“The White Princess” is an eye grabbing new limited series airing on Starz on April 16 starring Jodie Comer as Princess Elizabeth, Jacob Collins-Levy, as King Henry VII, featuring the lovely Michelle Fairley (“Game of Thrones”).
On the Red Carpet at Metrograph Theater, The Knockturnal got an exclusive preview of the first episode and was able to talk about feminism with the writer of the series, Emma Frost, upcoming projects with Jodie Comer, who is plays Princess Elizabeth and Jacob Collins-Levy, King Henry, about his favorite moments filming.
NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 05: Actors Jacob Collins-Levy and Jodie Comer attends New York Special Screening Event Of STARZ “The White Princess” Hosted By STARZ & Refinery29 at Metrograph on April 5, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for STARZ) *** Local Caption *** Jacob Collins-Levy; Jodie Comer
Emma Frost
Is there a big difference between The White Queen and The White Princess? Being the showrunner, executive producer and writer, would you say there is anything the fans will see differently this year?
I think some things, I think essentially it’s the same stable. It’s a continuation of the same story both based off of Philippa Gregory’s novel. The White Queen we actually made within the British system in which show runner’s don’t exist, so this time I show runned it. So there are differences. I think the main thing for me would just be The White Queen is more about the events and The White Princess is much deeper into the psychology and the emotion of the characters. The White Queen is three books that is woven together and with this one it’s one book, so I got to really dive deeply into the characters and just the politics. The way everyone is trying to pull everybody in a different direction. I think it’s more satisfying from the character point of view.
Also Harper’s Bazaar commented saying The White Princess is “the Feminist answer” to Game of Thrones, you now have Michelle Fairley, would you have any advice to young ladies watching The White Princess about feminism itself?
First of all, I hope that young women watching the show will feel inspired and emboldened by it, I hope some of the characters help them feel more brave in their own lives I think the only advice I could really say is the advice I had to give myself a few years ago in terms of being a showrunner and operating in this business. You just have to make the decision not to care what anyone thinks of you on a personal level because I think for women whatever you do, you’re going to be criticized. And you get criticized for the very qualities that men praised and applauded for. You know ‘you’re too aggressive, you’re too emotional, you’re too manipulative’ and if you worry about any of those things as women are conditioned to worry about, that we’re suppose to care what people think of us, we’re suppose to smile and appease. If you worry about those stuff, you won’t get anywhere in your life and you won’t be happy, so the only thing I can say is that you have to make the decision to not to care what people think of you in professional sense I mean of course, not personally, and you just leave it at the door. People can say what they and it really doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is the work. The only thing that matters is whatever the endeavor is that you’re doing and whatever your focus is … worry about that and don’t worry about any of the other stuff, and just have your own integrity and be true to yourself.
Jodie Comer
How was it filming for The White Princess? Did you take any pointers from The White Queen at all?
I did, I watched The White Queen and read The White Princess, but once I got in the scripts I kind of got all my focus into kind of analyzing them and just trying to create Lizzie for myself. I knew it was going to be such a big job, but it was so much fun, it really was.
What was your favorite part about it, I know it is a big feminism moment right now?
I think from a young actresses’ point of view, I think working with the likes of Michelle Fairley, Essie Davis and Jamie Payne, the director, I met some people on this job who were a huge inspiration and I learned a lot by just watching them work, so I think that was a huge part. I mean the crew as well, a lot of the crew I kept in touch with. It was a very long shoot so we all got very close and it was kind of like a little family.
Are there going to be any surprises or tensions between you and Jacob (King Henry)?
Yeah I think they have a lot, they get tested a lot throughout the series and especially in the first couple of episodes, but as the series progresses you definitely see the Lizzie seeing Henry in a different light. They were known in history for having a very, very loving relationship and you definitely see that relationship grow within the eight episodes, which is really nice to watch.
Do you have any upcoming projects so far?
I have a film coming out, I’m not sure when sometime this year, it’s a Steven Morrissey bio-pic from The Smiths and now I’m just kind of getting back to auditions and praying that something comes along.
Jacob Collins-Levy
What was your favorite moment from filming for The White Princess?
There was one time when we were riding a horses through this fort, this river and I was in the South West of England … and we were just riding these horses through this river and it was just that moment where you’re just like the King of England in a part of the country where he may very well have passed through and you’re on a horse and it was that feeling of having the cloak drop and you feel like the character. So it was extraordinary.
Have you ever rode a horse before?
No, never before. I did lots of training for this job and I rode once maybe when I was nine years old, and had the same name as the horse I riding in the show, but it had freaked out and it scared me of horses for the rest of my life.
Do you have a role model that you look up to?
David Bowie … at the time that’s very much what my mind was going through, it was the year of his passing, some one who’s probably the most influential artist of my life, so that whole year I was thinking about it and it was only a few months after he passed that I got the part, so it was such a big role for me and he was always in the back of my mind throughout. It seems unrelated to the actual program, but that was a big thing for me.
