Diana Pavlovská – Motherland: Fort Salem

By starrymag | August 18, 2021

By: Lisa Steinberg

 

 

Q) In the Season One finale there was the big reveal about Willa being alive and Scylla working with Raelle’s mom all along with the Spree. This time in season two the big reveal was solely to Raelle. How in advance did you know the extensiveness of the arc you would play as Willa, and the powerful force she would signify not just for Raelle but fans as well?

A) What goes on in the internal workings of the room, I will never know. What I know is, yeah, once they decided to bring me back in that last episode of the first season, that really kicked off where will Willa go in season two and what is going to be her purpose and what will be her arc.  So, when they brought me on, I knew that Willa was going to have to die from the beginning of the season.  I knew that.  Although I kept it a secret, I was very good about that. [laughs]

Understanding that that was going to happen, I also knew that Eliot [Laurence] and Brian [Studler] and the rest of the team, they would create an exciting path for Willa to get there.  I had to sit on it, but what I did was forget that that was going to happen and really look to stay in the moment with the scenes that were happening and the story as it progressed.  You can only play what’s in front of you.  So, that’s where I put my mind.  I just forgot about it and focused on the scripts in front of me.

Q) Season One they told us what a powerful fixer Willa was and Raelle talked about her as an incredible mom and hero. There was so much talk about Willa that she became this powerful force, but it was all from things people said about her and history. In season two, we got to see along some of those lines where it was more visual than just saying, “here is who she is.” 

A) I mean, it’s been interesting the way that they have allowed the other characters to share those pieces of Willa.  So, when we finally see her, we have this patchwork of her history.  Then, the way that they brought Willa to life, you get to see Willa interact with that patchwork of knowledge that we all came into it with.  In getting to explore that in the moment live it was like okay, how can I honor what everybody has said?  How can I honor the backstory that was created for Willa and then look to bring that to the moments that I got to have with Amalia [Holm], who is Scylla, and eventually Taylor [Hickson].

Q) The way that over half of the season you were together and then there is this penultimate episode seven for Willa, and also Scylla. There is a whole season one where Willa is apart from Raelle and then over half of season two you are also apart from Raelle then you finally get to Raelle and then we all watch Willa die and in a sense to the audience in this moment she is gone for good.

Getting to see this time spent with Willa’s second daughter, or “daughter-in-law” as people like to refer to her as, was really so nice to watch for sure.

A) I have been hearing and this is being shared that Willa is being called her mother-in-law. It was great to be able to take that on. I’ll start off by saying working with Amalia, she was a treat. And we had lots of fun personally being together and getting to spend so much time together.  We were each other’s anchor.  Then, professionally, it was great to explore these characters together and the different layers of their relationship.  So, being able to really see Scylla come around and start to understand the bigger threat that we need to fight in order to take care of Raelle, and in our relationship it was really rewarding to be able to watch her find that path and come around to be able to ultimately for us to try and accomplish our shared purpose which is to take care and make sure Raelle is okay.  It was really rewarding.  And it was really rewarding for Willa to be able to have that outlet with Scylla because Willa has been carrying this burden of everything of being underground and everything that she has done and everything that she has had to hide from the world.  And herself being hidden.  Having Scylla as part of that connection and that outlet allowed her to even unburden some of her own mistakes.  Her own emotional trauma.  Her own battles and struggles with her journey.

Q) From season one we have in our knowledge about Scylla’s parents who were killed and we haven’t seen Scylla have any friends or any other familial formative figure. We talk about those mother-in-law/daughter-in-law dynamic, we finally do see a familial sense for Scylla and also through Anacostia we also get this friend. We know Scylla to have no attachments but, these are these attachments that present themselves to her and maybe she didn’t know she needed or wanted.

A) It’s also been a real growth point for Scylla, too. Scylla and Willa are similar.  It’s, “I’ve got to do this.”  Me doing this and I have to rely on myself, and I have to see things through to the end.  Scylla and Willa really becoming anchors for each other I think allowed both of them to open up and be a bit more vulnerable.  And, also, their love for Raelle has taken them on a different journey than they thought that they would be on.  When you look at the beginning of the relationship between Scylla and Willa, for Willa it was just a very utilitarian relationship with a mission.  Scylla was on a mission. She had orders.  She was supposed to carry them out.  There wasn’t an emotional attachment to it.  This is military like thinking, you go and you execute and you try to remove the emotion.  But Scylla’s love for Raelle really changed the terms of that mission.  She didn’t bring her to Willa like she was supposed to. So, Willa then has to adapt to this new reality and recalibrate how to best protect Raelle.  So, as the terms of the mission become redefined, through really Scylla’s actions, or not taking the actions she was supposed to take, they really had to learn to trust one another.  The stakes are really high for their relationship because Willa is trusting her own life with Scylla, as well as Raelle’s life with Scylla.  Scylla has a lot of power if she wants to, to really expose both of us.  That trust really developed through their relationship and the more they focused on their love and protection for Raelle, the more trust they found in one another.  I think that’s really where Willa then could also bring that mother quality to Scylla as well.  To also get her to try and see another purpose then what the Spree’s original purpose was.  To see a bigger purpose and see the bigger threat.

There are different layers at play from trying to mother Scylla to seeing the bigger picture, to trust, to really they need each other in the end.  They both need each other in order to be able to accomplish what they need to for Raelle.

Q) Trust is a vulnerability, it’s a letting down of your guard and putting your faith into someone else. That’s something Scylla doesn’t really do because of obviously her past and the woman she has become because of it. We really have kind of joked in the fandom that Scylla wasn’t necessarily a great Spree agent, she didn’t accomplish her mission. But then in not accomplishing those missions, she actually did accomplish the ultimate mission which was to protect Raelle and she did it in a way of what needed to be done in that moment and adapting.

A) It’s when we look at love as being that North Star, it really changed that clinical thinking that Scylla had about her mission and opened it up to different terms. [laughs] While that was really scary for Willa in the beginning, it ultimately (as Willa had to explore) was the right choice. And it was Scylla who was a great protector for Raelle.

Q) Jonas called Scylla weak, and talked about the old powerful Scylla. Willa reassured her, yet we started to see its effects on Scylla. We get this short but needed scene in the van in episode 7 between Scylla and Willa before the Camarilla infiltration. Willa kept saying in the 1st half of the season “focus on your mission,” which felt at times like a chastise. Then in the van there is a realization that Raelle was actually most protected when she was with Scylla. Willa helped be a place holder and healer/fixer in a separate sense for Scylla, and this affirmation was really the pat on the back and confirmation that what Scylla did was right. How did fostering this relationship overall really offer something special each has maybe been missing but also specifically as well needed in that moment?

A) And that was a really wonderful scene that they wrote. You know, Scylla doesn’t get a lot of validation for what she does.  She goes and does her missions and that’s that.  So, for Willa to bring that humanity really to that moment for Scylla in saying what she did was right, and her instinct was right and because she was trusting love, which has been the foundation for Willa for the whole thing, it’s her love for Raelle – when Willa expresses that to Scylla, I think it was a breakthrough moment for both of them.  It cracked open that vulnerability and it validated Scylla.  From that almost parent/child moment, when your parent tells you that you did something right it’s really meaningful.  That moment where we can have that surrogate parent/child moment I think was really powerful for Scylla as much as it was for Willa to admit that the help and the instinct, even though it wasn’t her own, was right.

Willa is so used to having to do things on her own and think for herself and figure it out and plot and plan and try to execute.  Seeing that Scylla contributed to that in such a meaningful way that wasn’t how it was supposed to go, it’s a powerful moment for both of them.  A very vulnerable moment for both of them.

And Scylla received it, too. Scylla received the kudos.  Scylla received generosity from Willa and truly what Willa felt in the moment.

Q) It just really did epitomize that Willa is the most powerful fixer, true to form, and I like that it shows the flip of the coin in what that means – being a fixer/healer. It’s not just how we heal our bodies, but it’s also how we heal ourselves mentally as well.

A) And that’s where that balance of that scale really gets tipped the further along the season goes. It gets tipped more into, “Okay, I have got the plan on the piece of paper, and I am going to execute.” We have to really try to see the bigger picture, see the vision, understand the bigger threat and then allow that love for Raelle to really take over.

Q) Circling back to this incredible work we got to watch between you and Amalia, she shared this really lovely photo of you two in the police uniforms and it was really sweet seeing the off camera camaraderie between you both. That was really cute to see the kind of best buddies side from the two of you.

A) We really did. We really did. We had so much fun. We played as we worked.  We had a shorthand for the way that we worked together and talked things through so much.  So, when we had those fun moments together, we really let ourselves go and we played a lot.  And when you are spending that much time it is so wonderful when you understand each other and what motivates each other.  Then, when you are performing how to poke and prod each other to get more out of each other.  We had a trust personally and we had a trust professionally and that made it so easy to work with her.

And then it was so satisfying in those moments, like you said, after Jonas (Albert Nicholas) says she is weak and I am telling her that she is strong and trying to give her those little life lessons. It’s nice because we get to from being colleagues to playing in this relationship where you do hope that you find that connection that you are able to share, as characters I mean, share some sort of growth and wisdom as you move along together.

Q) And the scenes that we see between you and Amalia this season are shorter scenes, but just the amount of range that you both really present within these smaller or shorter moments is absolutely exemplary. I have been in awe of Amalia since season one, just her expressionism and the way that her acting and delivery in all facets of her talent is just phenomenally dynamic.

A) She gives a 110% every time she is working and every time she is in front of the camera. She is always digging and wanting to understand why and where else can this go, where can we play. It was great. And we got to explore this together and we got to work with the different directors over the different episodes. Together we had such a good sense of trust that, as we got to work with each director, they would bring their ideas and we would share our ideas and we got to explore and play and push each other.  That was fun to do.

Q) It’s kind of a unique take on the “meet the parents” trope we are given in Season Two for Raylla. Scylla meets her mother-in-law first, initially unknowingly, and then in episode 9 Scylla is now off with Papa Collar, Edwin, at the Cession. And neither is really introduced directly or properly through Raelle. What does it say about Scylla, who really has been alone for so long and not into forming attachments, being so easily embraced by both of the important people in Raelle’s life?

A) With the Collars, their love for their daughter is unequivocal, so they both realize – Willa has come to realize and Edwin (Hrothgar Matthews) realizes how important Scylla is to Raelle on so many levels. As an anchor.  As a touchpoint.  They know how important she is.  So, their acceptance of her and their looking to make sure that that foundation is there for Raelle, is absolutely important. For Edwin, he gets to realize it a little earlier.  For Willa she sees how important it is and so making sure that Scylla is there for Raelle becomes just as important. And I think that helps Scylla feel like she can be accepted.  And I think that the trust that Willa and Scylla get for each other helps her transition to trusting Edwin in the same way.

Q) I feel like things are getting to this “Game of Thrones” energy where you get this palpable feeling wondering who is going to do this and which faction will come forward. That great tension that pulls at you that you can’t stop talking about. That’s what I love so much about “Motherland Fort Salem.”

A) I do too. There has been this meaty threats all throughout from different various places and now we have the big Camarilla threat and how everybody reacts and how everybody fights and who thinks it’s the right way to do it. The different ways and the different competing priorities of the how definitely make it interesting.

Q) Your work with Taylor in the short scenes in the Camarilla house was absolutely breathless and exemplary where Willa makes the ultimate sacrifice of only a mother. Talk about what these scenes really described with Raelle and Willa encapsulated in the Mycelium and how you both worked with this palpable emotionally eviscerating energy to deliver such a charged and yet powerfully and poetically poignantly balanced scene.

A) Well, thank you. Thank you for that. The scenes were written and put together beautifully by the team and by the crew. Working through those scenes together, there were definitely ripple effects that rippled out from those scenes.

Raelle not knowing so many things about her mother and facing the threats that she has faced, then on the flip side Willa is there operating in the shadows and trying to keep her daughter safe, in those moments it all comes to a boiling point.  It’s not the situation that Willa would have chosen, of course.  As always, Willa has to move forward. She is used to moving forward, and she has to adapt to whatever is in front of her.  As incredibly painful as it was to go through all of that with Raelle, she at least got to share some thoughts with her and share part of that goodbye with her.

It was incredibly difficult to shoot, for sure, but at least she got to say something.

Q) Edwin has been saying to Raelle that “your mom will always be by your side,” and she literally is.

A) Yeah, she is by her side. She always has been there. She always has been there.

And that was a nice penultimate moment to me that they created for them to come together in that scene in the direst of circumstances.  But, for Willa, it’s not a hesitation to take the place of Raelle in that moment and take on the plague.  It’s not even a question that Willa would do that. So, it’s more like is she going to have time to say anything. And she did a little.

Q) Taylor shared a few behind the scenes photos of the two of you filming on set in this virtual world. The visual aspects on screen were quite stunning. What kind of vision did director Shannon Kohli offer in these moments and what guidance did she provide throughout the shoot since a good portion was set amongst this virtual Mycelium world?

A) Shannon Kohli, who was the director of this one, she had to helm a very stormy sea. This was an episode that just threw crashing wave after crashing wave after crashing wave over this boat. The wonderful thing about Shannon was that she would always ask and listen first, and then we would collaborate together.  She really respected the journey that the characters have come to already, and really tried to dig out from us how we would like to do this.  Then, she would share her idea of how she saw this going and we really met at a wonderful place.  It was a great collaboration.

She described as much as she could what it would actually look like and how it would be, so that while we were there with the green screen we could get a sense of what that space was like.  And knowing all of that, you have all of that playing in the background, but all three of us…Taylor, who was absolutely incredible to work with and just a consummate professional, who always gave emotionally every fiber of her being to every scene.  As difficult as this was to do, it’s so easy to do with her.  So, what the three of us agreed to ultimately is that this is a moment finally between mother and daughter, and no matter what the background looked like, what matters is the authenticity of actually being able to come together finally, finally after so long.  And because of the way it was written and because we were so excited as actors to finally get to connect, while we all talked about what it would look like, it was just such a joy to be able to execute.  It was just such a joy to pull all of that together and really focus on the relationship.

Q) I can only imagine the read through of this moment amongst the cast as well.

A) The read through started the journey of emotional torment that this episode was going to thrust upon everybody. Even the read through, when we all had our Zoom room virtual COVID read through, everybody was already starting to feel it then. It was there from the beginning.  As actors, we were really excited to bring this together and feel what would happen when we could actually really release in the moment.  It’s one of those things when you’re playing such an emotional scene, you prep it as much as you can, and then in the moment you let it rip. [laughs] You want to do that really when the camera is rolling. We had the ideas of what we wanted to do, we had the rehearsals, but we did make sure that we held back so we could really go for it in front of the camera because it touched every part of our soul.  For sure.

Q) Transitioning from these crushing scenes with Taylor from the Camarilla house to watching Nicte’s menacing mind game of domestic Willa and Edwin and then Willa trying to cut Raelle’s throat was wicked. But it really showed off even further your incredibly high caliber range. How was it going from these heartfelt pouring moments to this darker noir dramatic side that was so jarring? 

A) It was so much fun to play! It’s fun as an actor when you get to flip what you have been doing and get to play this absolute nightmare dark Willa and do all of these wild and horrible things. From the standpoint of coming at it from an acting point of view, it was an absolute thrill! As soon as I read the script, I was so excited and we all were!

All of the read throughs, as our characters continue to build out and build out, it’s hard not to start playing right even there in the read through.  Testing what the waters for what this would sound like before we actually got to set was fun.  They put that knife in my hand and off we went!  Although, no, it did start with the cooking, didn’t it?  Yeah.  It was fun.  It was fun to play, and it was kind of a release especially after doing all of those emotional scenes.  It was fun to go to a completely different place.  We shot it after.

Q) It was just so gritty and transports us to a whole other realm, and it’s all wildly amazingly well done, but also incredibly Hitchcock.

A) Yeah. And there was a lot of care and attention to how each of those beats was going to build on one another. Right up until the moment where she ends up killing her own husband, then, the penultimate moment of slicing her own daughter’s throat.  So, each of those beats in creating that sinister world for Raelle to be in, there was so much care in how to be able to build it to a place you don’t expect.  You would never expect such the opposite nightmare of the mother to kill the daughter, especially after what Raelle has been through up until that moment.  It’s absolutely cruel to do that, from Nicte (Arlen Aguayo-Stewart), that was cruel.

Q) It’s the two people who she loves the most, who love her the most, going from this devotion scene where Willa dies and then this thriller was a total mind blow. The lengths that Raelle’s gone through with absolute torture all season long, I think she needs a really big hug. She needs some therapy.  A long nap.  It’s just another added layer to the love and torture aspect of the series.

A) [laughs] It’s been an absolutely punishing season and as an actress (for Taylor), she weathered it beautifully. I mean, scene after scene, no matter how late or how early or how many times or what technical thing needed to be tweaked she just continued to give, and give, and give. I think, personally, she deserves a few massages and a Spa treatment.  Raelle, certainly as her character, deserves some peace too.  A little bit of respite before the next winds of battle blow in.  Raelle has weathered it incredibly, and Taylor as an actress was absolutely phenomenal to work with.

Q) Speaking of cooking, which she was doing in this delusion scene, we have seen Willa cooking a lot this season in her Spree kitchen. Everyone wants your mushroom recipe!

A) [laughs] A secret ancient witch recipe, I couldn’t reveal it! [laughs]

Q) It’s kind of seems sort of obscure, but then there are these little details that come forward once we watch the episodes again and again. And that’s what I really love and enjoy about the series as well, you never know what’s an actual breadcrumb or something there dangling for fun or no further meaning. I don’t know if Willa cooking has a deeper meaning or if that’s a clue.

A) The whole Mycelium, it’s part of the fabric of our DNA. The Mycelium is integral and very intentional to who Willa is.  Those little hints.  Those little crumbs end up being the place that we meet, so the Mycelium is a very important factor to the world. For sure.

Q) In episode 6 Papa Collar says that no matter what, Willa would always be by Raelle’s side, and maybe she just hadn’t gotten there yet and she should be patient. And what’s been true to form is she doesn’t leave in episode 7, both in taking the witch plague and being on the floor by the table.  Raelle’s delusion in episode 8 was about not being loved, but in reality, she is more loved than she knows by both of her parents. In episode 9 Willa becomes a guide in this shrouded story being told in this scene with the pyre of witches. What do these moments added up really speak to and carry in meaning with the bigger picture about what it teaches us as well about the mother/daughter bonds and their infinite link?

A) Infinite link is the key word there. As we in life, as humans, we always want to understand our history and where we came from. We are always seeking to learn from it to move forward in the future more intentionally.  It’s important for Raelle to understand where we come from and understand that history so that she can make better choices.  She can understand the bigger why of why it is so important to embrace how powerful she is and use it to keep moving forward. All of that history shows us how connected we are together and will continue to be, and how much she is truly needed for what’s coming.  And all of that was born out of tremendous grief, but from those depths of grief comes tremendous love.  So, that like you’re saying, those infinite bonds, those ties, it’s so important for Willa that Raelle understand all of that and be able to share that with her.

Q) It’s really important, a lot of this series that Eliot has been planning out for like ten years, and yet it’s so relevant and a mirror to what’s happening in our landscape right now. We have a witch plague, we have testing centers, we have kids in cages, discord in the different political factions – at least here in America. There is so much that mirrors a lot of what we are struggling with and have been going through, and the messages that we see from Motherland Fort Salem hit home especially now when we talk about the links and bonds and what can carry us forward.  

A) When we look at history and when we look at parallels in history, it’s kind of like Willa’s character. There is a complex character with a past that isn’t straight forward to judge. History is the same way.  So, we have to take a step back and look at what are we doing to continue to expand and move things forward in a more equitable way?  Are we really taking those lessons from the past and from history and applying them to seeing a different future, a more equitable future?

Yeah, there were so many parallels.  Like you said, kids in cages. Shooting that scene was very raw.  That was very raw and very visceral to walk into that set and see that reality.  It really brings it home.  I think that what they do with the writing in the show is they give people pause and they give people a chance to reflect and look and imagine what it would be like for them or what it would be like for people they know or for their world.  The show does that.  There are definitely parallels that are inescapable.  From a character standpoint, Willa really needs Raelle to embrace power and do it in a very judicious way.  Willa has made a lot of mistakes in the way that she has embraced power and while it was all based on love, you know we make right and wrong choices.  We can make emotional choices.  It’s important to pause and understand why.  Understand the bigger why.  And I think that’s what we get to see in that episode.

Q) I love that is so much of what’s sewn in to the series, these reminders. It’s also really reiterated as well when we watch the opening credits of the show.  We see the fabric and the people who are the history and lineage of the America we are witnessing within the series. 

A) Yeah. Exactly. And when we look at all of that fabric of what we are made up of, and now when we look forward, how are we going to sew on that next patch and make it a patch that is more giving of life than not? How do take what we have learned and build something that is more for the greater good?  It definitely touches all of those points, those opening credits, they are the past, they are now, and it’s the future.

Q) With all of Willa’s powers, we only got to see a small amount of workings from her. Is there anything you would have liked to explore more or see fulfilled on screen?

A) Willa is an incredibly complex characters and she has gone through so many different experiences and missions and has acquired more and more skills along the way and has done it all on the down low for so long. As I was saying earlier, she has one of those paths that are not straight forward to judge. It would be fun to explore around that break with the military and those relationships associated with those that she felt failed and betrayed her and her mysterious death and what other depths of power and history and insight can she bring based on all of her experiences.  What can she offer as insight? That would all be fun to explore.

Q) I think so too! There are people who think that Petra knew about it and she is Spree too. There are all sorts of fan theories of how Willa got to be so shrouded for so long.  How she got to go AWOL.  I would like to see that, who was a part of knowing their actions within that.

A) Yeah, definitely. I know Raelle is struggling with the whole Spree side of her mother. It’s like how do you reconcile that?  So, how do we reconcile the things people have done.  That would be fun to explore.  I agree.  And what about all of those relationships?  Yeah, like Petra (Catherine Lough Haggquist). [laughs]

Q) With only a couple of episodes left, have we seen Willa in all her forms yet? We’ve had ghost memory Willa, Willa the Spree agent, Willa in the form of Mycelium. Are there any iterations left and any hope for another visit from Willa in the future? Maybe Samhain next year? There is still a great war to come, and it doesn’t seem like Willa has shown Raelle everything just yet. We don’t want it to be over for Willa, we want her to come back!

A) I am very excited to see what is in store! [laughs] This is a bigger question for Eliot and the team.  I will leave it at that.  I know they have turned the stakes up.  So we will see what they have in store.  It’s in their hands.

Q) The fandom is just like Raelle, we don’t want Willa to leave. We just got her and we don’t want her to go either!

A) That’s lovely. That’s wonderful.  That’s a testament to the writing and the way that they have woven her in that fabric.  She’s been so much fun to play.

Q) I have talked about Taylor sharing some behind the scenes photos, and Amalia as well. But I do hope you have a few of your own that you were able to snap and treasure from filming. Kind of like your own scrapbook or photo album.

A) I sure do! I have my whole “Motherland” corner.  It’s wonderful.  I do have some.

Q) Did they let you have at least one of Willa’s rings or necklaces as a memento to keep Willa with you, too?

A) [laughs] No, sadly, I wasn’t able to take any of that with me. However, I was notorious for I either had one earring less in my ear or my bracelet or my ring or any piece that I would eventually walk home with and have to bring back to set the next day. I was notorious.  Maybe that was my subconscious wanting to keep Willa close to me.  [laughs] They were like, “Can you please bring your necklace back tomorrow?” And I was like, “Yes, yes I will.” Her jewelry was just such an important part of who she was. It kept her past with her.

Q) People have certainly talked a lot about this incredible wardrobe and watching Amalia as Scylla, she has on a cowrie necklace one time and then a feather necklace another time. She has moon phase shirt on in this scene. People are very astute at checking out the details and remembering them and their significance.  You talk about what makes Willa who she is in that powerful sense and her wardrobe as well, that just kind of reminds me in that regard as well.  Cowrie shells have one meaning and feathers another and we are reminded that Willa has her own signifiers as well.

A) Yeah. It’s her home, it’s the Cession, it’s her family. It’s that little piece that she always has close with her. And going through all of that with Tracey Boulton and the amazing wardrobe team, there was so much discussion around those details and the pieces and what they would mean and what they mean to Willa.  You’re absolutely right.  You’re absolutely right, it was very intentional what all the little pieces mean and why they are brought to light and why they are in certain scenes.  The attention to detail is a whole another world.

Q) I want Eliot to write a book about the specific history but I also want the wardrobe or writers to all collaborate and give us this backstory on the details and write a book about it as well. It’s super fascinating to think about all of these intricate details that really we might gloss over or overlook but have such significance.

A) I agree with you. I know all of the discussions that happened that I was involved in and that my other fellow actors were involved in.  And there is so much more! I agree.  They really should, because they were so intentional about each of those pieces and the why behind them.  It’s a great collaborative, thoughtful endeavor in putting all of the wardrobe together.  That also expands to set dec as well.  Everybody who did their piece, everybody was so intentional about it.  Everybody has a real part of how things are going to look and what the Collars look like and what the torture scenes look like.  Everybody has such a big influence in putting the world of the show together.  Everybody gets to be a part of that.  Wardrobe was one piece and there are all of these other departments that also put the same amount of effort and love and care into the thoughtfulness.

Q) What do you hope that Willa has instilled in both her daughter Raelle and daughter-in-law Scylla that they carry with them about her teachings, as well as what the fans can take with them too?

A) Thank you to the entire fandom world. Willa would not be important if not for everybody coming along that journey with her. So, I first want to say thank you.

I would say that through this journey it really becomes evident that everybody has a special power and a purpose.  Even though mistakes are made, will be made, when you have the right drivers you don’t have to let the errors define your world and define the world of those around you.  There is always an opportunity to right wrongs and show that you care.  I would say, given what happened with Willa and Raelle, don’t wait for people to guess that you love them.  Don’t waste time.  Go and show them.  Bring who you are to each moment and go and show them.  It’s important.