To get into the mindset of her latest character, Henry VIII's sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr, Alicia Vikander would put in her AirPods between takes, alternating between classical music and a lot of techno. It gave me a bit of physical stress, she recalls. Something that never stopped, like a heartbeat that always goes a bit too fast.
Jude Law, who plays her on-screen husband, got into character by dousing himself in the scent of blood, faecal matter and sweat. It was unbearable like rotten fish, says Vikander. It was a very present reminder of what it must have been like to enter the same room as Henry VIII during that time.
For many viewers, it will provide an introduction to the somewhat overlooked historical figure of Parr, the first woman to be published under her own name in England. It also marks a shift in the way Henry VIII has traditionally been portrayed: less of a vigorous womaniser, and more of a domestic abuser prone to petty cruelties and violent mood swings.
Many of the themes in Firebrand are depressingly relevant to the present day: plague, war, tyrants, women being reduced to their reproductive organs. At its heart, it is a conflict of reason and tolerance versus violence and hatred, a dynamic familiar to anyone following politics today.
[
Collection
]
[
|
...
]