SPOTLIGHT: Mr Gwilym Lee

Suit - Kingsman at MR PORTER, Shirt - Tom Ford at MR PORTER

Grooming - Daisy Holubowicz using Laboratoire SVR & Kevin Murphy

Good casting is one of the things that makes great TV. It is one of the reasons why The Great was such a success when it hit screens, and why the second season was so keenly awaited. Aside from the lush locations, incredible costumes and witty script, the show is one about how young people grapple with power and influence. Mr. Gwilym Lee stars as the Emperor Peter’s (Nicholas Holt) loyal companion Grigor and helps him navigate life at Court with the Empress Catherine The Great (Elle Fanning).

Aside from the hilarious The Great, Gwilym appeared in one of the biggest films in recent years, the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody as iconic guitarist Brian May. Aside from these impressive credits, other notable shows include Fresh Meat on Channel 4, The Hollow Crown on the BBC and on stage at The National Theatre in King Lear.

What was it like reuniting with your castmates for the second season of The Great?

It was great to get back together. It’s a really fun show to make and we all get on really well. It’s no coincidence, I’m sure. When casting the show, the creators and producers were careful to put together a group of really laid back, down to earth, like-minded actors – so the chemistry amongst us all is great.

What was the biggest difference on set between season 1 and season 2 of The Great?

The most glaringly obvious difference was the fact of shooting throughout a pandemic. It was a challenge and at first it slowed things down. It makes communication slightly more challenging on set because everyone is kept separate, distanced and wearing masks. It also makes the set a slightly less sociable place as everyone is kept apart. But we learned how to work with the safety measures, and I think we all knuckled down together. It’s harder work shooting in those circumstances, but I think adversity like that can bring people closer in a shared experience. We certainly all felt very lucky to have been able to work during the pandemic.

From a creative point of view, it was really exciting to come back to the show having seen how well the first season had been received. The show has a very particular tone, constantly treading the line between outrageous, absurd, sometimes crude humour and profound, almost poetic moments of reflection – it’s what really drew me to the material when I first read the scripts. But when shooting the first season, you always just hope that the audience will see what we all saw and the originality of the writing will come across on screen. Knowing that the audience not only got it but that it really resonated with them gave us all great confidence. And it allowed us to really take the characters and stories even further, having done the hard work of setting up and establishing the world in the first season.

Tell us about the character of Grigor

He’s Emperor Peter’s best mate. They grew up together and Grigor has been by his side since day one. It makes him an incredibly loyal friend to Peter and means he’s far more apologetic of Peter’s impetuous behaviour than others. But that’s because he was witness to the neglect Peter’s parents showed him as a child. Grigor’s main focus has always been on keeping his best friend happy. So, he’s a bit of a man-child as well. He’s not the most sympathetic of characters – at his worst he’s a bit of a bully. But, there are mitigating circumstances and there’s context to his behaviour, as with all of the characters in the world of this court. He and his wife Georgina have always been at the centre of court life under Peter’s rule. They’ve enjoyed a life of access and privilege, but when Peter is knocked off the throne in season two and Catherine becomes empress, these benefits are taken away from him. So, the focus of this season becomes getting his mate back on top.

Suit - Jamie Daniels, T-Shirt - Fedro Gaudenzi

Did you do any research on him and the period prior to filming?

Grigor isn’t based on an actual character from history, so there was no specific research on that. So, I read more generally around the world of the Romanovs and the court of Peter III and Catherine the Great. But our writer and creator, Tony McNamara, was adamant very early on that we don’t get overly consumed by research and concerning ourselves too much with historical accuracy. He was far more interested in us imagining the human interactions and relationships free from these historical constraints. It’s very liberating and I think reimagines the idea of a period drama to move it beyond a sequence of manners and a use of language that can sometimes leave the audience feeling distanced and detached.

The costumes in the show look amazing. Did you have a favourite?

They are incredible aren’t they? Tony has created an anarchic, hedonistic, wild world in his writing of the court of Peter and Catherine, and this is backed up in every creative department – the costumes, the sets and the wigs and makeup. It’s a huge collaboration and really paints the picture of the world fully. The party scenes are always fun because they always have some weird detail or focus that means they’re never generic or generalised. My personal favourite is the baby shower that Peter throws. We’re all in pastel baby pinks and blues, adorned with bunnies and chicks and pink powdered wigs that were so big for some of the supporting artists that they had to walk sideways through doorways.

Bohemian Rhapsody was huge. Did you expect it to do so well?

We had no idea it was going to be received in the way that it was. It exceeded anyone’s expectations, I’d say. But it’s testament to Queens amazing work. We hoped that if we could do some kind of justice to them and their music and to Freddy’s legacy that we would tap into something big and powerful. I think what took it to another level was the fact that the film was so accessible to a young audience. It was a conscious decision to make it a PG12 (which probably upset some critics or fans of Queen who wanted to see something darker or more explicit) and this brought the music to a whole new generation which meant the film really took off in a way we couldn’t have imagined.

What was it like to step into the role of Brian May?

I still find it surreal! He’s an icon that I’d only ever seen on stage captivating audiences of tens of thousands. So, to then find myself in a room with the man chatting away with him completely casually about normal things was bizarre. I suppose that was key to me playing him – trying to find the normal, sensitive, sometimes fragile private and personal side to a very public, epic rock star. And the juxtaposition between the two sides of his character was what really intrigued me.

How closely did you work with Rami Malek?

Very! For all intents and purposes, we became a band and a family during that shoot and Rami led us. And we have all remained the best of friends. It was amazing seeing how he approached his work – the prospect could have overwhelmed some, but he never let it get to him and he was always generous and courteous on set continuously looking out for others. Which has made his subsequent awards success and his continued rise all the more satisfying. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer man.

Did you enjoy the awards shows that you attended with the movie?

It was all part of the crazy journey of this film and the final cherry on top. The film was a long time in the planning and in the making and we faced many bumps in the road, some of them well documented. The public reception on its own felt like a huge payoff for these challenges – so the awards success to go alongside this was an unexpected celebration and felt like the last chapter in the film’s story. It was great to have had that swansong with the cast and to have been able to go to all of those ceremonies and party and celebrate what we’d done together.

How much of a challenge is it to learn and perform Shakespeare?

It’s like being a detective. Shakespeare tells us everything we need to know in his writing, you just need to work hard at finding the clues and mining away to find character, meaning and intention. But I would say it’s probably not as hard as you might think because Shakespeare does so much of the work for you. There is a rhythm and often rhyme to the language which gives you a structure as you learn it and holds you in performance. And in terms of finding the character and intentions, it’s all there on the page – you don’t really get subtext with this material, it’s all implicit in the text. And then it’s really a matter of commitment – of committing to the intentions within the words and thoughts. It’s immensely satisfying because the writing is so rich that you will keep discovering new things until the final performance of a run. Which is why the work has thrived for centuries and continues to hold relevance.

What are you working on now and next?

All this talk of Shakespeare makes me want to do more of that! And it’s been 4 years since I last did a play, so I would love to get back on stage again soon. There are also a couple of real-life stories that I would love to see told so I’m exploring the idea of developing my own projects. And we’re all very hopeful that The Great may be back for a third season next year. So, fingers crossed with that one as well.

Follow Gwilym Lee on Instagram.

The new season of The Great is on STARZPLAY via Amazon Prime Video.

Tajinder HayerDecember 22, 2021spotlight, interview, long reads, the great