‘Mayor of Kingstown’: Emma Laird on the Scene That Made Her Weep & What’s Next for Iris

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the latest episode of Mayor of Kingstown, “Iris.’]

Iris (Emma Laird) put herself at the center of the action on Sunday’s eponymous new episode of Mayor of Kingstown. Though the town’s new supervillain Konstantin (Yorick van Wageningen) didn’t know she was around, she decided to make her presence known in hopes of getting into his inner circle again, now that her former tormenter boss Milo (Aiden Gillen) is out of the picture — presumed, but not confirmed, to be dead.

Though Mike McLusky (Jeremy Renner) heavily disfavored her plan, Iris insisted on making nice with her former acquaintance, who had nothing but nice things to say about her in return, and by the end of the episode, she’d fully gained Konstantin’s trust… at least, by her estimation.

It was still a very dangerous move for the usually meek Iris to make, so what inspired her newfound drive, and what’s next for Iris and the rest of Kingstown’s finest? TV Insider caught up with Laird to talk about her character’s big episode and what’s ahead in Season 3.

How do you get into preparation mode for this role? Because it’s so physical and mental and emotional all at once. 

Emma Laird: Yeah, Season 1 was very different to how I prepped this season because I had never done an acting job before. So we had to build it from the ground up anyway, because it was Season 1, and it was — I came up with this stupid accent in the audition, and so I had to discover where she was from. We went to great lengths to build it. In the script, it kind of said what her parents did. So we were like, “Okay, what’s the financial income of these two? And let’s put it together.” And we found a house in North Carolina, and we did all this crazy s**t. And I had pages and pages and pages of Iris’s backstories.

And I would send Taylor [Sheridan] these videos of me doing improv scenes of Iris and was just really in it and trying to make it as real as I could, and exercises my coach and I would — I work with three different coaches, and one of them would get me to create sense memories, [which] is what a lot of artists do. But it was closing your eyes and going through this whole process of really creating a memory that feels real in your mind. …  And it got a bit dark, but it was really necessary for the role. It was like, [imagine] what room Iris’ dad abused her in in the house and what it smelled like, and what time of night he would come home, and really just having the answers to every question that my coach would ask me. I did all that.

This season was different. I looked through all my scripts and looked at all the scenes that we’d shot, and it kind of was just refreshing my memory of it. I watched Season 2 for the first time. … It was hard. I think I was just trying to think more about what was on the page this time around, the backstory. And yeah, we had new characters to play with. And I was just trying to focus more on the page at this time.

Speaking of this season, as you said, Iris comes in and she has a different attitude. Does she really believe Milo is dead? Is that what’s helping her kind of gain this sense of, you know, power? 

Listen, everyone else would disagree with me, but what’s on the page in this season is like, Iris is f**king right about a few things that no one else is right about, and she is so on guard and so scared of Milo and if she’s not seen that dead body, she’s not believing that he’s dead. But I think really, she’s just getting to a point where she just doesn’t know how to live in, where her place is in this world, that she’s just a bit reckless and doesn’t care what happens to her, and is just a bit ballsy because of that, I think.

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Does she think of Konstantin as a father figure or an enemy?

She definitely loves him. I think that was really important for me … I think my biggest thing reading those early scripts was that her and Konstantin had a genuinely good relationship. He was her boss… He’s just a nicer version of Milo. I think it was really important for me to have a good relationship with him because then that creates Stockholm syndrome, and that adds a twisted, really dark layer to that world, which is very much real. My research in Season 1 was how easy it is for women to get trafficked. And it’s instances like that, where they’re given love and they’re given safety and they’re given money or a roof over their head, and that’s how you can get into it. And I think it was nice to show that side. But she definitely has had good experiences with him. She’s partied with him. He’s given her life. And it was just a more fun choice. I’m like, “I want to have fun on set, so yeah, let’s have them love each other. Let’s play!” That’s always more fun to work with.

So one of the really fun parts of the episode, not the partying, but when he’s going through the reason for her name, describing what the power of an Iris is. Is that something that you had discussed before when you were developing the character?

No, I mean, I read that on the page and was like, “Oh, that’s not her real name. Of course it’s not a real name! Duh. God, what is her real name?” Then I was like, typing — I was like, on my little notes thing — I was like, “Hannah.” And I was like, “No, no, that’s not right.” Like, thinking of names that she could be called. But, man, I love that. I love that whole monologue. That really touched me. … Iris is, obviously, just such a fictionalized character, but I weirdly find parallels with her and I, and I think I just really, for some reason, felt the monologue that Konstantin gave, and I was really touched by it.

We didn’t use the take in the show, because I think it was too much, but the first time he delivered that scene, that monologue, I just cried. I just listened to what he said and was just really moved by it. It was really a great piece of writing.

Dennis P. Mong Jr./Paramount+

With her deciding to move forward with her move against Konstantin, is there any fear that she might be jeopardizing her relationship with Mike and then also putting Kyle and Tracey in danger?

From her perspective? No. I think she’s quite stubborn, and I think as the season progresses, we kind of will see her getting a bit too loose with Konstantin and her f**king up a little bit. But I think she’s so desperate to prove herself to Mike and all these people around her who underestimate her that she has a bit of a downfall in a way. She’s like, “No, I’m really clever, and I’m right all the time.” And I think that that kind of bites her a little bit later on. But I don’t think she thinks as much about Kyle and Trace. Unfortunately, I think she’s just her whole world. Hate to say it, but her whole world does revolve around Mike at this point in some way. Maybe that’s a terrible thing for a woman to say. She’s just got the headlights on Mike.

It’s hard to imagine, but what could happen for her, in your mind that would make her feel free or happy ever?

I think as much as she has this attachment to Mike, I think she — in order to really live her own life and have agency — needs to be free of all men. And I think it’s like, she needs a good period of time on her own, and she needs to start fresh and build. It sounds so boring, but it’s like, build healthy relationships with women and let this town go because it’s living in a place where all of that stuff has happened to you. It’s really important to get out of that environment. So I see her in another life, just in it, being in New York and going back to school, getting an education, not committing crimes — really kind of starting a clean, fresh, normal life away from crime in Kingstown and men. Yeah, that’s what I would love for her.

Mayor of Kingstown, Sundays, Paramount+