BB Exclusive: Jasmin Savoy Brown Chats her New TNT Show, Will
Earlier this Summer, TNT premiered their brand new show, Will. Will tells the wild story of young Shakespeare’s arrival onto the punk-rock theater scene in 16th century London.
One of the stars of the show, Jasmin Saovy Brown sat down with us to talk about her hit new show. Jasmin plays Emilia Bassano, the “Dark Lady” of Will’s sonnets. A musician, poet, writer and proto-feminist, Emilia is an exotic and strikingly beautiful young woman who goes on to become the first female professional English poet..
During our interview, Jasmin talked about things Will, her character Emilia and so much more. Make sure to check it out below.
On auditioning for Will:
“I auditioned in LA. I had been away for a few months and I just got back, this was last October or November. It was actually the same casting director who put me on Grey’s Anatomy, so it was cool to go back in for her. They’d been looking for the role of Emilia all over the place and all over the world and just couldn’t find her. I was in the last batch of girls to audition and then it all happened really fast. I booked the part and I flew out there all within just a few days, we started shooting really quick.”
On what drew her to the part of Emilia:
“I always was a fan of Shakespeare and I found it really interesting all the theories and things about him not having written all of his works and plays. I heard a lot of theories of a group of women or a certain woman, but I didn’t realize that this person was the Dark Lady of his sonnet until reading this script. I thought it was just so interesting and it would be so cool to dive into a real person. I haven’t done that before, played someone who really existed. All of that sounded like a challenge. It sounded really fun and the fact that it shot in the UK was pretty cool.”
On if she read any of Emilia’s work before starting the show:
“I forget where it is online, I think I ended up finding it somehow through the University of Oregon, but her poems are online. I read her poems and I read some of Shakespeare’s sonnets and a couple of the plays that she may have been involved in. And, I read part of a book by John Hudson called, Shakespeare’s Dark Lady and it’s all about Emilia’s life and upbringing, so I did all that for the personal preparation”.
On how grateful she was to her coaches for helping her bring Emilia to life:
“I was very grateful for that coaching, without it I wouldn’t have been able to pull it off. They know exactly what to say and how to say it and they helped sculpt me into Emilia. It was so much fun. It felt like being at theater camp every day. I would go and have these rehearsals and these work sessions and it was just a blast.”
On if there was a specific trait she wanted to make sure Emilia had:
“I felt like, I don’t really know the word to use, but she has this chameleon like quality. She’s an observer and quiet, but she can shape and mold herself into who she needs to be and who she’s around, which to me felt a bit mysterious. She’s not quite pin pointable, but I am not sure how to explain other than chameleon and a keen observer. That was the through line in all of the things and it is the walk she does around everyone and the way that she behaves and speaks are a little different around each person. And, that was fun to play around with.”
You can check out the rest of the interview under the jump. After Jasmin and I spoke it was revealed that she landed the lead in Shonda Rhimes’ new series, For the People alongside Britt Robertson. So, get excited people because this lovely lady is not going anywhere.
Photo credit: James DePietro
On how she is similar to Emilia:
“I love art more than anything and I love love. I feel like Emilia and I don’t take no for an answer. I just do what I want to do, which can be bad. But most of the time it is good and I get stuff done. I’m not very good at sitting around, neither is she.”
On if she is excited to see the show explore Emilia and Will’s relationship:
“Oh yeah, I am really looking forward to see how that unfolds and where they take her and where they take her relationship”.
On what fans can expect from Emilia:
“They can expect to keep on seeing more different sides and being surprised and just to learn more about her when she is onscreen.”
On shooting in the UK:
“It just feeds everything so much. We shot in actual castles. Shooting in castles, shooting in a replica of the Globe Theater and being able to travel over there is so easy. Paris is a two hour plane ride and London is a two hour train ride, so all of the opportunities to explore and look at old art and buildings and history and even just walking the streets that are so much older and so much richer than ours really set the entire production and me personally.”
On if she had visited Shakespeare’s hometown, Stratford-upon-Avon:
“I didn’t actually this trip, but I took a trip out there when I was 17 with my high school. We went to the Globe and took a tour then and I remember kissing the stage. I was just so excited. And we went to Stratford and looked in the house where he supposedly grew up and I remember all that vividly.”
On how the Will set is different than other sets she has worked on:
“I’d say the pacing of shooting was just very different. Will was similar to The Leftovers, there was a lot of time. There’s always a time crunch in TV, but it just feels like there is more time then there is on a network show or something that’s already airing and you have to get the episode produced within a few weeks. On this show, they have a lot of time to really explore and try different things and reshoot a scene if they wanted to. It just felt like there was more room to be creative and fail and try things”
On which show has been her favorite to work on so far:
“There all so different. I mean I loved The Leftovers. It was my first big experience. It took me all over the world. It gave me a lot of people that I love. I really loved that. Will I loved in a different way, so those two are probably tied”.
On the genre she would love to do next:
“I would like to do a horror film. I think the horror films and horror actors are so under appreciated. It is really hard to do and to be screaming and dying every day for weeks at a time while shooting this movie, it takes a toll. I think it would a really fun challenge”.
On what is to come for her:
“I worked on Season 3 of Love, the Netflix show, so people can look forward to seeing me in that whenever it comes out. I have a couple of other things under wraps right now that I can’t talk about just yet, but I have a lot of exciting things coming up”