One thing becomes certain when you’re watching the AMC+ miniseries Anne Boleyn: Jodie Turner-Smith was born to play a queen.
This new retelling, the first to be made by a nearly all-female creative team, presents the downfall of the 16th-century queen as a psychological drama. The details of Anne Boleyn’s life that have been less sensationalized over the centuries—the trauma of her multiple stillbirths, her relationship with her brother, her love of her daughter, Elizabeth—are depicted with intense depth by Turner-Smith, who commands every scene.
“I’ve played two queens now,” the actor jokes during a phone conversation with BAZAAR.com. In her breakout role, 2019’s Queen & Slim, Turner-Smith was equally captivating, playing a poised woman demanding respect while on the run from the law. Her casting as Anne stirred up a clichéd racist uproar when it was announced last autumn, but anyone watching the show can see that she was meant for the part. In fact, race functions as another layer in the story, underscoring Anne’s role as an outsider holding her own against those who are shocked at how high she’s ascended.
The three-part miniseries starts off with Anne having so much to lose. She’s pregnant with her second child, who her straying husband, King Henry VII, only sees as a possible male heir. Every power move that Anne makes is to ensure a secure future for her daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth I. Turner-Smith was a brand-new mother herself during filming, having welcomed her daughter with husband Joshua Jackson just months earlier.
“I became a mom, and now that’s the most important lens that I see her story through,” she says. “This is a mother who was trying to survive for herself and for child, and who was trying to leave a legacy for her child that made it so that she could have a seat at the table. And, I mean, she succeeded.”
Below, we speak with Turner-Smith about working with a mostly female team, playing a Black Tudor queen, and how Anne Boleyn is airing during a pressing time for America.
What was your connection to Anne Boleyn before you started filming? Outside of historical context, had you thought deeply about her as a person at all?
I had always just gone with what I’d learned and what I’ve seen thus far in pop culture about her. I never had dived into her story to really see her humanity, and just went with the sensationalized versions of her. So this was a different perspective that I was intrigued by.
One thing I really loved was when Henry VII talks about his goal for a male heir, you see the real effect that has on Anne. That was a large part of why the show is so haunting.
Yeah. It’s such a heartbreaking thing to go through, and what’s even more heartbreaking is just the lack of compassion that was held for any woman who was in that position, at least by Henry. He was singular in his approach to achieving an heir. Women in that time [and now], we’re still told in many ways that our value is tied up in our ability to produce children. Look at what’s happening right now, where this country is standing at the precipice of overturning Roe v. Wade. It’s terrifying that in 2021, we are still having a conversation about controlling women’s bodies. It’s wild, treating women as though they are merely vessels for children, [acting as if] what’s important is that child, and not even a child yet—that embryo inside of them—and not the woman who is meant to carry that child.
Misan Harriman/Fable/Sony/AMC
How was it working with a mostly female creative team on a project like Anne Boleyn?
That was definitely a big draw for me. I feel like Anne’s story is often in the hands of men. That’s why it’s so mysterious and sensationalized, because for so long, it has been in the hands of men. I think there’s certain nuances that come to storytelling when the story is being told by someone who is from the [same] group that the story’s about. So this woman’s story in the hands of women—it just meant taking it to a different place.
How was it playing Anne as a Black woman with Black allies, like her brother [played by I May Destroy You‘s Paapa Essiedu] and the lady-in-waiting who’s her cousin?
The filmmakers really were interested in doing something called identity-conscious casting, which allows the artists to bring their identity to the role and add something that has not yet been seen to it. I think as creatives, as artists, we have the opportunity to tell human stories. When we transcend this concept of race, we understand that we are telling a story about humanity. As human beings, we all experience love, loss, longing, familial ties, loyalty, betrayal, fear, grief. This was just an opportunity to do that, to not be confined to color, and to invite actors of color to tell a story that they have not been invited to tell before.
What were the conversations like around Anne Boleyn’s hair, and wearing your hair natural for the show?
I felt like this is a woman being played by a Black woman. I want my Anne to have long, Afro-texture hair. My hairstylist and makeup artist, Jody Williams, bless her heart, was so talented and skilled and collaborative, and we just really had a lot of fun with that. I wanted her to wear a bonnet when she slept, so we did that, too—she had her hair wrapped. I just felt like, when we have the opportunity to tell a story and we’re gonna do identity-conscious casting and cast somebody who’s not white, then why don’t we add the nuances of a person who’s not white? That means not European hair, having kinkier hair and styling that and seeing that life.
I love to tell a story with hair, because hair is important to all of us, not just Black girls. When I watch anything—movies, television shows—hair is always the thing that can take me out of it. I’m like, “What the hell is the hair doing? Like really? What is that hair?”
There is the recent movement with Hamilton, Bridgerton, and the musical Six where people of color are playing more historical roles. Do you hope this will continue?
Yeah, I do. Obviously Hamilton allowed people to see this story of Alexander Hamilton in a way that they never thought about before, and it excited them. It was interesting and fun, and it actually made a lot of people feel seen and happy, and not just people of color. It was something that was enjoyed by all different types of people. I think that’s the point. We can just make it about telling the story and not about what color that person was, and realize that actors of color actually have something to add to the story that elevates it to a different level. It makes it a new thing that is beautiful and fun and interesting to behold.
AMC
Now the series is coming to America, where people are obsessed with royals but not as intensely as in Britain. Do you think it will change viewers’ perspectives about Anne or Henry VII?
Hopefully, we have told a story that will make people see Anne through a more compassionate light and see Henry for the sadist that he was—not a person to be revered, but [who] talked happily about how he killed off so many wives.
I was wondering, with many miniseries getting renewed, would you ever consider playing Anne younger or in an alternate reality?
You mean like do a fictional retelling of her life, like she doesn’t get killed? Listen, as I was filming this series, we all were like, “Ugh, we just don’t want her to actually die. We would love to see it another way.” I’m always open to telling a fun story, an interesting story, a different story that makes people feel something. I wouldn’t rule out revisiting Anne, because I think she’s so fascinating and there’s so much more that could be said about her. But I think I am happy with what we did, and I’m happy to see what else is out there. I’ve played two queens now. I’m ready.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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Jodie Turner-Smith on Becoming Anne Boleyn
Source: Filipino Journal Articles
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