Creator/Showrunner/Series Director Justin Hythe and Executive Producer Edwin Stoff talk to The Inside Reel about approach, characterization, perspective and creating a world in regards to the 2nd season of their Starz drama series: “The Serpent Queen”.
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00:00♪♪
00:12Who's a dirty boy?
00:13Get out!
00:14♪♪
00:19Might you be tempted to join me?
00:21♪♪
00:24Thank you for making a dynamic series
00:27which has a lot of moving parts,
00:29a lot of characters, and that's always sometimes tricky
00:32because you want to make sure the motivations are clear.
00:35And with this season, obviously,
00:36with the addition of all the children
00:38and how that works, plus Elizabeth,
00:41it's about sort of that modulation.
00:43Justin, could you first talk about writing that
00:46and bringing that to bear,
00:48and obviously within the directing as well?
00:50And then I'll go to Erwin in terms of looking at
00:52the bigger picture and being able to capture it
00:55and make it happen.
00:57Well, look, the great pleasure of this genre
00:59is to be able to work long form.
01:01It's to be able to reflect on a season,
01:03working with these actors, working with this material,
01:05and then applying those lessons.
01:07And there's certain... you learn systems.
01:10There's certain rules that we establish
01:11in the development of the first season,
01:13one of which is that Catherine is our central point,
01:17and that if you'll notice that we never cut to a character
01:21who isn't directly linked to Catherine.
01:23It could be that she meets a character
01:25who goes and meets that character,
01:27and that's why we'll cut to that character.
01:28So there's a point of view which is...
01:32you don't want it to be rigid,
01:33but it is Catherine's point of view.
01:35She's reflecting on this time.
01:37Everything is filtered through her.
01:38Now, that doesn't mean that things happen
01:41that she doesn't understand or that she's not aware of,
01:43but that that is...
01:45And if you look at this series through that,
01:46that's a way to keep it from becoming unwieldy
01:49because everything is... which keeps thematically.
01:52So you meet the kids through her,
01:55and then you follow the kids from their point of view.
01:58They say that you get the life that you deserve.
02:02Fuck that.
02:04Life is about what you are willing to do to survive.
02:09And I am willing to do anything.
02:12A lot of the films and TV you've made
02:14has reflected in a certain perspective,
02:16you know, whether it be Neo, whether it be I Am Legend.
02:19It's about how these people see their world.
02:21Can you talk about the importance of creating a world
02:24and seeing a world as it needs to be presented
02:26specifically here with The Serpent Queen?
02:30Well, you know, the challenge here is a little bit different
02:33insofar as, you know, the movies you've referenced
02:38had... well, the budgets were not unlimited.
02:41They were certainly much more expansive
02:45than you can have in television.
02:48So here it becomes much more...
02:53in a funny way, tactile.
02:55It becomes much more about what are the things
02:59that touch on the characters' lives.
03:04In other words, you're creating a world here with costumes,
03:07you're creating a world with furniture,
03:09you're creating a world with sets, etc., etc.
03:14And you're not, you know,
03:16it's not creating worlds with visual effects and so on.
03:21So you at all times kind of have to remember
03:27that what your primary focus is,
03:31is your main character and the people that surround her.
03:35So it's a medium that is much more focused on character
03:40and the things that those characters actually touch.
03:46The country is divided.
03:47The so-called prophet let God's will be done.
03:51The growing discontent only whetted the appetite of our enemies.
03:55You know, because these characters are very delicious,
03:58but they're very, very specific.
04:00I mean, obviously, Catherine is.
04:02Bring in Minnie as Elizabeth, completely is.
04:05But it's about these two sort of panthers
04:07sort of going at each other,
04:08but knowing exactly when humor comes in,
04:11when dread comes in,
04:12and when, you know, their actual personality comes through.
04:16Can you talk about that
04:17and finding sort of those different notes with these actresses,
04:21but also surrounding them with the environments
04:24to let them act this out?
04:26Well, I mean, to Erwin's, building on Erwin's point,
04:29I mean, you know,
04:30every great storytelling is specificity in any genre.
04:34But, you know, in this one,
04:36especially when you're dealing with iconic people
04:37like Queen Elizabeth and Catherine de' Medici,
04:40is, you know, really what we're interested in
04:43is what was it really like for them?
04:45What was it?
04:46Because we know these people from paintings,
04:48and what was it really like when she just went off frame?
04:51What's it like?
04:52What was Elizabeth's love life like?
04:54What was Catherine really think of her children?
04:57That's what we want.
04:59That's why we go to this genre,
05:00to see these people
05:01who we usually see on a gilded frame,
05:03to see ourselves reflected.
05:06The pleasure of working.
05:07I mean, Samantha is just, I think,
05:09a sort of depthless talent.
05:11I mean, I think that she, her talent just runs on and on.
05:13And having worked with her one season,
05:15there's an enormous pleasure of coming back,
05:17of her voice and my voice sort of melding on the page.
05:22And when Minnie arrived,
05:23she just absolutely clicked into my vision of Elizabeth.
05:28She brought a great deal of modernity.
05:31She completely understood the humor.
05:34And she brought the,
05:37there's so many layers of armor for these women.
05:41They lived in such a man's world.
05:42And those levels of armor aren't just toughness.
05:45They're humor.
05:46They're sexuality.
05:48They're faint.
05:49They're deference.
05:51And so in that sense,
05:54the dance they do is timeless.
05:56It could be two powerhouse women on Fifth Avenue.
05:58It could be two powerhouse women in Mayfair today.
06:01There's a lot of modern stuff to that.
06:04Whoa!
06:08She's mental.
06:12If you don't make this right,
06:13you will have a civil war on your hands.
06:15In war it is.
06:16Burn it down.
06:17We all must choose a side.