THE CARRIE DIARIES: Freema Agyeman on Seeing Larissa at Work, Fan Reaction, and More

When viewers were introduced to THE CARRIE DIARIES’ Larissa in last week’s series premiere, they saw her partying (and thieving) side. But in tonight’s brand new episode, Carrie’s new mentor is shown in her work environment.

“Larissa is a fashion editor, and she is this party girl, and she is very much into the arts scene, and each time Carrie comes to New York to [meet] with her, it’s always equally fun and new for Carrie, but it can depend on which environment that is,” THE CARRIE DIARIES star  Freema Agyeman (Larissa) told me. “So in Monday’s episode, we see Larissa at work, and we didn’t in the pilot. We see her out and about, we see her out at night, but now Carrie gets to see her at work. And at Interview magazine, which is Carrie’s favorite fashion magazine. Again, she’s wide-eyed and going into this world she couldn’t envision being a part of. And we went all out, really. It’s a fashion shoot that consists of animals and all sorts. It’s as dream-like as Carrie could imagine.”

And while there are more moments to come of Larissa at work, Agyeman indicated that won’t be the main purpose of her character’s presence in New York…at least at first.

“We’re currently shooting episode 9, and I would say the majority of the episodes we’ve shot so far, it’s very much been Larissa out in New York,” she noted. “It’s so important to keep that backdrop as well. If you’re about the city and Carrie’s introduction to the city, and Larissa is this representative and this mentor for her at that time, so we mostly see her at the party scene. But we recently had the interior set built for Interview magazine at our studio. So we do move into seeing her in her work and her play. But to be honest, it could all be one thing because Larissa’s world, I think, is just filled with champagne, whether it’s work or play.”

One thing people won’t be seeing much of from Larissa? Romance.

“We see some,” Agyeman allowed. “I think we’ve seen tons of it from Carrie’s perspective. I think from the pilot we’ve seen a lot of firsts — first romance, first relationship, first love, first loss. All of those things. And Larissa is somebody who has been there, done it, and bought the t-shirt. So she is going to introduce Carrie to a different world, so I think that’s more of what we are going to see, as opposed to Larissa’s starting relationships. I think she kind of represents ‘been there, done that.’ But without saying too much, we do get to see layers from her, we do get to see a smattering of her world outside of work and outside of Carrie. As that goes on, I’m sure that will develop as well.”

But in the meantime, Agyeman is just happy viewers have embraced her character.

“I’m really pleased and relieved and honored that the feedback has been really great,” she said. “Because in a way she is supposed to be representative — Larissa is supposed to be representative of New York and all the danger and the magic and the glamor and the fun that comes with that. She is that representative. And the character doesn’t appear in the books, and all of that, so I didn’t know how she was going to go down. But I think her function is to introduce Carrie to a whole new world and to contrast quite dramatically her home life, and I think that’s achieved.”

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THE CARRIE DIARIES airs Mondays at 8 PM on The CW.

Related:

THE CARRIE DIARIES: Amy B. Harris on Carrie’s History, Her New Romances, and More

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