The British historical drama film Mary Queen of Scots tells the story of an infamous political rivalry between two 16th-century monarchs from the point of view of the women themselves. Saoirse Ronan plays the Catholic Queen of Scotland Mary Stuart, who at the age of nineteen returns to her home country to take her throne. Margot Robbie plays the Protestant Queen of England Elizabeth Tudor, the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn.
The two women are cousins and Stuart has a strong claim to the English throne, the threat of which is amplified by Elizabeth’s courtiers, who tell her that Stuart is plotting to assassinate her and re-establish Catholicism in England.
The movie is based on the biography Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart by John Guy. In the book he investigates the truth behind a figure that has been negatively portrayed in history to present Elizabeth I in the best light possible. The film, the screen debut of theatre director Josie Rourke, focuses on the complicated relationship between the two queens; their fascination and love for each other as well as their suspicion and fear of the other.
Strong women
Just twenty-five years of age, Ronan is the acclaimed four-time Oscar nominee for her roles in Atonement, Brooklyn, Lady Bird and most recently Little Women. She was eighteen when she originally signed up for the part of Mary Stuart, but while the film was delayed for several years, her faith in the project never failed her, as she explains:
Saoirse Ronan (Irish accent): It’s a very honest portrayal of Mary in the Scottish court, her whole life and her relationship with Elizabeth too, because the telling of that relationship was quite warped for centuries. I think the reason why it’s such a fascinating relationship is because these two women were ruling at a time when men called the shots completely and tried to with both of them as well. Sometimes they succeeded and sometimes they didn’t, because of the strength of these two women. So on the surface we’re looking at two female rulers, but what we want to show is that both of them were human and they desired human relationships and connection and for somebody to understand them.
LONELY AT THE TOP
When Rourke first approached Margot Robbie to play the part of Elizabeth, the Australian actor was intimidated by a role that had been played by commanding stars, such as Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench and Helen Mirren. But as Robbie researched the figure, she saw how vulnerable Elizabeth had been as a human being, and as a woman in an unusual position of power:
Margot Robbie (Australian accent): My image previously had been gilded halls and servants and I assumed that Elizabeth must have had a very easy life, a very cushioned, luxurious life, when in reality it was anything but. She had an extremely tragic life. It’s a story of love and rebellion and conspiracies and at the heart of it a lot of really interesting relationships; the relationship between Mary and Elizabeth, who were actually cousins, but also they were two women who understood each other in a way that no one else could. There’s [are] many letters that show you how intimate they really were… at the same time the mere survival of the other threatened their own.
TWO QUEENS
While according to history the two queens never met, the film proposes an encounter between them in a cottage in the woods. To increase the intensity of the moment, the actors had been kept apart and it was the first and only time that they had seen each other in full costume. It was an incredible moment, as Rourke explains:
Josie Rourke (English accent): We contrived to keep them apart for the entire day in which we shot it and we could run two cameras and catch both their close-ups in that moment they are looking at each other in costume and in character for the first time. When Saoirse pulls down that curtain and confronts a woman who is the only person in the world who can understand what it is like to be her and also will be her executioner, that was understandably quite intense; the visceral shock and they both say that the emotion that they experienced in that moment is not what they imagined.