'The Bastard Executioner' Postmortem: Sarah Sweeney Talks Jessamy's State of Mind
Spoiler alert! If you haven’t watched episode 7 of The Bastard Executioner, stop reading now. Sarah Sweeney, who plays Maddox’s wife, Jessamy, spoke to Yahoo TV about how she views the intriguingly unpredictable/unstable character that the crew has taken to calling “Jessacraycray.” You just might see her differently afterward.
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After Wilkin revealed his true identity to Lady Love and before he tried to complete his final revenge, he gave Jessamy the intimacy she’s so wanted. There’s that beautiful single tear that she sheds as they’re consummating their “marriage.” In your mind, what is she feeling?
I think a little bit of fear and relief. I remember the director [Ashley Way] at that point said, “You can look a bit more relaxed in that moment.” I sorta thought there has to be some degree of anxiety. Jessamy knows that he is not Maddy, but she’s sharing this intimate act with essentially a stranger, which is really sort of chilling in some respects. But tied in with that is this huge amount of relief for her.
That moment where she looked into Wilkin’s eyes in the village square and she decided to tell that lie [that he is her husband, Maddy], is something that there’s no going back from. The only outcome if she does go back on it surely is death for her and her two children, which she’s not prepared to let happen. So I think there might be some hope mixed in there, that this might actually work — that her and her family might be able to stay in this home that they now have, that she adores because all she’s known for most of her adult life is living in a wagon with Maddy traveling from place to place to try to find work. You’ve seen her struggle for six episodes to try to convince him this could work, and in that moment, I really feel that she believes it could, which I suppose is where the emotion comes from. But I think she’s totally terrified as well, because I don’t know the last time she was intimate with Maddy in a loving way. I think it’s terrifying for her to be touched in an affectionate way.
So it’s a whole mixture of things. I think she’s continuously in a state of anxiety about this lie unraveling. But she’s absolutely prepared to fight for it, which I find really interesting as well.
The word “crazy” gets thrown around a lot when fans talk about Jessamy. Do you think there’s an element of crazy there, or do you think she’s fully aware and in control of everything she’s doing to keep that lie going? How do you view her mental health at this point?
I sort of changed my mind as we got each episode. I keep shifting my opinion. I think she’s more complicated than just saying “crazy.” Some of the crew have nicknamed her “Jessacraycray,” which I’m quite fond of. [Laughs] We’re all more complicated than that, and mental health is obviously something that we’re still trying to figure out today. She’s emotionally and mentally broken from these years of abuse from Maddy. But I remember very early on in the pilot, Felix [Scott], who plays Maddy, and I sat down with Kurt [Sutter] and Paris [Barclay] and we discussed their relationship, and we decided that they’d both known each other since they were really small children, so probably about Lucca’s age in the show, 10 or 11. And so we felt that there was a huge amount of love and history that they both shared, and although there’s a lot about their relationship that’s damage and dysfunctional, there’s also lots about it that works, and they work as a couple. Maybe that sounds ridiculous, but their children work and their shared understanding of what Maddy does as a living, and their family unit and the protection of that.
Maybe I’ll shift your opinion about her. I’m trying to fight for her. Because I don’t feel that she is plain crazy. [Laughs] Those things that work about her and Maddy’s relationship that are good, that’s what she’s desperately clinging to in living this lie with Wilkin. What hasn’t been touched upon — because there’s such a strong focus on Jessamy trying to live this lie and make Wilkin believe this lie — is that muddled in all of that stuff is Jessamy dealing with the loss of her husband and her grief. I just feel that their relationship wasn’t all bad all of the time. So the lie that she tells in that moment where she see Wilkin as a good and tender man, it’s not as straight-forward as me looking at him and thinking, “Great. That’s a better man. He won’t hurt me.” [Laughs] I put “Husband upgrade” on Twitter one week. I think survival kicks in, in that moment, and it’s her dealing with her grief and the loss of her husband and her friend. I have this lovely idea that they were friends as children, and then that developed into a romance, and then they were married, and somehow, their marriage just completely lost its way and fell off the tracks — which I think is probably a lot to do with Maddy’s profession and how damaging that must have been on the people who had that as a job back then.
With Maddy gone, I think Jessamy is truly on her own with two young children. She’s got no other family or friends near to support her. Now that would be terrifying, so back then, that must have been really frightening. What interests me is that perhaps it is more to do with the loss of Maddy than the focus on, “Wow, Wilkin is great.” [Laughs]
Wilkin spending time with someone “fair” who’s not Jessamy is a trigger for her anger. I assume Wilkin never would have slept with her if he thought he’d see her again. What can you tease about their relationship moving forward?
I’m not sure how much I can say without getting into trouble… As I said to you, she’s prepared to absolutely fight for her home and fight for her new life with this man, who she sacrificed a lot for in just that tiny lie. There are going to be moments where Wilkin has to face the fact that he’s been honest with Lady Love and she now knows his true identity. It does get interesting in terms of the Jessamy-Love-Wilkin triangle. I think I can say that much. When I read it, I was like, “Whoaaaaa!”
Another moment that sticks in fans’ minds is Jessamy burning Lucca earlier in the season. How would you describe her motivation in that scene?
I think that moment is born from the scene where Jessamy finds Wilkin and Lucca in the dungeon having a conversation where they talk about the Bible and Wilkin says, “I’ll teach you to read, if you can help me with your mother’s worry.” How can I explain it… I think it’s always been Maddy, Lucca, Jessamy, and [their daughter] for so many years surviving together, looking after one another — “looking after one another” loosely in reference to Maddy, but he is a protector, he kept them safe and he provided. When there’s that moment where she witnesses Lucca and Wilkin having that clandestine agreement that she isn’t party to, I think that flips a switch in her, where she’s sort of thinking, “Well, no, hang on. This is my son, and he is mine. You’re essentially a stranger.” Maddy kept us in line, hurting us physically — I think it was a control issue with him. I think that potentially rubbed off on Jessamy a bit, and it’s a control issue for her, as well.
The act is really alarming and unsettling, obviously. I also thought it’s her again trying to make that lie very much a reality: Maddy hurt her, and you are Maddy — therefore he would continue to hurt her.
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How much were Kurt and Paris able to tell you about the character when you were auditioning? The level to which she’s committed to the lie wasn’t necessarily something viewers were expecting from the premiere.
Neither was I. [Laughs] So I’m totally with viewers. I knew very little, but I’m glad it’s gone that way because it’s sort of brilliant. I think the casting breakdown, if I remember correctly, just said, “broken from abuse from her husband for many years,” and then “pretty” just added on, which I thought was quite funny.
What was your casting process like then?
It was a tricky one because I’d already been offered a part in a Shakespeare play that I’ve always wanted to play and with a director I wanted to work with. I thought, “I’ll go in for the meeting, and if it doesn’t work out, then I can go and do this other job.” I only had the scenes that Jessamy is in [in the pilot], of which there are only a few. Sometimes it’s difficult with such a minimal amount — you don’t know if you’re making the right decisions and showing them what they want to see in the character. But she interested me because she’s suffered all types of abuse — physical, mental, emotional — at the hands of her not-so-nice husband, and obviously with that comes a vulnerability. But what I was interested in is that sort of strength in her as well, that fight that she shows in telling that lie, of her wanting to have a better life for her and her children.
I had to make a call on that theater job [after my first audition for TBX], because they needed to know. Because of that first meeting with Kurt and Paris, I felt I was sort of on the right track making decisions that they were happy with. It was purely the feeling of support that I got from Kurt and Paris that made me think, “Maybe this is worth the risk.” So I took the gamble, and I’m glad I did.
I also wanted to talk about the climactic scene in episode 7, Berwyn’s execution. Jessamy is in the crowd. What was that like to watch being filmed? I was watching a screener at my desk and had to take out my headphones and wheel my chair away a bit. I was so tense: “Don’t show it. Don’t show it. Don’t show it. They’re gonna show it. They’re gonna show it. They’re gonna show it.”
[Laughs] It was great. I actually watched the episode [Monday night], so it’s fresh in my mind as well. Those chains that are on the ground, that the horses are attached to, the camera lingers on them for a really long time for a few moments more of that agony while you’re watching. So I totally felt that as well.
I remember poor Paul [Bullion], the actor who’s lying down on that thing. It was such a cold and wet day in Wales. I think he was lying outside for a good four or five hours. It was one of the worst weather days I’ve experienced on The Bastard Executioner. Paul did turn a different color by the end. It was freezing. [Laughs]
For the last shot, they rigged up the prosthetics that they used in the actual shot. So for the final shot of the day, the horses did go. They hid Paul’s real body underneath that contraption, so all you could see was his actual head popping up, but it was lined up with a fake torso and fake limbs. For that last take, in the rain and the cold and the mud, the horses did go for it and the limbs went flying.
Wow.
[Laughs] I know. The director came over to me and he said, “So the camera’s just gonna be on you for this last shot.” I was like, “Ohmygod, and the limbs are gonna go flying. How am I gonna react to that?” There was sort of no reaction needed because these two legs and two arms went flying in the air, and you could see Paul’s head. So it looked very real in that moment for us. I’m glad it has that desired effect, because it did feel pretty miserable and grim on the actual day of filming it with the prosthetics flying around.
I’m hoping to see Jessamy and Milus interact again. We never got to see her conversation with him because of the way Milus ultimately revealed her little visit to Wilkin. I assume you and Stephen Moyer didn’t film it?
No, we didn’t. I’ve had very little to do with Stephen Moyer, and when we had that little scene in the corridor with Milus, Jessamy, and Leon, we finished the scene and we were like, “Oh, it would’ve been so good if we’d had that scene where she tells that lie about the knights, and to see Milus’s reaction.” Because I love that moment where he’s in the dungeon and he says, “Your wife’s truly crazy. You should take concern in that.” So hopefully in the future there will be moments, because they’re both — I think everyone in Ventrishire is a little bit desperate for the things that they want to happen. I think it would be very interesting — the pair of them trying to reason things out.
The Bastard Executioner airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on FX.
