writing it was thinking about how each character believed they were the one who could help her the most. They all genuinely believed in their own views, how she should handle this situation, what she should do. There are some very, very bad characters involved who are doing nefarious things, but they all believe in their own position, wholeheartedly. They really think that what they are offering is good and true.

- The first episode ends with Rowan deeply distressed by the loss of her mother and her first real sighting of Lasher. Seeing some of Deidre's backstory in this episode, we already know that Lasher's ability to seduce and manipulate is unparalleled. What can you reveal about Lasher and how Rowan will handle that relationship as the season progresses?

I guess I would just say that we always wanted to believe that Lasher was both an angel and a demon. Lasher says that in the pilot. He says, "I am a saint, and I am a demon." He offers both things. He is giving Rowan the opportunity to fully embrace her power, but he also has his own reasons for wanting her to enter that power. There is an evil, but he is genuinely offering her the chance not to shy away from her power, not to try to cover it up or put gloves on like Cip does. I hope the audience wonders, "Will he control her, or will she take control of him and dominate him the way she will dominate her own powers? Which one will it be?" I want viewers to be excited by that question and excited to see which direction it will take.

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