“Marie Antoinette is definitely a really misunderstood person,” explained actress Emilia Schüle during a TCA press conference for the new PBS drama about the life of the infamous French queen, whose legacy is shrouded in a phrase she never even said (“Let them eat cake”). “People nowadays see her by what's been framed by the revolution, by all those rumors that were supposed to destroy her and harm her.” Other recent portrayals of the monarch have perpetuated stereotypes of Marie’s vanity and spendthrift lifestyle while people suffered. “She is much more complex than that and much more modern. She was fighting to preserve her freedom, her privacy. She never abandoned her personal needs. She always stood up for herself. She really embodies our views today of equality, individuality, self-determination, and it was these modern qualities that actually eventually enabled her enemies to destroy her and undermine her.”
(Rahoul Ghose/PBS)
“We shot mostly handheld, which is very rare in a period piece,” revealed producer Claude Chelli, with the series’ narrative approach introducing viewers to this world through 16-year-old Marie’s arrival at Versailles. Filmed in and around Paris, the production utilized the real palace of Versailles when possible, recreating many interiors on sets. “The scientific director of Versailles was our consultant… He’s a historian, but he understands when you have to skew history a little bit. He understands that because it’s just a way to bring the story stronger somehow. So we were very careful about history, but of course, maybe we’re shifting some dates… But basically, as far as the characters, the situation, it’s very true to what happened.”
“My first day, we were filming at Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, which is this enormous castle outside of Paris, and everything’s so ornate, and everyone’s in their beautiful costumes, and James Purefoy is there and he’s amazing,” recalled Louis Cunningham about his earliest anxieties about stepping into the role of Marie’s betrothed, Louis XVI, who would prefer to hunt than get to know his child-bride. “I was terrified, he was terrified, so that made it a little bit easier. But then he does go on this amazing journey in discovering himself, and finding his voice, and finding his role as king.” As with most period pieces, costumes helped the actors prepare for their roles, and while Louis Cunningham didn’t have to deal with the torture of a corvette, his wardrobe did help him better understand his character. “We had a color palette, and we had little details that would be very specific to us. So, Louis was neutral tones, earth and sky tones. And then, I would have little nature seams on all of my buttons and all these little details that would help you understand a little bit of who he is, even if it's not always visible on camera. It was there to help us. And they were just amazing. Everything was hand-made for us. It was a dream.”
A dream for Louis XVI was a nightmare for Marie Antoinette and for Emilia Schüle by proxy. “It reads like a nightmare because you could see her story as a fairy tale,” Emilia explained. “She goes to France to become queen but after all, she's a 14-year-old child that leaves Austria, her home country, leaves her mum, and is sent away to marry off some guy she's never seen before and is supposed to consummate something that no one ever explained to her.” This theme is explored in a scene in the premiere episode where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are brought to the wedding bed with an audience, under pressure to consummate the marriage and produce an heir to the throne. “There’s this brutal scene where the family starts throwing those Hennessy balls at us and it’s just horrible and awkward and I know that [writer] Deborah Davis, she just made it up because she thought it’s brutal, but it didn’t happen like that.”
Marie Antoinette takes some liberties with the story for dramatic purposes but Claude Chelli stands by this series’ portrayal as being much more true to the real story. “It has to be entertaining, it has to be truthful against history,” the producer concluded. “You have to understand also that she wasn't prepared to be a queen. Same thing with Louis. She's the 16th child of her mother. So there are a lot of people in front of her dispatched to all the courts of Europe, basically. So, 14, here she is, you're going to France now. We have a king for you, a future king. So both of them are just not prepared. They have to discover it by themselves.”
Watch the origins of Marie and Louis XVI in PBS’ Marie Antoinette, premiering tonight at 10/9c.