00:00This show is based on the Peter Schafer play, which is based on, you know, history.
00:03What was the most delicious part about getting to play these incredibly brilliant, incredibly dynamic, dramatic characters?
00:10It's an iconic bad guy. I love him. I think he is very relatable as a bad guy.
00:20And I think it's a sort of wish fulfillment thing for audiences in that, you know, we all have, you
00:28know, venal, terrible thoughts.
00:30But hopefully don't act out on them. And it was a lot of fun to just have all of these
00:36thoughts and then do them and make life very hard for my compadre here.
00:42I guess there was something quite like I really enjoyed all the big musical set pieces and sort of, I
00:48don't know, trying to kind of tell the story almost through those moments was fun.
00:53And I also, I mean, probably like my favorite part of it was like as our characters, as I become
01:00suspicious, because for most of the series, it's a very one-sided rivalry.
01:03Salieri is obsessed with Amadeus, but Amadeus doesn't really have a sense that that's going on.
01:08But as he starts to become suspicious, and it's like, we get sort of circling on each other, that end
01:14of the series is also quite, was quite enjoyable to film, even though it was probably the most challenging.
01:21Yeah.
01:21Well, on that note, I was really shocked in episode one, the dual seat is really fascinating, because on the
01:26surface, it's Mozart playing against another player.
01:28But from Salieri's point of view, from the middle, he says, yeah, can we change the note, it's the composer
01:33versus the composer, and Mozart may not be aware.
01:43Can you talk me through that scene, and how you guys want to approach this interesting seeding of the rivalry?
01:48Interestingly, well, that happened very early in the shooting, and I stood there and saw how great Will had got
01:57at piano.
01:58And I was really intimidated, and it was quite good for the scene, actually.
02:02I was like, God, he's done a lot of work.
02:05It was so good.
02:07I guess I was mainly, yeah, like, because I'm not aware of what's happening with Salieri internally, so I'm just
02:15trying to sort of impress everyone and showboat.
02:18But I guess that was probably the bulk of the piano practice that I had done was for that scene,
02:24and so I was just kind of like trying to get through it unscathed.
02:27I love that the series kind of gives Constanza a bit more to do and to be kind of a
02:31third player in this rivalry.
02:34What did Gabrielle Crevy bring to set with you guys?
02:37I mean, she's a very natural kind of understated actor, I think.
02:42And so I think that really helped with, like, one of the nice things about this series is that because
02:47it's across five hours, there's space to explore, first of all, different perspectives, including Amadeus' and Constanza's.
02:54But also, you get a chance to sort of imagine a little bit what all of our characters' domestic lives
03:00might have been like and how, you know, that fed into their lives as artists.
03:04And so I think the fact that she's so kind of real.
03:08Really grounds.
03:10Yeah.
03:10Which kind of keeps the series' feet on the ground.
03:12Two very large characters.
03:14Yeah.
03:16Being played by two very over-the-top actors.
03:20Episode two, Will, there's this hilarious scene that I just had to, like, write down dialogue, um, when you're tutoring
03:26that boy and says you've discovered a kind of form of anti-practice and then you go after him for
03:31having flaccid baby cocks for fingers.
03:33Have you cultivated an irrational fear of competency, perhaps? Did somebody perform rudimentary surgery and replace your ten fingers with
03:41flaccid baby cocks, Rupert? Do you have flaccid baby cocks for fingers, Rupert?
03:45It's hilarious. It gives you kind of a perspective on Mozart's approach to music. But I kept wondering and worrying
03:50about that boy in the scene. Was he, like, how do you approach a scene like that where you have
03:53to berate a child in the scene but you have to work with him on set?
03:57Well, I guess by most of the time talking to an empty chair and then for some takes doing an
04:04adapted version of the text, which is sanitized. But yeah, it's an interesting scene. I guess, for me, that scene
04:11is most, it's like, you get to see how Mozart has no sense of social norms. Like, he's a bit
04:18other. There's a lot that's been written speculatively about, you know, neurodiversity and trying to retro-diagnose him. I didn't
04:24want to take it too literally.
04:25But there's definitely a sense of how he didn't really know how to communicate or to read a room. He's
04:30often, like, offending people and then can't understand why they're so offended.
04:35And so, I guess that's just an example of that, really. He sort of genuinely is frustrated and doesn't understand
04:40why this boy hasn't improved at piano.
04:44And it comes out in an unfortunate way.
04:46But again, the kid wasn't actually there.
04:48I was a little concerned. Maybe I was like, oh, this child is going to be...
04:53No, we swapped him out and put Will's kid there.
04:56Paul, also in episode two, there's this really tense scene where Salieri propositions, Constanza, and it feels so creepy and
05:04so insidious.
05:05And then she somehow turns the power to the night around by revealing that she's pregnant.
05:10You have to be delicate. Do you understand?
05:12Get dressed.
05:14Why? Have you changed your mind?
05:16You're so dressed.
05:17Can you take me through that and how your character recoils from that revelation?
05:22Gosh, it was such a long time ago.
05:24Yeah, it's an awful scene to play.
05:29I felt very supported by, you know, my scene partner.
05:33She's, as we've said, is so grounded and real.
05:39And the sort of awful quid pro quo that is being offered is ghastly.
05:48But yes, I mean, the bit of it that is great is she turns it on its head and wins
05:58the day, as it were.
05:59Yeah.
06:00You
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