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The Tudors: what’s up next

Category: Spotlight

March 31st, 2008

Henry and Pope

TV Squad

If you are excited for season 2 of The Tudors on Showtime but can’t wait until it airs on Sunday March 30th, check this out. Showtime is making the season premiere available to fans online now.

Last season left us standing on the precipice of great change in England. The Roman Catholic Church was losing influence in Britain as followers of Luther were rising in the shadows. The king wanted to annul his marriage to Queen Katherine. The Howards (Anne’s uncle) and the Boleyns were positioning themselves closer and closer to the monarch, using Anne as their pawn. Anne, in love with the king and pressed forth by her own ambition, had persuaded Henry to give up the queen and marry her.

She told Henry she would not have sex with him until they are properly married. She promised him a son, an heir he desires above all to keep the Tudor family in power. Indeed, it’s power and how its used that will push the plot forward in season 2.

From the season premiere, I can tell that we will see a new Henry this season. Yes, he’s still the same insatiable, gluttonous, passionate king he was in season one but now, he only obeys his own desires (and those of Anne who has bewitched him). Last season, Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas More provided counsel for the frivolous king. And this season, with Wolsey (Sam Neill) dead and More (Jeremy Northam) less influential, Henry has unlimited power.

When asked if this season was more difficult than the last, Jonathan Rhys Meyers said, “It brings some very real and new challenges. I had to find a way of reinventing Henry that made him seem older, more cynical and controlled. His temper gets much worse this season and he gets more vicious. He’s going down that long and dangerous road to loneliness and paranoia.” I’m sure, like last season, Rhys Meyers’ performance will be nothing short of excellent.

We’ll also see the decline of Anne’s and Henry’s turbulent love this season. You can detect this decline in the very first episode. He’ll tire of Anne. She’ll get desperate to keep her place in his favor. And, well, I think we all know what happens from there. You’ll love Natalie Dormer in the role. But, Dormer has a different appeal as Anne. Her chemistry with Rhys Meyers is great too.

Finally, Peter O’Toole joins the cast as Pope Paul III, successor to Pope Clement who
procrastinated in giving Henry his annulment. O’Toole looks truly amused with the character, like he has fun acting the role. O’Toole commented about the appeal of The Tudors, “It’s one of the great drama of all time. The blood alone is amazing. I think Henry was responsible for the deaths of over 70,000 people. Imagine!…He went from this golden figure – which he was as a young man – to an utterly decadent and corrupted human being.”

Well, let the decadence, the corruption, the blood, and especially the sex begin! Don’t forget to watch the episode early at Showtime’s site.

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Category: Spotlight

March 28th, 2008

Tudors Music

Playing King: Jonathan Rhys Meyers – New York Magazine

• By JadaYuan New York Magazine

On March 30, Showtime’s well-received period soap The Tudors returns for a second season of sex, papal intrigue, and beheadings, with steely-eyed brooder Jonathan Rhys Meyers as a thirtysomething Henry VIII. He spoke to Jada Yuan about acting like a tyrant.

You’re Irish. Did you have any trepidation about playing the king of England?

Of course I did. Not looking like the guy was the huge thing. But I had trepidation about taking on the role of Elvis, and I look a hell of a lot more like Elvis than I do Henry.

How has Henry changed this season?

Having made all the mistakes of his youth in season one, he’s a much harder, more volatile man. He had the weight of his entire country on his shoulders because of love. But really, what would happen to a love that had gone through all that? It’s got to put a strain on a relationship. Imagine if you wanted to go out with a guy, and you had to fight his parents for three years just to get into the marriage. You’d be like, “Is he really worth it?” And then you find out that he’s spending all his time with your friend Stephanie.

He did seem awfully fickle with his women.

It’s not just a case of him being fickle. You read magazines on supermarket stalls, and some movie star is dating this person and then that person and then that person, and people are like, “Why do they hop from one to another?” Because they can! It’s that simple.

Do you feel like the show is over the top with all the steamy sex?

Oh, come on. Sex is sex. These people didn’t have TVs, they didn’t have cars, they didn’t have iPods. They had sex. What else do you think they did?

Got drunk?

Well, what do you do today? Drink and have sex. You live in New York City. You go out Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. But also remember that in that time, sex was very, very important. Sex changed nations.

Why do you think Henry had so many affairs, knowing the stakes?

[Sigh.] Because men are men.

That’s it?

Can you think of another reason?

Just another instance of wielding his power because he could.

You’re confusing wielding his power with wielding his dick.

Speaking of the intersection of sex and power and politics, I assume you’ve heard over there in London about our governor’s fall from grace?

Yeah, for having sex! Doesn’t that border a little on the puritanical? If I know the story right, he had sex with a $15,000-a-night hooker.

I think their last liaison cost him $4,300.

Oh, so he was having sex with a cheap hooker.

God, I hope that’s not what’s considered cheap.

I don’t know. I don’t patronize hookers. But what I’m saying is, come on, look. Did your president not almost lose his presidency over a blow job? That would never have happened in Henry’s time. Unless it was Henry’s wife, giving a blow job to somebody else.

Tudors Henry