Beth Grant Is Giving the Most Fun Performance on TV in ‘Mayfair Witches’

More than 20 years after its release, Donnie Darko is rightfully considered Jake Gyllenhaal’s breakthrough performance. But of everything that makes that movie great, it is Beth Grant as Kitty Farmer sincerely saying, “Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion,” that rattles around my brain.

Over the last 35 years, Grant has steadily built a reputation for her scene-stealing prowess across the television and film landscape, making her one of the great character actors working today. If I see her name in the opening credits or her face in a trailer, it means at least one performer will show up to make it worth my time.

With her trademark Southern intonation, Grant has previously been murdered by Chucky, died trying to escape the Speed bus, played an uptight pageant official judge in Little Miss Sunshine, and portrayed Lady Bird Johnson in Jackie. Now, the prolific Grant is adding Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches to her lengthy résumé.

This latest adaptation from AMC comes hot on the heels of the seductive Interview with the Vampire, which surprised audiences with its thrilling banging-to-blood ratio. Opting for the most familiar story from the prolific author’s back catalog (not to mention the A-list headlining ’90s movie) is a gamble that has more than paid off.

While the current state of the TV industry means renewals can easily be reversed, it shows confidence in the product that Interview with the Vampire’s sophomore season was greenlit before its debut. Mayfair Witches marks the second of AMC’s Rice projects to hit screens and expand the Immortal Universe the brand hopes to cultivate. After all, they have the rights to a whopping 18 different Rice titles. Zombies were once the AMC bread and butter, and while The Walking Dead franchise is still kicking out some new material, it is clear that vampires and witches are launching a takeover. (For one thing, their clothes and flirting techniques are a lot better.)

Witches, like vampires, fall in and out of fashion in pop culture, cycling between putting a spell on audiences and losing their magic. Whereas Interview’s playful sensuality immediately hits all the right gothic notes, Mayfair Witches stumbles as it tries to cram too much information in its opening installments.

It also doesn't help that the tone swings wildly from a supernatural melodrama to a more recognizable reality, in order to reflect Rowan's experiences (Alexandra Daddario). Something has always felt off-kilter for Rowan, but the piercing blue-eyed neurosurgeon doesn’t know she is part of a dynasty of powerful witches—that is, until her adopted mother’s death opens a whole can of birth family worms. The mess of the past begins to unravel when Rowan’s dormant powers make themselves known, and she discovers her adopted parent is related to her biological mom.

The person behind this secret plot is Carlotta Mayfair (Beth Grant), Rowan’s great aunt and controlling force heading this powerful New Orleans-based clan. Witchy roots or not, like any family, there are internal battles over who shapes their legacy, and Grant guest stars as villainous Carlotta to maximum effect.

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Some of the performances take a more muted path in an attempt to ground the material; thankfully, Grant offers a much-needed campy jolt necessary in this heightened world. Under the guise of fighting for the soul of the Mayfairs, the veteran character actress expertly antagonizes those who cross her path.

Carlotta wears the airs of a good Christian woman in everything she does, but her secrets are far more disturbing than expected of a pious woman. While Mayfair Witches doesn’t have the same urgency as Interview with the Vampire’s opening episode—no one starts hooking up after a bloody double homicide—it is in the darkness that Grant excels.

Carlotta’s skills don’t appear to be supernatural, or at least not potent, like Rowan’s unrefined abilities—she can strike people down without raising a finger. Instead, Carlotta can manipulate her way to the head of this family via good old-fashioned medical intervention and well-deployed lies.

Flashbacks fill in the blanks to reveal Rowan’s conception and how her mother ended up in a catatonic state after giving birth. Uncanny valley smoothing out of wrinkles technology makes Grant appear 30 years younger (her Speed era), but thankfully, it doesn’t hamper her expressive intonation. “I am trying to protect you,” she pleads with teenage Deirdre (Cameron Inman) before her wayward niece sneaks out to a lavish party at her free-spirited uncle’s.

Given how some of the cast is downplaying the fucked-up elements of this mysterious world, it is refreshing whenever Grant pops up to lean into the torrid events playing out. Rolin Jones’s Interview with the Vampire had a strong sense of self, whereas Mayfair Witches struggles to juggle world-building parallel to Rowan’s discoveries.

Mayfair Witches suffers from dishing out too much dry exposition across these first three episodes, yet still somehow also holds back pertinent information to fully understand what’s happening. As someone unfamiliar with the source material, it is more frustrating than intriguing. Well, other than whatever Carlotta and her sister Millie (Geraldine Singer) have up their spinster sleeves. Why do they seemingly share a room in a house as big as the one they own? Questions at this early stage are expected (such as what really happened to Deirdre’s mother), but I shouldn’t be struggling to care.

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By the third episode, we have seen Carlotta tell her niece that her baby didn’t survive, give a gift that is actually a death sentence, hold court in the tea room of the legendary Hotel Pontchartrain and show several different shades of “I’m not angry, I’m disappointed.” When adult Deirdre (Annabeth Gish) is freed from her imprisonment, Grant is so firm in her beliefs that I almost believe her when she calls her niece a “sick, sick, sick little bird.”

Like many characters Grant has played in the past, religion is an excuse for her behavior. Carlotta doesn’t appear to have anything to do with Deirdre's murder at the end of the second episode, but she is still at fault. Her guilt about this tragedy isn’t about Deirdre; instead, it centers on her perceived failure to the family and God.

Carlotta’s beliefs are steadfast, and her inability to control a situation causes her to lash out. Of course, we have seen Grant play shades of different devote figures before, whether explaining the line between fear and love in Donnie Darko or thinking she is witnessing the Rapture in Six Feet Under—which leads to her death.

Of Grant’s nearly 250 credits, there is variety in the roles she inhabits. A Southern woman who believes in God is a repeated theme when scrolling through the TV guest spots, recurring roles, and movie turns. However, there is far more to Grant than this religious archetype, as showcased in No Country For Old Men, in which she easily slides into the Coen Brothers' world as Carla Jean’s (Kelly Macdonald) cranky mother.

The in-demand actress started as a guest star on The Mindy Project before becoming a season regular, showcasing excellent comic timing as the eccentric and impossible-to-fire Beverly. Previously, she appeared as Dwight’s (Rainn Wilson) babysitter-turned-date in the fan favorite “Dinner Date” episode of The Office (before returning in the final season).

In contrast, a whimsical menace is at the heart of her A Series of Unfortunate Events villain, Woman with Hair but No Beard. But as Carlotta, her pettiness and drive to succeed are far more dangerous. Even her smile is a weapon, baring her razor-sharp teeth at those who dare threaten her grasp of the family name.

Grant’s tendency to play tightly wound characters on the edge of falling apart without becoming a caricature is a gift that doesn’t require anything supernatural.

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