The Borgias – Casting Announcements

Additional casting information for The Borgias:

Click on cast photo to enlarge:

Also see The Borgias Cast page at The Borgias Wiki for more photos and details.

SHOWTIME has cast English actress Joanne Whalley as the female lead in its Renaissance crime drama The Borgias.

Whalley will play Vanossa, mother of the Borgia children who were fathered by Rodrigo Borgia (Jeremy Irons) before he became one of history’s most infamous popes. Vanossa once was a courtesan with a disreputable past.

Whalley has played several roles on the small screen, including the title character in the 1994 TV miniseries “Scarlett” and the 2000 TV movie “Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis.”

British actress Holliday Grainger has leapfrogged over star names to take the part of Lucrezia Borgia.

The 21-year-old Mancunian will play opposite Jeremy Irons and Derek Jacobi in the ten-part series The Borgias, which starts shooting in Budapest in July.

Some episodes will be directed by Neil Jordan, who also wrote the screenplay. Years ago, he wanted to make a big-screen version.

Executives for the U.S. cable channel Showtime met with other actresses in Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris and Rome and screen-tested scores of young women – some of them big-name stars – before they decided Holliday was their ‘chosen one’.

Lucrezia is a star-making part. She was supposedly the most vilified woman in history. One Italian historian called her ‘the greatest whore there ever was’ and a femme fatale of the highest order. Others assert she was unfairly pilloried, perhaps for the sins of her father and brothers.

Jeremy Irons will play Lucrezia’s father Rodrigo Borgia (who later became Pope Alexander VI).

Francois Arnaud has been cast as Lucrezia’s brother Cesare Borgia, while Colm Feore will be Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, who later became Pope Julius II.

Actor Sir Derek Jacobi will play Cardinal Orsini in the first two episodes. Jacobi’s previous film credits include Henry V, Gladiator, Gosford Park and The Golden Compass.

Francis Ford Coppola modeled the storyline of Godfather III on the Borgias, and found their ruthlessness and Machiavellian scheming translated perfectly to his 20th-century tale about the Mafia.

Ruta Gedmintas (“The Tudors”) has been cast as Ursula in the Showtime series “The Borgias,” opposite Jeremy Irons. The APA- and United Agents-repped actress will play a young abused wife who falls in love with the Irons character’s son.

Luke Pasqualino, best known as Freddie from Series 3 & 4 of Skins, has also joined The Borgias cast.

Dutch star Lotte Verbeek has been cast in The Borgias.Verbeek will play Giulia Farnese, the young mistress of Rodrigo Borgia (Irons). Farnese was famed for her beauty and several 15th century masters are thought to have used her for inspiration, including Raphael in his portrait “Young Woman With Unicorn.”  Verbeek is currently on set of The Borgias in Budapest. The 28-year-old actress won the best actress prize at Locarno last year for starring turn opposite Stephen Rea in Urszula Antoniak’s “Nothing Personal” and was one of the talents picked as a European Shooting Star at the Berlin Film Festival in February. But Verbeek’s London agent Jeremy Conway told THR he pitched Verbeek on the basis of her striking resemblance to portraits of the real-life Farnese.

EMMANUELLE CHRIQUI TO GUEST STAR IN NEW EPIC DRAMA SERIES, PREMIERING IN SPRING 2011 ON SHOWTIME® LOS ANGELES, CA – (September 22, 2010) – Emmanuelle Chriqui (Entourage) will guest star on the new SHOWTIME drama series THE BORGIAS in three episodes as “Sancia,” the beautiful and seductive Neapolitan princess who marries the Pope’s youngest son Joffre (Aidan Alexander), even though she has her eye on another Borgia brother.  The series is headlined by Academy Award® winner Jeremy Irons and is currently shooting in Budapest for a Spring 2011 premiere.

AIDAN ALEXANDER is from Bournemouth, England and has previously appeared in a Nestle Wholegrain Cereal commercial; the short film The Time Traveller, directed by Tom Cliffe; the short film The Run, directed by Tristan Casey and has appeared in the musical Footprints of Africa at the Lighthouse Theatre in Poole, England. He is represented by Abacus Agency and the Elliott Brown Agency.

THE BORGIAS is a complex, unvarnished portrait of one of history’s most intriguing and infamous dynastic families.  The series begins as the family’s patriarch Rodrigo (Irons), becomes Pope Alexander, propelling him, his three Machiavellian sons Cesare (Francois Arnaud), Juan (David Oakes), Joffre (Aidan Alexander) and his scandalously beautiful daughter, Lucrezia (Holliday Grainger) to become the most powerful and influential family of the Italian Renaissance. Joanne Whalley also stars as Vanossa, the mother of Rodrigo’s children.

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Jeremy Irons picks up BMW R1200 GS

21 September 2010

Jeremy Irons picked up a BMW R1200 GS motorbike to use in Budapest, while filming The Borgias:

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The Borgias Wines

Showtime Signs Wine Licensing Deal With Votto Vines

Press Release: 7 September 2010 –

HAMDEN, Conn. – Showtime Networks Inc., in partnership with CBS Consumer Products, has entered into a licensing agreement with Votto Vines Importing (Votto Vines) for a line of Italian wines based on the upcoming SHOWTIME series The Borgias. This will be the first imported wine licensing venture for Showtime Networks and CBS Consumer Products.

“We are thrilled to be working with Showtime and CBS Consumer Products on this unique opportunity,” says Votto Vines President and CEO Michael Votto.  He adds, “This is a tremendous opportunity, and we look forward to developing a successful initiative together.”

In keeping with the setting of The Borgias, the red and white varietals will be imported from the northern Italian region of Veneto.  Each wine will retail for under $15/bottle and will be produced by an award-winning family winery located in the heart of the Bianco di Custoza zone, on the outskirts of the historic center of Verona.  The target release date for The Borgias wines is the spring of 2011, in advance of the show’s premiere.

“In this economy, wine consumers are seeking high-quality wines at great price points,” says Votto Vines SVP of Sales Jeremy Jerome.  “That is what The Borgias wine brand will represent.  Traditional Italian varietals from the region of Veneto at a price point that will appeal to both the novice and experienced wine consumer alike.  Having nearly finalized the selection process for The Borgias wines, we are confident that wine consumers will be very excited about these wines.”

THE BORGIAS, a one-hour drama series based on the infamous Italian Renaissance family, will premiere on SHOWTIME in spring 2011 with nine episodes. Oscar®-winning actor Jeremy Irons will star in the epic drama as Rodrigo Borgia, the cunning, manipulative patriarch of the Borgia family who ascends to the highest circles of power within Renaissance-era Italy.   Additionally, Academy Award®-winning director Neil Jordan (“The Crying Game”) will create and executive produce the series and will direct the first two episodes.  The series is currently in production in Budapest.

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New Kilcoe Photos

New, recent photos of Kilcoe Castle taken during the Heir Island Regatta 2010, during the third week of August. (Photos copyright Heir Island Images)

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Jeremy Irons – Playing for Real

Jeremy Irons has contributed to the book Playing for Real – Actors on Playing Real People.

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ACTORS including Jeremy Irons, Simon Callow, Sir Ian McKellan and Liverpool’s own David Morrissey have some interesting observations on the task of playing the roles of real people in the new book Playing for Real by Mary Luckhurst and Tom Cantrell (modern drama professor and researcher at the University of York).

Here’s an excerpt of Jeremy’s interview:

Jeremy Irons on playing Harold Macmillan in Howard Brenton’s Never So Good at the National Theatre:

I learned he had a sense of humour, a twinkle in his eye. He was a little shy and rather humble. I was mainly struck by his dry wit. A lot of the time he is with Anthony Eden, who was famed for his temper, he is trying to diffuse the situation.


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Jeremy Irons narrates The Majestic Plastic Bag – A Mockumentary

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HealtheBay | August 14, 2010

Help stop our 19 billion bag-a–year habit in California and put an end to plastic pollution. Tell your Senator to support the AB 1998 at http://www.HealtheBay.org/BagBill

You can make the difference.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. Aug. 16, 2010 – As the California Senate prepares to vote on AB 1998, Heal the Bay, an environmental watchdog organization that promotes safe, clean and healthy coastal waters has released a film [http://www.healthebay.org/mockumentary/] charting the “lifecycle” of a plastic bag to promote awareness of plastic pollution in California and beyond.

The mockumentary, filmed in the style of a nature channel documentary program and playfully titled “The Majestic Plastic Bag,” is narrated by Academy Award-winner Jeremy Irons and tracks the “migration” of a plastic bag from a grocery store parking lot to the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” in the Pacific Ocean.

Though lighthearted in tone, the short film hammers home the stark reality of California’s plastic bag pollution situation: 19 billion bags are used every year, creating over 123,000 tons of unnecessary waste, costing taxpayers $25 million in cleanup costs a year. Less than five percent of all single-use plastic bags are recycled, with many ending up as litter and in the ocean as plastic pollution.

“Rather than lecturing the audience, we wanted to create a film that would capture people’s attention with humor,” said Mark Gold, president of Heal the Bay. “At the same time, we saw this as subversive way to make viewers realize the serious, far-reaching problem of single-use plastic bag pollution.”

The Senate is expected to take a floor vote on AB 1998 by the end of August. The measure would create a uniform statewide policy for addressing all types of single-use bags. The Governor has indicated his support if the bill reaches his desk.

If passed, the landmark bill would make California the first state to ban single-use plastic bags at supermarkets, convenience stores and large retail establishments with pharmacies; limit the distribution of paper bags at these stores to encourage consumers to adopt reusable bags; and require reusable bags to be available for purchase at these stores.

“The big goal and challenge for me was creating a piece that was both entertaining as well as informative. I come from the world of comedy, and I believe strongly in the power of humor as a way of making accessible that which otherwise could be inaccessible, uninteresting information,” said director Jeremy Konner of Partizan Pictures.

The film was developed in collaboration between Konner, the creative team at DDB LA, creative director Kevin McCarthy, writers Sarah May Bates and Regie Miller, and Erik Haase, DP. With little to no budget, the entire project was created solely with donated time and resources – many from Heal the Bay supporters within the industry who believe in the concept and the cause.

The film was shot on location throughout Los Angeles and is available on the Heal the Bay website, http://www.healthebay.org as part of its marine debris education and advocacy work. Earlier this year, Heal the Bay launched the first part of this campaign with “Trash Your Friends” [http://trashed.healthebay.org], an April Fool’s Day prank, in which users could “trash” a website with animated garbage to call attention to plastic bag blight. The campaign became an Internet hit for its inventive take on raising awareness about the serious issue of pollution.

More information about AB 1998 and plastic bag pollution is available at http://www.healthebay.org.

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‘The Borgias’ Behind the Scenes

Photo by KK via Twitter

Photo by KK via Twitter

The Borgias set at Korda Studios in Etyek, Hungary

Photo by David Oakes via Twitter

"Beautiful day yachting at Balaton with my pretend family... Brilliant part of Hungary. Lucky Hungarians! " Photo by David Oakes who plays Juan Borgia in "The Borgias"

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Unrequited Love – starring Max Irons

Unrequited Love – a short film starring Max Irons:
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Jeremy Irons – at ‘The Half’

The Half: Photographs of Actors Preparing for the Stage
by Simon Annand

For 25 years actors have given Simon Annand unprecedented access to photograph them during the thirty minutes before curtain up, known as ‘the half’. These rare images show the myriad ways actors focus for the performance ahead and offer a dazzling gallery of our most celebrated actors.

In 2008, Annand’s photographs from The Half were part of an exhibit at the National Theatre in London from September 22 to November 9.

Click HERE to buy the book from Amazon.com

Click HERE to buy a print of one of Annand’s photos of Jeremy.

Here is Annand’s 1986 photo of Jeremy:

Here is Annand’s 2006 photo of Jeremy:

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Interview and photos from 2009 Art Film Fest

In June 2009, Jeremy Irons was in Czechoslovakia to attend the Art Film Ffest in Trencianske Teplice and to accept the Actor’s Mission Award.

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Here’s an article from iDNEZ.cz (awkwardly translated from Czech by Google): Source

July 26, 2009 8:12

“People prefer their dark side hidden,” says British actor Jeremy Irons.  But apparently his work has always enjoyed the most.  In late June he came to Slovakia and the Art Film Fest in Trenčianske Teplice took the actor prize mission.

Charismatic British actor Jeremy Irons made his debut in 1980 in the film Russian ballet dancer Nijinsky.  The film combines, in which he starred with Robert De Niro, his six years later earned a Golden Globe nomination.  Yet appeared last year in continuation of the Pink Panther.

In London the Duke of Yorks Theatre, you played the game of Christopher Hampton  and passion based on the novel written by Sándor Márai. Did you know that Marai was born in Slovakia?
But died in America. You probably would not return before you will be democracy, right?  It’s a beautiful book.  I read it several years before I performed in that game. The character should be played by older players, but has so many monologues, that they would probably have problems.

Marai wrote this novel, that every great passion is hopeless, otherwise it was just a barter lukewarm interest.
Some truth to it will be.  People looking for an impossible dream. It is very hard to maintain passion when it is permitted.

Often you receive characters deceivers, but also gay.
It’s more coincidence.  As an actor, doing characters that we offer.

Jeremy Irons

. Have performed even mysterious, to the horror genre. Do you own the dark side?
We all have sites that are trying to hide from others.  Now you as an actor but I always attract, positive characters interest me.  Still, I believe that movies, where I worked, the results are positive. I try to live fully, to explore the lives of most.

When you’re in the movie Mission climbed a waterfall, it looked rather dangerous. It was so in reality?
I think it was, even though the corner waiting for rock climbers, who would catch me when I slipped.  As an actor and director, I love looking for a job that attracts me and tested.

The biopic of American painter Georgia O’Keeffe play her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz. He allegedly said that a photograph is not art and that artists can be a shoemaker.
It is not, as even the image is automatically art. Umělecké dílo musí komunikovat. Artwork must communicate.  They are painters and artists.  Indeed, most collectors of contemporary art is more about investing.

And the film is still business.
Sure.  I do not know if I ever make a movie that is a work of art.  Can be an art book, or music?  I’m not sure.

You play the harmonica and the violin, what music means to you?
I think it has magical powers. I recently saw Leonard Cohen.  Created an atmosphere at the concert, which hardly reach any other way.  Music will touch you, reminding you to some long-forgotten feeling.

How do you work with your voice?
Not realize it, it’s just a sound, which I try to speak.  If you want to reproduce the feeling of acting, you have to concentrate on ideas, not to vote.  Good players are trying to get into the heads of Mozart.  Bad players play only the notes.

Often you occupy the roles of people from high society.
Yet I am not an aristocrat, I am middle class like you, I was tall and good to me sits dress. That is all.

How did you get to work on the film Power of the Powerless, which tells the story of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia?
Often they want me to record comments on the various documents.  I worked briefly in Prague, I have several Czech friends who had emigrated after 1968, but with Czech dissidents was.  He called me from a purely professional reasons and I took it like that.  I think this movie is well done and that it seeks to address the issue honestly.

British perceptions of Central Europe still a bit Kafkaesque?
Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes - The Merchant of Venice I like that I do not see Europe, but the tourism industry is to many Eastern European countries similarly open. Behind the Iron Curtain, we saw only a black space where there is poverty and where they do not travel.  When I was filming in Romania, I saw the beautiful buildings that remained there from the 19th století. century.  Although today most of them devastated, I believe that there once life returns.

I know about you that we support a free Tibet …
It seems that nobody wants Tibet to do anything. All Western countries want to trade with China.  And the Chinese do the same thing, what did the Russians – they make about their country’s security buffers.

You have also donated money to the charity that promotes yoga in prison. Why?
It’s simple. . Everywhere in the world, an increasing number of people who are leaving the prison worse than when they went into it.  In prison he spends a lot of time with yourself, yoga and meditation can help them physically and mentally stronger, overcome anger.  But in many prisons, he thinks that yoga is the last thing we need to prisoners. Similarly, some governments believe that art is the last thing you need
myslet. think.

Practicing yoga and yourself?
No, but I have meditated for many years.

What do you mean admiration by women? Even at a festival in Teplice Trenčianske you gave a lot of signatures.
This signing was a little bored, but I’m flattered.  I think people are not interested either way I do, but rather my characters, which are to be aligned.  If I went somewhere and nobody would have cared about me, it would mean that I’m doing my job well.

Sometimes call the former partners or film, how to?
I do not do it often, but when I was in New York, I met with Meryl Streep and Glenn Close.  When I was last in Italy, we have seen with Ornela Mutti, France is trying to find Fanny Ardant and Juliette Binoche.

They’re just a professional relationship?
No, it is often the friendship.

And something more?
If so, would I say? (Laughs)

Authors:

  • Zuzana Uličianska, , editor of the daily SME

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