Summary
Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz dives into the history of England’s royal family inFirebrand, which follows the final days of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine Parr. The last of his six wives, Catherine is also the only one to come out of the marriage without either being divorced or beheaded — though the movie highlights how she came close to both. Henrietta and Jessica Ashworth’s screenplay is based on Elizabeth Fremantle’s 2013 novelQueen’s Gambit, but it focuses specifically on how Catherine’s religious radicalism created conflict in her domestic life.
Tomb Raider’s Alicia Vikanderportrays the defiant queen, who not only pursues religious beliefs that King Henry VII (played by Jude Law) in his paranoia finds extremely dangerous, but also chooses to care for Henry’s children as her own and prepare them for their royal future. The future Elizabeth I (Junia Rees) in particular owes much of her measured approach as a ruler to the values instilled in her by her stepmother Catherine. TheFirebrandcastalso includes Sam Riley, Eddie Marsan, Ruby Bentall, Amr Waked, Erin Doherty, and Simon Russell Beale.
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Screen Rantinterviewed Aïnouz about his way into the world of Catherine Parr, which aspects of Fremantle’s novel excited him most, and what madeAlicia Vikander perfect for the roleof the surviving queen.
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Screen Rant:I really enjoyedFirebrand, especially as a fan of the musical Six. There’s so much of Catherine Parr’s life has been unexplored. How did you whittle down which aspect of her story and which aspect of the novel you were going to hone in on?
Karim Aïnouz: I think there were so many, and on the one hand, it was really exciting to enter this terrain, which I think was very uncharted. I think the novel was amazing; I had also done a lot of lectures with a woman who was a historian of Catherine in particular, and of the condition of women in the time. And so, there were a lot of choices that needed to be made.
It was [about] thinking what was more interesting and what was relevant to today. I think the first one was the question of soft power. There was something there of having been trapped in a marriage that she didn’t choose to be in, and yet not forgetting her beliefs. Ultimately, it was a woman looking for emancipation in all senses. I think that was an important issue that I was looking into for the character.
And then I think the other side of the question is legacy from a familiar perspective, which was very interesting because the legacy of Henry is about violence; it’s about war; it’s about the empire. And I think the legacy of Catherine is education. It’s generosity. It’s the way that she raised these kids that were not her biological kids, but yet she raised them as if they were her own kids. And the fact that she was the woman who educated Elizabeth was for me was a really important aspect.
Beyond it all, I think she was an amazing stateswoman. It was very tricky to do a movie about a queen which feels like such a privileged space, and yet there was a lot of vulnerability there and there was a lot of things that she needed to constantly fight for to remain alive. Those are the things that I think excited me most. Thinking of Henry and her, I felt there was something very [relevant]. I think there are so many men running countries and institutions that are just like him, and we know so little about the women who are by their sides or working with them or against them. That’s what really made me go through it and think that this is a story that takes place in the 1500s, but it’s also a story about now.
Alicia Vikander’s Performance Adds An Element Of Mystery To The Story Of Catherine Parr
Screen Rant: Alicia really disappears into the role and, at times, I forgot that I was watching her. What aspects of Catherine did you want her to bring out most, or what did you work with her most on?
Karim Aïnouz: I think there was a question of strategy; how she had very strong convictions, particularly about religion, which were very dangerous in relationship to what she was. It was how to have an unpredictable character who was sort of understanding at every second which direction she could go without forgetting her goals and without forgetting her convictions.
I think one of the most incredible things about an actress like Alicia is that she has a lot of mystery in the way that she plays Catherine. She has an eloquence in her silence; in the way that she didn’t speak sometimes and was just present. I think this is something that Alicia does beautifully and with a strength that I think is uncanny and very powerful.
About Firebrand
In Tudor England, where court intrigue and the king’s paranoia threaten her survival, Catherine Parr navigates a perilous marriage to the volatile Henry VIII.
Check out our otherFirebrandinterview withJude Law and Alicia Vikander.
Firebrand
Cast
Firebrand is a historical thriller that follows Katherine Parr, King Henry VIII’s sixth wife, who finds herself in grave danger when her husband returns from an evangelical campaign of carnage and conquest. With her childhood friend accused of treason and executed, Parr fights for survival against a king that continues to veer down the path of a tyrant.
