An Interview with Anna Chancellor & Rob Brydon from ‘My Lady Jane’

Anna Chancellor and Rob Brydon as Lady Frances Grey and Lord Dudley in ‘My Lady Jane’. (Photos Courtesy of Jonathan Prime/Prime Video.)

Anna Chancellor and Rob Brydon are a pair of highly accomplished actors that have appeared in iconic stories on the silver and small screen. Such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Barbie, respectively. Currently they star as Lady Frances Grey and Lord Dudley in the Prime Video series, My Lady Jane, and we here at NTG had the distinct honor of speaking with them about their experiences on the show.
 
John Betancourt: I would love to start, learning what it means to each of you to be part of a show that is so refreshingly dynamic and unique.
 
Rob Brydon: It's great, isn't it? I mean, you know, you do a lot of shows, a lot of things, you don't know how they're going to go. And then when you start to, I don't tempt fate, but you start to get a feel from all the journalists we're speaking to today, that they really like it and what I've seen, I haven't seen finished episodes yet, but you start to get excited. You start to go, “Oh, I think this looks like it's really good.” That's a great feeling.
 
Anna Chancellor: I think also our cast was very diverse. We had very different people, and we would just all sit around chatting. And it had a sense of real fun. It was fun to be with these people. We were obviously the older guys. We’ve had much more experience. And it was fun to be with young, fresh people who hadn't been in costume dramas, who didn't sort of know this world. And it was, very refreshing to be part of this project,
 
Rob Brydon: As Anna says, we were the older people, and yet still with the freshness and the vibrancy that belied our advanced years. (Laughter from all)
 
John Betancourt: Fun is something I’ve heard from your peers often now, and I am sure that relates to the freedom you had as actors, and I’m curious how did you as actors, approach the creation of your loosely based version of these historical characters.
 
Anna Chancellor: I actually think in a show like this, it's not that you come with many, many pre decided decisions as to, as to how you're going to play it. I mean, maybe you, you know that you've got a facility, but really, it's like, what happens when you get there And, it's more, I think, for me, is how open minded can I be on the day? So, the ideas are coming literally as you are there, as you're setting up a scene. I'm actually not very good at imagining things before they happen. Are you?
 
Rob Brydon: No, I think that sometimes a lot of it happens much more in the moment than you might think. I'd love to sit here and tell you that I went away and became a lord and wore the clothes for six months. Reality is, you read the script, you think, yes, I know. I know where I could take me, and there's the character, and we join in the middle, and then you try and be very relaxed. And you know, we had a wonderful script with wonderful witty lines and remarkable situations. I mean, how often do you get to play things, and say “there are dark forces conspiring against the king?” I've never said things like that before, and the challenge is to make those sound believable, because it's not a line that most people will say nowadays. And you get to play such high stakes. You know, people are being poisoned, somebody's trying to kill somebody else. An invasion. There's an invasion coming. There are this many troops to the east and all that sort of stuff. I've never done that before. So that's really, that's really stimulating. Especially because we were shooting on wonderful sets and on wonderful locations. So, with the great costumes, you really felt like you were there.
 
John Betancourt: Last question that I have for each of you today, without any spoilers, what are you most excited for audiences to experience when they tune in?
 
Anna Chancellor: Well, I think there should be a liberation there for the young women watching it. I think it could feel like it was speaking to them. I hope it does. And for other people, older, younger, whatever, I think there's just a, like, a farcical freedom to the whole thing. It should be fun, right? It’s an escape.
 
Rob Brydo: I just hope people want to, want to get on the ride, because it is a ride. You know, you start off at the beginning and it goes (Rob makes a wooshing noise and gestures to the sky), it's quite a visceral show.
 
This interview has been lightly interviewed and condensed for clarity.

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