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At first glance, audiences may dub The Serpent Queen as a period drama about one of history's most vilified and misunderstood figures, Catherine de Medici. However, lead actress Samantha Morton took it a step further when she described the show as, "Goodfellas during the Renaissance."
Ahead of the premiere of The Serpent Queen on STARZ, we spoke to Justin Haythe and Erwin Stoff, the two showrunners. We asked them how they chose Morton to tell the story of The Serpent Queen and if they are fans of her other work, much like us. In his response, Haythe proclaimed:
"But Samantha, I think is one of our greatest living actors."
The Serpent Queen premieres Sunday, September 11, at midnight on the STARZ app and all STARZ streaming and on-demand platforms. Internationally, it will premiere on the STARZPLAY premium streaming platform across all territories.
On linear television, it will debut on STARZ at 8:00 ET/PT in the U.S. and Canada.
"Is she good, capable of badness? Is she bad, capable of goodness?": The Serpent Queen showrunners candidly discuss Catherine de Medici and Samantha Morton
With The Serpent Queen, Justin Haythe and Erwin Stoff took on the tall task of encapsulating different eras of de Medici's life in just a few episodes. Addressing that, Haythe stated:
"The debate for us was how you tell Catherine's story because you have to tell the really young section. And see how young she was when she was plucked out of that orphanage and dropped in that French court. You know, that world of vipers. And then had to consummate her marriage in front of everybody. Every teenager's worst nightmare."
Liv Hill, who was also kind enough to speak to SK POP before the premiere, played the role of the young queen to perfection. The duality of her childlike innocence with a hard edge was captured perfectly by the 22-year-old actor. Haythe continued:
"And then to see how that person...was young enough to fall in love with the man she was promised to, which is a cataclysmic mistake. To see how that young person outlived multiple kings, outmaneuvered everybody, had ten children and lost nine of them. It's impossible to do that with one actor."
With Catherine de Medici growing older and more ruthless over the course of the show, it became essential that a more hardened and experienced actor take over the role in The Serpent Queen. Who better than Samantha Morton, someone Haythe described as "one of the greatest living actors?" He further said:
"And I think that she's absolutely extraordinary. And I think that she holds an innate mystery to her. She can embody that question of - Is she good, capable of badness? Is she bad, capable of goodness?"
The edge comes from the fact that, much like de Medici, Morton's upbringing was not rooted in opulence. Showrunner Stoff chimed in:
"Yeah, there were sort of a couple of things. One of the first things Samantha Morton will tell you about herself, so that we're not speaking out of school, is that she comes from a very working class background. England, which is still a very class-oriented society... if you still come from a working class background, you are aware of that your entire life."
Morton was able to understand the measures that de Medici, a fellow commoner, had to take to cement her position in court. Stoff continued:
"So, she really had a fundamental or innate understanding of what Catherine, who is not a royal, was up against. So that was one thing. The second thing is, in the very first conversation that we had with Samantha, she began to talk about the script, and one of the first things she said is 'Well, it's kinda Goodfellas in the Renaissance.'"
Stoff expressed his support for her take and said:
"And we thought yes, that is the tone. Nobody really trusts each other. But it's weirdly fun to watch and kinda aspirational."
Haythe chimed in at this point, adding that the soundtrack was also quite noteworthy. He also showered praise on Samantha, saying:
"And to answer the other question about Samantha, I think she's always extraordinary in everything she's done. She played Myra Hindley in Longford, which is an HBO film which I thought was absolutely extraordinary. But I think that everything she's done in 'In America' is absolutely brilliant. I think she's an actor who's incapable of being false."
Will The Serpent Queen go down as one of Samantha Morton's greatest roles? We will find out in a matter of hours. The court is now in session, and the "Serpent Queen" has ascended the throne.
