Alexander Vlahos discusses 10 thoughts on Versailles' second season - Part 2

"The director said 'Imagine that we're not coming back for season 3. If someone took a still, the last still image of Philippe's life on camera, what is it?'"

June 24, 2017 by Nicole Oebel @philomina_
Here's a German translation of the interview.

Alexander Vlahos looks at 10 different aspects of Philippe's journey in Versailles and gives fascinating insights into his approach to acting. Celebrating the riveting, suspence-packed second season of Versailles that has been airing in France, UK, Germany and many more countries this spring, I'm inviting you to dive in and enjoy the read and sound clip of Part 2 of this interview.

Click here to find Part 1 in which we talk about Alex's thoughts on the topics Expectations, Experiencing someone else's life, Challenge & Struggle, Friendship and Uncomfortable / Bold Themes.

For info on Alex's new play Contender click here.

Note: The interview contains spoilers on Versailles season 2 including the season finale #2.10.


Happiness

We finally get to catch glimpses of a happy Philippe this season: His entrance in a wedding dress, his success in the negotiation with the Sultan but first and foremost in his battle exercise, fencing and going to war scenes. Isn't he the opposite of you in that respect because you're a pacifist?

Yes, 100 per cent. That took a long time to understand why someone would want to go and potentially die. Season 1, I could never understand Christophe (Schrewe) telling me to smile before I went into battle, to get the pocket mirror out, to put lipstick on, to wear the feather – it just grated on me! Why would you ever want to look forward to go to war. There's that smile at the end of season 2 when he finally gets the wish to go, he gets the hug from Louis, and he gets to say goodbye to the Chevalier and Palatine and he gets that walk down that corridor and the director said "Imagine that we're not coming back for season 3. If someone took a still, the last still image of Philippe's life on camera, what is it?" That was his note and that was great because I just smiled. He's going to war, he's got his wish. If that was the freeze frame it'd be him smiling almost down the lens.

It's the only chance to do what he's good at and that's where you two meet again. He's happy when he can be himself and in war he can. It looks like you and him are opposite in that respect, but you're both happy you get to be yourselves doing your jobs.

Yes! It's actually very similar.

The following answer contains a mild spoiler on season 3.

The real Philippe was happy with his daughters, wasn't he, and I think it would be great for Philippe's character development to have scenes with his daughters.

We address that in season 3. You get so see Philippe being a dad. The thing is, over here you're never going to get an English child actor. We were very very lucky with the actor who played the dauphin because he managed to nullify his French tone. That's quite a skill as an actor for a 12-year-old. The whole point of the show is that we're not supposed to be from anywhere, we're supposed to be transatlantic. But with children actors, getting them to do RP or Transatlantic (accent) is very hard, and to give them four pages of dialog? You don't want to put a lamb to the slaughter. But we're addressing the kids situation in season 3.

Intimacy

There is still a difference between how explicit Louis' sex scenes are compared to all of Philippe's scenes. Really only his introduction was a real sex scene.

We made a point as actors to change it and we've shot male nudity to change it but it didn't end up in the finished product. It might be for whatever reason, it might be for time, it might be for technical, so it's tricky.

So it's actually intimacy we get to see with Philippe, and I personally didn't feel that with Louis and Montespan.

That's because Louis doesn't love Montespan. He believes that he does… and Montespan doesn't really loves Louis, maybe towards the end but at the start it's about being the second in command. She's clawing onto a social ladder. Philippe doesn't have any of those worries or consequences and doesn't have to have sex with everyone to get what he wants to be happy. So that's why I do get to show intimacy. Been given the privilege of having scenes that have an intimate start or an intimate end, a cuddle, a fall on the bed or just kissing for kissing's sake. You don't always have to show sex to show that they're in love. Actually something trivial like holding hands is more loving than fucking each other. Loud and grotesque fucking on camera is kind of the opposite of love.

Episode #2.07 is the George & George episode but you and Jessica had a very long scene there creating wonderful intimacy between your characters.

Episode 7 could have been a bottleneck episode, like The Fly in Breaking Bad, from start to finish it would have been a George and George episode which is an amazing opportunity for two actors to showcase their ability. And I thought George and George were phenomenal. I think scenes from back in Versailles did get implemented just to break it up a bit and progress the stories.

Rage

In season 1 Philippe was holding it in mostly, in season 2 he let it out. You once mentioned the dark moments often go back to you because you always try and get that out of a scene. So when he lets out his rage, do you tackle the character with intuition, do you understand him?

I'm a very impatient man. Working as Philippe I get frustrated a lot by being picked up at 5 am or waiting around… just the way a film set works. Versailles is such a big beast of a show, sometimes 150-200 extras, sometimes things take so long you have no momentum. And I'm an actor that requires momentum. So the reason how I can acquire rage and intuition with Philippe quickly is because sometimes around me I'm getting very frustrated [laughs]. Jalil (Lespert) used to do it a lot in season 1, not intentionally piss me off, but he would do things and say things to me… That scene with the shoes and the dress and "Is that what you say to yourself when you're fucking my wife?" in season 1 that was just pure, unadulterated frustration from the director poking me, getting at me to get me to deliver a performance. And that in a scene where I have to grab Evan and punch him on the floor and try to kill him and get a sword is a very quick way of getting there. I'm also very aware of my surroundings, I'm an actor that sort of fizzles with my nerve endings always on show, constantly aware of things not going well, I react to things quite easily and that goes into my work. I want to build momentum, want to strive for perfection, everyone should be striving to make the best work that they possibly could make.

I think that's a very honest thing to say!

I thank you [chuckles]. This is why I don't think I'm cut out for lasting this long in television and film. I'm in complete control of my own performance when I'm on stage. I've known that since drama school. I'm like a ticking time bomb sometimes, you know? I want to be able to give the best as I can and when I feel like I can't because of things that are out of my control that's frustrating. On stage it's all up to me and the other actors that you're working with. I'd do theatre every day purely based on how creatively free it makes me.

The 'fight club' scene with Evan, you just mentioned, was that all you guys?

You mean with the candelabra and the sword, that scene? Bang bang bang, slap slap slap! Yeah, no stunts, that was me and him! Apart from maybe a horse stunt, everything in the show is us. The scene between me and Mark Rendall, Thomas Beaumont, all me and him. Stunts go through it on camera a lot but we never film it. The camera gets used to it how a fall will happen, how fast it is, the stunt guys are in wigs and costumes so they can see where the hair gets messy and they'll tell us, and also it means that we're not sweating 20 minutes before we go for a take. You watch everything, you watch how they fall, where the crashmat is, what needs to be slower... And then when they come in for the close-ups it's always us.

Brothers

The brother scenes mirror some of season 1: the bath scene, the fireplace scene, galloping towards an army, being tired of money being wasted on clothes. It reflects their relationship is on a different level, Philippe seems more confident than Louis. Did they swap places in their personal struggles?

Yes, they did. To quote a Merlin phrase "They're two parts of the same coin." That's them, 100 per cent. I quite liked the mirroring in season 2, that Louis got to go to war and Philippe got to stay at home, the bath scene when he gets back – that's a brilliant scene! We obviously don't do it exactly the same visually but me and George knew exactly that I would come over, lean next to the bath as he did with me, the fireplace scene where he sat down and I came in. Me and George are very technical actors and there's something fun and enjoyable in being aware of certain scenes that mirror personalities. Not being afraid of addressing the exchange between the brothers because there's only a two year difference in age, they lived the same lives, they live together, of course there's going to be duplicates and replicas and mirroring. And it just confirms how close they are together, how almost joined at the hip they are, even if they don't like it.

Maturity

After these four years of heartache and...

...solitude I guess...

...Philippe now shows the Chevalier boundaries in telling him "Don't take me for granted" and he's more introspective when he says to Liselotte "I'm not a good person".

He can finally say it out loud, I think he's always known. But he can finally say it to someone.

Quoting you from our Hamlet interview: "In my own life, I'm currently coming to terms with the idea of what that entails, what being a man is. Responsibility. Consequences. Maturity." There the two of you meet again, don't you, in season 2 I think there's a lot more maturity in Philippe, too, and you shot that last year just before you recorded Hamlet.

It's very hard to understand everything about what you've shot in a season because we shoot out of sequence. So the idea that Philippe was more mature, I probably would have known that at the time but probably wouldn't have been able to say it to you in an interview. You know me by now, how I am in life will dictate how I am on camera or on stage and if I am unhappy then the character will be unhappy. Not directly but I can't split myself up from the person that I play on screen or on stage so much more than other people. I'm always amazed that people can walk on stage and leave everything at the door. Doing Hamlet and realizing that at the time was me growing up. Season 3, Alex right now is the happiest Alex has been in about seven years – does that show on screen with a Philippe that might be happier? Yeah, it will. Maybe we will do an interview next year and say "Philippe seems so much more controlled and comfortable" and maybe that's because Alex was controlled and comfortable.

I think it would do the character some good.

[laughs out loud] Let's just say, me personally, I'm treating season 3 and how we're filming it as it could be our last. Treating it with open arms and a possible farewell, not with sadness, not tinged with regret. There are other things on the horizon as well. I'm treating these six months of filming here as an amazing opportunity to say goodbye like a proper nice embrace, every challenge presented, every scene is going to be an amazing scene and that can only mean that Philippe will be light and happiness and joy. If season 4 does crop up it'll be a magical surprise but at the moment I just want to deal with having a really good ‘last' season. Give it my best! Then if we don't get season 4 rather than being like "Oh I've got so much to show! Damn it!" being in the position to say "Cool, no more season, great, moving on!" Actors that are filming TV shows and they never get to finish it [gasps], must be heartbreaking, like Firefly and these shows that never get to shoot the last three episodes. It'd break my heart not have a full journey! Imagine doing season 2 and after episode 6 – that's it! Not having closure would do my head in!

And it is a character where you could show everything from the beginning, it wasn't a slow buildup...

Yeah, I got to do everything very quickly, got to be the best actor that I've known to be at that time, showcase everything of my range and dig some more and find some more. So I got season 3 to be able to try and get that little thing that I haven't done yet, show that thing that I skimmed over, I'm being able to explore every facet of it, so if there is no coming back then there'll be no regrets.

Enjoy this part also in the following soundclip where Alex elaborates a bit more:

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You just mentioned other things that are coming up?

Hamlet is coming out in August! Contender has been in development for a year and half now, been doing lots of workshops for it talking with Melanie Spencer. It's a modern play, four-hander, I get to play something like an Iago character, like a Richard III, something quite daring and Machiavellian. It ticks all the boxes for me as far as the next thing that's going to happen. We're doing a workshop for it soon, showing it to two theatres and the hopefully I'll be in rehearsals in December, January and then opening in February. Crossed fingers. It's definitely happening, it's not if - it's when.

Alex talks about the topics
Expectations, Experiencing someone else's life, Challenge & Struggle, Friendship and Uncomfortable / Bold Themes
in Part 1...

Versailles season 2 is currently airing in Germany on Sky Atlantic.
Preorder "Hamlet" at Big Finish.

Note: © myFanbase 2017 - The interview is exclusive to myFanbase and may not be published on other websites or the like. You may share the first two questions (up to 180 words) if you link back to this site. Translations other than English and German may be posted with full credit including the link to this site.

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