Mayfair Witches: Jack Huston Says Lasher is a Lonely, Heartbreaking Character (Exclusive)

When it comes to AMC's Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches, the idea of who is a villain isn't necessarily cut and dry. While there are certainly sinister doings and mysterious things happening that may or may not be in the best interests of Rowan (Alexandra Daddario), the series' main character, those behind those doings and happenings are far more complex than just good and evil. And for Jack Huston, who plays the series' primary antagonist, Lasher, his character isn't necessarily a villain. The actor told ComicBook.com that he sees Lasher as being sad, lonely, and heartbreaking.

"I'm funny about villains, so I never say necessarily villain," Huston said when asked if he saw Lasher as a villain. "There are villainous traits to Lasher, but to compartmentalize it as this is that, this is that, this is that, I think there's a lot of crossover in this situation. I found him rather sad and lonely and a bit heartbreaking. I don't know. Imagine if you only existed because of somebody else, or you were attached to someone, the confines, everyone normally says, of course you are powerful, but you only exist through someone else. You are only powerful by using them as they use you, so it's very much this co-dependent relationship and he's within this cage, a gilded cage, but still a cage, nonetheless. It's a fascinating idea because what would you do to escape this cage?"

Lasher was the biggest challenge for the showrunners.

Speaking with ComicBook.com previously, Michelle Ashford, Esta Spalding, and Mark Johnson explained how making that specific character work was the biggest challenge they faced — and how Jack Huston was perfect casting.

"Lasher was huge," Ashford said. "First of all, you're dealing with a non-human. And I had asked, 'Have we ever written a non-human before?' I don't think we have. And then, of course, not only in the writing of it, but then you have to bring it into reality and filming. And that is very… It's funny about a non-human, when it's in your imagination, you can make it whatever you want. In a film, it has to become real in some form."

"But it has to be scary and seductive, and it disappears, but it can't be silly," Spalding said. "But I have to say, Mark, you should talk to this too, because I feel like at the very beginning when we were sending you drafts of the pilot, you'd often start by saying, 'Let's talk about Lasher. What are we saying?'"

Johnson said that for him, the impulse was that less was more with Lasher and that Ashford and Spalding put it together perfectly.

"I think that Esta and Michelle worked out the perfect balance. We see enough of Lasher and are confused and dazzled and any number of things by Lasher the way he is," Johnson said. "So, I think he scared me because I wasn't quite sure how to render him. And the two of you really came up with a solution."

That solution was Huston. Spalding said that they got lucky with the actor being able to do everything needed to bring Lasher to life.

"Then we got Jack Huston, and it was like, 'He can do all of this,'" she said. "So that was very lucky."

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