Alexander Dreymon can currently be seen in BBC Two’s The Last Kingdom as the very fiery and extremely handsome Uhtred.
Alexander is better known for his role in Fox’s American Horror Story where he starred alongside the likes of Zachary Quinto, Gabourey Sidibe and Kathy Bates but he certainly has come into his own in this role in a story about A Saxon man, raised by Danes, must choose a side and play his part in the birth of a nation, alongside the man who would become known as King Alfred the Great.
With the first season out on Blu-Ray and DVD on the 14th of December we had the opportunity to sit down with Alexander for a fun interview, he was so insanely good looking he was oblivious how much he intimidated us.
Can you tell is a little bit about The Last Kingdom for our audience who aren’t familiar with it?
Sure The Vikings are invading the Saxons at a time when England didn’t exist yet! The Last Kingdom standing is Wessex. Their King is Alfred who became known as Alfred the Great, who united the Kingdom against invaders and fought them off thus creating England. I play a character who was born Saxon but was raised as a Dane, so has access to both worlds and eventually becomes leader of Alfred’s armies
Your Character is Uhtred in BBC Two’s The Last Kingdom, what attracted you to the role?
What attracted me the most apart from the story and the character, of course, was the vision that Nick Murphy had. How to shoot the show, and how to create the world of the show. He wanted to shoot in the style of a documentary. The way he would do that he would just let us loose on the playground and follow us with the camera and see what he could get. Then he would make adjustments as to what worked and what didn’t work. It was very liberating as an actor to do it that way because you would really follow your impulses.
Your character doesn’t really like to follow the rules and goes off the rails, where do you pull your inspiration from to play the role?
It was quite easy I think (laughs), I love playing the cheekiness of Uhtred and the impetuousness. That was the fun part. I didn’t really need that much inspiration for that that came quite naturally. I kept that up on set; I played lots of jokes on people.
What’s the best part of playing Uhtred for you? Do you like the fighting scenes, bedding woman?
(Laughs) Those scenes are the most difficult scenes, It’s so technical, It can be awkward at times but mostly technical. Especially in that environment of being very cold (laughs). The battle scenes were fun, we had a great stunt team and I loved working with those guys. We had lots of stunt rehearsals and then filming the scenes themselves, we would always work with these guys who are such experts at what they were doing. I learned so much from them, from sword fighting to horseback riding. I do as much of my own stunts as insurance lets me (laughs).
Your character is full of Charisma and Charm making him a hit with the ladies, Are you anything like him in reality?
You tell me! (Laughs)(this is the part of the interview when our interviewer lost control of herself). I don’t think that’s a question for me to answer to be honest (laughs)
Awkward We quickly moved on from that question as Zehra started to blush as Alexander was laughing at her.
Historical dramas are always very popular in the UK, Why do you think that is?
The British are a smart people and they are interested in the past to improve the future… I don’t know, I have no idea…… (Laughs)
Give us 3 reasons to watch The Last Kingdom? (apart from yourself being in it).
I honestly think David Dawson, who plays Alfred, is exceptional in the part. I find him so fascinating to watch. He was so easy and inspiring to work with as an actor. He was always so solid that you knew you could try out things and he’d have your back. I think that really shows in his performance. But I could say that about so many actors on the show. The really cast a great set of talent, International and that brought a lot of peps to the show. The brought in all these Scandinavian actors and then we had the British actors playing the Saxons and both of them were so humorous and funny in their own way.The Scandinavians were all completely off their tits (laughs), It was so great to work with them, they always kept it fresh.
I think one of the fascinating things is watching the show move through the seasons. We were always out there, always in nature and you see in the first episode the falling leaves and we had some amazing days where you would see these yellow leaves falling from the trees and it would be like snowflakes. The whole ground was covered in yellow. As it moves along it becomes rainy and muddy then the snow comes. We were in that every day and it comes across in the show.
How difficult was it for you working in those conditions?
For me as an actor, it’s great as I have to suspend my disbelief so much less than what I would have to normally.
Photographer: Kata Vermes, Levente Lezsk (Stunt Coordinator) with Alexander Dreymon (as Uhtred)
You’re best known for your role as Luke Ramsey in 20th Century Fox’s American Horror Story, what were your most memorable moments on set.
I loved working with Patti LuPone, We had a great time. We are still friends. I have a lot of admiration for her and she’s given me a lot of advice. That was great for me. I loved working with Gabourey Sidibe, she is so much fun. We had some amazing moments on set, she just cracked me up. She’s also someone I still keep in touch with. I think there was scenes were we had a zombie invasion, we were shooting that at night in New Orleans in this big mansion and suddenly all these Zombies stand outside. They were made up in such an amazing way, it was terrific, there arms there feet their whole skin was covered in this latex, if you touched it, it actually felt cold like they were dead. They also had the white contacts in, it was really freaky.
Your also a stage actor and have appeared in a number of theater performances in Paris, How did you end up in France?
I trained in Paris for three years before I trained in London.
I tried to get Alexander to speak French to me at this point but he turned it back on me and asked what I would like him to say. Knowing full too well what I wanted to hear I got slightly embarrassed and moved on.
What’s next for you?
We are about to find out if we go for a second season actually. So that should really determine how much free time I have in the future.
THE LAST KINGDOM SERIES 1 IS AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY AND DVD ON 14TH DECEMBER, COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL PICTURES (UK)
