Mayfair Witches: Alexandra Daddario Knows What Rowan Wants

Anne Rice’s books have very precise descriptions of Ciprien’s gifts, was that a jumping off point and did you also do personal research?

Tongayi Chirisa: Yeah. Ciprien is an amalgamation of two characters, Aaron [Lightner], who worked for the Talamasca, and Michael who has these gifts. These elements that these two had, we meshed that, and went on this discovery of finding out who Ciprien was in his own right, without delving too much on the history of these two other characters.

From that standpoint, and me being a fan of mythology and religion, you look at Lasher and what his impact was, and how he was conjured up. You start to ask the questions “what dimension is he from” and “what’s his mission,” because they have similar throughlines. These things don’t just come for the fun of it. If you conjure something up, there’s an end goal for the entity. Just trying to discover what that is, and what it takes to take it out or send it back to its other world, was some of the research that I did.

Obviously, reading the book to see the full circle of Lasher and what his mission was on earth just made it that much more compelling.

I also cover Interview with the Vampire, and I notice Rice’s adaptations allow actors to explore extreme vulnerability. What were you most excited to discover, and does anything take you out of your comfort zone?

Alexandra Daddario: Yeah, this was an uncomfortable show to shoot, for me, because it was so intense and so dark at times. But that was also, again, the joy of it, because I got to dive into what it means to be human. Everything around witches, I’m totally comfortable with.