Tony Curran as King James I in \u2018Mary & George.\u2019 (STARZ)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nKing James I is very well known in the long list of royal figures.\u00a0What kind of research did you do on him?\u00a0<\/strong>Tony Curran: <\/strong>I read a lot, and I went on YouTube. But the most informative part of the research was a gentleman called Benjamin Woolley<\/strong>. Benjamin is the author of the novel The King\u2019s Assassin<\/em>, which the show is based on. Benjamin is like an Encyclopedia Britannica of historical monarchy information. Benjamin wrote the book, and it\u2019s pretty much all factual. Our story is based on the book, so I basically talked to him in January last year. I sat down with a pen, paper, and we had a Zoom call. For about two hours, I just dived into his cerebral passages and asked him questions about King James, about the Villiers, and about that incredible period of history.<\/p>\nDid this research and talking with Benjamin influence your portrayal of King James or change your opinion of him? <\/strong>Tony Curran:<\/strong> No. I mean, it\u2019s interesting. You hear about Henry VIII and the first Queen Elizabeth, who was on the throne for 40 years, whom King James succeeded. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve seen that much on TV or written about King James. But talking to him about it was really compelling. He would look at photographs, and he would go, \u201cLook at him sitting on that seat with his crown and scepter.\u201d He was asking me, \u201cWhat do you think about it?\u201d And I said, \u201cWell, he looks like he\u2019d rather be somewhere else.\u201d There\u2019s the old adage, heavy sleeps the head that wears the crown. There\u2019s a term that he gave me that I stole and it\u2019s \u201cKing James was nourished in fear.\u201d He was kidnapped when he was 13 for a year. His father, Lord Darnley, was assassinated. He was blown up. His mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, was exiled from Scotland and executed by Queen Elizabeth. You might see he had a bit of trauma as a child. I think that definitely informed his approach to life and the very marrow of the person he became. He did so many amazing things, little-known things. The King James Bible, of course, which you might find in hotels around the world. He translated that. Jamestown, of course, was the first British colony in the Americas.<\/p>\nHe wasn\u2019t fond of a witch. He wrote this book on it called Daemonologie<\/em>. There\u2019s a story that King James went over to Denmark to get his wife, the Queen of Denmark. Twice she tried to come over and twice there were terrible storms. She couldn\u2019t make it so he had to go and fetch her, if you will. He blamed it on these three women. Alas, I think they may have been hung or burnt at the stake, but there are three witches at the beginning of Macbeth<\/em> and apparently William Shakespeare based it on King James\u2019 execution of these three women. There was 20 years of peace with France and Spain. Unlike Queen Elizabeth before him, he wasn\u2019t a warmongering king. He would rather go and see a playwright, write, go hunting. I\u2019m interested to see what people think. And, of course, there is his sexuality as well. That\u2019s another aspect of him. There\u2019s a lot of depth to this man, and it\u2019s a very compelling time of history as well.<\/p>\nKings and queens have always had favorites. King James was an intelligent man. Do you think he was aware of the ulterior motives people had in getting close to him?<\/strong>Tony Curran: <\/strong>That\u2019s a very good question. Yeah, most definitely, because he was very guarded. Paranoia will destroy you, but I think his paranoia was a sort of defense mechanism. Everybody always wants to take the power from him, but at the same time, he trusted people. There was Esme, Lord Lennox, who was one of his first great loves when he was a young man. Lord Lennox was older. Robert Carr and, obviously, George Villiers. He became the Duke of Buckingham, but I think he found solace in these relationships. There are some moments in the show where he wants to disappear sometimes. Someone once said that if you can\u2019t find meaning in life, you\u2019ll find distraction. I think he distracted himself with falling in love with sensual pleasures. I think people do that today, don\u2019t they? I think his drug of choice was the passions that he had for for these relationships with these men. He did have 7 children. I mean, Queen Anne was actually pregnant 10 times. Three of them survived. His son, King Charles, became king after him. I think he felt the pressure of coming from Scotland and becoming a king of England. I think he used to walk about his palace with his doubler stuffed with padding because he was scared and apprehensive that people might stab him. I think he\u2019s quite a compelling figure that we haven\u2019t seen, so I hope people connect with him in some way.<\/p>\nTo bounce off that, in these passionate relationships, there\u2019s still a power dynamic. But when you strip everything away \u2014 metaphorically and physically \u2014 it\u2019s a very primal thing. There\u2019s an intimacy in the bedroom that he maybe doesn\u2019t have outside of it.\u00a0<\/strong>Tony Curran: <\/strong>That\u2019s a good way to put it. He closed parliament for 6 years. Politically, he would only open parliament when he needed to raise taxes because he was broke. He was fond of the finer things in life. He liked jewelry. His dog was actually called Jewel. He did love a fine piece of cloth, and I think he spent a lot of his money on that.<\/p>\nYou have to work closely with Nicholas Galitzine. What was that like establishing that very intimate relationship between James and George?<\/strong>Tony Curran: <\/strong>That was interesting. Before I actually met Nick, I was in London, and he was doing reshoots. We actually started texting each other. I think I sent him the book just as a little \u201chi, how you doing?\u201d He was like, \u201cYou expect me to read this? I\u2019ve got two jobs right now.\u201d Anyway, I\u2019m sure he got to it at some point, but I think we started having a bit of levity together joking on text. He\u2019s a total pro, and we got on very well. I guess we\u2019re friends now. I don\u2019t know what he\u2019ll say about me, but I like him. I think sometimes, not just in acting but in life in general, if you\u2019re in a workplace and you\u2019re both focused and good at your job whatever you do, it does help if you have some sort of chemistry. I guess Oliver Hermanus<\/strong>, who cast us, maybe he felt we could get on. We definitely had a bit of chemistry and humor, which I think is a big part of it. I think the performance Nick gives in this is really beautiful and very powerful. I had a great time with him. He\u2019s lovely.<\/p>\nBeing the king, James could have his choice of lovers. What do you think James sees in George that intrigues him?<\/strong>Tony Curran: <\/strong>I think he wasn\u2019t bad-looking. He is quite dishy. I think we actually shot a scene in The Charterhouse in London, and it\u2019s apparently where James and George saw each other for the first time, so that was kind of weird and gave me a few goosebumps. I think his mother shaped him with his music, his languages, and he was a very talented horseman. But I think he was very handsome, and James was attracted to that. I think he definitely fell for him deeply. There are letters that I\u2019ve read where James would open his heart out to him, talking to him through his quill, if you will. I think there was a real closeness and trust. After a while, George Villiers did very much become one of the most powerful men in England. James was sort of just like, you take the power. You make the decisions. He entrusted him. Sometimes it didn\u2019t go too well when he sort of gave George carte blanche to make political decisions. I think you\u2019ll see in the show that he maybe regretted giving him as much power as he did. But I think when it came to loving him, I think he felt that very deeply.<\/p>\nTony Curran at the 2023 BAFTA Scotland Awards. (Euan Cherry\/BAFTA\/Getty Images for BAFTA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThere has been some discourse about James\u2019 death and whether or not he could have been poisoned by George. Is that something the show will explore?<\/strong>Tony Curran: <\/strong>Probably. That\u2019s a terrible answer. Probably. I mean, if you\u2019re basing a show on a novel called The King\u2019s Assassin<\/em>\u2026 I mean, he had dysentery, gout, he drank a lot, and had all these terrible ailments at the time that maybe nowadays we\u2019d have a better idea of taking care of with medicine. But at the time, he obviously didn\u2019t. It\u2019s definitely up for conjecture whether or not he was assassinated. But whether or not that happens on our show, you might have to watch it.<\/p>\nYou mentioned how much James loved George. But could it have been his downfall? The idea that power corrupts is a really interesting aspect of their relationship to explore.\u00a0<\/strong>Tony Curran: <\/strong>I love what you said there. I love that term: power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. It can eat you up. His [George\u2019s] relationship with his mother and getting away from the apron strings and becoming his own man, I think you\u2019ll find that relationship and that triangle of power\u2026 once he gets to the king, how does that relationship affect the relationship with his mother?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n[ad_2]Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[ad_1] View gallery Image Credit: STARZ King James I is the grand prize in the ultimate game of scheming and power. 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