Susanna Herbert
Stage costume pieces by the Royal Shakespeare Company, armour breast plate by The Wallace Collection and and bespoke armour ring by Odette Jewellery available at Wall & Jones
“I never saw her as malicious or naïve. I can see that now but you don’t think that way when playing the role. I was primarily telling the story of a woman fiercely protecting her son and her husband -”
“I love playing real people – researching their lives and backgrounds is hugely fulfilling.”
“I love reading Jorge Luis Borges. His short stories. They are wonderful philosophical conundrums.”
Susanna Herbert as Tsarina Alexandra
Exploring the Story of the Russian Revolution through the Docu-Drama and Netflix series The Last Czars
INTERVIEW BY DAEN PALMA HUSE
WRITTEN BY ZAK SHERLIKER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAM SHERGILL
SET DESIGN AND PRODUCTION BY DAEN PALMA HUSE AT DPH PRODUCTION
STYLING BY ALICIA JOSEPH
HAIR KAREN BRADSHAW
MAKE-UP JOHN CHRISTOPHER AT TERRI MANDUCA
NAILS JOANNA NEWBOLD
Actor Susanna Herbert does her research. She possesses that key ingredient; empathy and a desire to understand people. Herbert is interesting because she is interested in people, a passion that has led her to work behind the camera as well as in front of it. We meet her behind the scenes as she directs a new US cable network drama-documentary, Breaking The Band. Each episode covers in-depth, nitty-gritty stories of music legends; Simon and Garfunkel, The Police and Led Zeppelin among them.
Herbert’s first gig was as a five year old on a BBC Radio Leicester feature Thought for the Day; a poem called Hugs about the power of hugs, (which Herbert “still stands by”):
“I’d always acted; I was in my first professional musical when I was nine years old in Great Expectations with Brian Glover and Darren Day in the leading roles. I had always wanted to act but knew that it would be a very difficult profession to get into. So, being quite academic, I chose that route for a while instead…”
She is astute, whimsical and humble. Having acted throughout university, Herbert trained at the Oxford School of Drama. She went on to win parts in Patient Zero, Escape from a Nazi Death Camp and Something Happened. In her latest role she plays the ill-starred Tsarina Alexandra in the hit Netflix series, The Last Czars. Herbert thinks that the key to its huge success is that it is a historical documentary that is “led by the drama” – it feels as filmic as it is historically evaluative. It is a joy to watch.
“Having read history at university, the show’s historical accuracy was important but, for me, it wasn’t the most important thing. What mattered most to me was the emotional connection. How I could relate to this character and make her relatable to others.”
Susanna Herbert wears stage costume pieces by the Royal Shakespeare Company and helmet by The Wallace Collection
Herbert has studied the Russian Revolution and, it is fair to say, has an affinity with the country:
“My lung collapsed when I was 17 just before I had planned to take a gap year … I couldn’t fly anymore so my friend and I got a train from England through Europe and Siberia to Irkutsk, Mongolia, China and back again. Along the way, I spent time in both St Petersburg and Moscow and it only added to my fascination with the story of the Russian Revolution.”
Herbert truly embodies the resilience of Tsarina Alexandra in her performance. The perspective we glean is one of a protected, benign and perhaps naïve Royal. We learn that the Tsarina, grand-daughter of Queen Victoria, inherited her grandmother’s social conscience and pragmatism and enlisted as a nurse during the First World War. Indeed there is a sense that Alix is aware that she is shielded much more than those around her, although this self-awareness and benevolence become clouded as time goes on:
“I never saw her as malicious or naïve. I can see that now but you don’t think that way when playing the role. I was primarily telling the story of a woman fiercely protecting her son and her husband - but many people who have seen the show despise her, believing her to be vindictive and manipulative. For me that was a real insight into the contrast between embodying a role on set and how it is received, it can inform your perspective too as an actor. The show is very much about the Tsar and Tsarina as human beings, of what went on behind closed doors. They communicated with each other in English, not in Russian. When I studied their letters, I found them to be full of passion, there was raunchiness and sexiness. They were very much in love, just as her grandparents Victoria and Albert had been. “
Herbert also sheds light on Rasputin’s controversial relationship with Tsarina Alexandra: “There’s no question in my mind – it was deeply spiritual, and his influence was undeniable, but it was definitely not sexual.”
“She [the Tsarina] also had to contend with being portrayed as the German outsider and was seen as having brought the curse of haemophilia to the Romanov Dynasty when Alix and Nicolas’ only child, Alexei, was diagnosed with the condition.”
Having recently had a baby, Herbert is very much enjoying being a new mum. As many of us will attest, parenthood immediately and fundamentally changes your life and responsibilities, and with COVID19 still very much making its presence known, all future projects are on hold for now.
The Last Czars is a fresh, intimate and well-researched docu/drama that leaves no stone unturned; from the pursuit of the divine in the orgiastic exploits of Rasputin (popularly known as the mad monk) to the brutal assassination of the Romanov family by the Bolsheviks in Ekaterinburg, 1918.
All six episodes of The Last Czars are available to watch on Netflix.
Ruff, cape, lace gloves, cuffs and skirt by the Royal Shakespeare Company, sword by The Wallace Collection, breast plate by Velvet Eccentric, vintage apron by Wall & Jones, shoes by Manolo Blahnik
Ruff, cape, lace gloves, cuffs and skirt by the Royal Shakespeare Company, sword by The Wallace Collection, breast plate by Velvet Eccentric, vintage apron by Wall & Jones
What was it like auditioning for The Last Czars?
My agent initially put me up for the role of the Tsarina’s sister but the producers decided to recall me for an audition for the lead... which I was overjoyed to get. It was a relatively fast-moving process; the audition was in February and we started filming in April. I hadn’t even met the actor playing my husband, Robert Jack, until we were on set in Latvia. It was so exciting to play this part. I really felt that I was following my childhood dream. I have been directing and producing throughout my career but I have been and will always be primarily an actor; I can’t wait to do more.
The Last Czars sheds new light on the relationship between Rasputin and the Tsarina. Could you tell us some more about how you see their relationship?
In a word, Alix was ‘bewitched’ by Rasputin. She saw him as her son’s saviour. I think it is only human to hold anyone whom you regard as your saviour very close to you heart.
Do you feel the weight of playing historical figures?
I love playing real people – researching their lives and backgrounds is hugely fulfilling. In this context, I felt a pretty immense responsibility because of the Romanov family’s cultural and religious significance that prevails today in Russia. As an actor though, my job was not to focus on the bigger picture, you must separate those elements and get in touch with their human story.
What are you like when you are not on set?
My dad is a farmer in Leicestershire [laughs]. I grew up there and that’s where my parents are still based. When I am not on set, I love to go and see them. It’s very idyllic but it’s also very grounding. I grew up helping my dad milk the cows and with calving. There’s strawberry fields where people can come to pick their own fruit – it’s beautiful. I love putting on the weirdest array of old fleeces and random hats that I probably last wore when I was 12. I put on a pair of wellies - if anyone could see me like that they’d think I was completely mad. Sometimes you just need to reconnect with yourself. I love it, I love having that side and then I love the dressing-up side, it’s important to me to have both.
If you could recommend a book that really fascinates you, which would it be?
Jorge Luis Borges. I love reading his short stories. They are wonderful philosophical conundrums. They really speak to all of those questions within me but, gratifyingly, they do not read like philosophical essays, you can just read them quickly. He likes to distort time. One particularly poignant story concerns a man who cannot forget even the smallest of details. It is a mournful paradox as although he remembers every detail, the significance of those individual parts becomes lost in the sea of his mind.
I am also part of a Book Club – favourites this year have been Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner and Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams but I have to admit I’m normally the one who’s only managed to read half the book, especially now I have a newborn baby taking up most of my time!
What are your future plans as an actor?
I‘m hoping to do some projects in the US – but, like everybody in the entertainment industry, I’m waiting to see where things are after the COVID lockdown is over. I don’t like to have my life entirely planned out. It’s always important to leave some room for spontaneity.
What advice would you give to any aspiring actor?
Be fully immersed in each and every project but also in life itself!