Lesley-Ann Brandt – Lucifer

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) Maze harbors a lot of disdain and deservedly so, everyone has thought of themselves and disregarded any care or concern about her again and again. As much as Maze has asserted her independence, she still wants to feel included and not an afterthought. Why is it these messy interpersonal relationships still end up being her continual compass and inevitable weakness at the same time?

A) I think similarly to Maze, people can sometimes mistake someone’s strength or their ability to push through things for never being hurt. I have certainly felt that in my life. That as strong, outspoken and as ambitious as I am, at the end of the day what I care about is the people that I love and that I show up for them in the ways that need to and sometimes want me to. And even when they don’t need me to be there. I think much like Maze, it’s feeling like an afterthought. As she becomes more human, it doesn’t feel good to her. So, she’s learning to navigate those relationships – much like I’ve had to in my life, drawing really clear boundaries. And at the end of the day, I think it means that you say goodbye to certain relationships or friendships change and adapt into something new and that’s okay. For her, if it means that her friends would be safe, I think she would happily sort of step back. At the same time, I thinks he expects the same kind of care and I think often with really strong women that the world sometimes doesn’t think that you need checking in on or that you don’t get hurt in the same ways that other people do. Because it’s like, “Oh, she’s strong. She’s fine. She can handle it.” Well, for a character like her, she can handle it, but it doesn’t mean that there aren’t scars left.

Q) Maze is at her most vulnerable when around Linda. What is it that Maze sees in her that she feels comfortable putting down her walls and truly exploring her inner demons (for a lack of a better term)?

A) I think Linda (Rachael Harris) was (a part from Lucifer) the only other character that – and Trixie (Scarlett Estevez), but not in a very…In the Halloween episode in a good way. But Linda is actually the only one who has truly seen her demon face. So, she’s barred her soul to her and they, as friends, have worked through that together. So, I think there is a trust there that it’s not as if she doesn’t have it with other people, but she feels that Linda looks at her without judgement. We all have those friends in our lives who we can acknowledge the qualities about us that aren’t so great and know that if someone is behaving from a certain place or hurt in a certain way that who they truly are is someone who is kind and just hurt in that moment. There is no judgement on her, so I think that’s why she trusts her as much as she does and is able to let her guard down when it comes to matters of the heart.

Q) Episode four, which is gritty and noir centric, is where we learn so much more about Maze’s past and this secret she never even known that was in plain sight. How does this flip Maze’s view of the woman she is and the path that has always been put before her? 

A) I think in Season One of the show we all kind of know the pieces that we play in the bigger picture – the pieces to the puzzle. If you’re the angel, you’re the good guy. If you’re the demon, you’re the bad guy. You’re the devil – you’re the devil. I think what she is going through in exploring her mother and Lilith is really defining why she is the way that she is when we meet her in Season Five and what the backstory of growing up without a parent in the way and the loving, sort of maternal way, that one might expect a mother to do how that has forged this fearless, very guarded scarred woman who through these human friendships and learning and discovering humanity is able to break some of that down while never losing who she is in the process. It was one of the most…gosh, sort of challenging (and beautifully so) episodes for me because there is a lot. There is singing, the relationship between Lucifer (Tom Ellis) and her mother and the very end scene just broke my heart. Seeing her for the first time…So, I think a lot of those…There is a constant theme in the show like parental issues effect children – how we speak to or treat our children or the relationships that we have with them are with them for their entire lives. So, as a mother I am very aware of that with my own son. I really did find at times judging Lilith really harshly as a mother. [laughs] But it’s not my job to do that as an actress. It’s to find compassion for her and I did. I did find the moments of understanding, which I think is really important when you’re taking on a character like that.

Q) There are so many stages of grief, and Maze has always avoided every one of them. Seeing this continued vulnerability beneath the walls she carries season after season has been a really complex and rich journey for her as much as the audience. What’s been your most rewarding and boundary pushing part of Maze’s arc?

A) I would say just that – being able to be vulnerable and love who she loves without really caring what anyone else thinks. Being vulnerable, even for me, is really hard. I don’t, personally, trust very many people or let very many people in. When I say trust, I mean trust enough to share the most intimate parts of myself in real life. I think that’s just me being cautious and not wanting to get hurt – in the same way Maze does. That way, when you do invite people in and they hurt you, it is devastating to the power of ten. And it takes building that trust up a few notches to build that trust again. For me, to be able to play her taking two steps forward and two steps back, trying to navigate this – never losing who she is, never apologizing for who she is – but also being open to learning and understanding that has been a joy to navigate, to discover, to question. There is much about her that I feel I still am learning about and I’m grateful season to season that she wasn’t just written to be this one note kind of badass version of a woman that we’ve seen on TV time and time again. That when she needs to pull a rabbit out of her hat she does. I always say that Mazikeen is the demon in Maze – the demon trying to find her humanity in all of this. So, she’s learning. She continues to learn, as we all should in life. We should continue to grow as people.

Q) This season we see Maze push Linda to explore the adoption of her child. What is it that Maze sees in Linda’s journey that she is sort of envious of?

A) I think the opportunity to write a wrong. The opportunity to grow with your child. I think that is a relationship that she would never admit to, but has probably yearned for for herself. A sense of family and belonging, which is a constant theme with Mazikeen. She’s created this little family with these other characters, but I think watching even the relationship between Trixie and Chloe (Lauren German) for her it must have brought up questions or feelings. I think discovering Linda has given a child up – not understanding the story and what was happening for her as a young mother – but that judgement was so instinctual for her. I think through her being on earth and exploring relationships with people she has a bit of an understanding. “Okay, I understand that was really hard for you then, but you have an opportunity now. Don’t waste it. Don’t waste it the way I did,” essentially.

Q) What do you hope viewers take away from watching Season 5?

A) What I hope viewers take away from essentially our whole show, but particular Season 5 is people can change if they really want to. People have the ability to grow and learn and if conscious decisions are made to hurt people it is, exactly that, a decision made. There is no big bad guy down at the bottom in a nice suit surrounded by demons making you do awful things or make terrible decisions. And that if you do make terrible decisions then there is a path to redemption if you’re willing to do the work. If you do the work and forge and regain trust and you put in the effort, well that’s the opportunity to not just prove to yourself but other people that you are just human. Otherwise, you are just this horrible person who intentionally hurts people. I think in Season 5 when you look at the arc for every single character, it’s such a journey that continues down. By the end of the season (because we have the second half, I believe, airing later), the devil…It’s not that he or she ain’t so bad. It’s that we can consciously make choices to love or not love. To grow or not grow. To hurt or not hurt. To love or not love who we want, how we want, when we want and to disregard the noise of the world.