IR Interview: Anna Chancellor & Emily Bader For "My Lady Jane" [Prime Video]

The Inside Reel

Actresses Anna Chancellor & Emily Bader talk to The Inside Reel about tone, comedy, chemistry and timing in regards to their new period comedy series: "My Lady Jane" on Prime Video.

Transcript

00:00As you can see, I still have my head.

00:14I intend to keep it.

00:15I want my life to be mine.

00:16Forever.

00:17Last chance.

00:18Bollocks.

00:19You know, because it's about taking sort of stories that we've heard of, but also creating

00:41a new sense of originality around.

00:44And that's what Lady Jane does.

00:45But it's about infusing the characters with that.

00:48First, Emily, with Jane, you know, the aspect of playing lightness with a bit of dread,

00:55you know, and finding that balance in her.

00:58Could you talk about that?

00:59Because that's, you feel the stakes.

01:01Yeah, I think, you know, we meet Jane at a point where everything is going to change.

01:07I love when you have that happen with the character.

01:09It's like on this day, life will never be the same.

01:12But I think, you know, she has like a fighting spirit.

01:16So with all that dread and sort of existential demise that she's constantly feeling, she

01:22does have a, you know, a bit of a wit and a sarcasm to her.

01:26And the show is really fun.

01:27So, you know, and at the end of the day, she's still trying to live the best life that she

01:31can under the circumstances.

01:33So she's not going to let anyone tell her that she has to be sad and mopey in the corner.

01:36Anna, you were going to say something?

01:39I think that's such a great thing to say, because she does perform with this beautiful

01:44lightness, this light touch, which I think many actors would strive to get that balance

01:50because it could be a sort of melodramatic, kind of teenagery angst.

01:57But you rise above that.

01:59You do something very beautiful with it.

02:01Thank you.

02:02Yeah.

02:03May I present Lady Jane Grey.

02:08History remembers Jane as the ultimate damsel in distress, known for her death rather than

02:14her life.

02:15F**k that.

02:18What if history were different?

02:22King Edward would have terrible news.

02:25My mother's forcing me to marry Jane.

02:29This marriage protects us.

02:31Will you intervene?

02:32I've already approved it.

02:33It's a bit of a dance.

02:34Yes.

02:35You know, Frances, she has to dance with ambition, a lightness, but also a strategy.

02:41She knows what she needs, even if it comes at the cost of her, you know, of her kid.

02:46Relationships.

02:47Who cares?

02:48And finding that deliciousness, because there's a deliciousness in performing that, I would

02:52think.

02:53Oh, my God.

02:54But the script is so funny.

02:56When you read, when I'd open the script and I'd get the new scripts that arrive, you'd

03:00be like, this is so funny that she should say that.

03:05She'd watch it.

03:06I'd call my boyfriend a concupiscent peasant.

03:07It's funny.

03:08It is delicious.

03:09It's like deliciously wicked in moments.

03:13Yes.

03:14So we, I mean, that's every actor's dream, right, that you can have something that is

03:17nuanced.

03:18It's quite cartoony in a way, isn't it?

03:20Every character's very specific, very defined, and yet that's the talent of the writers.

03:25They give it this nuance and a kind of emotional truth somewhere through all that.

03:32Nobody cares what you want.

03:38Jane thinks she can flee her destiny until she discovers lust at first sight.

03:45What is your desire?

03:46Independence.

03:47Good evening.

03:48Come with me.

03:49As if.

03:50You'll need a dagger.

03:51That's not a dagger.

03:52This is a dagger.

03:59But there's also a physicality.

04:00I mean, you know, the fact of placing in certain 80s culture of things like, that's not a knife,

04:07this is a knife.

04:08Yeah.

04:09Crocodile Dundee.

04:10With you doing that.

04:11All the references are so good, aren't they?

04:13Yeah.

04:14Yeah.

04:15But you both have to play into them being tongue in cheek, but without the characters

04:18really being aware.

04:19Could you talk about finding that balance?

04:21Yeah.

04:22One of our references is The Princess Bride and A Knight's Tale.

04:27And when we were sort of, me and my romantic interest Edward Blumel were talking about

04:33sort of, we're like the, like in A Princess Bride, the two sort of lead characters are

04:39playing everything deadly serious, like it's like life or death.

04:43And I kind of think that's kind of important to have that, like the stakes are really,

04:47really high for them so that in this environment of just hilarious kind of ridiculousness,

04:55it works.

04:56Especially for the two young leads.

04:58They have to play the sort of pure intention of the story.

05:02And the other actors can do their kind of spinning their plates, being funny, being

05:07maybe a bit more caricature a bit.

05:09We can afford to do that if they are leading the show, which they did so brilliantly because

05:15without them being the drive, there would be no show.

05:20There is always power if you know how to play the game.

05:23I will be queen.

05:27And gamesmanship is my second best skill.

05:32What's your first best skill, mummy?

05:34Felicia.

05:35What's up with the cat?

05:40I've never given up on anything in my entire life.

05:44Is that sad?

05:45It is sad.

05:46Really?

05:47Really.

05:48Then prove it.

05:53It's musical.

05:54It's that dance.

05:55It's about the motion, you know, throughout these scenes.

05:58And I love that, you know, even with you and Guilford, you know, but you with actually

06:04Henry?

06:05Sorry, Anna, with the Dudley, the young Dudley, the way that you sort of mold him.

06:11Could you talk about movement?

06:12Because all this is a dance because it's about how people move with each other, you know?

06:17I think that he was so perfect, wasn't he, the actor Henry?

06:21He had just this brilliant balance of sort of cruelty, naivety, kind of sweetness.

06:29That again is in the writing, obviously, he's a talented actor.

06:33So that when we had those scenes together, they just seemed quite natural fun for us

06:38to do.

06:40But I think you're right.

06:41I think that's right.

06:42It's a lightness of touch without getting too...

06:46And that's probably in the casting.

06:47That maybe is something that you can't learn.

06:49You either have it, you're either kind of a little bit of a laugh or you're not.

06:56And you guys together, it was like watching a waltz, just like a will they, won't they,

07:00what's happening?

07:01Is she going to punch him in the face or are they going to kiss?

07:03I don't know.

07:04There are powerful forces conspiring against the king.

07:08What the f***?

07:09But I want to know for sure.

07:12Your sister Mary is a rightful heir to the throne.

07:15What if there was somebody else?

07:18Lady Jane Grey.

07:19Lady Jane Grey.

07:20Lady Jane.

07:21I'm intrigued.

07:23It's for you.

07:27Nothing's more important than the monarchy?

07:29Quite, quite, quite.

07:39AVAILABLE NOW

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