Mayor of Kingstown presents a world with no easy answers. Good and evil characters alike operate in a morally gray area. While the series follows the McLusky family as they try to use this moral ambiguity to bring justice to Kingstown, their opposition has the same tools in their belt. Inmate Milo Sunter is still calling shots from within the prison at the heart of the town, and he's brought in Iris to wreak some havoc on Kingstown as well. As Mayor of Kingstown's story unfolds, it's clear the divide between right and wrong will only get more porous.
Emma Laird, who brings Iris to life, and Aidan Gillen, who plays Milo Sunter, talked with CBR about their roles in Mayor of Kingstown. Although neither character appears much in the Paramount+ show's early episodes, the pair discussed what's in store for them in Season 1.
We haven't seen much of Iris yet in the first season. So what's in store for her?
Emma Laird: Iris -- she slowly creeps into this series. I think everyone's gonna be like, "Who's this person in the credits? She's not in the show." She's introduced briefly in Episode 2: she's brought to Kingstown by Milo, who is played by Aidan, and she's sent to do her job. She's working in New York as a sex worker turning judges, congressmen, powerful people for Milo, and she's brought into the town to do the same with all these powerful men. But the difference is that she's not in New York, in a nice city. She's in a very dangerous place with criminals and scary, powerful people. She's never been in this environment before. Slowly, it starts to break her, and we can expect the breakage.
It all goes a little bit downhill for her. It's really challenging. I think it's gonna be hard for people to watch as well, to be honest. But I think it's a story that needs to be told and we'll see more of that -- Episodes 5 to 10 is where it really goes downhill for her.
We haven't seen much of Milo yet in this season, but he's very much a power broker. What can we expect from him in the coming season?
Aidan Gillen: You're right there. He is quite a powerful individual, exercises quite a lot of control from within the prison in this city, in Kingstown, and in the state, and is connected nationwide. He's not a pleasant person but he's quite not obviously outwardly malevolent, evil, nasty. He's more like -- so when I read it, I thought, "Oh, this guy kind of reminds me in a weird way of someone who works in international finance." I guess he actually does. He also is quite, very closely tied to Iris, Emma's character's fate and what happens to her, and why she's there in the first place. There's nothing pleasant about it at all. This is nasty, nasty business. People trafficking sex workers -- it's pretty grim.
What was the on-set culture like, any stories from behind the scenes?
Laird: There was a wonderful dog in the main gala called Fury. She was a chow chow and honestly, I think she was my emotional support dog. I made the best of friends. I really did. It was really nice to be able to have made friends and be able to do things on the weekend and maintain some level of sanity when you're doing a show like this. You don't always get that -- or I'm presuming, I don't know. But on this show, I made a bunch of friends. I felt really safe and very, very supported by so many people. I don't think I'm actually ever going to experience that in the same way.
Aidan, do you have any process, in particular, to get into your character?
Gillen: The less as time goes on. I don't overdo it if I don't understand it. I do have certain things that I'll do that I'm probably so used to them I just don't even think about it. I suppose I know if something is not necessary. There's no point in wasting time on it. A lot of research, a lot of reading. The internet has kind of become this invaluable tool, really, for actors, in that you can really find thousands of hours that will really help you on any subject, really. I don't overthink it, but I do think it.
Mayor of Kingstown premieres Nov. 14 on Paramount Network. New episodes air Sundays on Paramount+.