A mother will do anything to protect her children from the horrors of their teenage years. But what happens when your daughter also happens to be a vampire and is falling in love with a monster hunter? Netflix’s adaptation of V.E. Schwab‘s First Kill dives into this drama headfirst. We recently had the chance to chat with Elizabeth Mitchell about her role as Margot Fairmount in the upcoming series and what it was like bringing this family to life.
Are you prepared for First Kill? The series is set to drop on Netflix starting June 10, 2022.
For those unfamiliar with roundtable interviews, they’re comprised of multiple journalists from different outlets. They usually run for about 15 minutes. Each journalist is granted at least one question.
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Elizabeth Mitchell Interview
Julia Roth: In First Kill, you play the matriarch of the vampire side. Margot is such a strong and complex character. What parts of her drew you into the role?
Elizabeth Mitchell: Several things drew me to Margot. One was V.E. Schwab. I am a huge fan of her books. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue did me in, and then I just had to read everything I could get my hands on. And then Felicia D. Henderson, our showrunner, is so captivating as a person that I wanted to be in business with her and work with her passion and her grace. The excitement that she brought to this was extraordinary.
I also really loved who had been cast so far. I could see the cast shaping up and thought that this was something I wanted to be a part of. Finally, I think the third part of that is that I have always – always – wanted to play a vampire. This went into a big happy circle of yes, please.
Julia Roth: First Kill is a novella that Netflix and Schwab were able to expand upon as the series progressed. How much say did you have in Margot’s overall character?
EM: I didn’t have a lot. I feel like Felicia and Victoria had a vision for this family. My thought process was, ‘Can I turn into this? Can I turn into that? What powers do I have?’ I had all these ideas about what I wanted. What has been fun about this process is that Margot is exactly what they wanted her to be, and what they wanted ended up being really fun for me. I realized that there was more room for fun work with some of these limitations.
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We don’t get to play everything if we are just one specific thing. We have to figure out what the intricacies are, what barriers are, what we want and what gets in the way of that. Although Margot came pretty much fully formed as a character, I was, on occasion, able to add in what I wanted within reason. It was definitely a lot of action because you know how much I love to do action. On the whole, I love that Margot came fully formed and gave me the opportunity to figure out how to bring her to life.
Julia Roth: First Kill focuses on families from Margot’s vampire family to the monster hunter family. Bringing those connections and making it seem like you guys have known each other forever can be tricky. But you guys killed it. What was it like on set to help cultivate these relationships and build these ties?
EM: How to build ties, indeed. For me, it was easy. I loved those girls the moment I met them. Sarah Catherine (Hook) and Gracie (Dzienny) are so lovely. Dylan (McNamara) was fantastic to work with too. It was easy to love them, and it was easy to have that maternal bond with them. With Will (Swenson), it felt like I had worked with him forever. He is so kind and talented and absolutely up for anything and one of my favorite male costars ever. We also felt safe working together and were able to create such an intense relationship quickly.
A lot of it was about watching the behavior of my own screen family. Like watching how their hands move because when people live in a family together, they start taking on each other’s characteristics. I was watching First Kill with Gracie, and she turned to me and said, ‘you totally stole that from me!’ But I had to remind her that my scene was before hers and she had stolen it from me. It was enjoyable to find and build those ties that brought us together as a family, both on and off-screen.
https://www.geekgirlauthority.com/jay-wu-interview-toe-the-line/
Who I Am: A nerd by the strictest definition. I enjoy diving straight into my favorite fandoms without a care in the world. I live on video/board games, fantasy movies and TV, and all things geeky.
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