‘Marie Antoinette’ Stars Break Marie & Louis’ ‘True Bond & Intimacy’ Despite Struggles (Exclusive)

emilia schule AND Louis Cunningham they are the stars of the PBS series Maria Antonietta, which explores the origin story of the French queen and her husband, King Louis XVI. As history and the show will tell you, Marie and Louis didn’t have a passionate romance, but a love built on a close friendship as they faced an exorbitant amount of pressure at a young age. hollywood life spoke EXCLUSIVELY with Emilia and Louis about redefining the real on-screen relationship.

“The two, first of all, had to forge a bond, a relationship and a friendship to, in the end, consummate the marriage,” Emilia said. “I think, until the very end, the nature of their relationship is more one of friendship than desire. But what Deborah Davis wrote is that there is a real bond and intimacy between them, but not just sexually.

Louis added, “Sex becomes the necessary part of that relationship, but they find that love and other forms of friendship and admiration. I think Louis is starting to admire her creativity and her way of shaking things up. I think he’s starting to admire your energy and intellect. It’s definitely a slow relationship.

Marie and Louis did not consummate their marriage for 7 years, but history often forgets to mention that they were only teenagers when they got married. In the series, Louis avoids Marie at all costs when she gets there. Marie tries her best to reach out to her husband, but he resists at first.

“Louis is 15 at the start of this series,” the actor said. “Your parents are dead. His older brother died, who should have been king, so he shouldn’t necessarily be the dauphin at any point. Yet he is thrust into this environment. Then he got into an arranged marriage, so I think he’s angry about where he is and angry that he’s being forced into marriage, afraid of how to deal with all of these things, and then in awe of this woman coming in. her life, which has vibrant, intelligent, fierce and everything that is not. Everything it almost was meant to be. I think it’s probably a weird combination of teenage angst, this general fear of your whole situation and admiration for this woman. He withdraws and doesn’t know how to express anything, so he runs away from the situation physically and emotionally.”

Emilia continued: “And besides, they were supposed to have sex, and nobody educated them about it. So obviously, they’re terrified of each other because they know they have this big task to accomplish and they have all this weight on their shoulders. It’s scary, so it creates a lot of distance between them.”

Marie and Louis shared their first real moment of connection in episode 2, when Marie followed her husband to his secret tower. Luigi said hollywood life that the scene was the first “romantic moment and joyful moment between them”. Emilia said it was “the beginning of a friendship” between the couple.

Things got even more difficult for Marie, who was flown from Austria to marry Louis. Everywhere she looked, Marie encountered critics and people who expected her to fail. “She’s so stubborn and she definitely doesn’t take no for an answer,” Emilia said of Marie’s evolution. “She causes Him a lot of trouble. But it’s also key to establishing a relationship with Louis, for example, because she doesn’t play by the rules. She tried to deal with it the way people expected of him, but it didn’t work. The only reason she can secure her place in her palace is to find her own path and simply be the rebel that she was.

The series has already been renewed for a second season. Emilia and Louis have revealed that filming on season 2 is expected to begin “later this year.” new episodes of Maria Antonietta Sundays airs on PBS.

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