From writer and executive producer Justin Haythe and director and executive producer Stacie Passon (based on the book Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda), Starz's latest period drama The Serpent Queen tells the story of one of history's most complex and complicated figures, Catherine de Medici, who ascends in power and status to become one of France's longest-serving rulers. As an orphan, Catherine (Liv Hill) marries into the French court at a young age, but quickly learns that she must counter — and in some instances, outmaneuver — her political opponents, many of whom would rather see her dead than on the throne. What makes the series even more intriguing is that it's Catherine herself (Samantha Morton) telling her own story, in her own words, to her newest maid and confidant Rahima (Sennia Nanua). The upcoming series also stars Colm Meaney, Ludivine Sagnier, Kiruna Stamell, Barry Atsma, Alex Heath, Amrita Acharia, Charles Dance, Enzo Cilenti, Antonia Clarke, Adam Garcia, Beth Goddard, Raza Jaffrey, Ray Panthaki, Nicholas Burns, Danny Kirrane, and Rupert Everett. Francis Lawrence and Erwin Stoff also serve as executive producers.
In the wake of the series' shocking third episode, Collider had the opportunity to speak with Hill about understanding Catherine's perspective and her motivations, as well as the context of the world she lived in. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, Hill also spoke about how she was first cast in the part, the ways in which she collaborated with Morton (who plays the older version of Catherine), how the costumes assisted her with getting into Catherine's mindset, how the revelation of Catherine's pregnancy ties into her journey moving forward, and more.
Collider: I would love to hear about how this role first came into your lap. Where were you at that point? When did you first hear about it?
LIV HILL: It felt really almost like a miracle had fallen upon me, and I don't say that lightly either because it was ... I'm a young actress and I go through the audition process, and it can be quite lengthy sometimes. Sometimes it's nine months. I did a self-tape in January 2021, never heard anything back, and then two months later, my agent rang me and said, "Do you remember The Serpent Queen?" I was like, "No, what?" Because you just have to forget about every self-tape you do, just to protect yourself. She basically said, "So the showrunner, writer, producer, director want to have a Zoom with you tomorrow, no audition, just a chat," and then I was offered it the next day, and it felt like something like a Hollywood actor process, if that makes sense, where you don't have to audition, even though I did audition. It felt really out of the blue and just miraculous. She is a gift of a character to play. When I found out Samantha Morton was playing the older Catherine, it was just the cherry on top, because I think she's phenomenal, and we also come from similar places in England. So it was really fantastic. Time of my life, actually.
I asked Samantha this question too, but I would love to get your perspective because it is the same character, but it's the same character at two different stages of her life. What did you find most compelling about her?
HILL: Many things, particularly her... it's described as calculation and being manipulative when she's older, but actually, it's just her true intelligence. Especially when she's young, to be able to have not just a natural intelligence but also a natural emotional intelligence. I think that's how she was able to outmaneuver and earn her place in the French court surrounded by all these men because she was actually attentive to people's body language, to their facial expressions, to how they perceived her and how she perceived them and people's different dynamics and relationships in the court. It's a really intelligent thing to be just aware of other people — and also, then obviously her vulnerability.
Definitely, as she gets older, you can see she's a very different person. She's still very similar, but a very different person to who Samantha eventually portrays, just in terms of confidence in one's self and power. The vulnerability of falling in love for the first time, I really was compelled to do that because I think when you read history, it feels quite detached. Well, I feel quite detached. I only have read history in school when it's quite boring, and it's just lots of statistics. But really, these were real people. She was a young teenager at one stage, and she did fall in love for the first time, and she was rejected romantically for the first time. So that was a really compelling aspect of playing Catherine.
What sort of collaboration were you able to have with Samantha? What kind of discussions did you have?
HILL: We never met in person because it was COVID, and she was shooting something else at the time. We did FaceTime one another, but it was more about getting to know each other, really. I remember her son popped on-screen or something like that. It was quite personal rather than going into who Catherine was. We did talk about Catherine extensively, but I felt like I talked more to Justin, and Justin talked with Samantha, and we did it that way. I just remember the most important thing that really helped me is she trusted in me. She said, "I just trust your instincts. I'm so happy you've been cast."
I think there's something quite naturally similar between us two, or I like to think there's something similar, because it's quite a nice person to be compared to. Our instincts about Catherine didn't even need to be just expressed or discussed explicitly because we were cast for similar reasons. We just had to trust in Justin and Erwin and who they decided was going to be their Catherine. Samantha telling me she trusted me, and she was happy I'd been cast meant the world because it allowed me to not feel too overwhelmed at the prospect of, 1) being in this big American production, 2) playing Catherine de Medici, and 3) playing Samantha Morton's younger self.
How valuable are the costumes for you in helping to get into a certain mindset in terms of the character?
HILL: It made me feel like a woman, wearing those huge dresses that were so decadent and detailed with jewels and a very Italian influence. It made me go from that young girl and almost assert myself in court. My shoulders were back because of the corsets. Karen, the costume designer, she would put ... There was one dress, I remember, it almost had a thorn spiking up from the shoulders. It felt really intimidating, almost dangerous in a way [for] anyone who came too close to her. It made me feel incredibly powerful and definitely gave Catherine that sense of confidence that she would have desperately needed, [a] belief in herself in front of all those horrible men.
What was your first reaction to reading the end of Episode 3 and discovering what she'd done? Did it become easier to understand her motivations after a point?
HILL: There was a part of me that wasn't surprised at all because I knew when I was playing her, the true motivation, the true intention I took in each scene, was to survive. When she had to make that decision at the end of Episode 3, it really came down to something simple as survival. That is the start of when you see her able to detach from emotion, especially when it is to do with someone she loves. So yes, it's shocking. It's a shocking scenario, but I don't think she felt happy about it either.
It would be really easy to just say, "Oh yeah, she's cold and calculating." But really, people can't judge what she did until they're in the same position. I think most people would probably have done the same thing, as terrible as that is. I remember someone asked Samantha, "Is it better to be feared or loved as a ruler?" And she went, "Oh, feared. Of course, feared," and it surprised me because I was like, "No, love." But actually, she's right. Catherine had to be feared in court to survive, because love is not currency for power. She had to be formidable and let everyone know that it was a very individualistic world and brutal and unforgiving that she lived in, and we also had to remember the context of that as well.
Catherine's worth as a woman is really predicated on whether she can conceive a child or not. It feels very timely in a way that I don't know how many of us could have foreseen. At the end of the week's episode, she discovers that she's pregnant. How is that revelation going to play out in the weeks to come?
HILL: I've seen all the episodes now, so that's obviously where my journey ends, where she's like, "Oh, she's safe, she's secured." Of course, there are five more episodes or something like that. Yes, she managed to conceive 10 children after. However, I think what will play out is that children, again, are not enough for her to secure her place. It's also different alliances in court, the religious aspect, Protestantism and Catholicism, that sort of conflict there. The relationship with Diane is incredibly captivating and compelling, and also [with] Henry. That love triangle is definitely going to be very fascinating for people to watch and understand.
The Serpent Queen premieres new episodes weekly every Sunday on Starz.
