‘Evil’: Christine Lahti on Being the Antichrist’s Grandma and That Big Twist

(Warning: Spoilers ahead for Evil.)

Whether you believe demons are real or a hallucination caused by a psychological condition is all a matter of perspective on the endlessly entertaining Paramount+ supernatural series Evil. If you do think an accountant or businessman isn’t human, check the back of their neck to look for the Velcro fastener, or suffer the consequences.

Of course, sharing such useful information with anyone, let alone your skeptical daughter, is a shortcut to your psychiatrist making an emergency in-person visit—regardless of the one-in-100-year storm bearing down on Manhattan. Sheryl Luria (Christine Lahti) might sound crazy, but her suspicions prove correct, and despite being on the lookout for this tell-tale sign, Sheryl is finally bested by former lover Dr. Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson) with some help from a human skin-wearing demon.

Sheryl has always been a force, but she makes seismic waves in Season 4, from getting her grandson Timothy baptized—who happens to be the Antichrist—to breaking the literal glass ceiling within the impenetrable workplace “boys club.” After successfully negotiating bonuses (that aren’t Victoria’s Secret gift cards) for all the women on staff, Sheryl’s most significant play in the previous episode is getting Leland fired. Unfortunately, Leland always has another diabolical card up his sleeve, including when Sheryl breaks into his apartment during the storm. It doesn’t end well as Sheryl “accidentally” falls from Leland’s fourth-floor balcony, later succumbing to her injuries but not before seeing her four granddaughters and daughter, Kristen (Katja Herbers).

“I didn't have to do any acting in that hospital scene. I was saying goodbye, Christine was just saying goodbye to these beloved young women and to Katja, who became a really close friend—we're still good friends,” Christine Lahti tells The Daily Beast's Obsessed. While Shefyl refused to go to Confession steps a few weeks ago, she agrees in the episode to have Father David Acosta (Mike Colter) perform the Last Rites.

So does Sheryl end up in Heaven or Hell? “Maybe if the show gets picked up,Sheryl comes back as a ghost," says Lahti. The reason for the uncertainty is that while Evil has been canceled by Paramount+, creators Robert and Michelle King—and the cast—are keen to keep it going. I hope it finds a new home. In a landscape awash with remakes, sequels, and reboots, it can be hard to find something that is truly singular, and Evil is a rare show that feels fresh, innovative, and unlike anything else. “In the midst of all these wild, crazy monsters and horror is real pathos and real caring about the characters, and that's a testament to the Kings,” says Lahti.

So whether Evil gets to live another day or not, Sheryl’s desire to protect her family and ensure that the women in her workplace aren’t demeaned or left behind is part of her appeal—no matter how many wrong turns she made on the show. And if nothing else, Lahti would make a great murderer on the Kings' other show, Elsbeth. (“I would love to do that, from your lips to God's ears,” she says.)

Here, the Emmy-winning actress breaks down Sheryl’s final episode, pausing for the strike, and why playing Sheryl was a revelation for an actress who has worked in the industry for over four decades.

I am very sad because we’re saying goodbye to Sheryl, a formidable character who I was worried about getting killed once she began making big moves against Leland. When did you know this episode would be Sheryl’s last?

I thought, “Wow, what an arc they’re giving me this season.” My husband read some of the episodes and said, “I think you're gonna die.” “Oh, no, they would never kill me off. No way. No way.” Then I got a call, I think, the night before they released the tenth episode script from Michelle King, who said, “I’m so sorry to tell you this because we love Sheryl and we love you, but you’re gonna die the next episode.” Honestly, it crushed me and shocked me. I think I might have started to cry even, because I so love being on the show and the character and had become connected with her in a very profound way. But I understood when Michelle explained that it feels like the most organic storytelling for us in a show called Evil in a showdown between Leland and Sheryl; Leland is gonna prevail.

It made me cry watching the episode.

It makes me feel so good, because I know Sheryl is not the easiest person to like. The fact that you had empathy for her says a lot about the writers, their talent, and what a complex character Sheryl was.

There’s been a constant push-pull with Kristen, and this mother-daughter relationship is very central. I read that Katja Herbers specifically requested you after she'd worked with your director husband on Manhattan. I’d love to know about working with her throughout this process, particularly in Episode 10.

Yeah, Katja and I met through my husband, Tommy [Schlamme] on Manhattan. When she got the offer, there wasn’t much to the character [of Sheryl] in the pilot—what is she just the babysitter to these kids? Didn’t seem like much, but Katja was very persuasive. Then the Kings, of course. I had done two other shows with them—I had arcs on The Good Wife and The Good Fight—I loved and trusted them, and they said, “Oh, don’t worry, we're going to find some really fun shit for this character to do.” Blind faith, I just signed on. They were true to their word, and she developed into an extraordinary character: funny, powerful, fucked up, and formidable, and her relationship with Kristen was at the center.

They clearly came through.

At the very end of the tenth episode—I haven’t seen it yet—the fact that there is a moment of, I think, redemption, forgiveness, reconnection, and love between the mother and daughter is everything to me. She wanted that more than to even bring down Leland, which to me, was her playing the long game. She wanted to bring that motherfucker down, and even in her death, she’s making sure that he's going to be brought down by getting those tapes to Kristen and Andy (Patrick Brammall). She’s gonna make sure he’s put away and kept away from Kristen and her granddaughters.

In the scene with psychiatrist Dr. Kurt Boggs (Kurt Fuller) in the office, this demon has his skin around his ankles [Lahti laughs], which is the funniest sight. This show is funny, scary, and emotional, sometimes all within a scene. It’s like whiplash in the best way. What is it like doing a scene with this demon where you have to play it straight when there are these comedic beats?

I think that was the most fun aspect of doing this show with the Kings is it’s scary, but there's always such humor, absurdity, and, as you say, often so emotional. The stakes are often so high, and characters—even if they're doing crazy things—somehow they make us care about them. That scene, in particular, was interesting because we were going to shoot that scene, and I thought when I read it she gets to be an action hero, badass, kick-ass hero. We were in our dressing rooms getting ready to be called into makeup and got shut down because of the [WGA] strike. We were told that no one’s crossing the picket line. We’re not able to shoot the scene. We have to shut down. So that was the end of that. I had many months to think about that scene with Kurt. We shot it of course, once the strike was over, and it was so much fun. It was incredible. I loved it.

What a scene to come back to after that many months away! Was it hard to get back into that headspace, or were you just raring to go by that point?

I was raring to go and I also was very grateful that we had an opportunity to shoot the hospital goodbye scene—the death scene. Because once we were shut down there might have been a scenario where well, we’ll just end the episode with her being pushed out the window and we don't have time to shoot these other scenes. So I’m very grateful that they demanded that we shoot the scenes and give Sheryl a real send-off.

So Sheryl has quite a salty mouth. One of my recent favorite line deliveries of yours is when you post the baptism certificate on Leland’s door and you say, “Like Martin Luther, motherfucker.” [Lahti laughs]. Do you have a favorite line or insult from Sheryl?

One of my favorites I think was last season, when she said to Leland, “If you ever harm one of my granddaughters I will cut off your dick.” I might have come up with that line, I think Robert credits me with that idea. I don’t know. I wouldn’t put it past them to come up with it either because they’re just so funny and wonderful. But also very open to my ideas and we would sometimes incorporate actual lines so that might have been I don’t remember, but it’s one of my favorites.

It's so simple; you're not dressing it up. It's to the point.

And by the way, she’s true to her word. He tries to kill Laura. She comes over, and she tries to cut off his dick. Unfortunately, it’s too small, she misses, and she gets some in the thigh or the groin and misses his dick because it's too small.

Watching Evil, you don’t know where it’s gonna go. It zigs and zags, but you always know it's gonna be a great time, and I’m so thankful it exists. What will you take away from playing Sheryl? Is there something playing this fearless woman has given you?

I was very intentional. I could never judge her. I could only love her and rationalize her choices and find a positive reason why she would put Andy on a shelf and drain his brain fluids because Andy was an absentee father and a horrible husband. I wanted to keep him away from my daughter and my granddaughters. Now, putting my son-in-law on a shelf and draining his brain fluids may not be the best thing to do, but in other words, I always could find a justification for everything she did. You have to when you’re playing someone complicated like that. They don't judge it, they find a way to rationalize it.

But I was inspired by Sheryl. My own activism and feminism are really, really strong in me, and I easily apply that to Sheryl’s battle against sexism and against the patriarchy. I think that was probably the strongest connection I had was that she was done. She was done being devalued, underestimated and mistreated by men and she was going to do everything she could to right that wrong.

This balancing of different issues and tones while caring about the characters is something we’ve seen in The Good Wife, The Good Fight, BrainDead, Elsbeth, and Evil has that too.

Exactly. And I think that it'’ also so without ever getting preachy, it really does explore the evil that's in our world today, with Trump and everybody. There’s so much. It’s so topical. That’s what I love about Kings’ writing. too. They're not only topical, but they're very feminist. That's always part of it; their female characters in every one of their shows are extraordinarily complex. And especially, I mean, how many 70-year-old women get roles that are this complex? There aren’t many on TV right now. I feel so grateful to have been able to do four seasons of this extraordinary character.