Warning: This story contains spoilers aboutMy Lady Jane.
My Lady Janeis here to put the fun back into fantasy.
If that sounds a bit like fantasy heroines of yore, that’s entirely by design.
Emily Bader as Lady Jane Grey on ‘My Lady Jane’.Amazon
So much so that one key scene in the episode 8 season finale recreates a scene fromThe Princess Bride.
“It was basically a direct grab fromThe Princess Bride,” reveals Bader.
“There’s a scene where Buttercup jumps from the tower and lands very un-delicately.
Emily Bader as Lady Jane Grey and Edward Bluemel as Guildford Dudley in ‘My Lady Jane’.Amazon
Episode 8 is the climax [of the show], and it’s really dark and dramatic.
So, having that little bit of a reminder of what the tone is, [is fantastic].
It’s actually the exact same amount of frames [asThe Princess Bride].”
Emily Bader as Lady Jane Grey, Robyn Betteridge as Margaret Grey, Isabella Brownson as Katherine Grey and Anna Chancellor as Frances Grey in ‘My Lady Jane’.Amazon
“I was on wires for that,” she says.
That was a really fun day.
Everyone was just laughing the entire time."
The reference is just one of many winking nods throughout the series.
“We doCluelessquite a bit.
When Jane and Guildford first meet, she does a good ‘As if!’
and then he gives it back to her later.
There’s aCrocodile Dundeemoment.
There’s probably a lot more.
But that was sort of a gray area.
She was so fiercely intelligent on a level that is not talked about enough.
Even the fact that we call her Lady Jane Grey; we should call her Queen Jane Grey.
I mean, she was the queen of England for nine days.
She was thought of as being one of the most intelligent people of that time.
She knew many different languages, and she was really impressive.
It was fun to find that as I was also finding this character.
From an actor’s point of view, how did you strike that balance?
What’s so great about this script is that they wrote a really human character.
She realizes how important it is to have all of those things.
you’ve got the option to’t just be a lone wolf out there.
You have a lot of great action sequences in this.
Was there one that was harder than the others?
There’s one big one in episode 3 [with] Jane and Guildford.
That was the longest.
I’ve never done anything like that before.
It was 4:00 a.m. nights and 5:00 a.m. nights in the cold.
It’s so funny because we shot that scene first.
My first scene was the beginning of episode 1, where Jane is with her family in the house.
But the first scene that I ever shot with Edward is that scene.
It’s really silly, but it was really fun to get to do.
Jane has so many of those longlook into the camera while the narrator goes on a monologue moments.
You and Edward have such fantastic chemistry.
How involved were you in the process of staging the intimate scenes?
Everything about this show was really collaborative.
They wanted to check that that we were comfortable in every way, shape, or form.
We had a great intimacy coordinator, which is really important.
It’s so great that we have that now.
We wanted it to be silly and kind of messy and relatable.
Is this fumbly?”
We liked all those bits.
Jane has this really difficult conversation with her mother there in the Tower at the end.
I don’t know.
It’s hard because that’s the moment where a line is definitely crossed.
And the sting will be there forever.
In the novel, Jane discovers that she’s Ethian and transforms into a ferret.
Were you sad that was cut?
Would you want that to occur in a future season?
It would’ve been a really difficult.
They never get to have moments together.
So, I’m happy that we got to explore that relationship.
Do I think that someone, at some point, should be a ferret?
I would literally die if we had a ferret on set.
That would be so good.
Jane and Guildford get their happy ending, but where do they go from here?
There’s obviously still a lot for them to deal with.
You want them to get on a boat and go to Versailles and honeymoon.
You want them to have a moment of joy, especially because Guildford has a new lease on life.
But unfortunately, there’s a lot that needs to be done.
The kingdom is still in a very precarious place.
Now that she’s seen the state of things, she can’t ignore it.
She’s going to have to rally an army or something.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
