Christina Hendricks on new period drama The Buccaneers: 'It’s ultimately about friendship'
Imogen Waterhouse as Jinny St. George and Barney Fishwick as Lord James Seadown in The Buccaneers.
“Girls, here’s to marriages, men, parties. Not particularly in that order.” The Buccaneers is a period drama with a number of twists. While ostensibly charting the matchmaking of beautiful young women with worthy, title-clad men, it’s actually about female friendships and feminism.
Then there’s the fact that at its core is a clash of cultures: new-moneyed America meets prim and proper Victorian England. There’s disdain on both sides of this pond – but the girls need titles and the crumbling English aristocracy need their cash.
What could possibly go wrong?
The Apple TV+ new series swings around five vivacious, brazen, independent-minded, young American girls as they set foot in the high society of 1870s London, causing havoc, and leaving quaking future-in-laws and adoring dukes in their wake.
There’s Nan St George played by The Assistant’s Kristine Froseth; her sister, Jinny, played by The Outposts’ Imogen Waterhouse; Conchita Closson played by 13 Reason Why’s Alisha Boe; Lizzy Elmsworth played by Dive Club’s Aubri Ibrag; and Mabel Elmsworth played by Saved by the Bell’s Josie Totah.
Finding a set of young actresses with the right charisma and chemistry was integral to the undertaking – further elevated by the fact the cast lived and worked together once filming began.
“Particularly when you have a large cast, it was lovely to have this inbuilt support group and friends to hang out with,” shares 26-year-old Boe. “It was important for us to bond outside of set.”
The core of the series is an exploration of female friendships and the deep bonds of sisterhood. While set in the past, there was a focus on creating something that resonated with women of today. The girls grapple with still prevalent issues: sexual violence and consent, identity crises, familial expectation, grooming, sexuality, and gender.
“It’s ultimately about friendship, support and family,” says Emmy-nominated Christina Hendricks, 48, best known for Mad Men, who plays Nan and Jinny’s mother, Mrs St George. “What you would do for your sisters, or in my case, your daughters. I have my daughters’ backs and they have mine. We all face the societal pressure of marriages and unions, but at what cost?”
Other cast members include I Am Ruth’s Mia Threapleton, Scott & Bailey’s Amelia Bullmore and Mamma Mia’s Josh Dylan.
Inspired by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edith Wharton’s unfinished final novel, The Buccaneers, executive producer Beth Willis had been carrying a copy around with her for a decade when a fortuitous meeting with screenwriter Katherine Jakeways catalysed turning it into a series.
The ingredients were too good to brush aside, says Jakeways. Wharton had an instinctive understanding of relationship dynamics, and a comedic sensibility for the absurdity of how people interact with one another.
“When I read it, I loved it immediately,” she says. “It was very accessible and it has a brilliant premise as these beautiful, vivacious, effervescent and exciting American girls turn up in this stuffy, aristocratic, crumbling English world and cause chaos.
“Very early on, Beth talked about making it feel contemporary. Maybe they didn’t use exactly the same language, but they spoke in a similarly frank and candid way as we do with our friends and family.”
Jakeways thinks the centring of these types of friendships is novel to costume dramas: “They usually go off very quickly and get married. Or they’re sitting in their drawing rooms, lusting after Mister So-and-So or Lord Somebody, and then at the end they get married and the show’s over and congratulations, happy ever after … but in the case of these girls, what’s so appealing is that they were so young and they came over on the promise of adventure and being there with their friends. That’s the joy of being that age.”
The cast members collaborated with the designers to create costumes that suited their characters and their evolution as the series progressed. As with the rest of the show, the aim was to bring a modern twist to tradition.
“I loved the way they look”, says 22-year-old Ibrag. “But I hated the way they made me feel, which helped my performance. You genuinely understood the oppression these women went through wearing long skirts and a corset all day.”
Threapleton, 23, who is the daughter of Oscar-winner Kate Winslet, likewise says the costumes helped her get into character: “Costume is hugely important. As soon as I put everything on, I didn’t need to think about it too much. Honoria (her character) was there. I’m a sucker for a period costume and I love a corset.”
The up-and-comers were also inspired by the experience of working with esteemed actors of the calibre of Bullmore and Hendricks. Guy Remmers, who plays the young Duke of Tintagel, had two rather daunting dance sequences with the actresses.
“One was with Amelia in front of all the supporting artists at the incredible cloisters in Glasgow,” he says. “It was nerve-wracking and challenging. I kept stepping on her dress.
“The other was with Christina in a lovely moment where Theo (his character) and his fiancee’s mother confide in each other and find things to help each other with. It was a special moment to work with Christina in quite an intimate scene – but let me tell you, doing dialogue while dancing is not easy.”
- The first three episodes of The Buccaneers come to Apple TV+ on Wednesday November 8
