Viewers who conjure up an image of Henry VIII as a rotund, tyrannical ruler might be surprised by the slim and handsome version we meet in Wolf Hall. We’re fascinated, aren’t we?” he continues.“When we find out what was actually going on with Kennedy, or Clinton, or eventually find out what was going on in Obama’s mind, it’s riveting.” “He probably would have been a champion chess player, in that he’s usually seven or eight moves ahead of the other players around him.”Īs for why people find the Tudor period so exciting, the actor puts it down to the king’s “very human nature”.“It’s the whole idea of divine kings, or of these rulers who lead us. “He’s always playing to win playing to win what he feels will be the most beneficial outcome of the situation,” Rylance says of his character.
(He’s a very distant relative of the notorious Oliver Cromwell of a later era.)Īlong the way, he must deal with the ruthless power struggles of the Tudor court, the upheavals of the Protestant reformation, the king’s turbulent relationship with Boleyn, and her later execution. “But then it gets to July and you’re in a stately home, not able to drink water, sit down, not really able to breathe, and you’re regretting asking for the corset to be so tight in the fitting,” adds the 30-year-old.įilming took place across the south-west of England, with the action following Cromwell’s meteoric rise from blacksmith’s son to the king’s right-hand-man. “In the first few weeks, the dresses were magical and amazing,” says Upstairs Downstairs actress Claire Foy, who plays Anne Boleyn, eventual wife of Henry, played by Damian Lewis of Homeland fame. But they weren’t the only tricky items the show’s cast had to contend with.
But I can see for modern audiences, perhaps even more in America, they may not know exactly what’s going on down there.”įor the record, the show’s producers insist there was no “hidden codpiece memo” from either themselves or their US counterparts. “I’m a bit more used to them than other people, from being at Globe Shakespeare’s Globe.
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