He ain’t heavy, he just looks that way

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This article was published 30/09/2010 (5822 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — If it seems as if The Tudors star Jonathan Rhys Meyers is bigger than ever, it’s because he is.

At least when it comes to his portrayal of the brutal King Henry VIII on the fourth and final season of the sprawling historical epic, which focuses on the more salacious aspects of his notorious rule.

The Irish star packs a bit more heft and dons facial hair and prosthetics to simulate the monarch’s advancing age and expanding physique, says co-star Tamzin Merchant, who joins the cast this season as the tyrant’s fifth wife, Katherine Howard.

“They definitely did kind of make a gesture towards making him the bigger character from history that we all know,” Merchant said of Meyers’ appearance during a recent promotional stop in Toronto.

“They kind of padded him out a bit and he grew a bit of a bigger beard and had a bit of a girth going on.”

The Irish-Canadian co-production has weathered complaints that Meyers’ slim build bears little resemblance to the image of the bearded and rotund king made famous by Hans Holbein’s definitive portrait.

But as the sexy serial reached the end of Henry’s reign, concessions were made to conclude with a look that more closely matched public perception of the king in his later years, says the 23-year-old Londoner, noting it still falls short of a full-on fat suit.

The fourth season picks up with Henry taking the vivacious but naive Howard as his wife, a 19-year-old siren whose sexual appetite soon gets the better of her. Meanwhile, Henry’s health declines rapidly, in large part due to a festering leg injury.

Merchant says her first-ever onscreen sex scenes were the ones she shot with Meyers and Vancouver actor Torrance Coombs (who plays the duplicitous courtier Thomas Culpepper).

“They’re very choreographed, they’re obviously designed to look completely spontaneous, but it’s almost funny the degree to which you choose to put your hand in a particular place and the director sort of says, ‘No, can we change it here?”‘says Merchant.

For history buffs, it will be no surprise that Culpepper and Howard are bound for spectacular death scenes.

While Katherine was beheaded, the real Culpepper was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered along with another of Katherine’s lovers before the king commuted his sentence to a simple beheading.

“It’s pretty gruesome. You’ll want to have some kind of pillow to hold up to your eyes in case you feel a bit sick,” Merchant warns of their grand finale.

The Tudors airs Wednesdays on CBC-TV.

 

— The Canadian Press