By Kellie Freeze
In the new War of the Roses, Cyrus is the ultimate thorn.
The world’s most outlandish royal family reigns supreme in E!’s juicy soap The Royals, which just began its third season (Sundays at 10 p.m.). In the shocking Season 2 finale, viewers learned that Prince Robert wasn’t dead, as previously thought. The rightful heir to the British throne is alive and surviving on a deserted island, and actor Max Brown joins the cast as the formerly presumed-dead prince.
Season 3 picks up two weeks after the public, mob-led killing of King Simon’s murderer — the royal family’s head of security. Prince Liam (William Moseley) falls into a spiral of destructive behavior over the betrayal by this trusted ally and the guilt from his own role in the vengeance killing. Expect the playboy prince to indulge in a little “physical” therapy in the vein of Fight Club.
Elsewhere, Queen Helena (Elizabeth Hurley) has love (or is it lust?) on her mind, and finds raunchy romance where she least expects it. And the world’s most stylish queen doubles her efforts to prove her children’s royal parentage and return them to the British throne while ousting King Cyrus (Jake Maskall) from his ill-gotten crown. But Cyrus is neither interested in abdicating nor comparing his DNA to that of Prince Liam and Princess Eleanor, and to keep his facilities and follicles in check, Cyrus hatches a few “hair”-brained schemes of his own.
Also this season, Hurley’s son Damian will make his TV acting debut when he joins The Royals cast as the crown prince of Liechtenstein.
To get the scoop on The Royals, we headed to the king himself, actor Jake Maskall, who plays dastardly King Cyrus.
Cyrus is one of TV’s great Machiavellian characters. Why is it so good to play someone so bad?
Jake Maskall: Well, I guess in everyday life, you have to love thy neighbor and be gracious and all these things. But as an actor, I get to play someone who does these nefarious things and gets away with being naughty. It’s beautiful. Playing a goodie, it’s just dull. I guess in a way it’s almost like my therapy. Instead of paying a therapist, I get to exorcise all my demons by being wicked. Also, Mark Schwahn (our creator) and the writers, they love writing for Cyrus. They really push the storylines and how naughty he’s going to be. It’s great. When we get the scripts, I get very excited. In Season 3, I got to do some really silly things. Fun but silly things, and of course be naughty again.
He’s got a great sense of humor. He’s got a very dry sense of humor. He kind of revels in rocking the boat, if you like. I think that’s it. He gets his kicks from other people’s misfortunes, I guess. I love it. I absolutely love it. When I read the pilot and went to audition for it, I just was so in love with the character that I was like, “There’s no one else who could play this. I have to play this.” Fortunately I got the audition and we’re in Season 3. When we’re filming I wake up very excited about going to work.
Can you tease one of the Season 3 scrapes that Cyrus gets into?
Basically the queen is trying to get some DNA from Cyrus to prove that Prince Liam and Eleanor are blood heirs of Simon’s. Simon’s body can’t be found, and so I’m the closest thing to Simon. I share the same DNA, so she goes to lots of lengths to try and get some hair or something to prove the DNA. Well, I also go to extremes. At one point I am in a nice-sized human hamster ball, so nobody can actually get to me. That was quite fun. That was quite silly filming that, being in this giant see-through beach ball. The practicalities of it, you can only be in it for four minutes before the oxygen levels go down or it will start misting up. At one point, one of the cameramen, Rob, he was in there with me with a Steadicam whilst I’m walking, the ball is rolling around. It was very hard to keep a straight face.
In Season 3, we know that Robert is alive. For fans it’s like OMG; how will Cyrus take the news?
For Cyrus, it’s the worst news in the world. He’s got this dream that he never thought achievable, and there he is on the throne. It’s what he always dreamed of as a child, but he’s there. Suddenly, a threat arrives who is very nice to Cyrus. Probably the only person who is nice to Cyrus. The teaser is that there will be a battle of will because Cyrus, he’s going to go to every extreme to hold on to the throne, take his crown. He doesn’t want to go back to what it was before, being the spare heir. Yeah, it’s going to be a battle of wills.
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