When it comes to AMCs The Mayfair Witches by Anne Rice, the idea of ​​who is a bad guy isn’t necessarily cut and dry. While there are certainly sinister actions and mysterious things happening that may or may not be in the interests of Rowan (Alexandra Daddario), the main character of the series, the ones behind those actions and events are much 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 sad, lonely and heartbreaking.

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

Lasher was the biggest challenge for the showrunners.

Speak with ComicBook. com previously, Michelle Ashford, Esta Spalding and Mark Johnson explained how making that particular character was the biggest challenge they faced – and how Jack Huston was a 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’ve got that. And then, of course, not just by writing it, but then you have to bring it into reality and film it. And that’s very… It’s funny about a non-human, if it’s in your imagination, you can make it whatever you want. In a movie it has to become real in some form.”

“But it has to be scary and seductive, and it disappears, but it can’t be crazy,” Spalding said. “But I have to say, Mark, you should talk to this as well, because I feel like a lot of times in the beginning when we sent you drafts of the pilot, you started by saying, ‘Let’s talk about Lasher. What are we saying?'”

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

“I think Esta and Michelle struck the perfect balance. We see enough of Lasher and are confused and blindsided by Lasher as he is,” Johnson said. “So I think he scared me because I wasn’t quite sure how to portray him. And you two really came up with a solution.’

That solution was Houston. Spalding said they were lucky the actor was able to do whatever it took to bring Lasher to life.

“Then we got Jack Huston and it was like he could do all this,” she said. “So that was very lucky.”

The Mayfair Witches by Anne Rice airs Sundays at 9:00 PM ET on AMC and AMC+.