Was Catherine de Medici really evil? 'The Serpent Queen' star Samantha Morton reveals the truth after portraying France's infamous monarch
Was Catherine de Medici really evil or has history portrayed her as such just for being clever?
A new upcoming series, The Serpent Queen, offers a fresh portrayal of the Valois court, telling the story from Catherine's perspective. It dives into how an Italian merchant's daughter did whatever it took to rise and remain in power despite having the odds stacked against her.
Who was Catherine de Medici?
Catherine comes from the Medici family who held political power in Florence, Italy, and because of her last name, her life was threatened multiple times. She lived in convents when she was young until she was called to Rome for an arranged marriage to Henry II of France.
Her marriage was loveless for the most part as Henry spent most of his nights with mistress Diane de Poitiers. However, she needed to give Henry a child to keep her marriage. She eventually produced many heirs, including three of France's kings: Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III. She's also the mother-in-law of Mary, Queen of Scots.
And throughout her children's short reigns, Catherine played an important role and was highly influential in the French court.
Samantha Morton, who you might know from as big bad Alpha in The Walking Dead and in period dramas like Jane Eyre (1997) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), plays the titular French queen while Liv Hill plays her younger counterpart.
'Catherine is about survival'
Although history paints Catherine as evil, with nicknames like "the Serpent Queen," "Black Queen," and "Maggot from Italy's Tomb," Morton doesn't perceive Catherine as entirely wicked.
"Catherine is about survival. Her ambition is more about survival... It's not like 'how can I rule' or 'how can I be queen of France?' It's not that. It is about survival when everybody wants to kill you everyday of your life," Morton said in an interview with PhilSTAR L!fe.
For The Serpent Queen, Morton and the cast got to shoot in France, which the actress loved.
"I've made a lot of period dramas, and actually, they're not exciting because they're tough. The characters are exciting but it's very painful wearing corsets [because] they're heavy. France is very, very hot, so it was pretty tricky," she said. "But I love France, I love the French people, I love the culture. I felt really honored to play her."
While Catherine has a number of interesting relationships in the series, one of the most intriguing dynamics in the show is with her cousin, Henry's mistress Diane played by Ludivine Sagnier.
"[Sagnier] is an extraordinary actress and I loved every moment working with her. She brilliantly embodied Diane... I find it a tragic story really in regards to the love triangle there and that Henry was with her from when he was a very young boy but Diane was 20 years his senior," Morton said.
"[Diane] was all he'd known and she was very powerful in keeping him. I felt very sad for Catherine that she had to live with that her whole life."
The Serpent Queen premieres on Lionsgate Play, which PLDT Home subscribers can get free access to, on Oct. 7.