Warning: mild spoilers for Robin Hood Episode 3 is ahead.
Connie Nielsen's Eleanor of Aquitaine is my favorite character in the new film. MGM+ version Robin Hood and now that episode three is available to stream, you can see why I'm excited about it.
Given that we know Nielsen has experience playing royalty – of course I'm talking about Lucilla, daughter of Marcus Aurelius, in Gladiator And Gladiator II — but surprisingly, her breakout role didn't inspire her to play the final queen in her cast.
Wonder Woman Helped Connie Nielsen Prepare for Robin Hood, Not Gladiator
“When I was preparing for the role of the Queen of the Amazons in Wonder Woman, “I read this incredible book by an anthropologist from Stanford,” she tells me. “She noted in her book that women scientists went out and tested the DNA of all these fabulous warrior graves that were found throughout Eurasia, and discovered that the most famous of them were women.
“At the time, anthropologists made assumptions that they were all men: if they had a sword, they must have been men. If they had a pot in the grave, then they must have been women. It turns out that these assumptions simply created prejudices.”
It's this kind of thinking that clearly influenced Nielsen's approach to playing Eleanor. It's a role we've seen countless times before (most notably Katharine Hepburn in the 1968 film T.he is the lion of winter). But, as you might have guessed, Nielsen did not rely on either the TV or film versions Robin Hood.
“I felt like there was a lot of who she was in what she wrote. It was a direct connection to her reality. Historians have created quite a bit of material for people like us to draw on, so it was a pleasure to delve into her history.
“I really encourage everyone to read some biographies about her because she is truly a remarkable historical figure. I really think she's amazing. And it's really exciting that we're starting to explore the story of this remarkable woman in this series.”
Considering we're so invested in the urban legend that is Robin Hood (and the new backstory MGM+ is revealing for him), I love that Nielsen is making the role of the history nerd sexy again. Here we really can get the best of both worlds.
Robin Hood airs on MGM+ in the US and UK and on Stan in Australia.
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