Jude Law & Alicia Vikander Share Firebrand’s Insights Into Henry VIII And Catherine Parr

King Henry VIII and his six wives have been immortalized in various forms of media, from Showtime’s The Tudors to Broadway’s The Six, but Firebrand is perhaps the first movie to focus solely on the story of Catherine Parr. Directed by Karim Aïnouz from a screenplay by Henrietta and Jessica Ashworth, the new film transforms Elizabeth Fremantle’s novel Queen’s Gambit into a tale of covert religious rebellion and the historical impact of Catherine’s survival.

Alicia Vikander (Tomb Raider) stars as Catherine Parr, whose marriage to King Henry VIII (played by Jude Law) is on its last legs. Despite his physical decay, his paranoia and fury make her life very dangerous as she dares to reach out to childhood friend Anne Askew (Erin Doherty) and partake in her protestant bible study that advocated for radical religious reformation. Further complicating her marriage are her motherly duties to Henry’s children (most especially young Elizabeth), whom he has practically cast aside, and her ties to her true love Thomas Seymour (Sam Riley) and his brother Edward (Eddie Marsan), who hope to secure the throne for their line.

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Screen Rant interviewed Vikander and Law about stepping into the roles of Catherine Parr and King Henry VIII for Firebrand, and which aspects of the historical figures were most impactful for their particular performances.

Firebrand’s Alicia Vikander Accessed Catherine Parr Through Her Written Words

Screen Rant: Even though Catherine is immortalized in history, the general public knows very little about her. Was there any aspect of your research that really helped clarify who she was as you stepped into the role?

Alicia Vikander: I think the biggest treasure for me was the fact [that] she was the first ever woman to be published under her own name. I was able to actually source those books. And I realized when I was reading it, first of all, that even in school when I’ve been reading old texts, I don’t know what the oldest text I’ve ever written or read from a woman. That only takes me back 100 or 150 years maximum.

Now it’s another 400 years and, in everything in between, I’ve only read from men. It was this kind of tingling, actually, experience to have her words speak to me and realize, “Oh my God.” That’s when the intimacy of her being a person really came to life, and to know that, “Oh my God, it’s all these women for all these hundreds of years that are just a mystery to me.”

That was definitely, by far of all the research I did, what impacted me deep down personally as well.

Jude Law Shares How He Came To Understand Henry VIII’s Vulnerability For Firebrand

Screen Rant: Henry VIII is obviously a very well-known figure, but you are playing him at his most vulnerable and most paranoid. What was your way into that to really connect with him in this fraught state?

Jude Law: Two aspects, but really both started at the beginning, just to understand how far he had fallen. A lot of the work started as a boy, and then as a young king, and the glories and the potential; the physical attributes. It was really understanding the weight that must have had on him.

Indeed, in the five previous marriages — he didn’t set out to have six wives. I think he truly believed each time that this was the right one, and it was all going to be fine. By this point, he was a laughing stock in Europe because other suitable or eligible wives in his eyes were refusing him. I think one jokingly said, “I’ll marry you, but if I can grow another head.” He knew where he had gone wrong, and all that had gone wrong, and I think capturing some of that and feeling the weight of that was really important.

The other [aspect] was in a similar vein, but more physical. It was just to understand what had gone wrong with his body. [He went] from being a sportsman, a dancer, an athlete, to being someone almost crippled by pain through these wounds, and self-medicating through food and alcohol had huge effects. Those two ways in were pretty key to me.

About Firebrand

In Tudor England, where court intrigue and the king’s paranoia threaten her survival, Katherine Parr navigates a perilous marriage to the volatile Henry VIII.

Firebrand is currently playing in U.S. theaters.

Source: Screen Rant Plus

Firebrand

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.

Director

Karim Ainouz

Release Date

June 14, 2024

Studio(s)

Brouhaha Entertainment , Magnolia Mae Films

Distributor(s)

Sony Pictures Entertainment

Writers

Henrietta Ashworth , Jessica Ashworth

Cast

Alicia Vikander , Jude Law , Sam Riley , Eddie Marsan , Simon Russell Beale , Erin Doherty

Runtime

120 Minutes

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