Go Behind the Scenes of 'My Lady Jane' with Edward Bluemel
A warning for history buffs: My Lady Jane, the new series based on the life of Lady Jane Grey, the British monarch with the shortest-ever reign, doesn't quite go by the book. Instead, the series (airing now on Prime Video) tells Grey's story as part costume drama and part fantasy, blending fact and fiction to create a charming, funny take on the traditional period piece.
"It's a show that felt really unique on the page, and I hope that we've managed to maintain that off the page as well," says Edward Bluemel, the Killing Eve veteran who stars as Lord Guildford Dudley, the husband of Grey (Emily Bader). "It has all of the hallmarks of modern period dramas, which are romantic and sexy, but at the same time has action and adventure, which makes it really exciting. It feels like something from a bygone era of projects like The Princess Bride or A Knight's Tale."
Here, Bluemel opens his camera roll to T&C to share a behind-the-scenes look at My Lady Jane, and the moments that didn’t make it on screen.
"Part of my passion for period drama and acting in general is just dressing up and having fun, and the Tudor period is one of the best for that. They were all about tiny waists, hot leather, a lot of laces, a lot of buckles, all of the things that make costumes fun. This was my first costume of the series, and I was so excited to be there. I happened to catch a selfie of me half into the garb and half in my gym clothes, and I thought, do you know what, maybe it's a powerful look in its own way."
"On our first day of filming, I didn't know Emily very well. We were in the green room, just the two of us, and you notice that her dress matches the sofas. For me, this picture sums up a really nice moment when we got to connect. There's something about being in a green room with green sofas with Emily in a green dress; it was the start of a great and beautiful friendship."
"Here we are a little bit further into the process of filming, and I'm getting an outfit tailored for me. We had an amazing team of French tailors—one of them is there with me—and I am getting this crushed velvet fit. It's sort the Austin Powers look that I really loved wearing throughout the show, and it comes up in three iterations: There's a black velvet, a blue velvet, and a green velvet. This is me in my element, loving the whole process of being fitted."
"One of the things that I love about filming period dramas is these moments. First, I think Emily and Jordan [Peters, who plays King Edward] are both in stunning costumes for a wedding scene. Jordan's in his most regal outfit and Emily is in this beautiful wedding dress. Also, they're serving face, you could say. I think they're both looking great. I love to take photos of people in full period dress in modern surroundings. That always cracks me up and is a moment when I go, gosh, this is really silly what we do, but I'm very lucky to do it."
"In episode two, Emily and I have a closeup of our feet, snd I didn't realize that required a shaving of the feet. They wanted the feet to look good, they wanted the feet to look clean. I'm playing a character who's also quite a bit younger than I am, so I need every scrap of help I can get, which mean that my foot hair had to go. It was sad to see it go, but it's all right. It's back now. I'm thriving."
"This is one of my favorite photos I took. In the middle is Henry Ashton, who plays my brother and brings such a colorful, hilarious, lovable performance to the show, and he is walking back from a day filming with our two show runners, Gemma Burgess and Meredith Glynn flanking him, talking about a script. But he has his rucksack on, and for some reason it looks like they are the mothers of this sort of overgrown child who insists on wearing a baby blue costume everywhere and they're walking him home from school or something. Everything about it looks so wrong. I love it."
"Here we have an artist's impression of me and Henry as children, but they didn't go from actual pictures of us as children. It never made the final cut, which is a shame for various reasons, but it is what the art department thought we looked like as children next to each other put into a Tudor setting. Guess who got to take it home and now has received incredibly mixed reviews about it from his housemates?"
"For lots of reasons, this horse is incredibly important to me and incredibly important to Guildford Dudley. It was so amazing to work with so many live animals. Animals are an enormous part of the show, and it was important that we use as little CGI I as possible; I would say 95% of the time, every animal you see in the show is an actual animal. It led some interesting moments on set: Animals are famously stubborn, you could say unprofessional at times, but they really bring things to life. Nothing does a horse as well as a horse, it turns out."
"We had an enormous portion of filming that was done in the woods at night in November and December, when it was freezing cold. So, we were always in head to toe thermals, and every now and then, you'd walk past your mirror and were reminded of what you look like and what you're doing, and you have to immortalize it. You can tell I'm arguably feeling myself in the thermal trousers."
"Neil and Lucy, the stunt doubles for me and Emily, were amazing. We have a lot to thank them for in that particular long sequence in the woods; there were a few stunty moments and they were always there for us. They were great not only at doing the stunts for us, but also when we wanted to do things ourselves, training us and making sure that we looked as good as possible. And I think it's always fun to get a stunt person picture in your matching outfits."
"I'm not going to pretend there aren't a lot of intimate scenes in this show, a lot of skin showing. I grew up watching films where, when people are naked, they look gorgeous, golden, and amazing. I realized on this job that they've all had a lot of help to get there. So, I am very public about the amount of fake tan that we used. There was one time on the set that we went a little bit overboard with one of those tanners that you drop into moisturizer and that grows over the days. With every passing day, I got more and more tan to a quite extreme level, and this selfie marks that moment that I thought maybe we'd gone too far."
"Tim Preston is my best friend, housemate, and a fabulous actor. I love him to pieces. We had a moment when a scene was changed last minute and they needed two characters to have an arm wrestle. Gemma came to me and asked, 'Do you know anyone that we can get in?' I said to try my friend Tim, so he came in and we had the most fun—he got given a very silly wig and it was just so nice to have him on set. It was also incredible that his character's name was officially 'Loser.'"
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