Right here, Morton talks to Vogue about her deep dive into the historical past books to inhabit Catherine de’ Medici, The Serpent Queen’s feminist undertones, and her secretive (however very intriguing) new music challenge.
How did this challenge first come your means, and the way acquainted had been you with the lifetime of Catherine de’ Medici already?
Properly, initially, I didn’t know something about her, or so I assumed. I imply, I truly did know a little bit about her, having performed Mary, Queen of Scots in Elizabeth: The Golden Age. I had learn Antonia Fraser’s guide on Mary, so I knew about the place Catherine got here from and issues like that, however that was additionally years in the past and I hadn’t actually delved into that interval of historical past since. I used to be capturing a movie in Wales throughout lockdown referred to as Save the Cinema, and the make-up artist Jacquetta Levon – who’s good, and I’d labored with earlier than on Harlots – was doing my make-up, and he or she was telling me about this subsequent job that she was doing about Catherine de’ Medici. Clearly, that title was actually acquainted to me, and every single day she was speaking about the truth that they hadn’t solid it but. So I began Googling her and stored considering, Oh, I want I used to be youthful, and I might ask to learn for it. Then my supervisor advised me these scripts had been coming, and that they wished to speak to me about it. So I learn it, and I used to be completely fascinated by Justin’s interpretation of this story. As a result of no disrespect to different reveals, however until you’re doing a historic docudrama, usually these interval tales might be fairly boring. [Laughs.] There’s all the time the query of how are they going to make this attention-grabbing? I liked the way in which Justin had put a brand new spin on it, and in addition that she was a determine from historical past who many overlook. She’s well-known in France, however is she as acquainted to the British or American viewers as different queens in historical past? Most likely not. All of it is a very long-winded means of claiming that I didn’t know very a lot about her, however I instantly wished to learn about her. After which as soon as I did learn about her, I used to be fairly livid that I hadn’t been advised about her earlier than, as a younger woman.
What had been a few of the features of Catherine – each as an individual and a historic determine – that you simply felt resonated right now?
What makes her actually thrilling was her curiosity in each side of information: herbalism, arithmetic, astronomy, astrology, human behaviour, psychology, the listing goes on. Her uncle was the pope and he or she was raised in a convent, so her relationship together with her religious self was fascinating too. She’s nearly vilified in historical past as this very darkish determine, and he or she did do some very brutal issues in her life. However I believe that when males have made powerful selections all through historical past, whether or not [as] the ruler of a military or a rustic, they’re usually glorified. However when girls did the identical factor, they had been referred to as witches, or harridans, or whores of Babylon. I liked the truth that she was so fiercely clever. For me, it was actually attention-grabbing to play this type of kingpin character that’s usually reserved for males; this extremely highly effective lady who has vulnerabilities and flaws and all these sides that made her so advanced and attention-grabbing. That’s what all the time stretches you as an actor.
Had been you hoping to reclaim her notoriety in historical past by calling the present The Serpent Queen, or by displaying her with snakes popping out of her gown within the opening titles? I’ve to say, it’s additionally fairly camp.
It’s. [Laughs.] I believe the opposite factor that I discovered attention-grabbing was this concept of Adam and Eve and the serpent, and the way in which snakes are all the time related to evil or one thing otherworldly, whether or not it’s The Jungle Guide or wizards talking Parseltongue in Harry Potter. You requested me earlier how properly I knew Catherine de’ Medici, and thru making this, I realised that really, everyone knows Catherine de’ Medici, as a result of she has permeated popular culture eternally. Whenever you consider Disney and Snow White and the magic mirror, that’s a fable that started with Catherine inviting Nostradamus to the court docket. She talked to her inside self by way of a mirror. That’s a part of our society now as a type of remedy and counselling, wanting into the mirror and repeating these affirmations like, It’s going to be an excellent day, and all the remaining. The poison apple in Snow White may additionally be a reference to her, because it was a quite common means of coping with your enemies again then, and her affiliation with the serpent had quite a bit to do together with her poisoning folks. She was the primary individual to put on black whereas in mourning. I’d all the time thought that was Queen Victoria, however no, it was Catherine. She was allegedly the primary individual to put on knickers as underwear, and the primary lady ever to put on excessive heels. All of us have somewhat little bit of Catherine in us every single day, even when we don’t realise it.
