Mayfair Witches: Beth Grant Doesn’t See Carlotta as the Villain of the Story (Exclusive)

On AMC’s latest entry in the Immortal Universe, Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches, while the supernatural entity Lasher (Jack Huston) is positioned as the primary threat to Rowan (Alexandra Daddario) as she finds herself discovering more and more of herself and her heritage with the Mayfair family, he’s not the only somewhat dark force to be reckoned with. Rowan’s great aunt Carlotta Mayfair is also something of a threat. Viewers have seen Carlotta go to extraordinary measures in the name of protecting the family, including keeping Deirdre (Annabeth Gish) drugged for years and taking Rowan away at birth, not to mention sacrificing Deirdre’s caretaker, Delphine (Deneen Tyler), in the name of trying to keep Lasher at bay.

This week, Carlotta takes even further measures in her efforts against Lasher and the family’s dark legacy, but when asked by ComicBook.com if she thinks Carlotta is a villain or herself a victim of the family’s darkness, Beth Grant said that she sees the character fans have come to love to hate as something in between — and as someone who is very, very human.

Warning: spoilers for the fourth episode of Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches, “Curiouser and Curiouser”, beyond this point.

“She something in between, as all of us are. I don’t think that any of us are victims. We can all choose. I can look at my life and I can look back and I can say, ‘oh, poor me’ or I can say, ‘blessed, blessed, lucky lucky son of a gun.’ And so, I think somewhere in between, she is human caught in this huge maze, this family. How do you navigate that?”

Grant also knows that fans are loving her performance as Carlotta — and loving to hate Rowan’s aunt at the same time. For Grant, it comes down to the rich mythology of this powerful family that Anne Rice created and the complexity of each of the women within it.

“It feels great. I don’t see her as a bad guy at all,” she said. “So, I understand that there have to be complex characters in a story in [Rice’s] mythology. And she’s well-intentioned. She’s just misguided, and self will run riot. She’s trying to do what she thinks is best for everyone, but you can’t suppress your dark side. Unfortunately, she’s led astray, ironically, the one that’s trying to be good and save the family. But yes, I understand that people enjoy hating her.”

Grant also explained that while things took a deadly turn at the end of this week’s episode, she doesn’t think that Carlotta necessarily wanted to burn it all down, literally. She’s just caught in an extremely sad moment of deep heartbreak.

“I don’t think she actually planned necessarily to burn the house down, but she is making the decision at the dinner table, and then through the prayer, through the incantation, through praying for Antha, praying for Stella, it happens,” Grant said. “And she certainly didn’t mean to stab Ciprien … I think it’s a very spontaneous in the. moment and it’s a very sad moment for her. She’s heartbroken. She’s human.”

What is Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches about?

The series is based on Anne Rice’s trilogy of novels, Lives of The Mayfair Witches. The series synopsis is as follows: “Based on Anne Rice’s Lives of the Mayfair Witches, Mayfair Witches is an exploration of female power and the mortal implications of our decisions.  Mayfair Witches focuses on an intuitive young neurosurgeon (Alexandra Daddario) who discovers that she is the unlikely heir to a family of witches. As she grapples with her newfound powers, she must contend with a sinister presence that has haunted her family for generations.”

Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches airs Sundays at 9pm ET on AMC and AMC+.