The horse steak. Was it a regular steak or was there something else to it?
“We have the most amazing props department. They took care of that. And they brought in chefs. It was a true Hollywood moment. They brought in this amazing chef from an amazing restaurant who cooked beautiful, organic, hand-reared, lovely steaks for us. It was the most delicious steak I’ve ever eaten. I kept wanting to ask, ‘Can we just eat more of the steak before she tells us about his horse dying for it…?’ I loved it, because it was so mad. Suddenly it’s a crazy dark moment with the Queen Mother (laughs) screaming, ‘I love you!’ and she just rips your face off. When I first saw the scene, I’d thought when they cut it together that maybe they were going for irony, and I said, ‘Oh, can you play it for me’ and they played the whole scene and I just, I was hysterical. It was so funny.”
Has there been any particular scene that has been your favorite to shoot?
“There are a few of them for different reasons. Some that, um, very early on – in ep 2 or 3 – and it was with Adelaide Kane (Mary) and it may have even been one of our first scenes and it was just – when you arrive on a show, you don’t quite know what the tone of it is so I had cram-watched season one but I still didn’t quite know how far you could go with it. It’s a discovery of what the genre is and this other world that you have to make. And we were in this scene and I just suddenly went, ‘Oh, damn! This show you can take it anywhere. You can really go for it.’ So there are scenes like that. I always love working with Toby (Francis). He’s just delicious to play with. We had a lot of stuff between us last season. And some are just ridiculously funny and silly. Some you walk away from going, ‘Oh, that was…’ I’m very critical of my own work, but there are scenes where it’s just like, ‘We did a good thing there. We made something interesting.’ And then one that I love just for its pure stupidity like Megan (Catherine) and the syphillus part. Just the joy of walking onto a set and seeing Megan Follows strapped into a box (laughs) with her arms out of the way so there’s nothing she could do…it was, yup, it was happy times.”
Is there anyone in particular on cast or crew who is a prankster or likes to try to make everyone break character?
“(laughs) I think everyone is equally naughty. We shoot reasonably fast so, and I’m saying this to be sucky, but I think everyone just kind of gets the fact that you have to get in there and do the work first. Generally there is a – unless there’s like five minutes to wrap on a Friday night – very playful air to the show. And the crew work very hard but they also, they’re interesting, fun people. So we’re kind of constantly laughing, and you need to because we all work some incredibly long hours and the crew work harder than the actors ever will. You need that levity just to keep everyone sane. Especially in winter. We shoot a lot of exterior scenes and when you’re out in negative forty, you need all the jokes you can to keep it happening.”
How has it been with Rachel [Skarsten]coming in? How has she fit in with everything? How are things going with her on set?
“It’s strange but the English world is just…we see each other socially and she’s fantastic. And there are a few other English ‘new kids’ but it’s odd because our worlds don’t collide at the moment. So…when they shoot England, we’re not called that day. So we sort of cross each other. There are those sort of strange moments where a group of us will have a day off and we’ll all say, ‘Let’s go out somewhere!’ and we’ll message Rachel and she’ll be like, ‘No, I’m working, because you guys have the day off’ and then we’re like, ‘Oh yeah…’ I’ve seen a few little glimpses of footage from their world and it’s wonderful and it’s very different. It has quite a different feel from France and I know the sets have a very different light to them and color and quality. It’ll be interesting seeing that world.”
One question that a fan had…is Narcisse a better man now than when he first appeared and does he feel any remorse or regret for any of his actions?
“Which actions? What actions? [said with feigned defensiveness] I definitely think he’s more self-aware. He has a little more empathy toward other people. There are certain things that I guess he does feel remorse for, but I don’t think…I sort of have to keep reminding people that Mary did murder his son. That’s kind of a major thing. She seemed to sort of just get away with that. As for the blackmail of Francis…he was trying to educate what he saw as a boy on how to be a king. By the way, Adelaide (Mary) is a terrible, terrible person [said jokingly]. Not really, I just wanted to say that. She’s fantastic, really. Mary just gets away with everything. But yeah, he sees himself as doing the right stuff.”
He stands by his actions.
“Mostly. Yeah. I think he felt bad about stirring up the trouble at the castle, but other than that…you know.”
What are your thoughts about the show moving to Friday nights?
“Um, I have very few thoughts on it. I think this is a show – you know, I’m old so I’m not the demographic, but – so many people I talk to – I know in Canada it plays on a proper channel, not a proper channel, a TV channel, not cable channel – but I think a lot of our audience don’t do appointment television. They watch online. They watch…however young people watch television now. So the, be it Thursday night or Friday night, doesn’t…I don’t think it really matters that much. I don’t know. I don’t understand the whole world of ratings and I know we didn’t rate particularly well on Thursday nights with live viewing but I really think that those ways of rating have become obsolete. And considering the fact that we got season three…if no one was watching it…I mean, they spend a lot of money to make a TV show. We’re obviously thrilled, but, um they obviously have different ways of measuring their shows which I think takes into account the internet and streaming and all those other ways of watching. I know, for me, I don’t have a cable coming into my house. I hate watching ads and I hate random reality shows so I get to choose exactly what I watch through iTunes and Netflix and Hulu and those things. I think that’s how people more and more will watch television, especially the younger audience, which our show is particularly suited toward. That’s not saying that older people don’t watch our show, because I meet very random people and they think it’s great, so…”
Do you often get recognized on the street?
“Um, yes, in sort of random moments. I think a lot of people watch it in Toronto on…I should know the network’s name, but I don’t…Quite often when I’m out and about here, people go, “Oh, I watch that show. I love it!” And generally these are people who are fully grown ups. So I think we’re kind of watched in a sort of broad demographic. That’s a terrible word, but…”
It’s about the only one that fits.
“…yeah.”
Well, I think that’s all the questions I have since I know you’re not going to tell me anything about season three. (laughs)
“Um, well, what can I tell you? Other than that it does have quite a different feel, I think as a part of season two we got a little weighed down with politics outside of the characters, where this season it’s definitely…it’s the politics of the people we know and love and hate. And it’s a lot more…well, when I binge-watched season one, there were great episodes like the one where Henry throws the girl out the window and he and Megan (Catherine) are running around the castle trying to hide the body. Just good, sort of, adventure television. And I feel this season is, not a return to that, but there’s that kind of quality running through it. There’s a rich sort of…well, you get your money’s worth. Like I said, we’re about to read for episode seven and it just…cracks along. It’s fantastic. It’s gonna be good watchable television.”
And it premieres…three weeks from Friday? Two? On October 9th?
“Oh really? Is it that soon? I guess we’d better shoot faster! I didn’t realize we were on air so soon. I’ll have to set the TV recorder.”
Talk Nerdy Witn Us
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Всё как обычно: чувство юмора не покидает Крэйзьку.
Искренне жалко "лолциссок"- ничегошеньки для них. (а они так старались-вопросы сочиняли). И , кстати когда он говорит о Меган (Екатерине), он говорит о ней как о Меган, а о Лоле как о... Лоле.
А вообще я всякий раз удивляюсь, читая официальные интервью, несмотря на знакомую подачу с юмором, насколько он становится другим....сосредоточенным что-ли...
И ещё: я хотела бы выразить особую благодарность журналистам этого издания, за их профессионализм. Интервью содержательное и с большим уважением к Крэйгу. Это его интервью!
(а не "спойлерная" с ванной и соплями 
)
