Wolf Hall Q&A with Hilary Mantel and Claire Foy | BFI

[@EarlofDarling]

Just finished the Wolf Hall trilogy and I am still in shock at how phenomenal a writer Hillary Mantel was. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that had dialogue as sharp, witty, smart, funny, sad or intelligent as what I read in these three book. This woman was a genius and gone much too soon. ps: claire foy, another female goddess looking very pregnant! this also musta been right before she landed the role of QEII!

[@kathleenhandron3092]

Her words bring me to tears. What a human being. How the actors and others must grieve her loss.

[@Name-or5ne]

wolf hall is the best piece of television ever made and claire's performance as anne is one of the best performances in any show or movie whatsoever. just perfection.

[@jangreen5618]

wolf hall is brilliant , Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell is just brilliant.

[@preppyparisienne]

I love this interview: the questions don't feel rushed and everyone was asked intelligent and interesting questions. Wolf hall is a masterpiece, clearly the team behind its production put their whole hearts into it.

[@lanalexclark]

So cute how Claire Stroking her pregnant belly.

[@annamcuthbert3993]

Brilliant drama series. I also liked Claire in The Crown as well

[@karenkaren3189]

Mantel is a truly brilliant woman and one of the best writers we have.

[@karenkaren3189]

I just realized this interview is 2 years old-I hope the last book will be published soon!

[@erpollock]

I love Debbie Wiseman's Tudor music. Perfectly composed.

[@louise-yo7kz]

I love Dame Hillary's voice and her manner of expression. Brilliant

[@alphacentauri2134]

Dame Hilary Mantel, I love your voice and your books; you're just awesome!

[@madeleinemasterson]

What must it be like to see your work transformed like this!! I am fascinated by it all - and Cromwell we can share in his experience - as good as I wanted it to be, no better.

[@kathryneconomou791]

This version of the Tudor story, which has been beaten to death in my view, is absolutely the most realistic and the Best. We're not sitting through "porn sex" scenes, which makes me just roll my eyes. This version is sophisticated and the acting is Brilliant. It actually humanizes Cromwell and Henry VIII. Hope there will be a continuation of Wolf Hall.

[@eo31772]

You are very right. I, too, am hoping and praying for a continuation of this great mini series sooner rather than later!

[@ajadrew]

Episode 1 of the final part has just aired on BBC - but I'm sure you knew that already!

[@ROUBA33]

Mark Rylance is the greatest actor in the world! I Love that Man

[@veggie42]

he was born near me in Willesborough in Ashford ,Kent and his talent I feel isn't appreciated enough here :( I agree and like his chemistry with Charity (Mary Boleyn)who is Tunbridge Wells born which is good for Kent :)

[@ROUBA33]

really?! People are stupid ! The people of Kent should be proud of him !

[@shellyhill6804]

Debbie Wiseman's score is my favorite of all time. So beautiful, so perfect for the series.

[@gailspencer4451]

I have just re watched it for the 3rd time. I love it. I really want to see season 2. I am trying to find the ETA....

[@tomlynch7434]

Genevieve Bujold, Natalie Dormer, Claire Foy...The 3 best Boleyns! All played different aspects of who Anne was. Put them together and you have "Anne sans tête".

[@davidevans3227]

love to hear Mark rylance talking about wolf hall and Cromwell, struggling to find anything.. (longer than a couple of minutes).. thanks for this 🙂

[@Incandescence555]

I only came here to hear Claire Foy say 'Cremwell'..

[@brontewcat]

I love the first novel and I love the fact Mantel has written about Thomas Cromwell in a much sympathetic light. I think she has made Anne far more horrible than she was in reality. All the people in this story had black and white aspects to their characters, and would have been nice too be more nuanced. Anne undoubtedly was ruthless, but that doesn’t mean she was guilty of adultery, which seems to be what is suggested.

[@daleywhaley]

I so hope he comes back for the second series, just will not be the same if they now can't afford him

[@johnnyjohnny2650]

Awesome, great video. Thanks for the upload.

[@st.germain6476]

I have never seen one bad portrayal of Anne. Genevieve Bujold, Dorothy Tutin, Natalie Dormer, Claire Foy - all excellent.

[@4Mr.Crowley2]

Natalie Dormer in The Tudors was much better than Portman in The Other Boleyn Girl. It made Dormer's career, and she also brought out the aspects of Anne that get lost to history -- she was a beautiful dancer, for example, mesmerizing every person at court with her dancing skills. And Dormer who had some dance training and great grace brings this out beautifully. Her Anne felt very real.

[@clare5one]

+aleister crowley Genevieve Bujold did a great job dancing and playing cat and mouse with H8 also.

[@4Mr.Crowley2]

Yes, true about Genevieve. Claire also did a smashing portrayal of Anne -- not the dancing courtier Anne but the whip-smart girl who knew (but didn't want to believe) she was in terrible peril. Her arrogance and insecurity with Cromwell is just beautifully done.

[@juanitarichards1074]

Genevieve Bujold showed the playful side of Anne, which none of the others did.

[@britishfilminstitute]

Author Hilary Mantel and director Peter Kosminsky on how they adapted award-winning novel #WolfHall.

[@ThefightingCelt]

Hilary Mantel speaks like Sister Wendy . Wolf Hall ( tv series ) is wonderful .

[@earshoes3282]

The mirror and the light brought me here.

[@bretteveretthowell3276]

Read A Place Of Greater Safety by her, about the French Revolution. I read the Cromwell books first but prefer this*

[@DragonHeart613]

I've been a fan of Claire Foy ever since Little Dorrit. Don't know much about the plot about Wolf Hall only that it's set during the reign of the infamous Henry The 8th but it looks real good. Can anybody give a rundown about what the plot is? Not asking for spoilers just want the basics. Is Claire pregnant cause she looks pregnant in this interview?

[@maggiesmith2600]

It concerns Thomas Cromwell's role in The King's Great Matter, which is what they called Henry the 8th's determination to rid himself of wife #1 and marry wife #2, and then get rid of her as well, when she failed to give him a son.

[@ZanderPingu]

09:23 ...has watching a performer like Mark Rylance give you any new ideas or fresh insights into a character that you are still working on in some ways? Hilary Mantel: This is a unique project because usually when an adaptation is done the book is closed it's finished and in this case the project is live, it's super live and what I have found is that particularly working with the stage production, working with this which is very different in feel talking to Peter Straughan the points of emphasis one wishes to draw out, there are themes that linger in the mind, these all work into the third book because it is a live process, the third book is still a working progress. The third book in a subterranean way feeds, two projects, it's certainly fed the stage script and i'm sure that in talking to Peter Straughan i've been able to transfer insights back as it were - you see the third book is called 'The mirror and the light', it mirrors what's gone before, it cast's light on it sometimes fresh light, sometime things are not as we thought, sometimes we come on them at a fresh angle, at some times gaps will be filled in, things we didn't know about Cromwells live things that I don't know about Cromwells life i'm waiting for him to tell me. Working callaboratively with a team like this, with a team like the one we've had for the stage plays, its a gift, because you pool your capacities, you have someone co-imagine with you, I think that has been the hallmark of these two projects people doing what they do best, doing it in collaboration, doing it superbly

[@gdsvalentine1193]

Please Hilary, write Cromwell's end.

[@chriseliothernandez]

The score was great but I wish they'd used more Francesco da Milano or Albert de Rippe or any Renaissance lutenist because funny thing there's a lute player in this story.

[@irenaresman5138]

I agree with Mrs. Mantel.

[@Problembeing]

Thank god the BBC didn’t make this in 2019. It would be like ‘War of the Worlds’... Hilary Mantel is an absolute genius and is incredibly grounded in her sincerity and integrity along with everyone involved along with her, without needing to couch things in terms of post-modernist revisionism currently pervading modern day retelling of history.

[@renshiwu305]

Anne Boleyn would be black and Thomas Cromwell would be gay (carrying on a secret relationship with Eustache Chapuys) in the 2019 version.

[@warrenstutely7151]

Please remember that r g ollingwood remark. "all history is modern history "

[@raystyles4569]

Let's hope theirs more to come .Film in 3D ? Like the hat xx.

[@kathleenb.9917]

Anne was horrible? Are you forgetting she lived in a very different time? She was no dummy. She wasn't evil. She was a woman making it in a world dominated by men. How was she horrible?

[@hollyylloh515]

Stay positive with Sherpa 💖🌝🐶🙏❤️❤️🌟🇬🇧🤔💙🤗🐕♥️😇💐💯

[@denisehansen9055]

The production was excellent but "horrible" Anne Boleyn was not treated fairly in the book or in the television series. As Claire Foy notes, we are really not privy to her inner monologue as we are with Cromwell and that presented a challenge to the actress. Although Foy does bring sympathy to the character of Anne Boleyn she comes off as brittle, manipulative and desperate through out.

[@giddygrub7176]

I take it to be writing of characters as how Cromwell views them, this is his story/POV afterall.

[@watermelonmanied]

What a shame they've now betrayed the author and spoiled the legacy by Woking it in the new series. Every other scene has a black in it. Kominsky sold out.

[@juanitarichards1074]

It wasn't a patch on The Tudors. Opulent and witty? No. I'm afraid not.

[@juanitarichards1074]

@James Dowds The Tudor court did have some brilliant wits, Anne Boleyn being one of them. There is none of that shown here. Nor the opulent splendid gowns that so shocked the court when Anne turned up wearing royal purple while Katherine of Aragon was still queen and still at court.

[@c.a.savage5689]

Apples and oranges. "The Tudors" is eye candy. "Wolf Hall" (which also combines "Bring Up the Bodies") is a literary adaptation of the two books. Frankly, if you've read the latter, "The Tudors" is unwatchable.

[@juanitarichards1074]

@@c.a.savage5689 I found Wolf Hall unreadable. Full of endless inane dialogue none of the real characters would have ever spoken. I was bored to tears, but for me, The Tudors brought them to life and I had read every book about the by then- all the historical books and seen every documentary. Starkey also brought them to life for me in print but the Tudors made them see, like real people we could relate to.

[@c.a.savage5689]

@@juanitarichards1074 Well then, dear lady, it would seem your time would be better spent leaving positive remarks on "The Tudors" than trashing a two-time winner of the Booker Man Prize. Just a thought. Have a great day!

[@juanitarichards1074]

@@c.a.savage5689 I'm not one of the sheeple going with the popular choice. Starkey is my favorite Tudor historian and author.

[@clare5one]

Well written, but the costumes were NOT accurate at all.