‘The Serpent Queen’: Liv Hill on Sharing Catherine de Medici with Samantha Morton

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Serpent Queen series premiere, “Medici Bitch.”]

We’ve seen the Medici family in Netflix‘s eponymous drama and Catherine de Medici in The CW‘s Reign. Now Starz has made a bold new biographical series about Catherine’s life — from teen years to adulthood — in The Serpent Queen. Samantha Morton (Tales of The Walking Dead) leads as the adult Catherine in the series, which premiered Sunday, September 11, but her younger counterpart, 22-year-old Liv Hill, is the main event of the series premiere as the 14-year-old Italian royal.

The Serpent Queen tracks the monarch who, against all odds, became one of the most powerful and longest-serving rulers in French history. Born in 1519, she grew to be a cutthroat and power-hungry monarch during her rule. At the same time she was also known for her support of the arts, influence in fashion, being the mother of three French kings (Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III), and serving as Queen Regent during an intense time of war.

The irreverent Starz period piece paints her often diabolical deeds as necessary for survival, challenging viewers in the logline to “tell me what you would have done differently.” In the series premiere, Catherine’s tale unfolds through flashbacks as she defends her actions and imparts the lessons she’s learned to her new servant girl, Rahima (Sennia Nanua).

The orphaned Catherine is 14 years old when her uncle, Pope Clement (Charles Dance, Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones) marries her off into the 16th-century French court with a large dowry (which she negotiates to be even bigger) and the promise of a new geopolitical alliance in return for the union.

With it comes the expectation of many heirs, but on her wedding night, Catherine learns her new husband is in love with Diane de Poitiers (Ludivine Sagnier), a beautiful lady-in-waiting twice his age — and also Catherine’s distant cousin. With her future suddenly uncertain and with little hope of conceiving, Catherine must quickly learn who she can trust — both within her personal entourage of courtiers and the members of the royal court — while outmaneuvering anyone who underestimates her determination to survive at any cost.

Here, Hill explains the origins of young Catherine’s determination, how breaking the fourth wall helps make sense of the plot, what it was like working with Morton and Dance, and more to TV Insider.

Related

'The Serpent Queen' Stars on Bringing Catherine de Medici's Edgy Story to TV (VIDEO)

Despite only being 14 years old and spending most of her life so far surrounded by nuns, your young Catherine proves she’s cunning in the premiere. To you, did her cunning nature develop more through nature or nurture?

Liv Hill: She has to have some sort of spark inside her naturally, but definitely nurture, I think, because she’s coming from being emotionally, physically abused, belittled, and degraded her whole life. She’s had to toughen her skin and have that resilience and cunning, as you said, and I think when she ends up going to the French court, it’s not unusual for her to be treated that way. Her emotional intelligence is what sets her apart from everyone else. She’s incredibly emotionally immature in many ways, but very, very alert and attentive to other people in other ways.

Catherine squares up against her uncle, the Pope, in the premiere a couple of times — challenging him, forcing his hand with her dowry. For you, did Catherine see this as a risk she had to take, or did she kind of not care what could happen if the risk didn’t pay off?

That’s a really good question. I think it absolutely is a risk she had to take. She kind of had nothing to lose. Her life circumstances, they were such high stakes that in her relationship with the Pope, it didn’t matter that he was, indeed, her senior — she had to do whatever she could to survive. And I think that’s what the whole show’s main theme is. Let’s not judge this woman just on those decisions. We’ve gotta put it in context and realize that she was a woman. She was a foreigner as well, and in an incredibly unforgiving and brutal world. That influenced all her choices. I think it’s incredibly brave of her, but also incredibly necessary.

Starz

Catherine’s an anti-hero, but she doesn’t really start that way. She doesn’t even realize people cared about her until her uncle came to get her in a rather violent way, and then she rolls with everything that happens next. For you, what’s Catherine’s main goal in the premiere?

I don’t wanna sound like a broken record, but survival. It’s just sort of ramped up at different parts. I remember that my sole intention for the whole time I was working on the three episodes I worked on was survival, and that kind of influenced how I was motivated during my scenes. I ramped it up and dialed it down depending on what the scene required, but for that first premiere episode, I would say she believes she is going to die. She’s thinks she or her family is going to be murdered, or something bad is going to happen to her unless she secures this marriage.

Later in the further episodes, it’s about trying to secure her place in court by having a baby. But for that first episode, it is literally about impressing the French court and forming an alliance between between Italy and France.

Did Charles Dance give any words of wisdom on set? What did you learn from working with him?

He didn’t explicitly give me any advice. However, it was pretty easy to learn just by watching. I have adored watching his episodes back — he’s just incredibly funny and charismatic in this, even though he’s quite a horrible character. I learned by watching. I think he’s brilliant in it.

Starz

There is such a funny underbelly to this show too, you know? And the breaking of the fourth wall helps a lot with that. What do you think that real-time narration brings to the story?

One, I think it is a very contemporary take on a period drama. That’s always really exciting, especially to read when I was reading the script. I just thought it was so witty. And like you said, it is funny. It’s dark humor, and I think it’s necessary because it can be quite violent and brutal at times. And so having that fourth wall break with a little bit of humor is a breath of fresh air for the audience.

I think that is well deserved, but also I think it’s important because there is, especially as the show progresses, a lot of power play and political and foreign policy discussions. Having that fourth wall creates clarity and is a helping hand for the audience. It sort of brings them along to the next thing, helping them keep up with the story.

What else makes the show contemporary?

There’s contemporary dialogue, the music, the score is very modern. I think a lot of people will enjoy it. It’s not your typical stuffy period drama.

Samantha Morton plays the adult Catherine. Did you two have the chance to collaborate on character development while prepping for the show?

Yes! Not as much as maybe you’d think, but for sure. Samantha thought it was very important that we have some Zooms beforehand, and we did. We just got to know each other and also give each other’s blessing. I think Samantha’s extraordinary, especially having watched all the episodes now. I remember she said to me, “Just trust yourself. I’m really happy you are playing the young Catherine.”

For me, that was really, obviously a very generous thing of her to say, because she must have known there was a little bit of imposter syndrome or being overwhelmed by tackling such a character —  and also stepping into the shoes of Samantha Morton! We didn’t really collaborate as much as I would want to, because we didn’t share the screen. However, behind the scenes, she’s always been lovely and supportive.

Starz

After having seen the episodes, what do you love most about Samantha’s portrayal of Catherine?

Oh, no one’s asked me that! I love her poise. I love the fact that — she actually said this in some interviews — she channeled a mafia don, that Catherine was kind of the original Goodfellas. You never really see women in those sort of roles. That’s what I loved about watching her performance. She doesn’t have to do a lot to make her quite formidable. She is just who she is, and that’s enough. I think she’s, all in all, pretty marvelous in this show.

What can we expect from the relationship with Catherine’s new husband after that reveal at the end of the premiere with her cousin?

Oh, God. Lots of drama. I think audiences will see it’s a really juicy series with lots of love triangles, the quite universal unreciprocated love. People are gonna be in for a ride, and I think they’re really gonna enjoy the relationship dynamics between both of them. And that’s all I’ll say on that.

The Serpent Queen, Sundays, 8/7c, Starz