Minnie Driver and Samantha Morton: Screen Queens

by Gill Pringle

The iconic actresses play iconic queens in The Serpent Queen: Season 2

In playing Queen Elizabeth I, Minnie Driver follows in the footsteps of Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench, Bette Davis and Helen Mirren among others, all of whom have portrayed the formidable “Virgin Queen”.

In Driver’s version, she portrays the queen with great mischief and humour in the second season of hit series The Serpent Queen, starring opposite Samantha Morton as the show’s titular lead, Catherine de’ Medici.

But when FilmInk meets with Driver in Los Angeles, she confesses that Glenda Jackson’s version of Elizabeth I in 1971 British BBC series Elizabeth R is her favourite portrayal. “I’m a bit of a Glenda Jackson fan, really. That series was my first introduction to her. She lurked outside of my head as a kid, and it was terrifying and amazing,” says the actress who suggests audiences shouldn’t completely believe any of the versions of Elizabeth I.

“Well, I mean, it’s all made up, isn’t it really? We only have like four paintings of her and a lot of books,” suggests Driver, 54, best known for her roles in Good Will Hunting, Gross Pointe Blank and The Phantom of the Opera.

She was instantly wooed by Justin Haythe’s clever and profanity-laced scripts for The Serpent Queen. Based on the book Cathrine de Medici: Queen of France by Leone Frieda, the series was written and executive produced by Haythe, who also wrote scripts for Revolutionary Road and Red Sparrow.

“It is brilliant. Justin writes proper women. Invariably, growing up in television or films in the ‘90s, you’re always improving on a vastly underwritten character in the female role, you’re always expanding and filling in the spaces, just because there was so much space.

“And that’s what I felt when I read his script, that he was just serving the most amazing women. And you feel that service and that interest that he has. It’s phenomenal. And Sam also needed someone who she could sink her teeth into! It’s true, I knew it was gonna be a great battle,” she teases.

“I also think Justin wrote something incredibly playful, but extremely dangerous. Because you can get taken in by the wig and the pearly face and the pageantry of all, but these are very dangerous women, because they have to be, and there is something fascinating about that.

“And even though it’s an imagined meeting, between Catherine and Queen Elizabeth, I think it’s what it might well have looked like,” she adds.

Talking with both actresses, Morton says it’s a relief to finally get to talk about her portrayal of Catherine, after the first season of The Serpent Queen landed during Covid.

The truth is, she didn’t even think that she would be cast in the series, after outlining to the show runners how she envisaged Catherine de’ Medici as a mafiosa.

“When I looked at it, I was like, she’s the mafia! She’s like The Sopranos. She’s like Goodfellas. And so, I always had my take on playing Catherine as a gangster, a goodfella or a wise guy. The original Italian mama, you know?”

Immediately after the initial discussions, she imaged that she’s blown it. “I thought I’d totally messed up… ‘I’m not going to get this role!’ But then it actually worked because I think Justin was happy with that interpretation, and it came across that way, and I think that everything else was a surprise. And it works, actually,” says Morton, 47, celebrated for her roles in Minority Report, In America and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

“I’ve been doing costume dramas for a very, very long time. And, to me, it’s a bit of a doddle. I do have to stop the pies before we’re shooting because yeah…

“But what was really good is like she’s aged from Season One to Season Two, so when I said to the amazing Karen Muller Serreau – who is honestly the best costume designer I have ever worked with; she is an absolute genius and I don’t use that word lightly. I really don’t – I said ‘I’m just so sorry. I’m a bit bigger now ….’ And she’s like, ‘She’s aged! It’s fine!’

“But on a more technical aspect, the way that those costumes make you hold yourself, the way you walk, the way you breathe.… there’s scenes in the first season of Serpent Queen where my character isn’t in the corset. And I remember going: ‘Oh, how is she gonna walk?’ Because I wasn’t holding my hands in the same way.

“I do love it. From when I was a little girl, I played dress up, so it’s a dream to wear these costumes which are so amazing that sometimes I’m like, on set, just like, ‘I got you queen!’ I really get into Catherine.”

And yet, despite all the costumes and luscious set designs, the language of The Serpent Queen is thoroughly modern.

“I think for me, I have to contemporise everything,” adds the Oscar-nominated actress. “It doesn’t matter what the day to day is, or anything like that, I literally have to play her as if I was playing her today. It’s making her as normal and as human and as realistic as possible, dealing with her struggles and relationships with the court or another queen, or a Holy Roman Emperor or her children.”

Morton was delighted to find Driver cast as Elizabeth I, having long admired her from afar. “I was like, ‘who can we get to play the queen?’ And I was at a fashion show – which sounds a bit pretentious, I know! – and this rumour came around that it might be Minnie. And I’d literally jumped up and down because I am a huge, huge fan of Minnie. When I was younger, I’d seen her on this amazing TV show, The Politician’s Wife, and it just blew my mind.

“To work with Minnie was both nerve wracking, but also a bit of a dream because as we grow up – as female actors – I suppose there was a lot of encouragement for women to be against each other… Rather than supporting.

“And it was always like: ‘Oh, you want to work with these amazing male actors.’ And oftentimes, scripts weren’t written where women could be brilliant together, and support each other in that joyful fashion. I just feel really like ‘oh, my god, pinch me,’ that I got to work with Minnie – and she smashed it as you can see,” says Morton.

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