![]() ![]() I felt it was exciting that the producers wanted to create a world that was inspired by this short but very rich in imagery poem, to take it to its own place and create a whole new world for it something that could be accessible across demographics. ![]() HALEY WEISS: What was your first reaction when you read the script for Beowulf?ĮD SPELEERS: My first reaction was that I wanted to play the character, to take on Slean. While Speleers took a break from the cold English winter by way of a trip to Los Angeles with his family, we caught up over the phone about seeking out challenges, his time on Downton, and to whom he owes his acting career. “As long as you’re understanding who that person is, then, in truth, the world around him or her.” “The fantasy element does bring a different slant to it but what’s more important than anything is who your character is within that world,” he explains. At age 27, even when performing among CGI creatures, Speleers’ acting philosophy is consistent: know your character. “I didn’t have a clue about how a camera worked, I didn’t know anything about that world.” His knowledge has undoubtedly increased in the 10 years that have passed since Eragon. “It was a baptism by fire in some respects,” he recalls. In it, he starred alongside Jeremy Irons and John Malkovich. Moreover, the plot of his first film, Eragon, which he shot at age 17, was set into motion by a dragon egg. Speleers is no stranger to fantasy genre in 2014, he filmed the latest Alice in Wonderland film, Alice Through the Looking Glass, which comes out this May. Set within a mythological world, Beowulf takes its name from the Anglo-Saxon poem written between the 8th and 11th centuries, but begins its own tale of a contested kingdom in the Shieldlands. Now, after appearing in the British mini-series Wolf Hall as Edward Seymour, brother of Henry VIII’s to-be queen Jane Seymour, Speleers is Slean in the fantasy drama Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands. “He takes pride in his work but he’s also thinking, ‘Hang on a minute, I’ve been fighting on the front lines so people like you can keep living in your big posh houses and keep having your life the way it is, while I’ve seen people blown up in trenches.'” He’d been in the First World War and then he’s suddenly planted in this house,” he continues. “I always quite like ambitious characters and he did have this inherent ambition but also this anti-establishment …I think Jimmy was slightly embittered. “Jimmy was a great character to play and he’ll always be a big part of me,” Speleers says. While Speleers’ time on the show was limited-he joined during Season Three and exited Season Five-he remained convincing and compelling throughout, from his start admitting the loss of his parents to an ill-fated tryst with a woman of the upstairs world, which ended his tenure as footman. Upstairs, he was James, seen and infrequently heard, dutifully serving the Crawley family. ![]() Downstairs, he was a strong-headed young man teeming with aspirations to ascend the very stairs that separated him and his Lordship, the Earl of Grantham. GROOMING: MIKE HARDING USING KEVIN MURPHY.Īs Jimmy Kent on the British drama Downton Abbey, English actor Ed Speleers played more than just a footman. ED SPELEERS AT THE BIRDCAGE IN EAST LONDON, FEBRUARY 2016.
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