Mary & George’s Nicholas Galitzine Details the ‘Sickeningly Brutal’ Finale Scene That ‘Shocked’ Julianne Moore
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Warning: The following contains spoilers for the Mary & George finale. Proceed at your own risk!
Mary & George‘s quest to rule the Court of England came to a bloody end in the finale of the Starz limited series.
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After George’s plan to land Prince Charles the Infanta as his wife failed, the Duke of Buckingham set his sights on war with Spain. George’s relationship with King James was also spiraling, allowing Mary to temporarily gain a foothold in the palace with James and confront George about the “monster” he’d become.
And yet, mother and son came together when James declared George a traitor and that he would be hung to death. Seeing no way out, Mary and George subdued James with poppy milk, but James fought back, forcing George to suffocate his lover.
Five years later, George met his own premature demise when a soldier stabbed him to death for the wars George started for nothing and the countless lives they cost. Mary did not even want to know the details of how her son died when offered, instead plainly stating, “Why? How else would this end?”
Below, actor Nicholas Galitzine breaks down the dramatic finale, including George’s “fitting” ending, the hardest scene he’s ever had to film and the moment that even left star Julianne Moore “really shocked.”
TVLINE | They really threw a lot of difficult material at you with this finale. What was the most challenging aspect or scene of this episode for you?
Oh, that’s such a good question. I mean, there was so much to do. There’s that wonderful scene in Parliament… It was funny, because Tony [Curran] and I did our parliament scenes back-to-back, and Tony completely smashed his out the park. And so, I remembered that being challenging, because also, in terms of [George’s] dialogue, it is much more of a physical performance than a verbal performance in a lot of ways. Tony and Julie have these amazing sort of soliloquies, and Francis Bacon, as well. But George is sort of very quiet and ponderous. And so, that was fun, actually, to get to explore this sort of galvanized version of George.
The scene between George and Charles on the beach in Spain was really, really difficult because that was one of our final scenes, and it was so windy… and Sam [Blenkin’s] horse was kind of difficult and kept wandering away from him. So I had to grab on to Sam’s reins to pull him close to me. My wig was blowing in my eyes, so I couldn’t see. I’m trying to get it out of my face. We couldn’t hear because of the sound of the wind. At one point, a poly board snapped off, flew and jabbed my horse in the ribs. Luckily, no harm was done to the horse, but it’s like a little kick in the ribs, and it makes them move a ton. So just the technicality of that scene was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do as an actor because there was so many [challenges while] trying to perform properly, as well.
TVLINE | There’s some real show-off moments for George in the finale. There’s this great scene where he basically tells Mary off and says he has nothing to be sorry for. Julianne Moore is a very formidable actress. What was it like going up against her, particularly in that moment?
It’s funny, because — and not to dull any of Julie’s incredible brilliance — but at that point, we’ve become so comfortable with each other, and you have to be because, at that point, George feels like he’s stepped out from her shadow and he has a sense of autonomy. I think there’s real genuine truth in that statement. He is kind of the product of her machinations. He’s exactly what she made him to be. And so, he very much feels like he’s kind of been pushed to that point. And obviously, I don’t think George enjoys the death and the pain. Sandie’s death is a really interesting one because — we kind discussed this a lot — there was clearly a lot of jealousy there, because George always has felt that there was conditional love from his mother, whereas there was kind of a purity between her and Sandie. But he kind of had been pushed to that point, and now it’s survival, and who’s the bigger meal ticket: Mary or James? It’s the King of England.
TVLINE | Mary has some delicious lines in the show. Do you have a favorite Mary zinger?
Oh, so many! Julie and I say to each other, “He’s so c–kstruck, it’s like a curse,” because the alliteration is so wonderful. That’s probably our favorite just because it’s so funny to say. As I was saying before, it was really challenging for me, actually, playing a character who doesn’t get to speak in the same way that Julie does or Tony does, because they do have such delicious, informative lines. I only get that sort of brief moment in Parliament. But yeah, it was just so wonderful to be able to watch her fire these incredible lines up.
TVLINE | It’s not exactly a zinger, but you got a pretty good line when George said, “They don’t give me anything. I am the power. I am the King. I am England.”
Yeah, we only really see George in that capacity in the final couple of episodes, when his confidence is really starting to build. The fact that he feels confident enough to say that is pretty telling, as well, because so much of what Mary and George do is they work in the shadows, and it’s so not about telling you [their] true intentions. Originally, it was written that that was a very sort of big scene [and] loud… [It’s] so much more ominous if it’s like he’s kind of stalking. He’s so serious when he says that. But how quickly he falters when James, essentially, sentences him to death. He’s completely a fragile boy once again. So clearly he doesn’t have as much power as he thinks he does.
TVLINE | Talk to me about filming the scene where George suffocates James to death. What was that like to shoot?
It was difficult to film, because there was a technical aspect of it that’s really hard to do. From my setup, it’s hard to fit a camera under me… I’m trying to remember if [Tony] was even there under me for my coverage. I think in a bunch of setups he wasn’t… Bless him, one of his rings is quite sharp and so he kind of nicked my chin and cut it open when we were doing that…. The leadup, the conversation with Mary before feeding him the poppy milk, that’s all remorse and somber and sad, but then it’s like, “This person is fighting back, and if I don’t kill them, I’m gonna die,” and so it’s brutal.
I remember seeing it for the first time. I remember we just did some even more intense stuff — really, really brutal — and I kind of was thinking, “Did we go far enough in the edit? Where it ended up, do we go far enough?” and then actually seeing people’s reaction to it… Julie wasn’t there, initially. We didn’t have her for some reason, and then she came back on the second day to shoot it, and she’d never seen it. She was really shocked by how sickeningly brutal it was.
Tony and I, we were just so in sync and so comfortable with each other by the end… But it’s sad, because I really do see them as kind of a married couple, and we don’t really get many moments of marital bliss for them. It’s sad to see George, knowing how loving and pure he was at one point, just kill off the final part of his sweetness and his purity.
TVLINE | Ultimately, George’s choices lead to his own demise. Do you think he got the ending he deserved?
Well, I mean, how many of them were really George’s choices, and how many of them were Mary’s choices for George? The interesting thing is seeing Mary at the end at that table, kind of empty, to be honest. There is this sense of this accomplishment, but there is the sense of, “What is it all without my closest confidant, my favorite, my partner?”
History actually shines George in a very sort of interesting, confusing light because, yes, there was definite delusions. All of his expeditions against the Spanish, he very much fancied himself as this hero, very much like Raleigh, and failed in a lot of ways. But he was really brilliant in other ways, and his ability to get people on [his] side, his powers of seduction, actually, were extremely impressive. One thing that we unfortunately didn’t get to touch on was exploring his romance with the Queen of France, as well. He had pretty amazing sort of intentions through his education from his mother.
It was a sad way to see him go like that, but I think it was based on where he got to and the sheer arrogance and his complete lack of respect for human life by the end. He wants to become this hero at any cost. We see that in the leadup to the stabbing. The [soldier] mentions all the casualties… Whether it was French or Spanish, it didn’t matter to George. He had to achieve that sense of heroism. And so, I think it’s fitting. It’s sad, it’s tragic. I always like to think of what George could have been, but I think it’s fitting.
What did you think of Mary & George’s conclusion? Hit the comments!
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