“Motherland: Fort Salem” Exclusive: Diana Pavlovská Talks Playing “Bad-Ass” Witch Willa, Working With Amalia Holm, & Previews Upcoming Episode
On Freeform’s Motherland: Fort Salem, Willa Collar has quickly become one of our favorite characters. As Raelle’s presumed dead mother and member of the Spree, the character has intrigued us and leaves us wanting to see more of her as the season and its story progresses.
In an exclusive interview with PopWire, the absolutely delightful Diana Pavlovská, who plays Mamma Collar, talks about what it’s like playing one of the coolest moms on TV, working with her main co-star, and previews what’s ahead.
“Willa Collar is an incredibly strong-minded, tough, and very family-oriented woman,” Pavlovská tells us. “The major regrets in her life come as a consequence of her deep love for the family, her decisions are really driven by that. It’s interesting to see how when you are that driven by family, you are that driven by decisions that stem from love, it’s interesting to see the results that come. Some are tough decisions, some are rewarding. I would say that she’s a person that goes 120% for her family.”
As a character who goes 120% and is as powerful as she is, Diana says playing Willa on Motherland: Fort Salem is so enjoyable. “It is fun because she’s so tough and she’s so bad-ass,” she says. “It’s so much fun being able to play such a strong character and someone so uncompromising. [Series creator Eliot Laurence] and the team have done such a wonderful job creating layers and layers to Willa.
“Getting to play that kind of character that gets pushed into the corner so many times, you get to continually hear about the fight that she constantly has,” she continues. “At the end of the day, having that love that continues to be her North Star and pulls her through all these tough trials that she’s has to have, it’s great fun to go through those complexities.”
One of those complexities is Willa’s relationship with Scylla (Raelle’s love) within the Spree. We brought up to the actress that the fandom lovingly refers to her character Willa Collar as Scylla’s mother-in-law. It’s a term that Diana completely adores. “I LOVE that, I love that they’re calling her that!” she exclaims.
“That’s really the relationship that Willa has with Scylla. It’s taking her under her wing as her own daughter and these two fighting for the same cause, but having to educate Scylla and having to bring her around as a parent would and having to teach her some of those life lessons. She’s definitely a surrogate mom. She knows how important Scylla is to Raelle. There’s definitely that mother-daughter bond.”
It’s the mother-daughter bond with their chemistry and dynamic that the two actresses bring to the series that make their scenes so special. Working with the actress who plays Scylla, Amalia Holm, Pavlovská shares that they both “have a great time” exploring the complexity of the Willa/Scylla relationship.
“We get to create our own shorthand with the way we work together as actors,” she says. “It’s fun because we both want [our characters] to have a really authentic connection to one another and have that evolve in a really organic way. Amalia is wonderful to work with, and we talk through so much of their relationship and really landed on the same page for how their journey should go.”
Some of our favorite scenes is when we get to see the two working together and using their magic. We got to see a little bit of what Willa can do in the past few episodes, and when asked if we’ll get to see more of her powers this season, “Yes!” she says excitedly. “She gets to face different situations and Willa has to step it up,” she explains. “She’s an incredibly powerful witch, and the layers of her magic go deep. We get to see what else Willa has to offer.”
As we get to see what Willa has to offer, Diana Pavlovská offers up this tease for Motherland: Fort Salem‘s upcoming episode, “Irrevocable.” “As you can expect from this show, things are going to continue to get crazier and crazier,” she says. “The stakes are going to continually get really high, so everybody needs to be on their game. Everybody needs to try to adapt to the high-stake situations that are about to be thrown at them.”
Motherland: Fort Salem airs Tuesdays at 10pm on Freeform.