Warning: This article contains spoilers aboutThe Great.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This is the first time you executive-produced a TV series.
Why was this the right project to jump into that?
Credit: Ollie Upton/Hulu
I hadn’t even seenThe Favourite, so I had nothing to compare it to.
So of course the script shocked me in a new and amazing way.
And he asked me if I wanted to produce it and come on and go and pitch with him.
Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult, shown in ‘The Great.'.Ollie Upton/Hulu
And so it really was all amazing luck.
There are so many insane scenes in this show it’s hard to pick just one to talk about.
What sticks out to you when you think about your time on set?
I know, there’s so many to pick from.
Six months of every day something bizarre and exciting is going on on set.
So there’s definitely never a dull moment on this set, and lots of laughter.
So that was something.
I feel like that sums up our show very well.
So I think doing that scene, I felt like, “Oh, we found our tone.”
Just that day was hilarious.
You had severed heads everywhere.
Oh, of course!
I didn’t wear real fur.
Speaking of animals, the bear scenes never utilized real bears, right?
Yes, we were not allowed to film with a bear or anything.
I know, they did such a fantastic job [with the CGI]!
And that is who we were looking at and playing with, and then they did CGI over that.
So that’s just a fun fact.
Sex is a big part of the show, and the tone is very different depending on the scene.
What were some of the challenges of that?
This is something that Tony and I talked about a lot, obviously.
You know, sex is a big part of our show.
And we wanted to double-check everyone’s comfortable.
And I had never worked with anyone like that before, but that was nice to have.
She was notoriously kind of beyond her time in that way.
I think with Peter and Catherine, their scenes are just totally to get an heir.
So I think it really helps those scenes.
And it was hard.
We were just crying with laughter.
So yeah, those days were actually quite enjoyable.
The show flaunts the fact that it’s not totally accurate.
What was one fact that was fudged a bit that you enjoyed?
She really did that.
She brought female education, she brought art and science all through Russia.
That’s a part of her.
Even the lemon-top contraception method is something that they did back then.
So that is real, but I don’t know if Catherine did it.
Tony and the writers’ room researched things like that.
If it blooms, it means you’re pregnant.
Yeah, I actuallylooked that upbecause I thought surely it was made up.
I know, it’s funny.
I think we pulled facts that played into our tone.
And then it actually is real.
Obviously our world is very invented.
We kind of created our own place.
But even like the wigs as hats, that was something that they did.
So, yes, everything is based on something.
Can we expect a second season?
There is a possibility, and it is open to having a second season.
He has more stories.
Good, because when I got to the ending I really wanted to know more!
Even for me actually, I was surprised.
I definitely thought it was going to be something different.
So I was surprised by that.
When we got the last script it was like, “Oh!
Do you think that’s a possibility for the show?
Or do you think season 2 would pick up right where season 1 left off?
It’s hard for me to say.
I don’t know exactly when it would pick up, but it would be us at this age.
We have our fingers crossed.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
