Jasmin Savoy Brown Talks Shakespeare, Feminism, and TNT’s ‘Will’ [Exclusive Interview]

Jasmin Savoy Brown goes back in time to 16th century London, and into the shoes of real life historic figure, Emilia Bassano, on the new TNT series, Will.

I recently had the chance to chat with Brown about her role on the new show.

Craig Pearce, long-time collaborator of Baz Luhrmann, has brought the period drama to television with a modern punk-rock edge. “It’s been his baby for years. I think he’s been working on it for, like, 10 years. That, right there, tells you how much passion and love has gone into it,” Brown expressed.

Pearce is adept at merging unexpected musical stylings with historical periods, and this drew Brown to the project.

“I thought the concept was so cool—exploring Shakespeare’s time and how he became Shakespeare as we know him—especially putting modern music over that. I thought it was really interesting,” she said.

Brown recalled the excitement she felt when she first read the script. “My heart was beating out of my chest,” she recalled.

“I felt desperate to do it, and I haven’t felt like that since I read The Leftovers a couple years ago. I haven’t had that strong of a reaction—just needing to do something. I was going to do everything in my power to make sure that I booked it.”

The role she booked was that of poet Emilia Bassano.

“I loved that she was a real person that has poetry available, still, that we can read, and we have things that she’s left behind that I could draw from,” Brown said.

However, the role did pose some challenges for the actress. Not only did she have to study and work on the accent—”As Americans we grow up doing British accents all the time for fun, but it’s all wrong. I had to completely relearn it,” Brown explained. —but the physical way her character moved required research and “body work.”

“I spent a lot of time with choreographers and other people in exploring, and opening up, and freeing my body because the way they moved back then was just so different from today.”

Brown pointed out, “Being a millennial, so hunched over, and free, and chill in my body looks so different than the way that the people carried themselves then, especially someone like Emilia who uses her body to survive.”

“She’s a mistress to a lord, and also an artist and a musician,” Brown continued. “Being a woman then that wasn’t born into an upper class family, you have to use your body to survive, but then not be seen as a harlot. It’s a line that you have to learn to walk—that duality is difficult.”

Dualities are a common facet of Shakespeare’s work which Brown admires. “[The] texts are challenging, and so complex, and so forever true because the themes are so simple and relatable.”

“Everything is full of duality. What makes the tragedy so tragic are the funny elements, and what makes the comedies so funny are the real tragic elements. Everything has to balance out, so the show is dramatic, [but] it’s also very, very funny,” Brown hinted.

Emilia Bassano was one of the first women to declare herself a poet, and her work has been described as proto-feminist. Brown surmised that feminism will play a significant part in coming seasons.

“The first season is setting story up, and the tone, and who these people are and introducing them to us, but there are some feminist scenes, and definitely one hugely feminist-themed episode. It’s interesting to see how feminism is so different then and yet the same,” Brown noted.

“The rights and expectations of women are so far removed from what they are now, and yet the desire is the same, which is to be equal. It just seems so much further off, and most women just right off [think] we will never be equal, but then there are those few, like Emilia, who believe it can happen, and just knows she has to play the game to get there.”

The cast is full of young actors from all across the globe. Brown is the only American actor of which she said she is “proud.”

“There’s an actor from India, Russia, Ireland, England, Wales, and Australia, and New Zealand. They flew people in from everywhere,” she exclaimed. 

“I love to travel, and I thought it would be really cool to get to go to the UK for a few months and not have to pay for it,” laughed Brown.

Filming in foreign countries and learning accents was a similarity between her role as Emilia and as Evie on The Leftovers.

A big difference is that the average age of the cast is younger. “The younger cast; William Shakespeare, [Christopher] Marlowe, and the Burbage family, those main characters are in their 20s, so I got to spend a lot of time with and work with people my own age which was really fun, and just different from working with older people.”

Brown enjoys working with actors of all ages, but working with a predominantly young cast was new.

“I love working with people who are older than me and have been working longer than me because I learn a lot from them, but there’s just something fun about working with people and living with people your own age,” considered Brown.

However, Brown wouldn’t mind getting more screen time with fellow Leftovers cast member Carrie Coon.

“I only shared one scene with her in The Leftovers, and I think she is just exceptional. I think she’s one of the best actors, period,” Brown raved. “I want more. I didn’t get hardly any. She’s brilliant.”

For Evie as well as Brown’s role as Nina on Stitchers, she didn’t have to think about the physical aspect of her characters too much, whereas with Emilia she does.

“For them (Evie and Nina) I didn’t really have to think about my body, or my voice, or my mannerisms, but with Emilia I had to do a lot of coaching, and exploring, and training for all that. Just research, a lot of research on the time and what life was like. It was a lot more technical work than the other two.”

Brown is excited to see the finished product and what music has been chosen to accompany the scenes. She will be watching Will along with the viewers, which she said will “add some angst and some edge.”

The final season of The Leftovers airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO. Will premieres July 10th at 9/8c on TNT.

*Featured image credit: Matt Darlington

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