Stella Maeve Discusses Sexual Assault Scene From ‘The Magicians’
On Saturday night, fans of The Magicians at San Diego Comic-Con were treated to a panel featuring the stars of the Syfy series.
Based on Lev Grossman’s fantasy novel of the same name, the television series is often referred to as “Harry Potter for adults,” as it follows a graduate student, Quentin Coldwater (played by Jason Ralph), training to become a magician at Brakebills University, and his friend, Julia Wicker (played by Stella Maeve), who is denied entry to the school and joins a secret magical society in its place.
At the July 21 Comic-Con event, Maeve was asked about a very emotional sexual assault scene that she had to film in the first season of the popular TV program.
“It was really important to do it, and to ground it, and then also give it levity, and be honest with it,” the 28-year-old actress revealed at the panel, according to the New York Post.
“It was so nice to get to work with Mackenzie Astin, who played Reynard, because he was so sweet when we had to shoot that scene.”
Obviously Astin, whose Reynard the Fox was only a recurring character during Season 1 of The Magicians, learned a lot about how to treat his co-stars over the years since he began acting in Hollywood when he was just a 9-year-old kid.
Also, the 45-year-old has had some legendary role models to look up to throughout his life: his father, John Astin, is known for his portrayal of Gomez Addams on The Addams Family; his late mother, Patty Duke, won an Oscar at just 16 for playing Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker; and his half-brother is Lord of the Rings star Sean Astin.
“It was nice to have such a great partner to do it with, and the way that [creators] John [McNamara] and Sera [Gamble] wrote it was just in a format that was easy and not easy, but wonderful to be able to translate that on screen in the way that they have formatted it, so I guess it was a collaborative effort in that we all put this together, and tried to ground it, and make it as real as possible, but also use fantasy to bring that levity,” added Maeve.
Fans of The Magicians are eagerly awaiting its Season 4 premiere, which is not scheduled to air until next year.
Season 3 ended this past April with — spoiler alert! — many of the characters losing their memories, according to the Syfy Wire.
Snake charmin at work! pic.twitter.com/suhRwM6FOC
— Stella Maeve (@StellaMaeve14) July 10, 2018
In addition to Maeve and Ralph, the series also features actors Summer Bishil, Jade Tailor, Trevor Einhorn, Arjun Gupta, Hale Appleman, Olivia Taylor Dudley, and Rick Worthy.
