During the first season of Wednesday, Luyanda Lewis-Nyawo took on the role of Santiago, one of the deputies under Sheriff Galpin. Of course, with Galpin out, it meant there was a new sheriff in town, and Santiago found herself promoted.
Throughout the first half of Wednesday season 2, Santiago has proven to be a potential friend to our titular crime solver. However, she has her reservations, with Lewis-Nyawo reminding us that those who are showing up as potential threats to the small town are just kids. That’s something their character has to keep in mind throughout the scenes, even when turning to Wednesday for potential help with the case.
We chatted with Lewis-Nyawo about the role, including a few teases of what’s to come in Wednesday season 2 part 2 on Netflix.
Winter Is Coming: Santiago started off more as a background character in Wednesday season 1, almost like she was new to the job, but now she’s stepped up into this sheriff role, and she’s proving she is a little badass. What has that growth been like for you?
Luyanda Lewis-Nyawo: I think it was really fun. I think on the first season, like you say, it did feel a little bit new. I thought in one sense, I was leaning into it like a little bit of a rookie. Obviously, she’s a deputy, so she’s not necessarily like a rookie, but I think she was just trailing a little behind Galpin rather than taking any sort of initiative.
I think from Galpin’s mishaps and mess-ups and the message created for himself and his family, in order to maintain order and safety in Jericho, that the sheriff’s department really needed to step back up again and inspire more faith in the community that somebody is actually going to make sure that, reglardless of who is involved, that there is some kind of due process for everyone, whether they’re normies or outcasts.
I think Santiago has a lot of responsibility to live up to, and that’s why she’s really, at the top of the season, is really coming into the game, really approaching her work with the respect that it deserves, because there’s a lot at stake in this.
WiC: Unlike a typical sheriff in TV land, she’s not completely disregarding Wednesday’s comments and theories, which is quite refreshing. What has that been like for you to bring a side of policing that is needed?
LLN: I was always quite anxious about portraying somebody who is quite anti the community they’re protecting, and I think for Santiago, normies and our class have been in this town since time immemorial. She’s grown up around them, and I think, as a person of color herself, marginalization is not something that she isn’t unfamiliar with. So, as much as she can bring down the law when she needs to, ultimately, it’s going to be followed in the best interest of everyone.
It's not a tool to control a particular group in order to ease the anxieties of another group. It’s about making sure, because, at the end of the day, these are kids. They’re at school. Regardless of whether they can throw napalm from their hands, they’re at school. There’s a lot of Santiago having to use her own critical thinking and still treat them like they’re still children, even though they can be dangerous. If they were my children, I’d want somebody out there protecting them, regardless of what other people might think of them.
WiC: I love that although you’re only in a couple of scenes each episode, you command the presence when you’re there. What were the discussions like to make sure, going from guest star to series regular, you were able to stand out?
LLN: I was really fortunate to have such great people on set. There was a lot of feedback of the first scene that we shot, which was the raven attack scene, going over the crime scene. It was really nice to have a little bit of a litmus test of how we feel about this sheriff. Where did she sit?
It was really nice to have those conversations, working with Tim [Burton], really fine-tuning the energy that the character was coming with. Two scenes per episode isn’t a lot of time to go into all the depth and the backstory, so you really have to keep track of that in your mind in order to make sure that the character is a full person and not just a plot device or something shoehorned in.
Santiago has to feel like she is here; she is part of this community as well. I think it was really lovely to have the space to play, to get it wrong, get it right, and tweak it, and see that’s where we’re sitting and we’re happy with that. From there, it was easy.
WiC: We get the reminder that there are normies in the town thanks to Santiago. How was that?
LLN: I think that Santiago is one of those characters that’s actually quite important for world-building and sustaining the groundedness. Even though this world is really fantastical and exciting and full of magic and mayhem, it’s still grounded in a level of reality, and I think that characters like Santiago are responsible for keeping that kind of real-life, day-to-day grit in the world of the story.
So yeah, it does sort of feel like ‘What am I doing here? I’ve brought a gun to a fireball fight. You probably knew I was coming. You’re psychic.’ I think, in terms of her predecessor, there are either people who present themselves as more powerful than you or more capable than you in one way or another or more blessed and that can lead to a level of insecurity. That’s something that sort of typified Galpin’s reign, whereas, I think Santiago is much more self-assured in her character and her role and what that means for this community, even if these threats feel insurmountable. She still just presents herself as warm, here to help.
And she needs Wednesday, in a way. It’s inappropriate for her as an adult to badger and question and probe young students without their parents. It’s a lot easier if she works with Wednesdays to be in the loop and have information that she needs to protect the community.
WiC: Wednesday season 2 part 2 is almost here. Is there anything that you can tease about what’s to come?
LLN: There’s so much. It’s really exciting. We’re gonna go up a notch. The stakes have been set, and I think everybody just needs to buckle in for this. We’ve got some beautiful old favorites back, and there’s a lot of growth for a little viper, and a lot of new challenges as well coming for her, so I think it’s going to be a really wild ride. I feel like everyone will be pleased that they waited.
WiC: I know this is hard without spoilers, but is there anything you haven’t done yet that you’d like to see for Santiago in Wednesday?
LLN: I would love for Santiago to spend a little bit more time with the Addams family as a whole. This is a family of some influence in this to greater understand the inner workings of the outcast community. I think it would be useful for Santiago to spend more time with the Addams family, especially Hester Frump. I think that would be fun.
Maybe more time in her space. More time with her hat off and at ease, just a little bit more of her as a person would be lovely.
WiC: As my last question, I know you come from a theatrical background and that means ensemble casts. What’s it like having this ensemble cast with all these different storylines that interconnect in a TV series?
LLN: I live and breathe ensembles. This is fine. If you can do Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle, you can do Wednesday. I think it’s a great show. What I love about it is its playfulness, its mischievousness.
And it’s irreverence and really putting young women at the forefront and exploring their strengths, their weaknesses, and their insecurities in a way that I find interesting and necessary in the media landscape. It’s necessary for young girls to see them and what it’s like for somebody like them to make their own mistakes and decisions and learn from them. These narratives are really important.
I’m showing my age, but I had Buffy when I was a kid. It’s good that a generation has something, a character, like that to take up space and speak their mind.
Wednesday season 2 part 2 drops on Netflix on Wednesday, Sept. 3. Season 3 is in the works.