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- Marie Antoinette
- Columbia Pictures
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- Elizabeth: The Golden Age
- Universal Pictures
Cate Blanchett has played Queen Elizabeth I - who enjoyed one of the longest reigns in English history, ruling from 1558 to 1603 - two times: first in 1998's Elizabeth and then in the 2007 sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Each film focuses on a specific period of Elizabeth's life, ranging from her struggles as a young woman on the throne to her savvy statesmanship in later life.
Both of Blanchett's Elizabethan performances - in which she portrays a fiery, sharp, and conflicted monarch - earned her Academy Award nominations. In fact, she is one of only a handful of actors to receive an Oscar nomination twice for the same role.
Blanchett is one of a long line of actors - like Glenda Jackson and Judi Dench - who have portrayed Elizabeth. She admires Elizabeth's Shakespearean complexity: "If you look at the long legacy of actresses who've played her and will continue to play her, it's a little bit like the female Hamlet."
- Age: 55
- Birthplace: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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- The King's Speech
- The Weinstein Company
2010's The King's Speech dramatizes King George VI - who led the United Kingdom through WWII - and his struggles to overcome his debilitating stammer. Colin Firth stars as the troubled king.
Though Firth's research materials were limited - "the royal family don't let you get that close," he said to the BBC - Firth relied on footage of George VI to get his performance right.
Critics applauded the "theatrical gusto" of Firth's "touching" depiction of George. Firth's performance - which succeeded partly because he had empathy for his character - and the film won four Oscars, including Firth for best actor.
- Age: 64
- Birthplace: Grayshott, Hampshire, England, UK
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- The Crown
- Netflix
Netflix spared no expense for The Crown, which ranks as one of the most expensive television series ever produced. Each season of the prestige drama tracks several years in the life of Queen Elizabeth II as she struggles to balance her personal relationships and regal role.
For the first two seasons, Claire Foy played Elizabeth in the 1950s and early 1960s. Her experience on The Crown actually helped Foy understand Elizabeth as a person:
[Before this project] I thought she was just the queen and he was Prince Philip, and that was just who they were, without thinking about them as a mother or a father or daughter. So, it's been really interesting to try and understand them as human beings. And when you see what they've been through, it's relatively easy, to be honest. I have a huge amount of respect and understanding for them.
Foy's "stellar" portrayal of Elizabeth earned her numerous accolades, including Emmy, Golden Globe, and SAG awards.
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- The Tudors
- Showtime
Before she was Margaery Tyrell in Game of Thrones, Natalie Dormer was Anne Boleyn in The Tudors, Showtime's sexed-up version of the story of Henry VIII and his six wives. Henry executed Boleyn - perhaps his best-known and most controversial bride - in 1536.
According to Dormer, a history buff, getting to portray the Tudor queen "was a pairing of my two favorite loves, acting and history." She immersed herself in research to prep for the role. Dormer said of her performance:
By the time I walked on to the scaffold [for Anne's execution] I hope I did have that phenomenal air of dignity that Anne had - because she went out in the most incredible manner. It was one of the best experiences of my career so far [...] Anne was a pawn in a man's world.
The Hollywood Reporter gushed that the "exquisite Natalie Dormer as the ill-fated Anne Boleyn is reason to celebrate" the series. Since Dormer claimed she "didn't want to play [Anne] as this femme fatale," her portrayal of the sharp queen even won over some Anne Boleyn scholars, like Susan Bordo.
- Age: 43
- Birthplace: Reading, Berkshire, England, UK
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- The Crown
- Netflix
The Crown attempts to delve into the private life of Queen Elizabeth II and her family over the course of several decades. Matt Smith played her husband, Prince Philip, for the show's first two seasons.
In an interview with Town & Country, Smith recalled that his prep work was "detailed" and included:
A lot of books, and we sourced as much audio and visual footage as we could find and really immersed ourselves in both the royal family and their emotional journey and the events that happened in their life, but also the cultural and political context of the '40s and the '50s.
In Smith's words, Philip is "a bit of a cool cat" who has "done what he wants, when he wants, how he wants, with whom he wants. He hasn't asked permission. And his wife's the queen." As some reviewers and historians have pointed out, the show does Philip no favors by emphasizing his entitlement.
The show was initially popular with viewers and critics alike. Smith's performance earned him Emmy and SAG nominations.
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- Mrs. Brown
- Miramax
Though Judi Dench won an Oscar for playing Queen Elizabeth I in 1998's Shakespeare in Love, her royal cred runs deep: Dench has twice starred as Queen Victoria.
Both performances depict Victoria's real-life relationship with male servants. In 1997's Mrs. Brown, the lonely, widowed Victoria finds happiness with her Scottish servant John Brown. Twenty years later, Dench again appeared as Victoria in Victoria & Abdul, which focuses on the queen's friendship with her Indian servant Abdul Karim.
While discussing Victoria & Abdul, Dench claimed:
I just have to believe that [Victoria] possessed more humor than we give her credit for, especially in this final part of her life with this wonderful young man, who she could talk to and tell jokes to. That shows such great spirit, doesn't it, and something we don't attach to that rather solemn view we have of her.
Her acting in Mrs. Brown earned Dench her first Oscar nomination. Though critics called her performance in Victoria & Abdul "marvelous" and "shrewd [and] affecting," the film itself was met with less enthusiasm.
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- The White Queen
- BBC One
The television series The White Queen - based on Philippa Gregory's novel - tells the story of the Wars of the Roses from the perspective of Elizabeth Woodville, commoner-turned-queen. When Woodville married Edward IV in 1464, she entered a political world so cutthroat that it inspired Game of Thrones.
Swedish actor Rebecca Ferguson portrayed the savvy queen. As she recalled in a BBC interview:
My mother is English and I was brought up watching English period dramas with Maggie Smith and Helen Mirren and thinking, "Gosh, if only I could just have a little role!" I hadn't heard of Elizabeth [before this production], and all of a sudden I'm playing the character of someone who was not born and raised in royalty, but was brought in and left to find her own way of surviving. It was a very interesting character to play.
At least one historian found things to admire in the show. Overall, critics were underwhelmed by the series, but they applauded Ferguson's "luminous" performance. She received a Golden Globe nomination.
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- The Tudors
- Showtime
In The Tudors - Showtime's steamy series about Henry VIII - Jonathan Rhys Meyers takes the starring role. Rhys Meyers portrays an energetic, young Henry before old age and a leg injury ravaged his health and soured his mood.
Rhys Meyers was under no illusions about Henry's character. In an interview with Parade, he acknowledged:
I think [Henry VIII] makes great television, but in the final analysis, he was not a great monarch. He was wracked with ego, vanity, and thoughts of his own divinity. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, so he was very corrupt. I have a degree of admiration for him, but not much. Basically, he was a b*stard, but an interesting and attractive b*stard.
Though Slate dismissed the series as "weakly dramatized history," Rhys Meyers earned two Golden Globe nominations for his portrayal of Henry.
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- Catherine the Great
- HBO
Helen Mirren may have played Queen Elizabeth II twice - she won an Oscar for her portrayal of Elizabeth in The Queen and played her again on stage in The Audience - but she has also depicted Russian royalty. In 2019's Catherine the Great, Mirren starred as the titular Russian empress in a glossy drama that explored her real-life love affair with Grigory Potemkin.
Mirren relied on Catherine's own voice to inform her performance: She read letters the empress actually penned. Mirren wanted to correct the public's misconception - based on historical slander - of Catherine as a nymphomaniac:
Catherine's reign in the 18th century had a different kind of attitude toward sex and sexuality. But she was a serial monogamist. She loved men. She loved having a guy, she loved going on dates. She said, "If I'm addicted to anything, I'm addicted to being in love." She just loved the flirtation, the romance. I'm sure she loved the sort of secret little moments when your hands first touch. But she was in no way some sort of crazed sexual addict.
Though the series received mixed reviews, Mirren earned a Golden Globe nomination.
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- The Young Victoria
- Sony Pictures
Most people imagine Queen Victoria - who reigned over the United Kingdom for the vast majority of the 19th century - as she appeared in photographs at the end of her life: dowdy, humorless, and shrouded in the black mourning clothes she donned for the rest of her life after her husband's passing in 1861.
2009's The Young Victoria attempts to correct that view of the queen by presenting her as she was in her younger years: a strong-willed, spirited woman.
In her performance as Victoria, Emily Blunt - who prepared for the role by reading Victoria's diaries and letters - wanted to highlight how lonely and rebellious the queen was in her youth. Her performance - which Roger Ebert called "irresistible" - earned Blunt a Golden Globe nomination.
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- The White Princess
- Starz
2017's The White Princess was the sequel to The White Queen. The television series follows Elizabeth of York's betrothal and marriage to Henry VII in 1486, a union that put an end to the Wars of the Roses and secured the new Tudor dynasty.
Jodie Comer plays Elizabeth. In an interview with Harper's Bazaar, she confessed, "I felt like I knew her," and that she had a lot of freedom to shape the character:
I did a little bit of research, but there's just not an awful lot written about the women of that time, so I used that to my advantage. It allowed me so much freedom to make her my own and think about what she likes and dislikes, her characteristics, her mannerisms. No one lived to tell a tale of that about her [...] You haven't got footage to go and watch of someone and really analyze how they sit or hold themselves.
The series received mixed-to-positive reviews, and many critics considered Comer's "commanding performance" a highlight.
- Age: 31
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- The Favourite
- Fox Searchlight Pictures
Though the lives of English and Scottish queens like Elizabeth I, Mary of Scotland, and Victoria have long been fodder for period dramas, Queen Anne - who reigned from 1702 to 1714 - has never gotten the same Hollywood attention. That changed with 2018's The Favourite, an irreverent look at Anne's complicated relationship with two female courtiers, Sarah Churchill and Abigail Markham.
Olivia Colman - who also portrayed Queen Elizabeth II in Seasons 3 and 4 of The Crown - stars as Anne, the long-suffering queen who lost every child she tried to bring into the world. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Colman explained how she interpreted Anne in light of her unimaginable loss:
To have lost 17 children at varying stages, I can sort of imagine what that felt like - though you don't really want to. Once I knew about her, I didn't care what she did. If that's happened to you, I think you behave however you want [...] You couldn't cope with all of that and not be extraordinarily strong.
Though historians still argue over the nature of Anne's relationship with Churchill and Markham, critics applaud the film and Colman's "pitch-perfect" and "remarkable" performance. Colman won an Oscar for The Favourite.
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- Mary Queen of Scots
- Focus Features
Saoirse Ronan stars as the eponymous Scottish queen in Mary Queen of Scots. The 2018 film focuses on Mary's return to Scotland from France - where she had lived in childhood - and eventual downfall in 1567, when she is forced to abdicate the throne to her infant son. Mary then fled to England, where she was imprisoned until her execution in 1587.
Ronan - who agreed to play the role six years before filming started - wanted to emphasize Mary as a strong, young woman in a man's world:
[...] even if [Mary and her cousin Elizabeth I] were rulers, they were female rulers, and they were considered more so than anything to just be something that can produce an heir that will then take over from them, which is exactly what happened to Mary. As soon as her son was born, all of her power was taken away from her, but Elizabeth had the smarts to know that would be the case. I suppose it's shining light on women in power, and how it's a much more complicated thing, even nowadays for a woman.
Benjamin Lee of The Guardian praised Ronan's "show-stopping lead performance," and appreciated how the film "is also a rare reminder of just how young Mary was [...] and there's a clandestine silliness to some of the scenes with her handmaidens, cannily conveying a side often underexplored."
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- Marie Antoinette
- Columbia Pictures
Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette is a stylized riff on the life of France's most controversial queen. Starring Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette, the film explores how she went from fish out of water at the French court to disconnected queen who swapped politics for pleasure - especially fashion.
Dunst sympathized with Marie Antoinette's position:
I can understand the feelings of pressure and being around adults who are expecting something from you. But then again, I wasn't forced to be in a bed with some guy I didn't know at age 14 without any of my family around me. People are watching you, they know who you are. It's a feeling I can identify with more so now than when I was younger.
The film is based on Antonia Fraser's biography of Marie Antoinette, but its accuracy has been criticized. As historian Caroline Weber points out, the film offers no political context and ignores the "pressing political reasons" for Marie Antoinette's fashion choices in the years leading up to the French Revolution.
Though critics gave the film mixed reviews, many praised Dunst. Notably, Roger Ebert heralded her "pitch-perfect" performance.
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- The Great
- Hulu
Elle Fanning stars as Catherine the Great - 18th-century Russia's supreme empress - in The Great. The irreverent, only-partly-historically-accurate Hulu series is a comedy about Catherine's rocky early years at the Russian court.
In an interview with Harper's Bazaar, Fanning claimed that research took her only so far:
I read things about her, of course. But I think for this [series], your imagination has to take over at some point. [...] I felt very free that we weren't doing a stuffy period piece [...] Like, I could just be a woman and bring all of her complications and complexities and her strengths and a lot of her weaknesses, too. Our version of Catherine has a real big, kind of fabulous ego and arrogance to her that I love. I love playing with that. And then she really makes mistakes too. She doesn't always have the right answer, but I feel like she's extremely curious.
Critics have praised Fanning's acting - Alan Sepinwall from Rolling Stone declared that her performance was "something to behold" - and "comic timing."
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- The King
- Netflix
2019's The King adapts William Shakespeare's plays about Henry V to the screen. Timothée Chalamet stars as Henry in the historically uneven film.
As he explained to Vanity Fair, Chalamet met the challenge of playing the 15th-century king with glee: "You want to become an actor [so you] can wield a sword, ride horses, and play an English king. It sounds absurd to say out loud. Even so, that was exhilarating."
Critics generally panned the "baffling" film, and Chalamet's performance was met with mixed enthusiasm. GQ's Iana Murphy praised his "quietly spectacular" turn as Henry, while The Guardian's Simran Hans dismissed it.
- Birthplace: Manhattan, New York, USA
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- The Other Boleyn Girl
- Columbia Pictures
Based on Philippa Gregory's novel, 2008's The Other Boleyn Girl shifts the spotlight from Anne Boleyn to her older sister - and onetime mistress of Henry VIII - Mary Boleyn. The novel and adaptation have been accused of privileging salacious intrigue over historical fact as they trace both Boleyn sisters' rise and fall in the treacherous Tudor court.
Natalie Portman stars as Anne Boleyn. Though she described her character as "cruel" and scheming, Portman was also fascinated by Boleyn's family and "the values with which she's raised."
Carla Meyer from The Baltimore Sun praised "Portman's steeliness" in the role, even if Boleyn's character was "wildly inconsistent" over the course of the film. Anne Boleyn scholar Susan Bordo described The Other Boleyn Girl's depiction of Anne as a "shrill caricature."
- Age: 43
- Birthplace: Jerusalem, Israel
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- The Man in the Iron Mask
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Leonardo DiCaprio played two roles in 1998's The Man in the Iron Mask. Based on Alexandre Dumas's novel, the film follows the musketeers' fictional attempts to replace cruel Louis XIV with his kindly twin brother who had been imprisoned and forced to wear an iron mask to hide his identity.
Historians have pointed out that the film is on thin historical ice. DiCaprio portrays the 17th-century monarch as a heartless, debauched tyrant who sends noblemen to their doom so he can seduce their wives.
Critics panned The Man in the Iron Mask. As Rolling Stone's Peter Travers noted, DiCaprio "spoofs himself royally" in the film.
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- Mary Queen of Scots
- Focus Features
2018's Mary Queen of Scots partly attempts to parse the relationship between the Scottish queen and her English cousin Elizabeth I, played by Margot Robbie.
Robbie envisioned Elizabeth as a woman who has to "play her hand very cautiously":
I wanted to play up the idea that [Elizabeth] wanted to live vicariously through Mary, and loved hearing the way Mary ran her court. She loved hearing how Mary was falling in love, getting married, having a baby, and had all her friends and all her parties and was ruling in a way she knew she was never going to be capable of. Part of it was that Mary's way was the wrong way, and was ultimately going to be dangerous to her. But on the other hand, Elizabeth was wishing it could be her.
Though critics generally didn't love the film, many praised Robbie's "compelling" performance, which received SAG and BAFTA nominations.
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