Archive for the ‘Mini Series: Victoria’ Category
Nicole • March 02, 2017

FORBES – Speaking recently on the eve of the start of filming of season two of Masterpiece’s Victoria, Jenna Coleman, who portrays the British queen, called her a “really relatable” character.

“You meet her as a teenager, go through stages in her life, falling in love, beginning a family at the same time she had responsibilities on her shoulders,” she explained.

Coleman said season two would take place in the late 1840’s, just before the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, the first international exhibition of manufactured products. She said it would deal with the “turbulent” relationship between Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, the queen “trying to balance being a wife and being the queen at the same time, marital power battles.”

Season one portrayed Victoria from the time she became queen in 1837, at the age of 18, through her courtship and marriage to Prince Albert. Victoria was England’s longest-serving monarch until she was overtaken by Elizabeth II in September 2015.

Coleman said the series is filmed in an airport hangar in Leeds, Yorkshire, where the set for Buckingham Palace was built, the hangar being “the only place they could find that was big enough to hold the set. I get my hair and makeup done and then travel across the tarmac.”

The actress, who appeared as Clara, the companion of the title character in the sci-fi series, Doctor Who, called Victoria “a revelation in lots of ways. I read her diaries from when she was 18 years old. There was a kind of life in her, how frank, how candid she was—it was surprising, given her role. I found her really charming. She writes her thoughts, everything is there, she’s not hiding, not hiding from her own flaws.”

Coleman described Victoria—whom one of her ladies-in-waiting said had “veins of iron”—as “incredibly inconsistent, unbelievably stubborn. Being so obstinate is one of the greatest things about her. Stubbornness carried her through life. She survived nine births in the Victorian era, eight assassination attempts. If anything she is enduring.”

To prepare for the role, Coleman said she studied Victoria’s voluminous journals, diaries and artwork, as well biographies, comments by her contemporaries and films set in the Victorian era. She said that in addition to being “quite an accomplished artist,” Victoria also rode horses and did weaving.

And she said she agreed with the assessment of Oscar Wilde of the queen, whom he desebied as “a ruby mounted in jet” and called one of the three great personalities of the 19th century, in addition to Napoleon and the French author, Victor Hugo. (source)

Nicole • February 26, 2017

Jenna, Tom Hughes and the rest of the Victoria cast was filming in Beverley Minster on Friday (February 24th).
Some on set photos have now been added to the gallery! Jenna looks great, I can’t wait for the new season!!

Remember to join the Jenna 31st Birthday Project, and follow the site twitter @JennaColemanCom for news and update in real time :)

Television Series > 2017 – Victoria Season 2 > February 24, 2017: Filming in Beverley [+37]
Nicole • February 22, 2017

Watch Jenna and her Victoria co-star Tom Hughes playing a Victoria-themed round of “Would You Rather?” below:

Nicole • February 06, 2017

RADIO TIMES – Dame Maggie Smith*, Aidan Turner, Jenna Coleman, Charlie Brooker and Rowan Atkinson have all joined the star-studded line-up for the BFI & Radio Times Television Festival, added to a bill that already includes Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss, Michael Palin, Julie Walters and Keeley Hawes.

[…]

Also on Saturday (April 8th), Victoria stars Jenna Coleman and Tom Hughes will take a break from their busy schedules filming series two to sit down for a chat with creator Daisy Goodwin and executive producer Damien Timmer about ITV’s hit Sunday night drama. (source)

Nicole • January 15, 2017

SEATTLE TIMES – British actress Jenna Coleman tried to attend drama school. She really did. But her intentions were constantly thwarted when people kept hiring her as an actress.

There are worse things, she sighs during an interview in a hotel conference room. “I learned on the job really. I feel I missed something – it’s one of those things: what if I’d taken that road, or what if I’d taken THAT road, what would I know? I’ve never been trained in Shakespeare. Does that mean I can’t do it?

I think the one thing I would’ve liked would be to have that rehearsal space, whereas I’ve done my training, but on camera, which is wonderful and I’ve learned a lot, but in a different way,” says the 30-year-old Blackpool native.

What she learned on camera catapulted her to “Doctor Who,” where she performed 39 episodes of the sci-fi favorite and became friends with two of the Doctors, Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi.

And while it doesn’t seem probable, that part led to the lead role in “Victoria,” premiering on PBS’ “Masterpiece” on Sunday, Jan. 15 (today). In “Victoria” Coleman interprets England’s long-reigning queen from age 18 to 21 — the defining years as Coleman sees them.

“I did lot of research on Victoria, how creative she was, which I never knew. She had such passion for music and opera and ballet and visuals. She created her own wedding dress, and wrote in her diary, and did watercolor and sketch, and she tried to learn how to sing opera. She had people come around to the house and teach her. She’s so vibrant and unapologetically full of life and never tried to hide it or pull back from it, which I really love about her.

She’s really inconsistent and very flawed, but I love that. I think that’s what’s been quite tricky to play her, being unashamedly flawed. I’m trying to make that likable. It’s really tricky, but it’s who she was, and it’s what makes her so marvelous,” she says.

(Read the rest of the interview at the source)