Yahoo Lifestyle “Mud, Blood & Layers Of Leather”: James Norton On His Period Epic ‘King & Conqueror’
EXCLUSIVE: James Norton was fresh-faced as he greeted a London Screenings crowd to talk about his upcoming period drama King & Conqueror, but that was not the case during filming in Iceland. “I was covered in mud and blood and layers of leather, it was a brutal shoot,” the star said.
Icelandic helmer Baltasar Kormákur directed the first episode and was heavily involved in the series, which brings an historical tale of Harold, Earl of Wessex (Norton), and William, Duke of Normandy (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), to life.
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The result is a gritty and earthy look. “He had a very clear vision around the tone and the aesthetic – from the very beginning he wanted to avoid this being a clean, cozy period drama,” Norton explained.
“It took me hours every day to get ready because I had layer after layer of leather and chain mail. It paid dividends because you can see everything is so authentic. That was something [Kormákur] was very stubborn about and it was so worth it in the end.”
The London Screenings are a diary logjam for international buyers, with numerous events happening in and around Soho. The King & Conqueror screening was a hot ticket, with the Curzon Soho movie theater packed.
The show was one of the first projects on the slate of Rabbit Track Pictures, the label run by Kitty Kaletsky and Norton. It made the drama with The Development Partnership, Shepherd Content, RVK Studios and CBS Studios, in association with the BBC.
Plenty of blood is spilled in some heavy-duty action pieces in the series opener, but there’s also an emphasis on character development that leans into the husband-wife dynamics of the main protagonists.
That was always a priority, Norton said, and something Kaletsky was keen to make happen. “One of the things we were really keen to avoid was for it to become this butch beat-me-up testosterone filled kind of journey. We didn’t want it to just be battle after battle and fight after fight.”
He added that the show really found its footing by putting an emphasis on the relationship and family elements. Emily Beecham is Edith Clémence Poésy is Matilda in the series. “One of the big things Kitty brought in was focusing on the domestic, it is a story about William and Harold, but it’s really a story about couples.”
Paramount Global Content Distribution is selling King & Conqueror internationally and made it it a priority title at this week’s Screenings.
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