Brida (Emily Cox) has a bone to pick with Uhtred in The Last Kingdom season 5
Where do we find Brida at the start of season five?
At the end of season 4 Brida was very, very pregnant. We saw her last when she was giving
birth to her child. And at the beginning of season 5 it’s several years later. Her daughter is
there, who she loves more than anything else in the world. She started a kind of a cult. She’s
found warriors who do everything for her and she’s waiting for a really good moment to go
off to England to turn the Saxons into Danes.
What are Brida’s motivations this season?
I think at the beginning of season 5, her main driving force is this belief in the gods. So, as the
audience will see, she does really terrible things. But I think that her motivation is actually
good. She’s actually trying to do something, that in her world, would be a good thing to do,
to turn the world into a Viking world. Also her revenge on Uhtred is really driving her.
What can audiences can expect this season?
Season five is going to be really big. There are a lot of surprises. When I first read the scripts I
was like, ‘I didn’t see that happening at all.’ And there are big dramatic surprises as well.
Viewers can expect a lot of adventure, they can expect a lot of violence again, and a lot of
love. For me, it’s about the question of what is the purpose in life. Or in Brida ’s case, what I
always find an interesting question is, when would it actually be time to let the past go?
How has Brida developed as a character?
Brida has really developed a lot since season one, which is one of the reasons why I have
enjoyed playing her, because she’s changed so much. At the beginning of season one we find
her, not naïve, but a young girl who has quite a light energy to her, who just sees the world
basically full of joy and full of lightness, and she has a lot humour. And, you know, she’s very
close to Uhtred, and life is really going well for her. And now in season five, she’s turned into
a very, very angry woman, and into a very bitter woman almost. A woman who’s gone through
so much, and who’s been hurt so badly, that this for her is the only way to react to life. And
yes, I think that somewhere in this hurt, angry woman is this sensitive girl who she once was,
who does feel how other people are doing, and does take notice of her surroundings, and
who is actually full of love. She’s just lost her somewhere inside of herself.
How would you describe Brida’s relationship with Uhtred?
The relationship between Brida and Uhtred this season is very much at rock bottom. Brida
makes Uhtred responsible for everything that’s gone wrong in her life. She’s very, very angry
with him, she’s very hurt by him, and she has been for a long time now. And I think even more so now that she’s so religious, and that she’s really taken on the Danish way even more than
ever before. She just can’t understand why Uhtred went another way back then, and she just
can’t understand everything, that in her eyes, he’s done wrong.
Do you enjoy the physical aspects of your role?
To be honest, I really love it. I’m an only child, so I’ve had the luck that I’ve never ever been
hit by anybody and I’ve never had a fight! So I found it really cool to have the sword in my
hand and letting some aggression out, it’s actually really fun. I did one year of Krav Maga
before that, but I’ve never actually properly fought anybody. So I love it. I used to dance a lot,
and so I love moving, but it’s a very different way of moving. Alex always makes fun of me
because he always finds it looks a bit like a ballet dancer trying to fight! I don’t, I think it looks
cool.
What is your favorite prop?
One prop that I really love, because it just characterizes Brida for me and because I’ve had it
since season one, is my axe. I feel really connected to my axe. For me that’s the symbol of
Brida. It’s actually quite heavy. There are actually two, there’s a plastic one, which is much
lighter and which I use sometimes, because it would be too dangerous if I smashed the other
one on somebody’s head! But I do love the heavy one because it feels really real.
Discuss why you love The Last Kingdom.
I love it because I find it fascinating to see that people who lived such a long time ago, and in
such a different world than us, had such similar issues. I think that throughout history people
always wanted to be happy and not sad. That they were looking for love. That they were trying
to lead the best kind of life.
How has the show has changed your life?
I’ve met really nice people, I think that’s the most important thing to me. And I’ve just had a
fantastic time. It’s so nice going to work and having fun and loving it. Career-wise, it’s actually
really interesting because, since The Last Kingdom, a lot of auditions that come for me are
for these really bad-ass strong women. It’s so funny, because it’s like, yes, that’s also me but
actually it’s not really me.
Aethelhelm (Adrian Schiller) and Uhtred are at odds in The Last Kingdom season 5
What are Aethelhelm’s motivations?
Aethelhelm is driven by an absolute obsession with making sure that his family become the
Kings in Wessex. And it is the deal that he made with Alfred. I think he regards Edward as
being bound by Alfred’s promise. Edward perhaps doesn’t, but everything that he does is
motivated by the desire to people the thrones of Wessex. A lot of people go, ‘Oh, he’s a nasty,
evil, plotting creature.’ He is a bit, it’s true. The ways in which he goes about things are not
necessarily the most pleasant, but what he’s trying to do is what pretty much everybody else
who is in a powerful position in this story tries to do, which is to secure that power, by pretty
much whatever means necessary. And neither Edward nor Uhtred, Aelswith, or Aethelred or
Aelflaed, or anybody else, seem to really be terribly worried about killing people in order to
get what they want, but I seem to be the one who gets it in the neck for doing it. I think it’s
very unfair!
Describe Aethelhelm’s relationship with Uhtred.
Well I mean, there’s no love lost, is there. We’re very different people. He thinks I’m sneaky,
I think that he’s half Dane and therefore not to be trusted, and a bit of a meat head. But I
mean, that is actually one of my faults, that I think that I’m cleverer than everybody else.
Uhtred is obviously an extremely intelligent and strategic person, but I kind of refuse to
believe it because he looks like a Dane and he’s a warrior. I think it’s actually Aethelhelm’s
greatest weakness, the fact that he underestimates people, in particular Uhtred. He assumes
himself to be able to win just by sheer guile and intelligence, which doesn’t always work out
for him. So we really don’t like each other. Not one bit.
What was it like working with Alexander Dreymon as director?
Oh, it was a breeze. He’s as you would imagine, he works hard, he’s done his homework,
which is hugely important for all involved. So he knows. The most important thing on a film
set is you don’t waste time, because time is literally money. So you need to plan your shots,
you need to know how you’re going to take on any particular scene. It was very obvious that
Alex knew all that stuff, that he had all the appropriate meetings with everybody. The crew
knew what they were doing, they respected the choices he was making, how he was going to
do it. He’s perfectly prepared to change things on the day if necessary. It was completely like working with a professional film director, which was exactly what you would want. He gets
the job done without very much fuss, and it was perfectly obvious that the crew respected
him. Not just because they like him, they know him anyway, but because he’s a good director.