SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Mayor of Kingstown Season 4, Episode 10.

Laura Benanti brought a new energy to Mayor of Kingstown Season 4. Her character Cindy Stephens was a new corrections officer at Anchor Bay who didn’t know how harsh the world could be—until the final two episodes of the season, which hit her with two traumatic moments in relatively quick succession. After having to kill her colleague Will Breen to stop his murderous rampage, Cindy then watched Kevin Jackson die in front of her.

Yet Mayor of Kingstown also enabled audiences to see another side of Laura Benanti. Viewers know how fantastically talented she is, but they had never watched her play a character like Cindy. In an interview with TVBrittanyF.com, Laura gave her thoughts on what her character had to go through at the end of Season 4—and what she’d like to see for Cindy in a potential Mayor of Kingstown Season 5.

Brittany Frederick: You mentioned in our previous interview that this role was different for you. What did it mean to get to the end of Season 4? Because even the fact that Cindy survives those last two violent episodes is an accomplishment.

Laura Benanti: I have a deep, deep fear of blood—even fake blood. I have like a vasovagal physical response to it where, even if I know it’s not real, I faint. So the fact that I was able to get through this show looking at blood, touching blood, getting blood splattered on me is like a huge accomplishment for myself. I was pretty proud at the end where I was like you did it, Laura Benanti. You did it. You didn’t faint.

Episodes 9 and 10 are when Cindy steps more fully into the spotlight, suddenly thrust into this violence. Were you piecing together Cindy’s emotional journey in your head, even if viewers weren’t seeing it?

I think you have to do that as an actor. And certainly I talked to Hugh [Dillon] about it, so I had a better understanding of of her. But it’s a show with a lot of characters on it, and so there’s only so much screen time for everybody.

So figuring out sort of her life, where she came from—making the decision that she doesn’t have the healthiest relationships with men, and keeps telling herself that she’s going to do it differently this time, and never does, because she shows up for Mike in a pretty intense way. Very quickly, she does a lot of stuff for him that puts her in danger. So figuring out how to make that feel real is really based in the background work that I did on this character.

Speaking of her relationship with Mike, it’s really lovely how that builds so quietly across Mayor of Kingstown Season 4. Did you and Jeremy Renner talk about how you wanted to approach it, or how did you perceive that dynamic?

It’s not something we ever actually had a conversation about. They are two sort of damaged people, who are living within a broken system, within a broken world. I think that Cindy has a very clear idea of right and wrong, and is a very good mother. [She] sees Kyle in this horrible situation, and thinks of her own son, and her own children. And if she can help, she will, and she does.

She saves Kyle from Breen in Season 4, Episode 9. How intense was that shooting sequence for you, not only in what Cindy had to do, but also watching Matthew Del Negro‘s harrowing performance?

He’s a wonderful actor and also the nicest person you could ever meet. I actually think he imbued Breen with a lot of humanity. I very much saw him as a little kid. And it’s interesting, because from Cindy’s point of view, he had never been anything but nice to her. She obviously didn’t see him in the parking lot as she’s walking out. And while she heard rumors about him, rumors fly about people.

I think that she’s very much a person who’s like, what you see is what you get. And he was always kind to her. So to see him go off in that way, and to have to make the decision to do what she does [was] extremely difficult.

And it was hard doing that to to Matty, because I like him so much. Matthew’s a wonderful actor. I think he brings a lot to the show. I think sometimes it’s hard as an actor to be a character people don’t like, but to me, it’s a testament to what a wonderful actor he is that people don’t like [Breen].

As if that wasn’t enough, Cindy is there when Kevin dies in the very next episode. Was it difficult to dig that deep two episodes in a row? Especially given your aforementioned fear of blood.

That’s my job. I think that’s the craft of it, and that’s what I love about it. I got some hugs. I definitely got some hugs. And the set medic was so kind to me, because she had to keep coming with smelling salts and juice and all sorts of stuff for me. She just really kind of got me through it. Everyone was wonderful.

Due to the nature of the story, Mayor of Kingstown leaves Cindy’s future open-ended. Have you thought about what you’d like to see for her in Season 5, since she ought to return?

If there’s a Season 5, she definitely is coming back. We’ve talked more about understanding her backstory and where she comes from, and why she ended up here, and her previous relationships, and whether or not that might come back to haunt her and her children a little bit. I’d like to just see deeper into her so that we can better understand the why of her.

Mayor of Kingstown Season 4 is now streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Paramount+.

Article content is (c)2020-2025 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.