ONSWOTTING UP TO PLAY
QUEEN VICTORIA
“[Queen Victoria’s] diaries are all online – she
wrote pretty much daily, over 62 million words.
What’s quite amazing is that I can read her
diaries along the same period of time as we’re
filming. On my way to work or while
I’m in makeup I can look up the dates
we’re about to shoot, say ‘April 1848’,
and get everything. We’ve just filmed
the French Revolution, when King
Louis-Phillippe was kicked out of
France and went to stay with [the British Royal
Family], and I could read in her diaries what the
king said to her on his arrival. In terms of research
it’s amazing. She’s very unexpected, and is
completely not what her portraits and her public
image, in all her straight-laced collars, would
suggest. She is incredibly frank and really, really
funny with a complete lack of patience. If she
likes you she is loyal to you forever, but if she
doesn’t like you she’s horrible.”ONVICTORIA’S
MATERNAL INSTINCT
“Victoria is not thought to have been a very
affectionate mother – she would tell her children
they spoilt her honeymoon and the first years ofSTREAMING
her marriage [with Prince Albert]. I think she had
this ambivalence toward them because she was
somebody who had fought for her
independence, only to [marry at the age of 20
and become pregnant the following month].
Obviously there were no contraceptives, and
that often meant being pregnant without
choosing to be – in Victoria’s case, nine times
over, with no pain relief during labour. To have
nine children and also be queen of an empire is
unbelievable to get your head around. As
someone who wanted to go out and see the
world, but had to live her life in a different way
than expected, really took a toll. At the same
time, almost every other sentence in her diaries is
about her children, and [she and Albert] spent
a lot more time with them than what was usual
within their court. She seemed torn between
resentment for having to give up her
independence and also her love for them.”ONTHE CRY
“Filming was an emotional marathon; I had to
really manage my mental endurance because it
was incredibly dark in places. [The series centres
around the kidnapping of a child in a small
Australian town.] I kept trying to think about my
character’s [separation from] her child on
a physical level, as though it was a physical thing
that was happening to her, like losing her arm.
I gave myself a bit of a hard time at first – I spent
the first couple of weeks of filming
thinking I had been grossly miscast
because I am not a mum, and I kept
thinking there was something
I wouldn’t be able to understand,
because of what everybody says
about that bond being so primal. But then
I thought that I also don’t know what it is like to be
Queen Victoria, and that’s my job.”ONWHAT’S UP NEXT
“I choose roles on a script-by-script basis and
often it’s led by a project feeling like a departure
to what I’ve just finished. AfterDoctor Who,
Victoriawas the perfect antidote and then after
Victoria,The Cryfelt very different. I’d love to do
some theatre, it’s just a matter of finding the right
play, and obviously the right timing. I’ve basically
been looking every single night at the minute. But
I finished filmingThe Cryon a Saturday and
beganVictoriaon the Monday, so for now I’m
potentially going to take a holiday!”EWHAT
HER
HIGHNESS
DID
NEXT
As one of few
female leads
in sci-fi hit
Doctor Who,
the “perpetually
pregnant” queen
of England in
period drama
Victoria,orthe
mother of
a missing baby in
new psych-thriller
series The Cry,
Jenna Coleman
leads with
aplomb – but
admits she still
has crises of
confidenceThe Cryairs
February 3
on the ABC@jenna_coleman_