The Tudors

[tealin]

I just heard that Jonathan Rhys-Myers is playing Henry VIII in a new cable series.

Um. ...?

There's Jonathan Rhys-Myers ...

... and then there's Henry VIII.

??!!?!?

Comments

[fordanglia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't get it either.

[snowflakie06]

Hee it's all ready been on the TV here in America and I liked it. They said that they cast Jonathan as Henry VIII because in Henry VIII's youth he was very desirable and all this other stuff. I'll see if I can find any YouTube links :)

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, but ... WHUT?!

[snowflakie06]

Here's a link to a video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=fi9Gl3aTFlI It has the creator's viewpoint as well as some of the central cast's. They don't just talk about Jonathan as Henry VIII though, they talk about everyone. I'll try to find one just about Henry.

[snowflakie06]

This is a better one: http://youtube.com/watch?v=0w0aNWHLUOU

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

But ... Jonathan Rhys-Myers.

On a side note, after seeing Miss Boelyn, I now understand what 'ferret-faced' is supposed to mean. I mean that in a purely artistic sense. Huzzah for British casting and all that.

[hyel.livejournal.com]

Maybe Henry was slim and dashing in his younger days.

[sp34k.livejournal.com]

He was. Later on he got an injury playing sports and so couldn't exercise and thus got all pudgy.

[lara-on-toast.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Henry was actually very attractive in his youth. I haven't seen the show, it seems Henry's affair with Anne Boleyn appears early on which, at that point, would make a youthful looking Henry not historical; he was much older (and much fatter) than Anne when they started their affair.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Heh, I was going to put this in -- as a young man he was considered the most handsome, accomplished man of his generation.

I hated the series, but not because of Rhys-Meyers; I just thought it was tedious and badly-written, plus Henry wasn't given as much credit as he deserved.

[buttfacemakani.livejournal.com]

It's Henry when he's young. Also, JRM is hot.

[thearchduchess.livejournal.com]

Word.

[fani.livejournal.com]

Does it really matter because he can act? LOL there's always a fatsuit. Try wrapping your head around THAT:)

[clayeer.livejournal.com]

that was my reaction too. it being filmed in dublin so of course i hung around christ church like a loser hoping to catch a look. i saw a lot of pretty dresses but no jrm. alas.

[(Anonymous)]

You reckon that's weird??!! Thomas Kretschmann(awesome german actor) was due to play the role of Stauffenberg(the dude who attempted to assassinate Hitler) in this new film, but that numbskull tom cruise came along and bought the role!!! Grr, such a tosser... call me old fashioned but i think that an actor should get a role because they have tallent, not becuase they're loaded.
sorry if im slightly off topic... i love your art!

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's just ridiculous.

[canisdoofus.livejournal.com]

Ahhh... YES! I reluctantly got addicted to the Tudors myself. It's actually quite good, except not as AMAZING as Rome was.

Anyhow... to heck with JRM as the anorexic Henry VIII. I watched the show for this stud (http://l.yimg.com/img.tv.yahoo.com/tv/us/img/site/87/64/0000038764_20070327162242.jpg)! Not only is it Jeremy Northam, it's Jeremy Northam playing my favouritestest saint in the Catholic Communion, Thomas More (who was also rather attractive, in a nerdy lawyer way).

[tehladyelbereth.livejournal.com]

God I love Jeremy Northam! And Maria Doyle Kennedy, she's brilliant. Anorexic, he does have the chickeniest of legs.

[ravin-raven.livejournal.com]

Well, Henry was quite good looking and fit until he was injured. He was running past obese before he married Jane Seymour, if not earlier. Katherine Howard got the worst of it, I think.

I watched it online, since I don't have cable. I have mixed feelings about it. On the surface it was a mildly entertaining Renaissance soap opera with shiny costumes. As a historian, it made my ears bleed. But Jeremy Northam made it so worth it. Maria Doyle Kennedy is also wonderful. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have been able to watch the whole thing. Season 2 stars in April.

[mincot.livejournal.com]

Do they possibly mean either a YOUNG Henry VIII or Johnathan Rhys-DAVIES? Now, HE could (maybe) carry it off.

I haven't seen it, but, like Ravin, I'm afraid that my ears will bleed and I will need a spork before the end of the first reel, if not well before. There are times that being an historian sucketh rocks.

[floramir.livejournal.com]

I somehow found a link to the information about that show when it was coming to US TV, and I could only assume that they were, for some reason, trying to snag the attention of weird people like me, and make them want to watch the show (although the probability of this explanation being true is very low, I have no other ideas). I have been longing for something good to watch Jonathan Rhys-Meyers in since I watched Gormenghast with my mother (at least twice), and I guessed that this 'Tudor' show was probably not what I'd been waiting for. I'm hoping there might be some merit in August Rush, but thus far it doesn't look as though that movie will display his talents to the fullest either.

Say, do you do of anything especially good that Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is good in, besides Gormenghast? I like him, but I don't have any idea what his other good films have been. Did he ever do any more period pieces or BBC?

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I've only seen him in Gormenghast (which leads me to think 'hmm, Henry VIII, Steerpike got his wish...') but I heard he's supposed to be playing Schmendrick the Magician in the much-mentioned-but-otherwise-imaginary live action remake of The Last Unicorn

[floramir.livejournal.com]

WOW! Really? I actually heard the remake mentioned, but I didn't hear for sure that he would be in it. I was hearing something about Lee Ingleby starring in it, or was that just wishful thinking? That would be very interesting if they actually DO make it, although it's been ages since I last saw 'The Last Unicorn'. I think I was hoping it would eventually become available in widescreen DVD. I wonder if there's an imdb page for the remake...

[azvolrien.livejournal.com]

I'm a tad puzzled about it as well.

[meganphntmgrl.livejournal.com]

I know everybody else has already said it, but until he hit his upper thirties Henry VIII was supposed to be hawt. Women were sleeping with him left and right back when it was his looks that were the draw and not his power.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Okay, I can grasp the concept of a young and studly Henry, but ... Mr Rhys-Myers is a sallow, lithe little weasel of a man. Surely they could have found someone ruddy and ginger and robust?

[meganphntmgrl.livejournal.com]

That's true. I always imagined the young Henry as a big, muscular, extremely masculine hunk. So yeah, you have a point.

[mmoa.livejournal.com]

Well admittedly, he was very handsome in his younger years (apparently, but then, who can trust the Tudor propaganda machine, these days?).

[meganphntmgrl.livejournal.com]

Fellow Ricardian, are you?

Tomorrow's teh Reeechard's birfday, you know.

[(Anonymous)]

Ooh great... someone else!

And I can't believe I nearly forgot about that - thanks for the reminder...

[grafin-drachen.livejournal.com]

Grrr, I hate my sevice providor, I can't get the channel that runs the Tudors. Gwar, so if I wanna watch it I have to get the taped episodes from someone.. Then you run into copywright laws and this that and the other thing.... XZ

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I think the CBC has just picked it up, so it might appear on a channel you do get sometime in the near future albeit delayed by a season or so.

[infiniteviking]

Maybe they'll get John Rhys-Davies to play the old Henry VIII? *cackles*