Iain De Caestecker is Living The Grittiest Version of a Legend’s Life in THE WINTER KING

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede Having embraced the role of the legendary Arthur in THE WINTER KING, is Scottish actor Iain De Caestecker feeling the pressure? After all, being solely responsible for the future of Britain is a pretty heavy responsibility. Is De Caestecker getting enough sleep? Is he eating properly? “Listen, someone’s got to do it, so it may as well be me,” De Caestecker said. “I’m not sure I trust people’s belief in me. But we’ll see what happens.” Audiences will definitely get to see what happens to Arthur when the first season of THE WINTER KING comes to an end on Sunday, Nov. 5 on Crave (where the first nine episodes of the season are also available). Based on Bernard Cornwell’s The Warlord Chronicles novels, the series is a retelling of Arthurian legends, set in Post-Roman Dark Ages Britain. And “dark” is an appropriate word for THE WINTER KING, given how many times the story of Arthur has been told in much lighter ways throughout the entertainment world. It doesn’t take long for anyone watching this series to conclude that it’s very gritty and real, right down to the way Arthur looks: he’s just a guy doing his best in a violent world, rather than an elegant hero, reciting poetry, with long blonde hair blowing in the wind. “We definitely did that on purpose, and I’m glad that you say so,” De Caestecker said. “We take the brutality of the Dark Ages, the life-and-death stakes, and we show the real physical and mental toll it takes on somebody to be a leader like this in that time. It’s not in some big palace with golden crowns, you’re totally right. The Dark Ages is very gritty, and earthy, and primal. And you mentioned Arthur’s hair, it’s such a good point. He’s a warrior. The reason he has a shaved head, and most of his guys have shaved heads, is convenience. They don’t want to get stuff in their hair. They don’t want it to get in their way when they’re fighting. They are built for battle.” Arthur’s battles haven’t merely been physical, but also mental and political, as Season 1 of THE WINTER KING has progressed. With varying degrees of self-interest at play, those closest to Arthur – Derfel, played by Stuart Campbell, Morgan, played by Valene Kane, Nimue, played by Ellie James, and Guinevere, played by Jordan Alexandra – have been openly disappointed in his conduct. They’ve repeatedly accused him of relying exclusively on his own judgment, rather than accurately determining who he can trust and who he can’t, and proceeding accordingly. “Suspicion runs deep in me,” Arthur admitted in the most recent episode. “But I wish that it didn’t.” Speaking of wishes, if De Caestecker had been told back when he first became an actor, or even when he was a kid, that someday he would be playing the legendary Arthur in a major TV show, would he have believed it? “Definitely not, and I think that’s a really nice way to put it,” he said. “And it’s something that I do try to remember, especially when you’re filming in the middle of the night, and it’s the coldest day of the year, and it’s freezing. At those moments, you have to remember, ‘God, if I could tell my 9-year-old self about this, you’d be, you know, bouncing off the walls.’ So yeah, it’s incredibly exciting. And it’s probably not an opportunity that I would have predicted would have been handed to me.” That sounds a lot like Arthur himself, doesn’t it? So now that De Caestecker is playing Arthur, has he become more of a hero – reluctant or otherwise – in his own life? When anything goes awry, do his friends and family simply sit back, look at him, and say, “well, are you going to save us, my lord?” “No, that’s not happening at all. You know what? It’s not happening enough!” De Caestecker said. “People aren’t giving me the respect I deserve!” Long live the king! billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv