The Iris Affair - Debi Mazar (Celia Baxter) Q+A

Celia Baxter is a woman who looks like she has everything she wants – a rich husband in Julian, a life of luxury, including a fancy home in Sardinia. She has freedom most can dream of.

But as the guardian of Joy, she has a complication. Looking after the orphaned child, whose parents were Julian’s best friends, Celia now has a rebellious teen on her hands – and she’s not quite sure how to navigate it. Especially as children were never quite in her life plan.

Thank God Joy finds herself a good guide in her tutor… that is, Iris under a new disguise. Naturally, it doesn’t take long for things to go south.

Speaking ahead of the series launch, actress Debi Mazar talks about Celia’s complicated dynamic with Joy, how they become entangled with The Iris Affair, and what lies ahead for her character.

Celia is a woman in her 50s, probably from the Upper East Side of New York City. She now lives in London with her husband, Julian Baxter [Peter Sullivan] who, we believe, is quite wealthy. Both of them like to travel. They travel the world.

They have a place in Sardinia, and they really like their freedom. They like to do their thing and decorate. And they chose not to have children. Julian's best friend and his wife got into a tragic accident and died. Julian promised to be the godfather and take care of their daughter in the event that anything happened. So we have now inherited our daughter Joy [Meréana Tomlinson] or we're her guardians.

Joy is a wayward teenager — like every teenager, she's a bit distracted, disruptive, finding herself. She's beautiful, she's smart, but she's always getting herself into something. My character Celia… she just can't handle it. She doesn't have a maternal quality to her. She doesn't even have pets.

For Julian, it's a bit different because it was his best friend's daughter. It was a commitment that he made. And so in our relationship, it's quite difficult because he's always coddling her and putting up with her stuff whereas although I'm always trying to take care of her, she really doesn't love me. Or she probably does, you know, deep down somewhere. But she doesn't show it, because I'm not maternal and because she's not my daughter.

Celia and Julian have gone through a lot. We've given a lot of sacrifice. We've relocated Joy. We've sent her to different schools and different caretakers, different teachers, different ways to inspire her. Iris [Niamh Algar] is just her latest tutor on Sardinia. And Joy's just really resentful and she's not grateful whatsoever. So it's just a constant struggle, and it's actually beginning to affect our marriage.

When I first read Neil's script I didn't really know Luther, so I watched an episode or two and I loved it. I was sent three episodes of this, I was on a plane to some place far, I read all three and I was just sucked in — the writing is brilliant. I was engaged the entire time. Plus, it takes place in Italy, where I actually live, so I liked the location. I liked the descriptions of the characters.

What I loved most is that the character of Iris is such a con artist. She kind of took me back to that movie from the early 90s called Run Lola Run. It's always on the move, the hero is also a villain who is really smart and even though she's a horrible person you love her and you can't help but root for her.