Emma Laird: Iris at Her Most Reckless in ‘Mayor of Kingstown’ Season 3

Emma Laird says her character Iris is trying to take control of her life in Season 3 of Mayor of Kingstown, but she remains in constant peril.

From co-creators Taylor Sheridan and Hugh Dillon, the Michigan-set show airs Sunday nights on Paramount+.

It follows Mike McLusky (Jeremy Renner), a fixer who works with cops and criminals alike to maintain some semblance of order and justice in Kingstown, where most people either live or work in the local prison system.

Iris is a former prostitute who joins the McLusky family — which includes Mike’s brother, Kyle (Taylor Handley), and mother, Mariam (Dianne Wiest) — after repeated run-ins with Mike, who was at odds with her abusive mobster boyfriend, Milo (Aidan Gillen).

Mike eventually runs Milo out of town, only to see him replaced by the even more violent gang leader Konstantin (Yorick van Wageningen).

Season 3 sees Iris cozying up to Konstantin and feeding Mike information about the crime boss’ illegal operations.

“She has agency. She’s leaned on Mike so much throughout these seasons, and he’s her savior, and she’s actually coming back to her old self in what she used to do before she had all this really bad trauma,” Laird, 28, told UPI about Iris in a recent Zoom interview.

“She’s a kind of badass. She’s telling Mike, ‘I’m doing what I want.’ She may be a little bit reckless, and I think she’s at a place where she has nothing to lose. She probably does not care if she dies in the process, and that makes her dangerous.”

After three seasons, Iris’ bond with Mike remains strong, but difficult to define.

“We have great on-screen chemistry,” Laird said. “There are scenes that we have together where it’s like all of the unspoken stuff between us is so beautiful, and everything is in our looks to one another.”

She gives as an example a scene at the beginning of Season 3 in which Iris touches Mike’s shoulder and looks like she might kiss him.

“He rejects me without really saying it, and everything is just super-nuanced and complicated between them,” Laird said.

“But there is so much love there. I don’t want to speak for Jeremy, but it seems like maybe he views her as a victim and, so, he can never go there. She’s damaged or she’s been through all this stuff and he saved her. It’s like he wants to protect her, really.”

Despite their age difference — Renner is 53 — the one thing Iris and Mike’s relationship isn’t is father-daughter-like, Laird emphasized.

“Taylor Sheridan told me in Season 1 what would happen with our characters, and it certainly wasn’t father-daughter, but that changed as we kind of made the show. It didn’t feel right [to make them lovers],” Laird said.

“I think I looked at Mike McLusky as also an incredibly flawed and damaged character, and I don’t think he can allow himself to love people because when he loves people, they die,” she added.

“To love someone is to take a leap of faith and trust and have hope, and I don’t think there’s much hope in Kingstown. I think that’s maybe a beautiful thing about Iris. She still has that after all of the stuff that she’s been through.”

Iris wants what Kyle has with his wife, Tracy (Nishi Munshi), and their newborn son, Laird said.

“She has this dream of just marrying whoever, or settling down and having a normal life,” she added. “Where I was coming at it from, was like, ‘God, this is so close to home. I kind of maybe want this — not with Mike — but the way that Kyle kind of is.'”

While Tracy welcomes Iris into the McLusky home with open arms, Kyle isn’t as trusting.

“He just didn’t want [Iris] in the house,” Laird said. “There was so much tension on that set, as well, where it’s like I’m walking in, he’s giving me dirty looks. It’s like I’m just not one of them.”

Iris and Kyle also are grieving over Mariam and feel guilty about their unwitting roles in her death at the end of Season 2.

Season 3 features several moments in which Iris expresses her respect and appreciation for the kind-hearted woman who took her in, and then died when Kyle accidentally shot her during a melee-hostage situation in which Milo and his associates tried to kidnap Iris.

“There are also scenes cut from last season with the two of us, where Mariam is really trying to help Iris and trying to persuade her that her life can be good, and she was like a mother figure, and I don’t think Iris grew up with a solid mother figure,” Laird said.

Renner shocked fans when he returned to film the show, looking completely healed, just months after he was critically injured when his own snowplow ran over him.

The actor underwent numerous surgeries and grueling physical therapy sessions, which he documented on social media.

“Aside from his accident, he just got absolutely ripped during the five months of shooting,” Laird said of how physically fit her co-star became.

“He’s never looked this ripped the entire time I’ve known him. He looks great. He just did this Men’s Health cover and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, how did he get his body like that?'”

Laird said Renner stayed incredibly positive during his healing journey and had his family around to support him.

“During our first season, his mom and his daughter would always come out [to Toronto where the show is filmed], but then, this season, the rest of his family would come out — his sisters and his nieces and nephews,” added the actress, who already knew most of them from when they all lived in Los Angeles.

“It was actually nice to just have his family there, as well. We’d go on these little trips out. We went to a theme park all together, and that was beautiful. He’s been a real joy to work with this season.”

Laird was always mindful of how special her relationship with Renner was, but his brush with death made the actress cherish it all the more.

“It really scares [you] and it somehow emphasizes the importance of that person in your life,” she said. “We would just have days on set where we hug each other and tell each other that we love each other, and I’m not sure we’d ever done that before.”

Source: UPI