Line #37 Trivia/IClaudius


1	* AbilityOverAppearance: Augustus Caesar was slender and sickly throughout his life and on the shorter side, while Brian Blessed is a large, burly man with a booming voice, though his performance is widely praised.
2	* ActingForTwo: Freda Dowie plays both the Sybil and Caesonia.
3	* ApprovalOfGod: When author Robert Graves came to see the filming, he loved it so much, he refused to leave. His only comment on the acting was that George Baker was just the right height to play Tiberius.
4	* AuthorsSavingThrow: A preemptive one by Graves, who emphasizes in the preface to ''Claudius the God'' that the libels expressed against Christianity are based on the negative rumors of the time, noting that Herod Agrippa and Claudius are {{Unreliable Expositor}}s with their own biases and their statements should not be taken as factual.
5	* CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/BrianBlessed originally auditioned for the role of Tiberius, but was eventually persuaded to play Augustus instead. He recounted Herbert Wise's saying "be as you are, full of flannel", and that he should always play Augustus as an ordinary person, because the reactions of those around him would make him the Emperor.
6	* CreatorCouple:
7	** Moira Redmond (Domitia) was the ex-wife of the director Herbert Wise.
8	** Fiona Walker (Agrippina) was the ex-wife of Herbert Wise.
9	** Barbara Young (Agrippinilla) was the wife of the writer Jack Pulman.
10	* {{Corpsing}}: When filming the scene where Caligula asks Claudius if he's mad - by this point so obviously off his rocker that it's almost impossible for Claudius to lie - neither Jacobi or Hurt could keep straight faces. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHkjIaoE1ds John Hurt later admitted that the two of them only managed one take where they didn't both burst out laughing]], and this is the take that ended up in the show. Even then, when the camera focuses on Jacobi his eyes are crinkled with trying not to giggle.
11	* DawsonCasting: Because the series takes place over nearly eighty years, this is both played straight and later inverted with many of the same characters. Just to name a few major examples:
12	** Creator/DerekJacobi, aged 38, played Claudius from the age of 19 to his death at 63.
13	** Creator/SianPhillips, aged 43, played Livia from the age of 34 to her death at 86.
14	** George Baker, aged 45, played Tiberius from the age of 18 to his death at 77.
15	** Margaret Tyzack, also aged 45, played Antonia from the age of 27 to her death at 73.
16	** Some examples where this is purely played straight include Creator/JohnHurt (aged 36) as Caligula from the age of 17 to his death at 28, Christopher Biggins (aged 28) as 17-year-old Nero, and Graham Seed (aged 26) as ''13''-year-old Britannicus.
17	* DirectLineToTheAuthor: the novels' premise is that the two books were Claudius' long-lost autobiography, which Graves had discovered ("nineteen hundred years or near", as declared in the Sybil's prophecy to Claudius) and translated into English. This is used as a FramingDevice in the television series, with the bulk of the scenes being the history as Claudius is writing it down.
18	* DyeingForYourArt: George Baker, who was in his mid forties, went on a regime of diet and exercise so he could realistically play a young Tiberius. He managed to equal the weight he used to have when he was twenty-four. It sort of doubles as accidental EnforcedMethodActing (does that even exist?) as his tiredness and exhaustion from working out so much and eating so little actually made it easier for him to play an often frustrated and bitter character prone to mood swings.
19	* EnforcedMethodActing: Because of the alleged curse that'd already claimed some lives, Creator/BrianBlessed was a bit anxious. While they were shooting Augustus' dying scene, there was a blackout. By the time they did the take, he was terrified he would actually die on set, so the terror in his eyes is authentic.
20	* IAmNotSpock: Creator/DerekJacobi had people shout "Hail Cesar" at him in supermarkets.
21	* MethodActing:
22	** In early episodes, Creator/DerekJacobi put a stone in his shoe so he would limp realistically. Once he got used to it, he didn't need the stone any more.
23	** George Baker lost a lot of weight to play Tiberius, which also made it easier for him to realistically play the mood swings, as the amount of diet and exercise provoked a lot of that for him in RealLife.
24	* MissingEpisode: The scene in episode 8, "Zeus, by Jove!" where Caligula cuts the fetus from Drusilla's womb was considered too shocking and was therefore re-edited several times, even on the day of its premiere by order of Bill Slater, then head of Serials Department. After initial broadcast and a rerun two days later, the shot of the fetus was removed so that the episode now ends with Claudius looking in shock and horror but without the audience seeing what he sees. The deleted shot was only shown twice in 1976 and is now lost since the BBC no longer has a copy of it.
25	* NoBudget: The novel and its sequel were big sprawling epics, with a few large battles, lots and ''lots'' of circuses and gladiatorial games, and the occasional riot. The TV adaptation manages to stage the whole thing without ever having a crowd larger than a meeting of the Roman Senate. (The battles all occur off-camera, with perhaps an aftermath scene in the general's tent; the gladiatorial games consist of a close-up camera on the Emperor's box.) Hey, Creator/TheBBC ain't made of money.
26	* PlayingAgainstType: Numerous actors play roles that are vastly different from their type of roles they would play in later years, so this is a case of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness acting wise.
27	** Creator/PatrickStewart not only has hair[[note]] although it's actually a wig, since Stewart lost his hair in his early twenties[[/note]], but plays the opposite of Picard or Professor X, as Sejanus is a TheChessmaster who manipulates everyone, is coldly brutal and has some kinky fantasies with Livilla.
28	** Creator/JohnHurt usually played nice men that were sometimes pitiful. You may feel pity for Caligula somewhat recognizing his own insanity, but he is a terrifying psychopath.
29	** Christopher Biggins is mostly known for family friendly work. Not in Nero.
30	* RoleReprise:
31	** Kevin Stoney reprised his role as Thrasyllus of Mendes from the 1968 ITV series ''Series/TheCaesars'', which also covered the reigns of the first four Roman Emperors.
32	** Creator/DerekJacobi reprised his role as Claudius in the 2019 film ''Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans''.
33	* ThrowItIn: For Livia's dying scene, Creator/JohnHurt suggested Caligula actually jump in bed with her, as that would be more realistic for the character. They made the take, and he spontaneously kissed her full on the lips to emphasise the kind of degenerate person Caligula was (Livia was his great-grandmother).
34	* UnderageCasting:
35	** Siân Phillips (Livia) was two years younger than George Baker, who played her elder son Tiberius, and ten years older than Ian Oglivy, who played her younger son Drusus.
36	** Margaret Tyzack (Antonia) was only seven years older than Derek Jacobi, who played her son Claudius.
37	** Creator/BrianBlessed (Augustus) was only two years older than Frances White, who played his daughter Julia.
38	** Creator/JohnRhysDavies looks his age at 32 years old while playing Macro, who lived to be fifty-eight.
39	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
40	** Creator/CharltonHeston was considered for Claudius. Seriously.
41	** Creator/IanMcKellen [[https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-times-diary-tms-sir-ian-mckellens-snub-to-caligula-and-lord-whittys-brush-with-the-law-z5p3d69r7gf turned down the role of Caligula]] because he didn't want to play second fiddle to his university friend Creator/DerekJacobi.
42	** Creator/HelenMirren turned down the role of Julia Drusilla. Ironically, she would later star in ''Film/{{Caligula}}'', which funnily enough, also featured Siân Phillips' then-husband Creator/PeterOToole.
43	** The first attempt to do this for the big screen was Alexander Korda's production in 1937, with Creator/JosefVonSternberg directing. It had Merle Oberon as Messalina (more DawsonCasting), Emlyn Williams as Caligula, Flora Robson as Livia and Robert Newton as Cassius, and Creator/CharlesLaughton as Claudius. It was to be a gigantic, lavish production filmed at Korda's Denham Studios, with sets designed by Korda's brother Vincent. The project was plagued with difficulties from the beginning, among them Merle Oberon sustaining injuries in a car crash and Laughton seemingly having great difficulty getting into the role. In the 1965 BBC documentary ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUbt0sweIjI The Epic That Never Was]]'', you get the history and background information, plus the outtakes of Laughton having to stop filming again and again. The project was finally abandoned as a train wreck. But Laugton was not just being a drama queen. Trained as a stage actor, it always took him a while to kind of "find" the character and and speak and act just right. [[https://youtu.be/NUbt0sweIjI?t=3326 Skip to minute 55 to see how he finally did it]].
44	---> And then, Laughton addresses the Senate... and soars. In one scene he becomes every belittled, misjudged man who ever stood up and said, this is not who I am. At last it is possible to understand why Laughton placed such significance on the interior. He was acting the other takes, and they were good; in this one, he is being, and it is art. -- Self-Styled Siren, "Charles Laughton: Actor as Artist", Feb. 8, 2015.

Context Trivia / IClaudius