Leith (Jonathan Keltz) and Greer (Celina Sinden) in happier times on ‘Reign’ (The CW)
He may have lost his lands, but Jonathan Keltz’s Leith is still a rising young man in the kingdom of France on “Reign.”
A friend of King Francis (whose life he saved in Season 1), Leith recently got a new job opportunity working alongside Bash (Torrance Coombs). The two characters will be teaming up to investigate things after a horrible incident happens at a peaceful event on this Thursday’s episode of The CW drama.
While his career is going well, Leith’s romantic life remains complicated. Just when it seemed Greer (Celina Sinden) was going to go with her heart and choose Leith in last week’s “Reign,” she showed up at Lord Castleroy’s ready to find passion in their relationship. This week, her wedding is close. When Access Hollywood spoke with Jonathan on Tuesday, he told us, “there is a scheduled wedding in that episode, but what happens at that wedding, we’ll have to see.”
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Jonathan shared with Access new details about what’s ahead on this week’s episode and his thoughts on if the door is still open for Greith (Greer + Leith). He also hinted at what kind of secret of Castleroy’s Leith and Bash are going to uncover on “Reign,” when it rolls out on Thursday night at 9/8c on The CW.
AccessHollywood.com: The rise of Leith in society — do you think he’s still motivated by Greer or is it also for him, because he seems to be enjoying people taking him seriously and respecting him?
Jonathan Keltz: Absolutely, and that’s something that we sort of talked about and have wanted to explore. … It’s motivation not just about her and not just about me, but I think that there is a duty that I definitely feel towards Francis and I think that that’s become a huge part of everything that I am. I don’t necessarily [feel] indebted to him because of what he’s given me, but more just the experience of us being at war together and being in those trenches and exchanging saving each other’s lives. … It’s brought me to a level of respect and a level where I want to honor who he is and what he’s doing for the country as a whole, so I think that there’s a huge amount of patriotism and then there’s just exhaustion at the state of my love affairs.
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Access: Well, you’re throwing yourself into your work, so that’s good.
Jonathan: (Laughs) Yes.
Access: And this week, in fact, it looks like there’s a little investigation going on, with Bash and Leith, regarding a Protestant religious ceremony attack. What do you want to hint at about that?
Jonathan: So this episode is a huge catalyst for the rest of the season. At this time in France, this was when Protestants were starting to really identify themselves and it was becoming its own religion and there was the knowledge of it becoming public and there was, you know — what does this mean for Rome and the Vatican? What does this mean for Catholic rulers like Francis II and all of that? And so we’ve really made it a huge crux of the season in terms of how it affects the state of the country, how it affects Francis’ rule, what it means in terms of the nobles, in terms of the commoners, what side people are gonna fall on and whether or not there’s going to be peace, whether or not there’s going to be violence and what happened. This episode will start off with sort of a violent attack of a secretive Protestant service, something that’s clearly quite innocent and then… things sort of spiral out of control from there and the question of whether or not these are some people acting out of their own accord, or whether or not there was somebody who was motivating the attack or what sort of set the events in motion is what Francis has me and Bash investigate. … So now I’m working with the King’s deputy and yeah, we get to ride around in the woods and solve crimes.
Access: You guys find out a secret about Lord Castleroy. Is that going to make me think differently of him, this secret, because I actually don’t mind him.
Jonathan: Yeah, and that’s what I think has been really interesting. It’s all due to Michael Therriault, who plays Lord Castleroy. I mean that was supposed to be sort of like a comical arc that fizzled out last season, but because of who he is as an actor, and the fans and everything that he’s garnered because of his work, he is a legitimate candidate for Greer’s heart and rightfully so. As we saw in the last episode, she is constantly feeling like she is being pulled towards security or towards love and then, when we all think she’s going to make this decision for passion and come see me, she decides to say, no, there should be passion with this man whose my fiance, who I am engaged to, and so I think that she’s making an honest effort to make this work, and I think that secret we find out about him — it is more gonna be about how it threatens their relationship and anything that you’re gonna think differently about him for. He hasn’t been murdering his previous wives or anything like that, it’s just about what it would mean for the rest of their lives together, and this is a man who had lost his wife some years before and then has been recently broken by the loss of his daughter, so I think it’s about how he’s finding himself in this new relationship, in this new time, and in this moment after such a grievous loss.
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Access: Is that going to open up the door then for Greer and Leith, at this time?
Jonathan: You’re asking me, and I’m Leith, so I’d say the door is always open, but I don’t know if that’s the case (laughs). I think that there is a bit of a bullheadedness that Leith feels, that he’s definitely a man of action and a man of obviously being beaten down by the time that he lives in, but believing in something more and that there are things that do transcend the structures of the time. And I think he feels validated because of the relationship that he has with Francis, that yes, you were the Kitchen Boy and all of these things have happened for a reason, to sort of put him in the place that he is. Obviously, unforeseen events, like Francis having to take back the lands and give them to Narcisse changed things, but now I’m back at the castle and being back at the castle means that the universe has yet again put me in the same place as Greer and I think that… there is a scheduled wedding in that episode, but what happens at that wedding we’ll have to see.
Access: I have to ask you what it’s like with you and Torrance. You both seem like very fun guys and when you have to pair up with each other, does it make it hard to get through the material? I know you’re professionals, but at the same time, you’re both fun.
Jonathan: Torrance is absolutely hilarious and we do have a lot of fun together and it’s cool. This episode is very much urgent, like dire stuff happening. We have to be on point, and we are very close friends and we do have a lot of fun together so we’re sort of trying to find moments to add some sort of levity… but it’s hard to sort of maintain the seriousness of life and death and have that as well. … We do have a lot of fun, but yeah, I think there will be more of all that to come as well. I will say, this next stretch of episodes is a bit unrelenting. It is fast, it is dark and it is strong.
“Reign” continues Thursday night at 9/8c on The CW.
— Jolie Lash
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