Alyssa Jirrels and Ben Feldman Share Why Joining Anne Rice'sMayfair WitchesCast Was So Easy

Mar. 15, 2025

Actors Tongayi Chirisa, Charlayne Woodard, Alyssa Jirrels, Harry Hamlin, Jen Richards and Ben Feldman attend the Los Angeles Premiere of AMC’s “Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches” Season 2 at The Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever on December 05, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.Photo:Amanda Edwards/Getty

Amanda Edwards/Getty

“I read some of the second book. I watched the first season” replied Jirrels after EW’s moderator and senior writer Maureen Lee Lenker asked how she prepared for the role. “And, I said this earlier, it is an amazing group of people to come into as a newbie. It’s a really fantastic environment to be in, and it’s wild.”

“I think Moira doesn’t feel welcome and she’s also quite an outsider, so there was a lot that I kind of utilized in that capacity,” she adds.

Actors Tongayi Chirisa, Charlayne Woodard, Dimitri Hamlin, Harry Hamlin, Lisa Rinna, Alyssa Jirrels, Jen Richards and Ben Feldman attend the Los Angeles Premiere of AMC’s “Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches” Season 2 at The Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever on December 05, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.Amanda Edwards/Getty

“[Jirrels] had a harder job than me because she has connections to this world and the part of this family and these powers, and I’m just a guy who showed up,” said Feldman of his initial impressions on set. “So it was relatively easy for me. I was sort of just playing myself in a way because my job was to go, ‘What’s going on?’ “

Much likeInterview with the Vampire, another AMC show based on an Anne Rice novel,Mayfair Witchesis filmed on location in New Orleans. For Jirrels and Feldman, exploring the area was a highlight for them while filming Season 2.

Cast members Harry Hamlin and Alyssa Jirrels doing the Mayfair Witches panel.John Salangsang/Shutterstock for EW/AMC

John Salangsang/Shutterstock for EW/AMC

“I think it’s very important to me to go to drink and eat, and make sure that everyone does that at some point,” recalls Feldman when asked if the cast ever went out and had some fun on Bourbon Street.

“There was just a parade every day,” adds Jirrels, who also marveled at some of the area’s culture and festivities. “I was sitting in a yoga class and they were talking about the Easter Parade and the Day-Before Easter parade, the Day-After-Easter Parade, the Tuesday-After-Easter Parade and then Sunday morning. It was just ridiculous."

“And the parades all have themes, like there’s one where they throw vegetables at you,” she said, before joking that they avoided the Mardi Gras madness altogether. “We went and saw jazz. We wereverysophisticated.

WatchMayfair Witcheswhen it returns to AMC on Jan. 5.

source: people.com