“Motherland: Fort Salem” Exclusive: Taylor Hickson Talks the Craft of Acting & Her Promise to the Queer Community
When Freeform’s Motherland: Fort Salem premiered in 2020, the supernatural drama series took the world by storm with an alternate world in which three conscripted witches – Abigail Bellweather (Ashley Nicole Williams), Tally Craven (Jessica Sutton), and Raelle Collar (Taylor Hickson) – defend witchkind from the Camarilla, an ancient enemy that resurfaces as an international terrorist organization deeply embedded in American politics, law enforcement, and suburban neighborhoods and seeking to elicit witch genocide. As Motherland’s allegoric tale of witchlore and modern day “burning times” unfolded, the series erected as a lighthouse who’s guiding light enveloped the globe and touched thousands of lives with its onscreen diversity in race, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender. Over the course of three seasons with the Freeform network, Motherland boldly challenged the American television industry’s status quo, sharing a vision of a women-led world that carves out a space for women, the LGBTQIA+ community, and BIPOC communities to find solidarity and a “home” to which we all belong.
While Motherland has stood as a lighthouse for an international fanbase for the last three years, the cast who brought the story to life have been the steadfast light source. Among the cast is the talented, Canadian actress Taylor Hickson who played a crucial role in bringing fans home to a community full of support, strength, inspiration, and love. Taylor lit the way for all fans, but most notably for Motherland’s queer fans with her portrayal as one of the show’s protagonists and queer lead Raelle Collar, singing seeds of queer normalization along with co-star Amalia Holm who plays her onscreen love interest Scylla Ramshorn. Raelle and Scylla, affectionately referred to by fans as “Raylla”, are known as the romantic heartbeat of Motherland’s story, presenting a canon W|W love story that portrays queer women’s love in all of its beauty, passion, and complexity. PopWire’s media journalist, Dani, had the honor and privilege of sitting down with actress Taylor Hickson for an exclusive interview in which they discussed her acting craft, Motherland’s queer representation, and how the show has changed her life.
In her role as Raelle Collar, Taylor brings a profound authenticity to her character that enables fans to form genuine connections with Raelle and gain inspiration and courage from the young witch’s journey. Her ability to execute a full range emotional depth has earned the rising star prestigious recognition since the show aired. This year alone, Taylor secured Spoiler TV’s “Reader’s Choice Performer of the Month” for the third year in a row – the third award was won with the largest gap in votes in any nominee’s history for the award. Additionally, Taylor finished the year as a nominee for Leo Awards’ “Best Lead Performance by a Female in a Dramatic Series” for her striking performance in Motherland: Fort Salem Episode 208, “Delusional.”
Taylor shares with PopWire that in order to create a believable character, she leans into her knowledge of psychology, lived experiences, and other tools as she develops her character. Her craft and acting skills allow audience members to naturally build rapport with and feel empathy for her onscreen role. “There’s lots of tools available to you as an actor,” Taylor explains. “At first look in building a character, I always… pick a Hogwarts House for them, I assign them a zodiac chart… and I look at their Myers-Briggs personality types and I give them code. It’s just all things… that help me formulate a general skeletal outline of a personality…I find traveling…, meeting new people, and… pressing your boundaries in terms of how you socialize or just people watching are really, really useful tools… to understand a lens other than yours,” says Taylor. Building the foundation of a character and “finding the moments in [in the writing] that make them feel honest” is fundamental to bringing a character to life. Perhaps, this is why Taylor’s Raelle transcends existence as a mere character in a story; The heroine lives among fans with a personality, body language, posture, and even tone of voice that significantly differs from Taylor’s.
In describing the process of her craft, Taylor also emphasizes the importance of finding commonalities between Raelle and herself. “You can almost always find parallels between your personal experiences, either past or [present], and what these characters are experiencing, especially if [they are] written well… It’s written by humans about humans, [so] there’s no avoiding that innate human emotion… Even if it’s not apparent in the writing, it’s your job as an actor to find those pockets.” “Doing things like journaling from the characters perspective… [and] keeping a journal separate for myself, I find it helps not only compartmentalize my thoughts at the end of the day but also learn more about this other character and help me draw parallels…, where and what we have as common ground or… common denominators between these two people experiencing things.”
When we first meet Rae, she is a wounded soul grieving the loss of her mother to war not long before her own conscription to the United States Army. Not knowing how to process her grief or bear her enlistment to the military, Raelle’s dance with control translates into anger, distrust, resistance to authority, and avoidance of intimate connection with others. Through love lost, love gained, and discovery of purpose, Raelle quickly evolves into a symbol of strength and resilience in the Motherland story.
Just as Raelle has been met with obstacles, Taylor has faced her own set of challenges in synchronicity with her character. At the start of filming Season 3, Taylor was injured in a car accident that took her out of production for months. Upon returning to set, however, Taylor delivered performances that produced some of her most memorable scenes. From an observer’s perspective, it can only be concluded that Raelle’s growth and the admirable qualities that she embodies is merely a reflection of Taylor’ own growth, strength, and resilience.
A particularly powerful performance can be seen in Episode 308, “Petra’s Favorite Pen,” in which heroine Raelle rescues the love of her life, Scylla, and later proposes to her before the Unit surrenders themselves to the grips of the enemy. The reunion of Raelle and Scylla followed by their engagement showcased Taylor’s ability to capture raw emotion as well her talent of improv with her decision to propose with the ring that Rae’s mother gave her. The antepenultimate episode also gave Motherland’s queer fans the happy ending they wanted for the beloved Raylla-ship before the series conclusion. When speaking on queer representation in Motherland and the return of the “Bury Your Gays” trope in queer media, Taylor swells with emotion. “I feel like I have always had representation in media growing up. That was never something I was deprived of, so [it wasn’t until] having this show come to air… that I processed what was being made… I committed on such a small level to just being a good screen partner…, enjoying the artistry of building a relationship… and getting to know someone in an intimate way… [The story] really took on its own form. It was something that was incredibly eye-opening to me. I couldn’t fathom seeing every relationship I see myself in die some kind of death.”
When we asked Taylor what she has taken with her from her experience on Motherland, Taylor says that playing Raelle has “changed the trajectory of [her] career and what’s important in her life.” “I’m so grateful for our writers team for making the commitment to put something out that felt honest and it was something that was needed… I’m incredibly proud of our team for making this happen and giving it a form – giving it a life – and for people to find safety in this and to find that they can relate to my character or anyone’s character. It’s profound… I promise to keep working for these kinds of projects… It’s completely transformed my lens of the world and society and my own relationships,” Taylor explains. “It’s started this fire in my stomach and I’ve made a promise to myself and to the queer community that it’s something I’ll always keep fighting for.” Just as Taylor has made a promise to support the queer community, Motherland’s fans, queer and non-queer alike, will forever support her endeavors.
Watch PopWire’s interview with Taylor below or on our PopWire.net YouTube channel to learn how Raelle and Scylla contributed to each other’s trajectory and transformation, exclusive behind-the-scenes details, and more!
Stream all three seasons of Motherland: Fort Salem on Hulu.