Actress and producer Kelly Reilly says that the fact that Britannia created a world which respected women and their intuition made the show a very powerful one. By Team Viva
Tell us about your character Kerra?
She is the daughter of Pellenor, the king of Cantii. They are at war with the Regni while Kerra is at war with her father. She is a woman of her own mind. She doesn’t like to be used as some kind of pawn in a scenario she doesn’t agree with. There was a wedding before the series starts that was supposed to unite the two clans, but it doesn’t end well. She’s quite a bold figure to play. But it taught me something about who she is, somebody who does not steer too far from what she believes in. She is fiercely opposed to her father. Therefore, when we meet her, she is not in his favour.
Where do you think she gets her inner strength from?
We live in much softer times. I just think of these people as indigenous tribes. So there’s no pre-Freud analysis — people were just surviving. They lived short lives and were ruled by the gods. Their lives were part of a bigger picture. But Kerra’s mother was part Roman from the first invasion. So the gods prophesied about Kerra when she was a young girl, that she was going to be killed as a sacrifice to the gods. And her father, King Pellenor agreed to it. So she has never forgiven him. She is fiercely angry with him that he killed her mother. I think she draws from that an attitude to do the right thing. She thinks her father sold his soul to the Druids, who she also hates.
What is Kerra’s relationship with the gods?
She definitely believes in the god. I don’t think there’s anybody in this world who doesn’t believe in him. It’s really the fabric of their lives. What she doesn’t believe in is the Druids. She even though thinks that they think they are gods themselves, but in fact, she says, ‘You’re human. You’re not the wind, you’re not the earthquakes, you’re not the trees, you’re a damn human. And I’m a human.’ She doesn’t buy the hypocrisy and their need for power. She’s very sceptical of them as one would be if they took the one thing from your life that mattered.
The time of Britannia is famous in folklore for having strong, warrior women, of which Kerra might be an example. Is that what first interested you in the project?
Yes. I’m always fascinated with this thing with strong female characters. I might not necessarily be interested in them I’m not even interested necessarily in the weak ones. I’m more often interested in fully-rounded characters. So often women can be just one thing in dramas. I like a character who can be vulnerable and strong but is complicated and complex and is a real human being, regardless of her feminine self. The fact that this was a world that respected women and their intuition, could be considered as powerful and not a misogynistic world. There was a sacredness to the Earth, which was feminine. So I have a passion for this time in history. I find it fascinating that she’s trying to survive and do the right thing. In a way, she comes from quite a male-dominated society. It’s all about getting things done and to get things done she takes things into her own hands.
Were you familiar with the history of Britannia before joining the cast?
As far as mythology is concerned, I wouldn’t say I was an expert. I’m somebody who would drive down to the West Country and see Stonehenge, go and be in that space and wonder about those people and times. They seem to have been tuned into something else. The Druids, the Pagans, it’s certainly something that I am interested in. So to be involved in a drama that lives in that world, is really exciting for me.
Given her heritage, what does Kerra go through when the Romans return?
What we realise about Kerra is her fundamental reason for being, which is the survival of her people. So in that way, she is her father’s daughter. She will sacrifice anything for that, including herself and the love of her father. She thinks her father is blind and is ruling just to be in the favour of the Druids. Whereas, she wants to do the right thing for her people, land and her tribe. So when the Romans come, she feels there’s no way they can conquer this. They know what Rome is and they come with their armies. So while King Pellenor’s attitude is ‘Head back to Rome,’ Kerra’s attitude is, ‘Well, we need to talk to them, we need to have a conversation first’.
What was it like to be involved in the stunts?
Kerra is tough. She builds this kind of fortress around herself. And she is also physically abled as she is a great horsewoman and has had to protect herself. So I had to do a couple of scenes where she’s killing off her enemies. And I had never done anything like that before in a job and it was a lot of fun to play that part of her, which goes like ‘Do not mess with me’. All of the characters have this. There is no one who can be called as weak. They’re all survivors and strong fighters.
It’s a show of many conflicts...
Yes, emotional conflict. Who am I? What am I going to do now? There are times that we’re doing this and it feels so big. It’s quite biblical in a way. We were shooting the Amber Palace scene, which looks like Stonehenge and we had 300 extras dancing and playing drums and a smoke machine going under a full moon. I just thought to myself, ‘This thing has some magic.’
What was the Amber Palace scene like?
Working with Mackenzie, he was channelling something playing Veran. He’s extremely powerful for such a slim guy and he inhabits Veran with this madness and brilliance. He’s so innovative and inventive. And he’s really an exciting person to act with. But we all got tribed up with the tribe make-up and that was really fun. It’s proper dressing-up. I love acting because you can feel like you can sort of time travel. Not that I’m actually there, but in my imagination, I can just drop in. And we felt like there was something really powerful going on. We did the whole sequence in one go. It was almost like theatre. And then when I get into that head space it’s like we’re actually there. I hope that actually comes through when people watch it. I hope they get that experience.
What else do you think people will enjoy about the show?
One of the things I am taken with is that it feels very exciting. It feels very alive, and relevant, weirdly, to the time in which we live. There’s not really anything safe about this place or these people. We don’t know what’s going to happen. Anything can happen. There’s a real modern-feeling attitude. All of the characters are very well-rounded. There’s no one which is good or bad. Everyone has a lot of different colours and there’s a real earthiness to it, which I really like. This is the reality of the Earth. And I love that about it. It’s a huge cast with a lot of storylines and of conflict, which makes it a great drama.
(The show is live on SonyLIV.)
