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SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for “Coven Academy,” now streaming on Disney+.
Nestled amid a tree-lined New Orleans exterior is a boarding school host to witches and warlocks alike in Freeform and Disney+’s
new young-adult drama.
“Coven Academy” stars Malina Weismann as Briar, a grieving teen who shows up on the doorstep of what she believes is a school for troubled girls. Instead, with the help of her new classmates Sasha (Jordan Leftwich) and Tegan (Ora Duplass), she discovers she is a witch.
Grappling with her identity, Briar attempts to uncover the truth about the unresolved death of her mother, Mary (Cecilia Grace Deacon). The newly formed coven realizes the answers might be closer than expected when they learn the academy’s headmaster, Miss Graves (Tiffani Thiessen), was friends with Mary. Then another old friend of Mary’s, the shape-shifting warlock William (Devon Sawa), is revealed to have been impersonating a teacher. In reality, he’s the father of a budding warlock named Jake (Malachi Barton). Years ago, William had plotted to pollute the the ley lines — the source of all witches and warlocks’ magical powers — which was foiled by a Mary, Graves and their coven sister Tamora (Keegan Connor Tracy). But now he’s back, and he killed Mary and Tamora to get his evil plan going again.
The girls, Graves and Jake are able to stop William and save the magical world, but Briar is left with several unanswered questions. She’s caught between her connection with Jake, with whom she shares an almost-kiss, and Ollie (Louis Thresher), a newly turned vampire who saves her life. And then there’s the inexplicable rush she felt when linking hands with Graves to cast a spell. The season closes on a stormy conversation between Graves and Mary’s ghost that reveals truth: Graves, not Mary, is Briar’s biological mother.
Weissman talked to Variety about the secrets of Coven Academy, Briar’s parents and her take on the unresolved Jake-Briar-Ollie love triangle.
Given the theme of sisterhood in the show, how did you build your connection with the other actresses in your coven?
We keep saying this, but chosen family is genuinely the heart of this show. These girls come into each other’s lives carrying their own past secrets and emotions and problems. Their relationships aren’t perfect, but whose are? They hurt each other. They disagree. They have to rebuild this trust. I think that the interesting part isn’t simply about becoming friends. It’s choosing one another when things become really difficult. For Briar specifically, it’s accepting that support is part of her growth.
Do you have a favorite moment from filming?
My favorite were the night shoots. They were so hard, but those are the shoots that you remember forever. I just had so much fun being with all of them at four in the morning. You’re so delirious. We would sit in circles. We would tell each other our secrets from our real lives, and that was just so enjoyable. It gave us all energy and light. The whole show, the whole process of it, was so much fun, because we were all so close.
Was there anything that the writers told you about Briar’s backstory that we don’t see on screen? Or anything you came up with yourself?
She’s a New Yorker, and I’m a New Yorker myself, so I definitely had a lot of fun bringing that energy into Briar. There is a father involved in Brooklyn somewhere. There’s not much that they told us. With these kinds of shows, anything can happen and there’s so much backstory that can be revealed throughout a season, so I was figuring it out as the audience is figuring it out. A lot of what I had to come up with was her dad. What does her dad have to do with this whole situation? How did her parents meet, and with Miss Graves being the mom, what’s going on there? The dad situation is the storyline I had to make up for myself. Everything else was just going to school in New York. How do you grow up in New York City? What does that bring to her character?
Series creator Tim Federle said that he decided Miss Graves was Briar’s real mom after seeing you working with Tiffani Thiessen. At what point in the process did you learn that secret? Did it impact how you were interacting with each other?
From the beginning, I feel like it was just always there. It was an unspoken energy between Tiffani and I when we would do a scene together that we could feel and I think the crew could feel. I think that’s why it was inevitable. It just had to happen. Maybe a few days before we would shoot each episode, we would get the scripts. But we did find out a few weeks before the finale that she was going to be my mom. Nothing really had to change because it was just always there. It was so exciting for all of us to have that revealed as the big twist. But honestly, my acting didn’t need to change. There was this one scene when we’re all by the ley lines and she grabs my hand, and that’s when Briar’s supposed to immediately feel this rush through her body. For Briar, that was the reveal. But I don’t think I really had to change anything. It was just naturally there.
How do you think Briar is going to process that?
She’s emotional as well as angry and sarcastic. I think that changes throughout the season. She just feels everything very intensely. Anger is often easier for her to show than vulnerability. Her emotions can drive her decisions, but underneath it all, she’s snarky and she’s angry, but she’s just so deeply caring. Briar is extremely independent. She’s used to trusting herself. She doesn’t naturally think she needs a group around her, but she finds this group. It’s not about needing someone. It’s about wanting them there. She has this “why not” approach to life that I am just so obsessed with. When she finds out she’s a witch, she’s just like, “All right, why not?” It’s just so carefree. She acts first, and she figures out the consequences afterwards.
There is this theme that people’s weaknesses or emotions are the root of their power, like with Blair’s anger and Tegan’s ADHD. How did you approach that aspect of their witchiness?
Briar’s powers are definitely directly tied to her emotions. With the girls, everyone is so different and they perfectly complement each other’s needs. They have such different opinions, such different powers and that’s what makes them, together, so powerful.
The witches and warlocks are very different: The guys are lone wolves, and the girls are stronger when they’re in their covens, which is very true to how men and women are conditioned in our world, too.
I think so too. I think it’s really interesting how men sometimes have this toxic masculinity where they’re like, “Who’s stronger than the next?” In a perfect world, women are helping each other and lifting each other up. It’s definitely a play on how girls and boys grow up in our generation.
How did you approach the love triangle and the decision to have Blair not kiss Jake?
It was so much fun. [The writers] didn’t know if they wanted Jake and Briar [to kiss or not], which I was also on the fence about. I didn’t know what would be best. Jake and Briar’s relationship is a slow burn, and Ollie and Briar’s relationship is pretty quick and romantic. I don’t think Briar has ever really felt like that. I don’t think she’s really had a crush on a guy before like this. So, when she finds Ollie in the start, she is so excited by it and attaches to it and is so intrigued by love. I mean, who isn’t? She just got asked out on a date. Jake didn’t ask her out on a date. So she’s just excited. I think Briar and Ollie are very romantic, and Jake and Briar both have this reckless confidence to them. She’s very intrigued by what she should be cautious of. With both of the boys, there’s so much danger and curiosity and tension and she just doesn’t see danger as a reason to retreat. She lives for that. Both are so exciting in their own way.
Part of why both boys are dangerous is because of their powers, with Jake practicing dark magic and Ollie being a vampire. And you and the girls got to explore witchcraft. What was it like to build out the world of “Coven Academy” with different forms of magic?
It was really exciting to dissect everyone’s powers. Everyone had a lot of liberty to figure out how they wanted to portray their powers, which was really special and made us feel really connected to them. Jake having this dark magic, with the veins, brings this whole new level of danger to the whole show. I can’t wait for people to watch all of the powers happening and see what a normal world would be like with all of these supernatural beings.
Where do you think things might go in a potential second season?
I am so excited for a Season 2. In every show, in Season 1, you get to know the characters; you get to know the world; you get to know the baggage that everybody is carrying. In a Season 2, you get to actually just live in it and see what happens. I hope that Briar keeps being confused about the two boys. I hope that she continues to figure herself out, and I hope that the three girls just have a lot of fun with life. The show is about identity, so I hope each and every one of them keeps making bad decisions and good decisions and see where that takes them.
For young girls watching, is there anything you’re hoping they take away from the show?
I hope young girls find their power, as cheesy as that sounds. I really, really do hope that they see that they can work together and lift other powerful women up and create something awesome or make a change. I also hope they see that it’s OK to not have yourself figured out. My main thing is it’s totally OK to make wrong decisions and make the wrong turn and not have yourself figured out. You never will. Life is a journey.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
