In Britain, schoolchildren learning about Tudor history are taught a handy rhyme to remember the order of King Henry VIII’s six wives: “Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived.”
Hollywood has for decades been transfixed by the “beheaded” and “died” bits — essentially, the stories about women suffering — but what moviegoers are rarely reminded of is the wife who outlived Henry. In Karim Aïnouz’s hotly anticipated “Firebrand,” it’s the notorious Tudor king’s final companion, Katherine Parr, who finally takes center stage.
“What’s mostly been dramatized are the wives who didn’t make it,” says Swedish star Alicia Vikander, who plays the surviving queen opposite Jude Law’s ailing monarch. “[When I read the script] I immediately thought, ‘Huh, isn’t it interesting that most people know more about the other wives.’ It’s almost like people are drawn to quite grim stories.”
The more Vikander, an Oscar-winner for “The Danish Girl,” read up on Parr and her experience, the more bewildered she became about the grisly narrative surrounding Henry VIII’s wives. “I was like, ‘How could [Parr] not be more known?’ Especially considering that, yes, she survived more years than the other ones, but she was also the first woman under her own name in British history to get published,” says Vikander.
The learned and curious Parr published a number of religious texts beginning in 1545. But as detailed in “Firebrand,” her quest for knowledge and passion for debate almost cost her her life when she was accused of heresy. Scholars beware: Aïnouz’s particular rendition of history has a revisionist edge that bestows the tired annals of history with a modern angle. (“It was about having artistic freedom to make a strong story and to surprise people,” explains Vikander.)
Ultimately, it was Aïnouz’s depth and vision that “drew [her] attention.” “I was in Cannes and I saw ‘The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao’ and I was so curious [about him],” says the actor.
“We didn’t grow up with British history in the same sense,” she says, reflecting on both their backgrounds — Vikander from Sweden, and Aïnouz from Brazil. This “outsider” status allowed for a new way of approaching the subject matter.
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