Playing Anne Boleyn
Season 1
short | 02:28 | CC
Wolf Hall stars Claire Foy and Damian Lewis explore the tempestuous, testy, and tender Anne Boleyn.
(Debbie Wiseman, "Anna Regina") - I'm Claire Foy, and I'm playing Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall.
The Anne that you see is Cromwell's Anne, which is difficult, in a way, because you sort of want to be able to show every single part of the character.
I think it's amazing that you just get to see it through his eyes.
- Lady Anne.
- Master Cremuel.
And I think when she meets him, he doesn't treat her how she's used to being treated.
- The cardinal's the only man in England who can obtain for you what you need.
- Very well.
Make his case; you have five minutes.
- Otherwise I can see you're really busy.
(Speaking French) - 'Cause you see what he sees of her, which is her being quite calculating, and how she uses the king's affection as a way of getting what she wants.
You should add More to the list of the guilty.
- Thomas More was not involved, Your Majesty.
- Do it anyway.
(crowd cheers) - Anne Boleyn had extraordinary power over Henry.
He desired her, and he wanted her.
I think he also was struck by her undoubted intelligence and her strength of will.
- I think, I do think they really loved each other, actually; and I think he really had to work to get her, and he'd-- Everything had been handed to him on a plate before.
- She had an ally in Cromwell, actually, and... This point of the story is, is Cromwell's greatest conflict, because he's trying to keep Anne happy and also keep the king happy.
- Put it in the king's mind to appoint Audley.
He's a good man.
- Soon, you'll have friends everywhere.
("Devil's Spit") As time goes on, Cromwell gets stronger and more powerful, and watching that change in him is what Anne sees, and sees when it's too late.
She realizes too late that actually, the power has shifted in his favor; which sort of sums up their relationship, I think.
It was a game of chess the whole time.
- There was a time, madame, that you would listen to my advice.
Let me advise you now: drop your plans and schemes.
- The biggest challenge in playing Anne Boleyn is to play her nasty when she's nasty, and yet still, at the end, to break her heart nonetheless.
- She was too emotional, and in a weird way, too human.
I wish that I could have just talked to her and just said "Let it go."
And that's the heartbreaking thing, that she always kept fighting to the very, very end.
("Master of Phantoms")
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