Interview with Elisa Lasowski
Interview with Elisa Lasowski, who plays Queen Marie-Thérèse in BBC Two drama Versailles.
Published: 10 May 2016
The tabloid newspapers at the time were much more interested in King Louis’ mistresses, but many historians are now saying that Marie-Thérèse was a lot smarter and a bigger influence than some others would give her credit for.
Where do we find Queen Marie-Thérèse at the beginning of Versailles series one?
She's confined to a room because she is pregnant. Back then this was the case with many women in the later stages of pregnancy to protect their unborn baby and to protect the woman too. So Marie-Thérèse is confined to a room at Versailles just about to give birth, and alongside this she has to endure living with the King’s mistresses. One of whom is Louise de La Vallière (played by Sarah Winter), who’s been the King’s mistress for at least a good six years at that stage and is also having children with him too. The baby Marie-Thérèse is about to have is not her first, either - she’d had children with the King before this point.
Could you describe Marie-Therese’s relationship with King Louis XIV (George Blagden)?
Marie-Thérèse is the King’s cousin. They were cousins twice over actually, as both the father and mother were already cousins. A lot of the marriages at the time were alliances between cousins in fact. Marie-Thérèse knew from a young age that she’d probably be marrying Louis, and even had a portrait of him in her court back in Spain. She used to walk past him when she was a young girl and giggle and say she loved him, so you could say that she grew up conditioned from a young age knowing that Louis would likely be her husband one day.
Marie-Thérèse was genuinely in love with the King. She genuinely loved him and was very unhappy that he was deceiving her, and she was always hoping that he would come back. Louis had made a promise that he would always return each evening to retire in her room, and she always held him to that and was always disappointed when it didn’t happen. I think she went through her life saying “you promised, you promised, you promised!”
In her relationship with the King, she was very much the shadow to the sun. Whereas some historians were not interested in Marie-Thérèse because the tabloid newspapers at the time were much more interested in King Louis’ mistresses, many are now saying that Marie-Thérèse was actually a lot smarter and a bigger influence than some others would give her credit for. She was trying to create an equilibrium with the King and keep him grounded - he was often so ‘far out’ in his approach that she would try to create balance in a more ordered way.
How much did you know about Versailles and the Court of King Louis XIV before you started filming? Is there anything you’ve discovered from working on the show that has surprised you?
I’m French, but I grew up in the Netherlands. I went to an international school where I started to learn English from the age of seven, which is why I’m bilingual, and I speak Spanish as well - hence me being cast as Marie-Thérèse. I have a lot of languages! At the school I was in we learned European history, and though I don’t think I learned as much about Louis XIV as I would have if I was in a French school, I did know about European history in this period. When I got the role of Marie-Thérèse I spent quite a bit of time at the British Library looking through books on that period, because I thought it was the perfect opportunity to delve into a world I didn’t know all that much about.
I learned loads, as you would when you start to research that closely. Marie-Thérèse is widely credited as bringing the orange to France and making it a popular treat. She also used to drink chocolate – she was well known for that. There’s loads - and I mean loads - of details and historical enigmas that I found out.
Finally, what have been the most enjoyable elements of working on Versailles for you?
We’re used to it by now, but initially it was obviously the costumes and the hair and the wigs. They’re just fascinating to see close up. As is the way they create the wigs - they sew them one hair at a time, and the costumes are all made to measure too. Marie-Thérèse’s costumes have got incredible little details that you’d never catch on the camera but you see close up.
The spectacle of it all was so amazing thanks to the incredible locations we were filming at. So many stunning castles and different locations around Paris, plus the interiors - the reconstructions of the palaces - that we’ve done in studios are just amazing to see. You look at the tapestries they’ve used for the wall and the fake marble that they’ve created that looks so real. It’s just unbelievable. Now we’re doing series 2 we’ve become quite used to it, but it’s still just as fascinating.
We’re also very lucky because we have an amazing cast and crew - who are all so nice and we all get on - which is kind of miraculous. Everyone is just wonderful and that’s really enjoyable because there’s always a really good vibe on set, which is really important for such a big show.
