“Mary and George” is an audacious historical psychodrama about a treacherous mother and son who schemed, seduced and killed to conquer the Court of England and the bed of King James I. Starring Oscar winner Julianne Moore and rising star Nicholas Galitzine as Mary and George Villiers, the Starz limited series based on Benjamin Woolley‘s non-fiction book “The King’s Assassin” (2017) has critics raving and viewers gobsmacked by the juicy details of 17th century royalty.
Joining Gold Derby’s special Making of “Mary and George” panel are writer and executive producer D.C. Moore, director and executive producer Oliver Hermanus and executive producer Liza Marshall. Watch the full video interview above.
“I had Liza to thank, Liza sent me the book,” reveals Moore. “And she said, ‘I think there’s a real story here.’ And we’ve always said we’ve been inspired by the book because we’ve really then gone out and dug around the real history. Lots and lots of evidence we’ve gone through. I had vaguely heard that King James loved men. But reading this book, the extent of it was absolutely extraordinary. You had a series of favorites and they always got all the political power of the nation, effectively. This happened in most of Scotland and England. And it was such a known game within culture at the time that all the power factions at court would push their hot young male favorite to the front of his court, try and gain his favor by luring him with bait, essentially.”
Casting the perfect bait proved to be a monumental task, and Galitzine fit the bill. “We went around the world and saw Nicholas, and then saw Nicholas again,” recalls Hermanus. “There was obviously always the stress of not getting it right with George because he has to be this object of desire and he has to be the most beautiful man in all of England. And there’s all these kinds of immediate things about the character that would be a lot of pressure for the actor. So it came down to the wire in casting him, but eventually we all felt that he was the right fit. And I think he did such a fantastic job, and I’m so glad that we went around that circle to find Nicholas.”
Moore adds, “It’s also the most shallow casting process I think I’ve ever been involved in on one level because you had to be undeniably hot. Usually I’m adding gnarledness to a character. I want someone who looks more real, but George as the real character really did turn heads and bed hopped across Europe. And so he had to be undeniably handsome.”
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The executive producers all agreed Moore brought the perfect balance to Mary’s character. “We always thought she was the smartest person in the room,” Marshall says of the character. “When you see what she did with no power and no real opportunity, she did it all behind the scenes and she really did rise from pretty much nothing to having this gigantic tomb in Westminster Abbey, which is such an impressive thing to do at that period.”
They credit the Oscar-winning actress for portraying Mary as a shrewd, often cruel woman that keeps the audience rooting for her. “I really think people just love [Julianne],” says Moore. “And I think when you have someone with her ability to take an audience along with you, you can really push at the limits of what a character can get away with. I think [if another person was] playing this part you would just think, ‘No, she’s a monster.’ But with Julianne, she takes it into this sort of area like, am I rooting for her? I think I am. Oh, maybe not. She’s playing with that all the time.”
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