But TNTsWillis here to change that.
The new series, premiering July 10 at 9 p.m. At the heart ofWillcreated by Craig Pearce, whose credits include Baz LuhrmannsRomeo + JulietandMoulin Rouge!
Its so much pressure.
Credit: TNT
Hes still making gloves.
He isnt the great playwright that has blessed our stages for 500 years.
He doesnt know that hes going to write the greatest plays.
TNT
Certainly, the theaters are still dominated with one sort of person.
The theaters today arent as diverse as they used to be.
In the Elizabethan time, you would have had people from all echelons of society going to the theater.
TNT
The show comes down very clearly on one side of that argument.
It doesnt matter what the history books say.
For me, thats what I have to go on.
The answers, in all good scripts, are there.
With Shakespeare, there is so little concrete evidence on him.
In terms of his religion, it is a really hotly contested subject.
People say Will couldnt be Catholic because of the themes that are in his plays.
The Protestants have just come into power.
Its a dangerous place after much religious persecution the other way.
Its an interesting choice, and it creates a lot of drama and tension and intrigue and entertainment.
Theres almost a rap battle in the first episode.
But actually, Elizabethan London was crazy.
People slept with who they wanted.
Life was short, so the speed in which things happen is so accelerated.
People fall in love much quicker.
The days are full with, youve got to get things done, youve got to achieve things.
Your life is so much shorter.
And because of that, its a really exciting, vibrant time.
People having sex in the back.
Not the well-behaved theaters that we know today where if you sneeze, the whole audience will shush you.
Its not that at all.
There just wasnt that kind of respect for the performers.
You had to go out there as an actor and get everyone to shut up.
If you werent interesting, if you were rubbish, people wouldnt shut up.
There wasnt that assumed thing that were going to clap at the end.
Because they were raucous, and thats what people dont really immediately know about that era.
You will throw all your ideas about Shakespeare out the window.
We literally filmed it in this stately home.
It was a bit of an overload for the senses, which will make sense when you see it.
He just brought so much energy and fight to that scene.
It was so much fun just ribbing each other and really getting to bounce off another actor.
For that scene, its integral, you have to have that energy between two people.
It was a lot of fun to shoot that.
Why do you think Shakespeare endures the way he does?Well, mystery is always intriguing to people.
Theres so many theories and theres so much hype around who he was that that creates interest.
And historians want to always speculate and discover.
I think thats what were doing.
He wasnt a university-educated man.
He was a glove-maker who had a passion for writing, for plays, for words, for poetry.
And he was able to do that.
He was a humanist.
He really understood people.
He cared enormously about people.
He really understood character and emotions.
And from that, one incredibly exciting character.
