INTERVIEW: ‘Barkskins’ gives actors a taste of the ruggedness of 1690s New France
Photo: Kaniehtiio Horn stars as Mari in Barkskins. Photo courtesy of National Geographic / Peter H. Stranks / Provided by press site with permission.
Barkskins, the highly anticipated limited series from National Geographic, follows a group of settlers in 1690s New France after a battle breaks out between warring factions in the rugged local area. A massacre has taken place, and fingers have been pointed amongst the new and established communities in the northern reaches of a land that is today Quebec.
The series, lasting eight installments, is based off the acclaimed novel by Annie Proulx. The cast features Marcia Gay Harden as Mathilde Geffard, David Thewlis as Claude Trepagny, Tallulah Haddon, Lily Sullivan, Kaniehtiio ‘Tiio’ Horn, James Bloor and Christian Cooke.
The first two episodes of Barkskins premiere Monday, May 25 at 9 p.m. on the network. Audience members can expect to meet a trio of characters on the opening night, including indentured servant Charles Duquet (Bloor), who realizes he’s not cut out for manual labor; Mari (Horn), a French and Wendat Nation woman who lives with Trepagny; and Rene Sele (Cooke), another indentured servant who wants to work the land and start a family, according to press notes.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox had the chance to talk with Horn, Bloor and Cooke about their time filming the limited series. Here’s what they had to say …
On why they felt inspired to join the project …
HORN: “I really liked the time period and the fact that it takes place on my people’s traditional territory, and it involves my people as well. I thought that was really interesting, and I don’t think there has been any shows like this out there.”
COOKE: “I think it felt new. It felt fresh. It felt like a story that hadn’t been told on television, and, you know, I think it fills you with more confidence when you know it’s based on something which you can go out and read for yourself and which is such a renowned book. It was that really, just the thought of doing something that was quite different to anything else I had done before and different to anything else that existed out there.”
BLOOR: “It felt really relevant to me. At the time of auditioning, I had just been campaigning with Extinction Rebellion in London. I think it was April or May last year, and just the sort of center of this show appeals to me. It absolutely could not be more relevant, the conflict between living as part of the earth and respecting the earth versus sort of living in opposition to the earth and trying to conquer it and control it and exploit it.”
On whether it was easy to get into character and the period setting …
HORN: “I find it’s almost a little bit easier because you’re not just putting on another hoodie and a pair of jeans. Your imagination gets to really, really go there. You’re looking around, and you are in the environment. Everybody else is dressed like you. I find it’s easier and fun to get into the character.”
COOKE: “It was such a privilege to be able to shoot in the actual place where the story takes place. I think privilege is really the right word. As an actor, to go there, there was no imagining. We were in there. We were in the forests of New France, of northern Quebec. It was a privilege to be there. I don’t think you could have shot the show anywhere else really. I think it felt right that we were going to shoot it at the place where the story is set. For sure, that helps you suspend your disbelief as an actor and get into character and put yourself in that mind frame.”
BLOOR: “So many different highly, highly skilled and unbelievably hard-working people, the lengths that they went to create that environment, to create those sets …. to create the costumes … the hair … the makeup, the prosthetics, the props, to create that world in such a complete and authentic way was just wild. We were all, every single person part of the project, was just there to try to do justice to the interactions between these different people.”
On whether Barkskins speaks to issues in 2020 …
BLOOR: “To me, it feels like this crucible of the problems that we have now in terms of environmental breakdown, growing inequality. It feels like the conflict between those values the show sets up is highly relevant. I think it actually goes beyond just setting up an opposition between European greed and selfishness versus First Nations living with the planet or with the earth because I think the show does a good job of highlighting that the Europeans that were sent there were also on the receiving end of the very greed that they then exported to the New World. The people that were sent there from Europe were the lowest of the low. They had nothing. They were ruined. They were either deported there, as my character was in the show, or they went there voluntarily, but they went there out of desperation.”
On what inspired them to become actors …
HORN: “Jim Carrey on Ace Ventura, for real. That’s when I understood that being an actor was an actual profession, and then I became obsessed. And I think I was in grade five or something. I was 11 or something, so I’ve known since I was a kid.”
COOKE: “I started when I was really young. … It would be great to experience half of the things that the characters I’ve played have experienced, but I have been doing this for a long time. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do since I started really.”
On how difficult was the production for Barkskins …
HORN: “Super-difficult. I mean, even the crew was working six-day weeks, 19-hour days. It was hard, and the terrain was really hard — the bugs and then the cold.”
COOKE: “It was a tough shoot, but I feel like sometimes you need a bit of that when you’re supposed to be playing characters that had tough lives, that lived real hardships. In some ways, it felt like a bit of a gift really. If you were too sheltered from the reality of the environment, then I think it would be even harder to get there as an actor. To experience even a fraction of what the characters might have gone through, or a few fractions, was a bit of a privilege really.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Barkskins, featuring Tiio Horn, James Bloor and Christian Cooke, premieres Monday, May 25 at 9 p.m. on National Geographic. Click here for more information.
