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.
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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.
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