It was supposed to be a somber scene in “Mary & George,” the Starz limited series about an opportunistic Jacobean widow (Julianne Moore) who ushers her second son, George (Nicholas Galitzine), into the halls of English power. The moment required Moore, as Mary, to throw a handful of dirt at the camera lens and the coffin of her late, abusive husband. But it seems that Moore, while one of the best actors out there, doesn't have a particularly good shot.
“I'm definitely not an athlete,” Moore said in a recent video interview. “They told me: 'Throw him on the coffin.' When I threw it away, [went off to the sides] like clockwork: 12, 3, 6, 9. It was very sad.” But also funny enough to make the cast and crew laugh. “Everyone started laughing,” Galitzine said in a separate interview. “He took a handful of earth and did not reach the north of the chamber. He took another, threw it, and missed south of the chamber; two more, one to the west and one to the east. And we just couldn't keep calm. “It was just a perfect combination of lack of athleticism.”
Inspired by Benjamin Woolley's nonfiction book “The King's Killer: The Secret Plot to Assassinate King James I,” “Mary & George” can get quite macabre as it dramatizes the Machiavellian intrigues and bloodshed behind the rise of George Villiers, designed by his mother. Maria. Which didn't stop Moore and Galitzine from having a ton of fun doing it. Modern and creepy in its sensibility (it's very much an adult show, with sex and violence galore), “Mary & George” offered more than enough to ignite the imaginations of its cast.
From the first scene, in which Mary reacts with a combination of resignation, contempt, and love to the birth of her second child (her birth order seems destined to guarantee her lack of potential), Moore was drawn to the language used by the writer. producer DC Moore (no relation). “The way he talks about her son and her lack of possibilities is funny, scandalous and also strangely tender,” the actor said. “What DC did with the language was just modern, direct, fun and dazzling. There was a warmth, a directness and a kind of profanity that I found interesting.”
Mary ends up bringing George to the court of the sexually voracious King James I (Tony Curran), whom she seduces on her way to gaining power and influence in diplomatic matters. In leaving their low position, mother and son trample decorum, anger many people, and even leave a few bodies in their wake. It's a rags-to-riches story in which the rags are soaked in blood.
Like many ambitious traders throughout the ages, Mary blazes a trail where there is none.
“She is a person without agency or autonomy,” Moore said. “There is no place in her life that is hers. All of her agency is through the men she is married to or her sons. “She is a woman who came from a middle-class family and she did not have much luck with her marriages, but she managed to position her children very well and be buried in Westminster Abbey.”
For all its ruses and potential consequences, “Mary & George” also has a wickedly comedic edge, especially as young George finds his place in the king's court and aspires to the royal bedchamber. “It's a show that changes genres drastically as it goes on,” Galitzine said. “It starts with a level of bounce and it's very comical. And then, as the stakes increase and Mary and George rise to power, it becomes much more of a drama than a comedy. It's a dysfunctional family, and then the royal court is equally dysfunctional, and the king is even further dysfunctional.”
Despite all the poisonous conspiracies they shared, Galitzine enjoyed a warm relationship with her on-screen mother.
“Julie is very generous,” he said. “She always has ideas about everything. She is very knowledgeable about all areas of an acting performance, whether emotional or physical. Her command of her film IQ is impeccable. She is just an incredibly kind person, as well as being immensely talented. She brings lightness to the workday, despite performing really intense performances.”
And when the dirt flew away, she took it in stride.
“That humanized her in a wonderful way,” Galitzine said.
