By Barb Oates
Charlotte Hope’s captivating portrayal as Catherine of Aragon — who was promised to the English throne to forge an alliance — in the obsession-worthy, eight-part period drama The Spanish Princess is unlike other portrayals of Catherine (think The Tudors), where she comes across as some insipid irritant. The Spanish Princess, on Starz, offers a refreshing glimpse into the princess’ earlier days — full of intelligence, power and grit — as a young woman who had an innate sense of her destiny to be the queen of England.
“I studied the Tudors at school in England — we’re all obsessed with the period — but I didn’t really know that much about Catherine when she was young, so that was really exciting to tell a story where you know the ending, but you don’t know the beginning,” Hope shares. “The version of the Catherine I knew was this kind of barren, pious, dowdy wife that was really like the precursor to Anne Boleyn, who was much more exciting. I didn’t really know that she was this incredibly strong, powerful warrior princess … I was kind of obsessed with her.”
Growing up in the middle of nowhere in England, Hope says her father didn’t care for TV (well, except Das Boot), so her early days were spent reading books and making mud pies. Hope later studied Spanish and lived in Spain for some time, so she said it was a “real gift” to use those experiences when crafting her character. The series filmed mainly in Bristol, England, leading Hope to laugh at the irony in the weather.
“England was supposed to be dark and dreary and horrible and miserable, and we were in the middle of an English heat wave,” Hope shares. “We were all in heavy fur, while it must have been 95 degrees — it was really, really, really hot. And so we were all doing our cold acting and pretending to shiver.”
When you think of Catherine’s young age and the arduous journey she made to England — leaving her family and homeland to marry a complete stranger and become queen — you respect her fortitude.
“She never gives up her dream,” Hope concludes. “It’s kind of reassuring that Catherine never gave up — she fought, fought, fought. … There’s a letter that she writes to Henry on her deathbed, and she still has this unwavering devotion and love for him, and belief in their marriage, and their union, and I think that she’s kind of amazing in that sense, that she never wavers, however hard things are, however many trials get thrown at her, she’s pretty unstoppable.”
