The story of Anne Boleyn has been re-told many times, but AMC+’s newest dramatization of her life did something that had never been done before. For the latest retelling of her story, actress Jodie Turner-Smith became the first Black actress to portray Boleyn.

Turner-Smith, born in England, caused much controversy in her native country when her casting as Boleyn was announced.

“I didn’t pay attention to it, because you really can’t,” Turner-Smith told Yahoo Entertainment. “When you’re doing the work, you just have to do it. Anne Boleyn is a polarizing and fascinating character that people either love or love to hate. I knew that there were going to be people that were very protective of her story, and they would feel conflicted about a Black actress playing the role.”

She admitted that the “aim was not historical accuracy.”

“Our aim was to tell an emotional human story, and that meant that any actor could play the role. And isn’t it wonderful to finally see actors of color telling these emotional stories that for so long there was only room for white actors to tell? That’s how I feel, and I think that many other people feel that way. And the people that don’t feel that way were never going to watch the series anyway!” she said.

Even though Turner-Smith may not resemble Boleyn, she said that she was able to connect to Boleyn’s story of being “bothered” by the royal court.

“I mean, it is my life experience: I’m a woman who was often othered, so I understand that journey. This was my telling of Anne Boleyn in a way that’s unique to me and my experience, but in a way it also allowed me to tap into the universal experience of a woman who was already an outsider in many ways,” said Turner-Smith.

Part of the series focuses on the time where Boleyn was put on trial for high treason in 1536, scenes Turner-Smith has to film during the wake of George Floyd’s death.

“For me, those scenes were less about that and more about the limitations placed on women at the time,” she said. “Don’t be so bold; don’t be so outspoken; don’t ruffle any feathers; know your place — all of these things that I feel Anne sort of refused.”

Floyd’s death and the news that followed his case were something she could not avoid.

“It was impossible to not follow it with a heightened awareness. Those events are things that are part of my existence as a Black person in the world. To follow these things, see how these trials occur and what happens and what the verdicts then say about my humanity. And then having to reaffirm my own humanity based on my disappointment with how [these trials] often go,” she said.

Another way Turner-Smith says she connected to Boleyn’s story was motherhood. She had given birth only five months prior to filming and production often kept her away from her newborn.

“Obviously, I’m in nearly every scene of the show and that means a very extensive work schedule. Some days I was waking up before she was even awake and coming home after she’d gone to sleep,” she said. “So all I really was able to ever do was take her out of her crib as she slept and nurse her. It was really hard to not see her: you don’t want to miss bedtime, you don’t want to miss them waking up. You don’t want them to not really see you except for on the weekends when you have time off. I have so much respect and admiration and appreciation for all working mothers because it’s not easy.”

She noted that Boleyn was also away from her child, Elizabeth I, and suffered several miscarriages after her birth while trying to please Henry’s demand for a male heir.

Having just gone through birth, I felt I had a much deeper and more raw connection to this idea of having your child and your child not surviving, and the grief that would give you,” she said. “And then having to push through that to continue to compete in the court. It’s very intense! So often all the stories I’ve seen about Anne Boleyn were more about that — like, here was this really ambitious, scandalous woman. But this felt like a story about a mother, and that resonated with me.”

Anne Boleyn premieres on December 9 on AMC+.

Photo Credit: Channel 5