Actors Graham McTavish and Jaime Slater talk to The Inside Reel about strategy, experience and perspective in regards to their new series: "Spartacus: House Of Ashur" on Starz.
01:03And she actually leads Caesar to think further ahead in his maneuverings as well.
01:12Well, she understands how that level of society operates, right?
01:16I mean, she's, she's born in that. And so she, she knows it very well.
01:21And it's more just watching things unfold in certain ways and clocking it and filing it away going, I'm going to use that, you know, information at some point down the line.
01:34So it's really learning how to assess and, and utilize as things proceed.
01:40They will never welcome a woman as one of their own.
01:50I did not ask to be in this house.
01:53Yet I stand equal as any man within it.
01:55It is time to embrace your destiny.
01:58And if the gods will enter.
02:03To victory.
02:03He sees truth.
02:08He's almost a truth sayer, but from experience because he has the experience and that's sort of something hard to play.
02:15It sometimes it's in between the lines.
02:17It's that a look that you'll give or just a breath.
02:20Could you talk about that and finding that?
02:23Yeah, that's, that's absolutely true.
02:25Because especially when he's dealing with somebody like Asher, Asher, Asher is, it's impulsive in lots of ways, impulsive in his desires and his ambitions.
02:37And, and, and that is reflected in some, in some, sometimes in the way he acts.
02:42And Corus is somewhat there as a balance, as a, as a reminder of actually the, the way to progress is this, not, not this kind of mad scheme.
02:55However, having said that, a character like Asher thinks outside the box.
03:01And so he carries Corus along with him on certain journeys that Corus would have thought, well, no, we can't possibly do that.
03:11But Asher goes, no, no, no, no, no, no, we can, we can.
03:14And that's what is so interesting about their dynamic.
03:18They both need each other for very different reasons.
03:21I had such a lovely time doing that with Nick.
03:24We, we got on very well personally.
03:27He's a very funny man.
03:28And, um, you know, and I think that really helps with chemistry on set, on, on screen, that if you actually like the person and you, you, you want to hang out with them, then that shows.
03:40So hopefully it did.
03:42They hold that this house and we among it are lesser.
03:48Who stands to show that we truly are?
03:51That is pro one.
03:53Behold, a sight never before witness in the arena.
03:58Well, because you can push them, you can push them acting wise.
04:02You can have fun if there's trust, you know, that's, that's very interesting, you know, and, but you can also use, and because if you understand the greater concept of it, I mean, there's one moment when you look back at Claudia in an alley, when you go into the city.
04:16And there's, and there's just a knowing, you know, where you're like, I'm a free man.
04:21And there's that reflection, but it's about those energies.
04:25Could you sort of talk about, cause I think that's brilliant.
04:28And that's a great theme about, he's, he's met, he's met Claudia's all his life.
04:34And, and, and there are people that he meets over and over again throughout his life.
04:39People that we, we may never see in the, in the show, never be spoken about, but they inform his worldview.
04:47And when he looks at Claudia, he recognizes exactly the kind of person that she is.
04:52He knows exactly what she's like.
04:54Um, and he's one of those kinds of people that, uh, that, that decides, uh, on how he's going to view somebody very, very quickly.
05:04Uh, he's a, he's a big first impressions guy, I suspect.
05:08And, um, and he, a little bit like my own father, he wasn't, he was never wrong.
05:14So I, uh, I hope that that's, that's what chorus is like.
05:18Although having said that his first impression of Achille is not good, not good at all.
05:23But that's just through prejudice, really.
05:26That's not through actually knowing her.
05:28That's just a, an inherited prejudice that, that having a female gladiatrix is a really stupid idea.
05:35But chorus, uh, Asher is ahead of his time.
05:39Literally in the, in the case of this show, because gladiatrix, they didn't, they didn't appear for about another hundred years historically.
05:47All of the brutality and the sexuality is to explore character.
05:51It's, it's a narrative device, right?
05:53It's just another behavior to give the audience another, you know, view or clue as to who this person is and how they operate.
06:01And, you know, um, I think, look, like, it's, it's, it's complex and it's, but it's, it's true to human nature.
06:12Foul aroma permeates villa.
06:15Born of failure and death, mingled with cuisine of foreign origin.
06:20Our presence is a sacrifice towards promised glory.
06:23You've set the Syrian upon path.
06:25I can mule upon a road, carrying burden unfit for human form.
06:32I gave you his men.
06:33We do not all stand so firm of attribute.
06:36Was there a couple of details that really jumped out at you?
06:39Obviously, I don't want to give anything away.
06:40What I glommed onto initially was how powerful she is.
06:44This is very much a man's world in ancient Rome.
06:48And, you know, women are nothing without having some sort of, you know, male entity in their lives, whether it's a brother, an uncle, a husband, a father.
06:55And she has a lot of freedoms and a lot of liberties.
06:58Most women don't.
06:59And so, um, the, the, the aspect in which she's able to maneuver and operate without a husband by her side or giving her permission is, is what I honed it on first.
07:12He trains a woman.
07:19And this is so beyond training.
07:21He presents her as champion of this house.
07:27Visit DiCaprio presents unexpected delights.
07:30Could you talk about looking at the overall world?
07:32What intrigued you?
07:34I mean, obviously with Steven, you, you know of the whole world, but jumping into it, was it a completely different aspect?
07:40Yeah, it's very much an upstairs, downstairs show.
07:42Um, but by and large, just like the first show, it's everybody maneuvering for power.
07:48And even the powerful and the wealthy want more power and wealth.
07:52So it's, it's constant, constant maneuvering and constant, you know, clawing and scraping to get to that next level of whatever that means, you know, for each character.
08:04You've fought before, but not against such as I.
08:07The fear, the fear that my fall has already been ridden.
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