Torrance Coombs as Bash and Caitlin Stasey as Kenna on ‘Reign’ (The CW)
Married life is just as tough for the less-than-royal on The CW’s “Reign” than the king and queen.
Torrance Coombs’ Bash has been busy trying to be a good guy, fighting the plague and the supernatural and taking care of threats to his brother Francis’ rule, but it has cost him with wife Kenna (Caitlin Stasey). While he’s been away, she’s being wooed by King Antoinne (Ben Aldridge), who is used to getting what he wants.
Access Hollywood spoke to “Reign” star Torrance about Bash’s latest marital problems, the news that Queen Elizabeth I is coming to the show, and how he thinks his character will take the news when he finds out his Season 1 love – Mary – is opening hear heart to someone that isn’t him or Francis.
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AccessHollywood.com: First things first – they cast Elizabeth I. Was that exciting for you? You were in ‘The Tudors.’
Torrance Coombs: It is exciting. Yeah, it’s a little crossover action. It’s funny, we actually find out at the same time everybody else does [about the castings]. … It looks like she’s going to stick around for a while, so it’s very exciting for us. It’s always fun to learn we’re going to get new blood, especially toward the end of the season where we’re – the energy starts getting more difficult to summon up the later in the season it is.
Access: At least you know you have [Season 3], which was such great news back in January.
Torrance: That was definitely surprising to get such an early vote of confidence again, so carrying on with the rest of the year with the knowledge we’ll be doing more of it has been nice.
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Access: I wanted to ask you about Kenna and Bash’s marital problems and what you think is most to blame for them, because there are a lot of things going on.
Torrance: Yeah, I mean, the single biggest thing is she’s at home and he’s got a hero complex. He’s off saving the world and when your wife wants to spend time with you and you tell her, ‘I’m sorry, there’s a weird person resurrecting bodies in a nearby village and I have to go see to this, or the kingdom will erupt in insanity,’ it doesn’t really go over very well because, A) she hasn’t seen any ghosts. I don’t think she believes me. And furthermore, I don’t know if I believe me. Bash was always the skeptic. He always said, ‘No, it’s just men, there’s an explanation for everything,’ but more and more, weird people are showing up and doing supernatural things that they say that they can do and anytime he’s decided to disbelieve them, like the Darkness, for example, the plague hits, and then a ghost comes to visit him and tells him there’ll be a reckoning. From his perspective, you see why he’s sort of on board with, ‘Okay, this stuff is real.’ But from her perspective, you kind of get, ‘Why is my husband chasing ghosts and doesn’t want to spend any time with me?’ As that conflict goes on at home, instead of sticking around and dealing with it, Bash’s way of dealing with it is pouring himself further into his work and leaving for longer and longer periods, so it’s just having a chance to fester now.
Access: You’re putting a lot of blame on Bash’s shoulders, but do you think part of it also has to do with the fact that she’s an ambitious woman? She was never content being a lady in waiting — since we met her.
Torrance: So, there’s the thing and then he goes and instead of just sort of taking all of Narcisse’s lands that are given to him, he goes ahead and gives a bunch to his mother without asking Kenna and you know, he hasn’t – I’ll say that he hasn’t been particularly sensitive to her needs. And her needs, of course, have never quite aligned with his, and they’ve been able to kind of put that off, but yeah, you know, I blame Bash and I don’t. Bash has to be doing what he’s doing, but he’s not taking care of the marriage. He’s not even putting in the effort to give Kenna something that she could be happy with, at the moment.
Access: Don’t you think she should give him a break?
Torrance: Well, yes. And she has been giving him a break, but what it comes down to is two people that are going in different directions and that want different things with their lives, and really, they’re only there because Francis says they can be there. So there’s that. Bash doesn’t really have a choice but to help Francis out and plus, I mean, he wants to. It’s his little brother and he’s on the throne and he’s having a tough time and there’s all this weird supernatural stuff he doesn’t have time to deal with or is only vaguely aware of. It’s like, okay, if Bash doesn’t deal with this, his little brother’s gonna get it on the chin. He’s got enough on his plate.
Access: Is there potential for some kind of physical combat between Bash and Antoinne? I guess that would be weird because he’s royalty, but still.
Torrance: I suppose so. There’s a lot of… I mean, Antoinne’s a schemer and Kenna knows it and Bash knows it, but it’s interesting that even though he’s a schemer, he’s maybe teaching Kenna some things about herself in the process and at the end of the day, it’s not so much what Antoinne does as what he makes Kenna realize about her own life. So it may not have a chance to come to blows.
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Access: I have to ask you about the Conde situation. Conde got the offer Bash really wanted at the end of last season.
Torrance: I know!
Access: Is that something that Bash is going to have to deal with (Mary and Conde)?
Torrance: That will be acknowledged, yes, the similarities to those story arcs and at this point Bash isn’t actually aware that Conde’s a thing. He’s aware of Conde’s affections. He’s not aware that Mary’s actually up for it, so that’s a revelation to him when he finds out.
Access: I imagine that’s going to hurt quite a bit. He may have moved on in his romantic life, but to know that the lady that he loved actually is willing to perhaps… well, it’s interesting.
Torrance: It is interesting, yeah. And I guess circumstances are different that lead to it, but it would be hard not to feel like, ‘Okay, fine. What do these guys [have] that I don’t?’
“Reign” continues Thursday at 9/8c on The CW.
— Jolie Lash
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