Kate O’Flynn and Jordan Peters are a pair of accomplished actors that have appeared on the silver and small screen often, in some important franchises. Such as Bridget Jones’ Baby and Gangs of London, respectively. Currently they star as Mary and King Edward in the Prime Video series, My Lady Jane, and we here at NTG had the wonderful honor of sitting down with both of them to discuss their new show. John Betancourt: I would love to know what it means to each of you to be part of such a dynamic and unique new show? Jordan Peters: Oh, absolute joy. Yeah, absolute joy. I've never done anything like this before in my life, so being a part of it, it just means so much to me and also just the opportunity to play such a historical figure, but not basing it on the historical facts, just making our own in this My My Jane world, it's just been so much fun. And just the whole team and the cast, has just been… it's been really great. Kate O’Flynn: Yeah. I would second that and just say it was a rollicking good time to film and hopefully to watch. John Betancourt: Jordan, you lead me right to my next question, because I’m very curious as to how much each of you enjoyed having so much freedom to craft your characters, since you weren’t locked into history. Kate O’Flynn: Well, I think we were both thinking the same thing, is that the script comes first. So, who are the characters in this world of My Lady Jane and going from there? So, for me, it was finding the tone of her, finding how the character of Mary -- like, what instrument am I playing in the orchestra? And Mary is the villain. So just going all out for that, really, that was my approach, my way in. Jordan Peters: Yeah, it's just like you said, there was so much license to play, and also with the showrunners being there every day, and if we had a moment of like improv in rehearsals they would add it to the script, or they have an idea that they could use to put later on in the episode that they will use that. It was just so nice to have such a collaboration with the actors and the showrunners, which was so, so beautiful, that whole experience, because it was months of filming. So, it was nice that they weren't just so locked into what was on the script, that just gave us more freedom and license to play. John Betancourt: Now, without offering any spoilers, I would love to know you're most excited for audiences to experience when they watch. Kate O’Flynn: I'm excited for people to see the chemistry between Emily (Bader) and Edward (Bluemel) playing Jane and Guildford, because I think that really, really works. Really, it's just… it's electric. So, I'm excited, but I think people will love that. Jordan Peters: Also, the fantastical moments within the show. There's a lot of fantasy that, you know, people should be looking forward to. Kate O’Flynn: Yeah, there’s a lot of surprises. Jordan Peters: A LOT of surprises. John Betancourt: What are you each most proud of when it comes to work on this show? Jordan Peters: You know what? I'm proud of my fighting skills. Yeah, I'm proud of my fighting skills because I trained hard. I trained for three years at Lambeau, and now I can put it into practice. I'm like, yes, yes, it was worth the money. Kate O’Flynn: Yeah. I think for me, I'm most proud -- I think I’m proud, but I really loved… I haven't played a royal before, so on screen, so getting to play that, and we're obsessed with class in the UK, and getting to play someone at the top tier and getting away with it. You know, I love that. John Betancourt: The last question I have for you today, if you could describe this series in one word, what would that word be? Jordan Peters: Romanta-cy. Kate O’Flynn: I’ll use two. Rompy Pompy. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
0 Comments
Gemma Burgess and Meredith Glynn are a pair of talented writers that helped to bring to life the new sensation series, My Lady Jane, on Prime Video and we here at NTG had the distinct honor of sitting with both of them to discuss the genesis of this series and so much more. John Betancourt: I'd love to start by learning what inspired each of you to want to bring this book to the small screen. Gemma Burgess: The book itself. I fell in love with it as a fan, and then thought, this has to be on television. Meredith Glynn: You were riding the subway, yeah? Gemma Burgess: Yeah! Meredith Glynn: And you saw a young woman reading it close to her face, and if a young woman is so involved in something, then it has to be incredible. Gemma Burgess: That's right. So, I bought it and read it just for me, and didn't know anything about it, and fell completely in love. Meredith Glynn: And I read Gemma's pilot. She was looking for a partner, and I fell in completely in love with her pilot and with her, with herself and with the book when I read it shortly thereafter, but what really drew us to it, honestly, is that when we started talking about the show, we were both obsessed with Lady Jane Grey when we were teenagers. Gemma Burgess: That's right. So, you know the Helena Bonham Carter, Cary Elwes movie, Lady Jane, which tells us true story. It's beautiful and super depressing, and there's a Delaroche painting, and I had the poster on my wall when I was 13, and we were both just very romantic early teenagers who loved Lady Jane Grey. Meredith Glynn: When you’re that age, you're drawn to the beautiful and super depressing perhaps? (Laughter from all) And then you reevaluate it when you're a little bit older, and you're like, “No, wait, that was really messed up.” She was this incredibly educated woman who was made queen, but still was a pawn and still was beheaded. Gemma Burgess: And then we just thought, if we can make a show that retells her story, where she has a happy ending, and then also make it feel like The Princess Bride and, Black Adder, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and A Knight's Tale, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Meredith Glynn: All these things that we love. Gemma Burges: Then we could do it. John Betancourt: What kind of challenges went into creating this positive and unique adaptation? Gemma Burgess: The challenges are mostly the English weather. Meredith Glynn: Yes, we built a massive set piece at Dover Castle, standing in for the Tower of London. And Dover is iconic and beautiful and so cool, but we happened to be shooting in the middle of November at night. So, the winds were not with us those nights, let's just say. And thankfully, our production designer, the brilliant Will Hughes-Jones, mapped every inch of that castle, and recreated it. We all recreated it on a sound stage in Pinewood three months later. Gemma Burgess: Yeah, that was a challenge that just became, like, just awe inspiring about what can be done. Meredith Glynn: And how incredible our team is, and we always knew it, but just watching that was astonishing. John Betancourt: What are you each most excited for audiences to experience when they settle in to watch this? Meredith Glynn: The love story between Jane and Guildford? Gemma Burgess: Oh yeah, the love story. All the love stories. Some of the love stories are quite shocking. Meredith Glynn: Yeah, but no spoiling. Gemma Burgess: Yeah, we can’t do that. John Betancourt: Last question I have for you today, if you could describe the series in one word, what would that word be? Gemma Burgess: Swashbuckling. Meredith Glynn: Romanta-cy. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. Nicco Annan is a highly accomplished actor that has received critical acclaim for his work as Uncle Clifford on the hit STARZ series, P-Valley. Shoshana Guy is a highly accomplished showrunner that has brought to life several acclaimed documentary series, such as The 1619 Protect. Now, this duo has teamed up to bring us Down in the Valley on STARZ, a powerhouse documentary that debuts on the network on Friday and we had the distinct honor of sitting down with both of them to discuss this incredible new docu-series. John Betancourt: I'd love to start by getting to know what inspired each of you to want to come together and tell these stories. Nicco Annan: I mean, it was like a force. Ironically, we did not know one another, but we actually have threads in our community of people that we do know separately, but coming together as artists has been… just… it's been a joy. It's been one of the best things that you know has happened from this process. I think working with Shoshana and her background and who she is as a person has been amazing. You know, I think that the world of P-Valley can be very intimidating for a lot of people to kind of say, let's come on in. And she's been able to handle it with such a dignity, a love, and a respect and open to all the creativity of it. So, it was just like we were good Mama and Papa, you know, getting it together. Shoshana Guy: Yeah. I mean, ditto. You know, it was such an opportunity to be able to work with Nico (Annan) and Katori (Hall) and be able to expand on their vision for the flagship show and sort of translate it into the world that I come from, which is ultimately a journalistic background, in its birth and, yeah, be able to bring together an amazing team of people to create this really nuanced, I think, tender and fun look at our lives as black people in the south. John Betancourt: I'm also very curious… what it means to each of you to be giving life to a documentary that really is unlike any other on television, because I can't think of one that I've ever seen like this before. Shoshana Guy: Oh, thank you for that. Because, yeah, I do feel like it's very fresh in its effort, in the same kind of way that the P-Valley show is very fresh in its effort. And, you know, just being able to tell the breadth of stories that we don't often get to see. You know, just diving into ideas around, like, black female pleasure and like, breaking down the barriers of shame that have existed for so long, you know, getting into, you know, queer black life and like, what that looks like, what it means, you know, people's experiences -- the outside of what we see versus what's actually happening on the inside. And so, I think there's a lot of kind of, like, what's underneath that this show is able to kind of unearth. And so that, to me, is very fresh and exciting in a way that, like, you know, my secret favorite, well, not so secret now, because I've been telling everyone, but the “The Hoodoo” episode, which is just, I feel like, maybe our most unique effort in the sense of, like, really looking at how African ritual continues to show up, and how it has always been a part of the fabric of our lives, that there's nothing to be afraid of, that it's been, you know, sort of, stigmatized, but that it belongs to us, and it shows up anyway. It's here. Nicco Annan: And it also was just a beautiful opportunity to be able to use all of our creativity and artistry in telling those stories and incorporating the dance, the lighting, the cinematography, the music, you know, the music really coming from people from the south. The music being a part of like, we're in Mississippi and we're listening to Mississippi Blues that's done by Silas or done by this artist, there's just so many people that layered in this, this the world and making this, whether in production, pre-production, in production and in the post of it all that helped us to be able to articulate these stories in this docuseries in such an elevated way. I feel like in a lot of ways, it would we have just as much care as one would in a scripted series. John Betancourt: That leads me right to my next question, speaking of assembly. In that, what kind of challenges did you each encounter in putting together something this ambitious. Nicco Annan: You know, you never have enough days, you know, to be there to do the thing. Time, you know, and doing it. But I will say this, it was a wonderful journey, working with Zero Point Zero, the production company who, you know, did Boudain’s show and Nomad, and all of that, coming into this world where there was a level of artistry that was already understood. And I think that my own as a creative mind, I will say, I don't want to say madness, but I'll say my mission. (Laughter from all) It was embraced, you know? But I think that when you have space to be able to say, I'm dreaming, and this is what I see, and just different ideas that, you know, would come up in our meetings and conversation, and being able to have directors and a producing team that could go forth and make it happen. We had that. Shoshana Guy: Yeah, the challenge of time, I think, as a showrunner, was just really, you know, like trying to cram a lot into a short production period, and then really making sure that as we unraveled the stories and as we put them together, that the integrity really stayed intact in terms of, like, what it is that we were trying to illustrate. And that can be tricky sometimes, you know, for various reasons. And so, I'm very proud of that, in all of our efforts of really, you know, sticking to our guns in a lot of ways, and saying, like, “No, this is actually what we're going for, and we're not going to compromise it.” John Betancourt: I think what I was most surprised about with this documentary series was the fact that, you know, these stories have obviously been out there forever. I don't know why they weren't told sooner, but finally, they're being told. And I'm very curious as to why each of you think now is that right moment to just bring these stories into the spotlight? Nicco Annan: To your point, I think that it always was the right time. You know, I think that maybe someone didn't have the courage, maybe the space was not there. But what I do know is that working on the flagship show, on P-Valley, has opened up so many doors, and I'm walking through them. You know what I mean? You know, there's no need to -- I don't play soft. We coming in hot. We coming in hot. And that's the point, I think, that there's so much content that's out there right now that we didn't want to create something that was not true. We didn't want to create something that didn't have an amplified reverberation of heart. So, I think that that's what we did, that was the intention, and wanted to have fun. Wanted to celebrate. It's summertime. We have been through pandemic. We have been through strikes. We have been through strife. There's world wars going on, but there's… there's a reason still to be. Shoshana Guy: Yeah, and I think when someone like Katori opens up the door in terms of, like, the vision that she had for this show, it's the right time to continue to build on that. So, you know, she, sort of opened this door. Then Nicco comes in and has this idea, like, “Hey, let's expand it in this way.” And then he and I have this merging of minds. So, you know, I always believe that everybody kind of comes together in the right time, in just the right moment, to create the things that they create. John Betancourt: So, there it is, plainly said: this is the moment. Nicco Annan: Yeah! It is what it is, baby! This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity |
Archives
July 2024
|