“We wanted to take the genre and subvert expectations,” co-showrunner Gemma Burgess tells EW.
Warning: This article contains spoilers aboutMy Lady Jane.
But newPrime VideoseriesMy Lady Janesays “f— that” (literally) to historical record.
Emily Bader as Lady Jane Grey and Edward Bluemel as Guildford Dudley in ‘My Lady Jane’.Amazon
“She was really into it.
So I bought it and read it without knowing anything about it and fell completely in love.
I thought it wasThe Princess BridemeetsBuffy the Vampire Slayer.It was so rich, so funny, so sharp.
Jordan Peters as King Edward, Kate O’Flynn as Princess Mary, Dominic Cooper as Lord Seymour, Abbie Hern as Bess in ‘My Lady Jane’.Amazon
“And to keep that sense of intelligent optimism that we felt desperately in need of right now.”
Plus, it leaves us hungry for more.
What made that a valuable touchpoint and why did you want to dig even deeper into those parallels?
Emily Bader as Lady Jane Grey in ‘My Lady Jane’.Amazon
We love to point the finger at somebody else and say, “You are different.”
We’re really interested in ideas of power and identity.
We never wanted the metaphor to overwhelm the narrative.
Edward Bluemel as Guildford Dudley in ‘My Lady Jane’.Amazon
In the book, Jane transforms into a ferret and discovers she’s an Ethian.
Why did you change that?
And if there’s a season 2, is there still a possibility for that storyline?
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
BURGESS:It’s always a possibility.
It seemed like an opportunity too good to pass up.
I used to be an author.
BURGESS:If those teenagers are watchingBridgerton,they can handle our show.
I always say this is something you should be able to watch with your 14, 15-year-old daughter.
We’re very sex positive, but we always do everything from the female gaze.
For example, we don’t have any female nudity.
We just wanted to show sex being fun and funny.
There are sex scenes and people are talking the whole time.
Was Edward super game?
It’s shot in such an intimate, lovely, female gaze-focused way.
BURGESS:He was completely game.
BURGESS:And when it comes to female gaze, we were an all-female EP team.
We had a female DP.
it was just inherent.
It’s automatic when the people behind the camera gazing are women.
This soundtrack is very contemporary and fun.
Were you inspired byA Knight’s Tale, Bridgerton,and things like that?
BURGESS:No, actually this started because we’re obsessed with ’60s and ’70s British invasion bands.
In all the scripts, we put the songs in.
But then those songs are awfully male.
They’re all male voices.
Female swagger was our brand for music.
Should we understand that the ending suggests that Guildford has figured out how to change at will?
We got there at four in the morning and waited for the sun to rise.
And thank goodness it did.
That’s a miracle shot.
You also upended Edward’s story.
What prompted that change?
GLYNN:We love love, and we wanted to represent all different kinds of love.
You bring in Thomas Seymour, who isn’t really in the novel, but is historically important.
They were both Machiavellian characters, but they’re really bad at being Machiavellian.
They just kept getting caught.
They were so unbelievably turned on by power.
The friction between the Dudleys and the Seymours is just extraordinary.
I’m glad you left out his relationship with Elizabeth.
It’s such a twisted piece of history.
BURGESS:Yeah, exactly.
We have no sexual violence, nothing like that.
It’s about joy for us, it’s about communication, connection, and fun.
That rules out a lot of fantasies.
But I love fantasy shows.
So, this is an optimistic, safe fantasy show.
First off, can the bond between her and her mother ever be healed?
Or is that last scene in the Tower a true breaking point for them?
BURGESS:Everyone has a relationship with their mother that goes through breaking points.
But you keep going and both of you grow up and learn.
We hope that the same happens to Jane and her mother.
These are two characters who are more alike than they are dissimilar.
So they have to figure out a way to see one another as people.
What might be in store for all of them?
Catherine (Isabella Brownson) gets secretly married in these final moments.
Because Mary’s still on the throne.
There’s a lot more work to do before things are right.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
