© 2021 Starz Entertainment, LLC Credit: Shanna BessonStarz’s glorious new drama The Serpent Queen (Sundays at 8pm ET/PT beginning Sept. 11) follows the life of Catherine de Medici and her rise to power from an almost mail-order bride to the queen of France.
Sharing the spanning role of Catherine are Liv Hill and Samantha Morton. Morton, who started her career as a teenager in Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë movies, can personally relate to Catherine’s survival story.
The now-45-year-old mother of three children (one 22 years old and acting herself) connects to Catherine’s story personally. “I’d say in the U.K. you’d say I was very common. I was homeless as a teenager,“ Morton tells. “I’ve had lots of situations that are not that desirable. So when I was reading about Catherine’s background and story, obviously I’m not royalty and I don’t rule, but this idea that this person could have absolutely nothing and then progress to how she does in the story. … I know how that feels.”
Here Morton answers our “5 Questions”:
1. When you first got this piece and you started doing your research, what shocked you in learning about Catherine?
When I read the scripts and I listened to the audiobook, I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t heard about this woman before. I mean, what a human being and what an incredible story, and it was true. And I was fascinated by her, shocked and inspired, and I just couldn’t wait to get my teeth into it.
2. You go from playing your role as Alpha on The Walking Dead, where you’re bald and wearing a rotted mask, to these exquisite period costumes. What’s harder to wear?
Catherine’s clothes because they’re very heavy, they’re very beautiful, they’re very exacting. You’re wearing corsets, and the heat of Georgia is tough with humidity. Atlanta, out there near Savannah, is really, really hot and you are melting, but the heat in the south of France is very brutal as well. It’s 40 degrees [Celsius] and you’re in a black, heavy wool dress with a corset on and the sun is beating down on you.
3. Did you have a favorite in your wardrobe?
Yes. I have a green dress that’s one of my favorites. It was just breathtaking. Green and gold, really breathtaking. And in fact, I think, all of the costumes. When other people would come onto set, I was blown away, but certainly my clothes, they’re works of art.
4. How long did your makeup process take?
I was lucky because Nina, who did my hair and makeup, she’s extraordinary, she would sew all the hair and it would take her a few hours, sometimes 10-12 hours to do one piece, sometimes a couple of days. And then my hair would be like that and they would just sew it onto my head. So actually, my hair and makeup took about 40 minutes, it wasn’t that long.
5. What do you think is the hardest part of being queen?
For Catherine, she wasn’t queen for that long; it’s just everyone wants to kill you back then. Death is only a blink of an eye away and an awful death at that. So yeah, that was the hardest part, thinking about that.
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