Monarch premiered on FOX Sunday, September 11 before moving to its regular time period on Tuesday, September 20. The multi-generational musical drama follows the Romans, whose country music legacy is put in jeopardy when the secrets behind their success threaten the dynasty they've built.
Created by Melissa London Hilfers, the series stars Susan Sarandon, Anna Friel, Trace Adkins, Beth Ditto, Joshua Sasse, Meagan Holder, Iñigo Pascual, Martha Higareda, and Emma Milani.
Actor Joshua Sasse chats with Screen Rant about his background in theater, the premiere of Monarch, and founding Tusk & Mane Safaris.
Joshua Sasse On Monarch
Screen Rant: You're playing Luke in Monarch, which is a new series coming to Fox. How did you get involved with the show?
Joshua Sasse: It's kind of a funny story, actually. Because when they sent me the script, it was a very busy time. My wife was due to go into the hospital to give birth to our daughter—our second kid. And I got the audition through it, so at ten o'clock at night, and we were going in at three in the morning to have the baby. So I sort of had the audition, like, put in my backpack. I didn't really say anything about it, and I knew it was a big one. I'd been in talks with the producers about it for a little bit of time...but we were having a baby, so I sort of shelved it. We went in at three o'clock in the morning and had the baby and everything went well, which was great. And it was six o'clock in the evening, we, I mean, my wife was very tired. I was not as tired.
And she had our daughter in one arm feeding and the other one was on a drip and had all the solutions going in and out, and she kind of quite groggily said, "Don't you have an audition?" And I was exhausted, but I said, "Yes, I do. But I'm not leaving you in hospital." And she went, "Josh, I said you are doing this audition." And, if you know my wife, you don't cross her. So we learned the lines in the hospital there and then, and I drove home. Luckily, her sister was there, and we auditioned until about midnight, with some help from lots of coffee and whiskey. And so I got a role, and I had to leave a month later. It was all pretty snappy.
Screen Rant: You have a background in theater as well. Was it always your intention to make this transition to film and television?
Joshua Sasse: Certainly not when I was at drama school. And my first meeting at drama school was...they're very stringent. And they said, "Where do you see yourself going?" And for me, the Royal Shakespeare Company was the only thing I ever had in my sights, and that was everything that I'd done up until that point. And it just sort of unfolds me. You never know where your career is going to take you. I've always sung, but I definitely never saw myself going and doing the West End and doing musical and that was always a surprise. It just sort of cannonballed.
I remember a manager saying to me pretty early on when I was when I first started going to New York, and when stuff in America started happening and taking meetings and stuff, I remember her saying, "I think this is probably going to be a bit of a divorce for you for a while." I didn't think she meant ten years. So I'm looking forward to having the opportunity to go back. But it's a snowball effect. You get caught up in it. And unless you're in England, or New York, having the time—especially when I've got three children—to stop a production and then go and do two months rehearsal and a three-month run...it can sort of jilt things unless you're in the right frame of mind. And nothing's sort of come up that would have made sense to me, but I'm dying to do it. It's timing.
Screen Rant: Do you have a preference between singing and acting? Or do you just like being able to combine those two things?
Joshua Sasse: I think it depends on if you're breaking the fourth wall or not. Because often when you are breaking the fourth wall, typically, you don't get to delve quite as deep into the characters because the song and the music itself is a character that sort of crosses the lines in into that world and tells a lot of the story and tells a lot of the emotion, and it does that for you. So, certainly with Monarch, I'm really happy that it's quite different to what I've been doing for the last couple of projects—they were comedies and musicals. So it was really nice to be able to get my teeth into a role in a way you can't hide away from it, which is great. And it's certainly nice for me. I sort of thrive on a challenge.
Luke is a really difficult character, because he's right in the middle of the seesaw between everybody. He's the sort of professional in this world of artists, and he's trying to tether everybody down and keep this train on track whilst being his mother's favorite son, and having a very difficult relationship with his father, and then he's the middle brother. He's getting it from all angles all the time, and that's always very challenging because you've got to juggle so many balls, which I really liked. So to answer your question—it's different. It's different. And it's certainly more meaty always. When I've done musicals in the past—when I did Galavant, for instance, it was just a very different workload.
Monarch is a musical and I recorded six songs for Monarch. Some will get used and some won't. Going back and forth from the recording studio to a film set is a different skill set. You've got to really be conscious of how you're using your voice and your diet has to change, and you can't really be eating dairy or anything spicy, or anything that sort of inflames or affects the throat. Galavant was different, because we were doing the singing live, so I was on a horse galloping down this beach. It's all sort of different and it's nice. You just get to sort of play with things in a different way. It's nice to just keep things alive and fresh, I think. It's important as an actor, so you don't stale.
Screen Rant: You gave us a little already, but what else can you share about your character this season? What storylines are going to be coming up for Luke?
Joshua Sasse: The storyline of the first season is, obviously, we've got an introduction into meeting this family and seeing where they're at. But the general thoroughfare is that they're trying to hold onto the control and power they have within the music industry. And because Luke's the CEO of their record label, that's really resting on his shoulders, in terms of trying to make sure this journey is guided in the right way. A lot of what he goes through in the first season is trying to keep afloat this artistic train wreck that his sisters are creating—and his dad—and they're all wholly, unreliable artists, as we so often are. I'm not sure what I can say that won't give things away.
Screen Rant: That's fair.
Joshua Sasse: There are a lot of cliffhangers in the first season that they really rest on, and every single character has this sort of Tetris-like precipice. So the minute you find some sort of conclusion or resolution with one character, you're rolled up with another. It's good. I just don't want to pull the pin and have the whole thing come down.
Screen Rant: How was working with the Monarch cast? Did you know any of your castmates ahead of time?
Joshua Sasse: I had worked with Faith Prince on Galavant, so that was a lovely face. But otherwise, everybody, for me was completely new. It was really nice—kind of going back to what you said about theater—it felt very like doing theater because we were all very like a troop, which was incredibly nice to work with because we were always together. The majority of the decisions we made were, for want of a better word, as a family. And we really worked very, very hard with all of the actors and the producers and the directors in sculpting this arc. As I said, all of the characters are kind of galloping and cantering at different levels. We worked really hard together as a team to make sure it petered out in the right way and that one character's growth didn't impede another's reveal or whatever.
It was real teamwork. I've never had such a joyous experience on set. It was just so great. I was there filming—my wife and my kids came along with us—and so we had a dinner at my house that was just open doors. So most of the cast, most of the nights, were at my house. And then every Saturday we'd have a big Saturday lunch—open doors for all the crew and everybody. It was really nice because I had the family atmosphere at the house. We kept that going. And sometimes, when you're filming, that happens for the first couple of weeks and then everybody's too tired. I mean, everybody was still at my house on the last day. So it was really nice. It was a very, very unifying experience.
Screen Rant: It's so great to hear that you all get along and enjoy each other's company. It can really go either way when a bunch of strangers are coming together.
Joshua Sasse: Certainly. Marcia Cross asked to be my kids extra godmother, as has Susan Sarandon, which was just so lovely. We just all got along so well, and it's just been a real privilege. It's been lovely.
Screen Rant: Switching gears a little bit, I read that you're very passionate about protecting wildlife and that you are a founder of Tusk and Mane Safaris. What inspired you to get involved in that?
Joshua Sasse: My family have been in Africa since the Second World War—my grandfather fought over there. And we sort of stayed over in Zambia ever since. I grew up in Nepal, and my cousins grew up in Africa. And we both lived in this kind of tourism world. It was just always something we wanted to get back into—my cousin and I, who's basically my brother. And this opportunity arose where we could have some land in a national park. I had stepped away from acting for a bit because I'd been doing it for twelve years without a break. And I really needed to change, and it was something, as you say, I'm really passionate about.
So we dove in, and we created this eco Safari. We try and gear it away from just being in a car the whole time. It's a lot of walking, a lot of canoeing, and we provide the sites in our camps for the anti-poaching programs to use in the offseason. We've just done a big merger. It's now called Classic Zambia. And we're end-to-end across the country. It's a really terrifying time in Africa, because just in our park alone, in the last twelve years, ten-thousand elephants have been killed. Those numbers are really shocking, and the big thing is education. We tried to make an affordable safari experience, because it's a really expensive thing, so the doors aren't open, and we really wanted to change that.
We really wanted to make sure that local Africans were getting this similar experience and being able to go in Safari because that's not something that a lot of locals do, and try to just get a younger and fresher group of people coming to Africa and seeing what we were doing.We had to sort of restructure the business to make it affordable. So that was quite a challenge and something that we've been working really hard on, and it's gone really well, and we're hoping it continues. It's a process, and it's really all about education. So that's something we're working on.
Screen Rant: Lastly, I saw that you enjoyed writing. Is that something you'd ever want to bring over to the entertainment industry?
Joshua Sasse: Yeah, one-hundred percent. I write a lot of poetry, and I've been asked a couple of times if I was ever going to do exactly what you said. During lockdown, I helped a friend of mine write a TV show and I wrote a couple of screenplays. One of them is about poetry. So yes, to answer your question. It's something I'm working on as we speak.
About Monarch
Reigning King of Country Music Albie Roman, along with his insanely talented -- and tough as nails -- wife, Queen of Country Music Dottie Cantrell Roman, have created a country music dynasty, but even though the Roman name is synonymous with authenticity, the very foundation of their success is a lie. When their reign as country royalty is put in jeopardy, heir to the crown Nicolette “Nicky” Roman will stop at nothing to protect her family’s legacy, while ensuring her own quest for stardom, alongside her brother Luke and sister Gigi.
New episodes of Monarch season 1 will air on Tuesdays at 9/8c on FOX.