Interview: Emilia Schüle on playing the titular character in the PBS series MARIE ANTOINETTE

It feels like a cliché to suggest that you might think you know Marie Antoinette until you’ve seen the new PBS series devoted to the French monarch’s life and times, but it’s not entirely untrue. Created and written by Deborah Davis, who was also responsible for The Favourite, the series might’ve started a bit slow for some, but it’s continued to build over the course of its run, so if you haven’t started watching yet, now would be an extremely good time to play catch-up, since there are only a few episodes left to go.

In the meantime, however, this would be a perfectly good time to check out my interview with the show’s star, Emilia Schüle, who discusses how much she learned about Marie during the course of production and also touches on a few other roles from her back catalog.

It's nice to meet you, although I should mention that I was actually in attendance for the TCA panel that you did for Marie Antoinette.

Oh, cool! I was really nervous.

Well, it didn't show. 

Okay, good. My hands were sweaty. [Laughs.]

It happens to the best of us. Well, to open with the obligatory question when an actor is playing a real person, what was your knowledge of Marie Antoinette going into this series?

It was basically what everyone else knows about her, based on the [Sofia] Coppola film. You know, I thought, "Oh, it's the girl who said, 'Let them eat cake!" The not-very-empathetic queen of France who was beheaded. That's what I knew about her. 

What was the most interesting thing you learned about her in the process of making the series?

That she was just so much more complex than that, and that it's a crime that people only think that of her. Maybe it's even a crime that the Coppola film didn't manage to show the complexity of things. I really fell in love with her, and I was trying to... [Hesitates.] When looking at her trauma that she must've experienced... Because, you know, she was sent away from her mother and her home at the age of 14, and she never saw her mom or her country again, basically experiencing child marriage. And, yes, she was going to be queen of France, but she never asked for it, and she was forced into a life where she could never be entirely free.

And looking at this trauma, this abandonment that she experienced, and the humiliation of her husband not sleeping with her for seven years, even though her only job was to produce a baby, that helped me understand her addiction to life and why she was addicted to fashion and joy and all the things distracting her from her deepest feelings. And this is when I thought, "Oh, my God, this is a complex woman, and she doesn't deserve what we think of her today!"

Also, she was a victim of fake news, you know? Like, this "let them eat cake" thing, she never said it! It was a result of fake news that was designed to harm the image of the court leading up to the revolution. So that's really relevant. That's a problem that we face nowadays!

You're right: there is absolutely modern-day relevancy in that aspect of her story. What did you think of the accoutrements you had to wear for the role?

The clothes? Oof. [Laughs.] I remember I got the part, and the second I got it, I was, like, "Okay, you're in trouble, because you'll have to wear corsets for six months." And I hate corsets. I once did a show in Germany where I had to wear corsets, and at some point I just refused to wear them. Because I was, like, "Guys, we don't even see them! They're underneath the dress! Why am I wearing it?" But I knew that I couldn't do that on Marie Antoinette! So, yeah, I did feel sick. The first two times I was wearing it at wardrobe fittings, I would feel sick. There's a learning curve. You have to warm up the corset before you close it entirely, so you don't feel sick. And you have to change your rhythm of eating. I had to eat more often but less. Like, I couldn't eat the normal big lunch. Stuff like that. And at some point I got used to it, but it's just unnatural that your boobs get squeezed up so much. It's just painful, y'know? But we had some special days, and those were the Dior days, because Dior made two dresses for us. So that was really something.

Was that one that you wanted to take home when it was all over?

No, they're massive. So I'm okay. [Laughs.]

I wanted to ask you about a few other things you've worked on over the years. You were part of the cast of Berlin Station. How did you enjoy working on that series?

Oh, it was so much fun. I was filming so much with Rhys Ifans, who's the guy from Notting Hill, and he's just the most hilarious, crazy person. Also, Thomas Kretschmann played my dad, and we're still friends. And it was an amazing part. I was playing this right-wing radical girl, and my hair looked just about like it does now. I just had so much fun working on that show. It was a great experience.

It's been so long since I watched it that I can't remember if you worked with Michelle Forbes on the series.

I didn't. But I was one of the bad people on the show, so that's why.

I know you and she were also both in Treadstone.

True. I didn't meet her then, either. [Laughs.] 

Have you, in fact, ever met Michelle Forbes?

I don't think so!

Fair enough. Well, you really should remedy that one of these days. She's delightful. 

Of course!

I haven't actually seen it, but as a music fan, I'm very curious about your film Punk Berlin 1982. Can you tell me a little bit about that film?

Yeah, that was fun. You probably know that, during the [Berlin] Wall, West Berlin was this bubble trapped in East Germany, and it was this unique bubble of punk and raves and drugs and all that. And I was playing this heroin junkie girl - an American, actually! - and I remember running into producers after they'd seen me in the film, and they thought I was an American girl! They didn't make the connection between me and the character. It was really cool. My favorite scene was when I dance in a window for the border policeman topless, but with some plastic boobs put around me. [Laughs.]

Did you walk away a fan of punk music?

Well, no. Which is to say that, yes, I walked away from it. [Laughs.] Not a punk fan, no. Heroin I'm a big fan of. I'm kidding! Kidding!

What do you have coming up in the pipeline?

So I've been on a sabbatical year, because I've been working for 20 years, and I worked so much on Marie Antoinette that I was, like, "Okay, I'm gonna take some time off." And it just ended! But I've been going to film school in London, and I think I want to get into producing, so I'm working on some stuff and maybe gonna switch roles. And there's a German film coming up that I'm gonna do later this year.

Do you enjoy the opportunity to bounce back and forth between the languages you work in?

Yeah! I love English, and I love acting in English. It's just... I had to learn British English for this show, and before that all my life I would speak in American English. And right now I have to do a self-tape [audition] for an American thing, and I can't go back to American. It's just so annoying. [Laughs.] So that's causing difficulties a little bit. But speaking English in general, I really enjoy. 

I have a stock question that I try to ask everyone: what's your favorite project that you've worked on over the years that didn't get the love you thought it deserved?

Oh, that's a cute question. [Hesitates.] It's a small independent German film I did where I played a... How do you say a care worker for elderly people? A Ukranian care worker girl for elderly people. But the film was kind of stuck because of the pandemic, so it didn't really come out in the cinemas, and when it did come out, people were still scared to go the cinemas, so it didn't get much attention. And it's called... How do you say if you forget a lot of things?

Amnesia? Dementia?

Well, the title could be something like The Dementia of the Squirrel. It's just a random cute name. [Laughs.] Oh, no, it would be more like The Forgetfulness of the Squirrels. That would be the translation. 

Looking at IMDb, I know I'm going to mangle it, but...is it Die Vergesslichkeit der Eichhörnchen?

Yes! [Laughs.] That's it!

I knew I would mangle it, but at least I found it. 

[Writer's note: I just have to interject here and express that her reaction to my admission of mangling the German title of her film was the cutest little laugh you've ever heard.]

Yes, it's The Forgetfulness of Squirrels. A cute title. 

I know we have to wrap up, but as far as Marie Antoinette goes, if someone going into this series concerned that they're not a history fan, would you say that it's still going to win them over?

Oh, yeah, it won't be what you expect. Marie Antoinette is certainly no busty period drama. Deborah Davis wrote the show. You won't hear "let them eat cake" in the show, and you'll really understand the struggle she was facing, and...it's actually a family drama, with a lot of intrigue. You'll get to know the court of Versailles, which was very strange, and you'll really see the human being behind Marie Antoinette. A human being who was looking for a role in life as a rebel and a queen and a mother and a wife and...just a human with needs.