Jenna’s a jewel in the crown...
Jenna Coleman is the young Queen Victoria in ITV’s new period d drama, focusing on the monarch’s early years on the throne and d aiming to reveal the real woman beneath the formidable facade. MARION McMULLEN seeks a royal audience
JENNA COLEMAN had just three weeks to transform herself into a right royal expert for her role as Queen Victoria.
“I had to be on horseback riding on camera, ballroom dancing and playing the piano,” she lists. “I managed to get some Beethoven down. I have a piano in my house and I have wanted to learn for ages so it was the perfect opportunity.”
She also wore contact lenses to help complete the royal look.
“We went through a lengthy process with the contact lenses trying to find the right ones that would look natural and work on camera,” she explains.
“There were a couple that made me look like a white walker from Game Of Thrones, but I would rehearse in the lenses and I kept them in all of the time because, once you have them in, to look at yourself in the mirror and see yourself completely different is fantastic.
“It was the make-up designer Nic Collins’ idea to go with the lenses because in all the portraits the one thing that really sticks out are Victoria’s eyes.
“They are so big and such a known feature about her.” The former Doctor Who companion also read Victoria’s diaries and looked through her sketchbooks to see how the monarch viewed the world. “Everything that I read about Victoria tells me she was incredibly disciplined and when she came to the throne she relished having a real man’s job. “She would go out on horseback with the troops even though people told her not to. That’s not to say she didn’t blunder and make mistakes, because she did. “She acted on impulse all the time which is what I really like about her. She is incredibly flawed, but that in turn makes her incredibly human and endearing.” The young Princess Alexandrina Victoria was just 18 when she was crowned queen in 1838. Victoria was her official name – and was inspired by her mother’s middle name of Victorine. She had a sheltered childhood and never slept a single night alone until she became queen. ITV’s new eight-part period drama focuses on Victoria’s early life and her love affair and eventual marriage to Albert, played by Tom Hughes.
It was an intensely passionate relationship and produced nine children.
She was left heartbroken when he died at the age of 42.
“Victoria’s whole family and everyone around her regarded Albert as the person she was to marry but she was extremely obstinate and never liked to do what was expected of her,” smiles Jenna.
“So she resisted him and you see that in our story but it isn’t for a very long time as she takes one look at him and is head over heels.
“Victoria and Albert’s story was one of absolute true love. It must have been extremely rare and fortunate that the person who was heralded as the one you will marry is someone you find such a kinship in.
“They were good and bad for each other at the same time. Their rows were extremely fraught but they were a team and in each other they found soul mates.”
The relationship also came with a risk as Victoria was expected to produce a heir to the throne.
“Childbirth was extremely dangerous so they had to decide who would take over the throne were Victoria to die,” says Jenna.
“Albert and Victoria had only been married one month when she first got pregnant and she was absolutely devastated to have her honeymoon cut short and to have to go through pregnancy.
“Pregnancy for her was not something she enjoyed as she struggled with the feeling of losing control and or being pushed into the role of mother and losing a grip on her day job as queen.
“She hated it and yet she did it nine times!”
The royal power couple were also
both ambitious and creative.
“Albert had many of his own, huge endeavours and Victoria designed all her own dresses and chose her own fabrics.
“She wore flowers in her hair on her wedding day because she wanted to be simple and she wanted to get married as an ordinary woman who was doing so because she loved a man and not because of the pomp or the diamonds.”
Jenna, who turned 30 earlier this year, first played Jasmine Thomas in Emmerdale before travelling the universe in the Tardis as Clare Oswald.
Playing a famous historical figure like Victoria produced a whole different set of challenges, although Jenna is just an inch or so taller than Victoria who was 4ft 11ins. A special throne had to commissioned for the coronation because the others were too big.
“Something we spoke about a lot was this idea of playing between state and private, between Victoria’s public face, her private face and going between those two worlds,” says Jenna. “When she is in her quarters she is undone and private. It’s about finding the human within the role of Queen and discovering the girl taking on this incredible responsibility.
“With so much access to her diaries you know a little bit about what her daily life was like. On the day of her coronation, for example, she woke up at 4am and could hear the crowds outside and the cannons being fired.
“It is so fascinating to think of her experience inside the palace and outside those four walls and what her relationship was to the public.”