The Christmas carp may have escaped the palace, but Agnes was not so lucky. On the penultimate episode of The Regime, “All Ye Faithful,” Andrea Riseborough’s steadfast right-hand woman met her untimely demise, shot to death in the palace during a violet uprising. Riseborough dropped by the Still Watching podcast to chat about Agnes’s unceremonious end in episode five and workshopping Agnes’s backstory with costar Kate Winslet.
“Poor Agnes,” said Riseborough on the podcast. “It’s so horrible, the faceless fallout of war.” Riseborough had a simple explanation as to why Agnes stuck around Chancellor Elena’s corrupt regime as long as she did, despite being presented with multiple opportunities to flee the country: “I think Agnes probably wouldn’t have continued to be complicit working in the palace had her son [Oskar] not been suddenly found in great favor by Elena,” said Riseborough. “That just complicated Agnes’s whole situation to the point where she found herself co-parenting with a dictator, which is trying at the best of times. She’s trapped, essentially.”
The To Leslie star dove deeper into the complicated relationship between Agnes and Chancellor Elena, revealing that she and Winslet began talking about their dynamic while shooting their film Lee—before even arriving to The Regime set. “Kate and I discussed the idea that perhaps Elena had, because of her own insecurities, requested Agnes to keep her hair short,” Riseborough shared. “As our own private backstory, [Elena] stripped her of what was perhaps a former identity.” Like any good actor, Riseborough also came up with a backstory to explain Agnes’s life before the palace. Initially, there was an idea that perhaps Agnes had run the palace before Chancellor Elena came to power, but Riseborough had another idea in mind.
“I suggested to Will [Tracy] that perhaps Agnes should be working class,” she said. “[Agnes] should represent in some way the proletariat—the people outside whose decisions are being made for them by some very disconnected people inside of this horrible regime.”
Has Chancellor Elena’s regime officially fallen? Will both Elena and Zubak survive the coup? And what will happen to Agnes’s son, Oskar? We’re just one episode away from finding out who will wind up on top of The Regime. As always, send any questions, comments, or thoughts about the series to Still Watching at [email protected].
Chris Murphy
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