Were you interested in reading up on the Arthurian legends or was that something you didn’t really get into?
For Merlin, the script itself is so good and the character was so well-fleshed out in the scripts that the work that I did on Morgana was for my own interest than for playing the role because all I need to play her in Merlin was there on the page. The guys have done a really, really good job. She’s such a well-loved character and she’s a character that resonates with so many women, I thought it was important to have as much knowledge in order to intelligently talk about her.
There’s so many amazing stories that involve her – The Mists of Avalon is one you can name of hundreds and I think that she’s loved so much as a character that if I came on knowing nothing about her, I think I’d be insulting the people who did love her and take her to the heart.
While I didn’t need it for Merlin because she was so brilliantly written, I felt that I needed to do it in order to play such an important female archetypal character.
To that end, for all the ill will Morgana wishes on Arthur at the moment, she’s had different roles in the legend namely as a healer – the one who brings him to Avalon. Would you like to see her move in that direction next season?
I am holding on to the fact that this is the end for me; this is what I’m thinking, is that she’s like Anakin Skywalker. She starts out good, becomes Darth Vader but ultimately she saves the day. I am Darth Vader!
It’s all going to be fine because like you say, she’s ultimately going to be the hero. She saves Arthur’s life, she brings him to the Isle of the Blessed, heals his wounds and he’s waiting for a time when Britain needs him to rule again – all because of Morgana!
[Laughs] She’s the actual hero of the story…
She is totally the hero and she’s a bad ass hero! Plus I think she’s a better ruler than Arthur – she wouldn’t give it all up for a woman!
Uh huh, that’s true!
She makes the hard choices!
On that note, which episode was your favorite to film?
Episode nine with Lancelot – the scene where Lancelot is coming out of the — I know you haven’t seen it yet because it starts on January 6th for you guys. It’s this scene where he’s coming out of the water wearing essentially flesh colored boxers that were skintight…
[Laughs] Well….
I’m in full costume, it’s in France and it’s forty-two degrees [Celcius] and the entire crew have all decided to get into their boxer shorts and stand behind the camera in water because it’s the coolest place to be.
So the camera’s on me and all I can see are twenty fit guys in their boxers in the water with Santiago Cabrera crawling towards me with a cheeky smirk on his face because he kept trying to make me laugh! It’s something I will take to my dying day – a topless Santiago winking at me.
I was going to say, that’s probably not a bad day to be at work!
Oh I’m telling you I was living the dream for thousands of women – it was a good day.