Spartacus was a landmark television series for both Starz and fans of swords-and-sandals epics. The historical drama by Steven S. DeKnight premiered in 2010, and quickly earned a loyal fanbase which would follow the series through a prequel season, two sequel seasons concluding Spartacus’ journey. Now, 13 years later, an unexpected twist has occurred. Ashur, the traitorous henchman of Batiatus is back from the dead in an alternate reality that has him rise from slave to Dominus.
With the return of Ashur and the life of gladiators in Spartacus: House of Ashur we get a whole new set of interesting and multi-dimensional characters and the return of some familiar figures, who bring along their loving partners. Enter Cornelia, Julius Caesar’s wife.
We had the honour of speaking with Jaime Slater about preparing for her role as Cornelia, joining the world of Spartacus, what we can expect from her character, and much more!
Watch the full interview with Jaime Slater below:
Cornelia stepped onto the scene with an explosive entry in episode 5 of House of Ashur, and Slater seems to be having fun playing a somewhat unknown figure to casual history buffs, so it’s interesting to know how the character was crafted by Slater.
Slater shared, “First of all, yes, huge fan from the beginning. We’re so excited that A, there was the second iteration of the show, and B, that I got to be a part of it. And, yeah, crafting the character was was really, really fun. I mostly just went with what was written in the scripts, because there’s very much…a lot of creative liberties with this character that the writers took. She’s, yes, a real historical character, yes, the first wife of Julius Caesar. But outside of that, it was really – they gave her a lot of juice and naughtiness on the page.”
Slater is stepping into a well established series with some heavy dialogue, as a newbie to the Spartacus world, I was curious how she got on with the language of the show.
Slater explained, “I mean, the more you do it, the easier it gets. But yeah, just a lot of prep. Months before I wanted to be ready to go, the moment I stepped on to set, and, yeah, I just, I really fell into a rhythm. And certainly by, I think, my the end of my second episode, beginning of the third for me, it just everything became intuitive, you know? I just, you know, worked on and kind of lived in her so much that I started thinking her thoughts, which I’m not sure is a good thing.”
The series has given us many scheming, strong-willed Roman women before, and Cornelia fits the mould but stands out in her own way.
In terms of personality, Slater shared, “She’s unapologetically her. She’s, you know, likes things a certain way, and she knows what she wants, and she doesn’t care how she gets it, or who she has to step on, or, you know, hurt to get it. And I think, yeah – she’s just unapologetically herself, for sure.”
Cornelia is an unusual choice of spouse to share in this capacity as she is not only the first wife, but the least known by historian standards. Which means the foundation and dynamic of the relationship between Cornelia and Julias Caesar is whatever Steven S. DeKnight, Slater and actor Jackson Gallagher made of it.
Slater said, “It was really important to us to make sure that the history of their relationship could be felt, could be seen. I mean, it’s very much a love match. They were deeply in love with each other. And you know, a lot of marriages at the time were not a love match. And so, I think their power as a couple comes from how deeply and intensely they love and trust each other. So, we really worked on creating a shared history and bringing in that feeling of: oh, they’ve been together 1000 years.”
Since history is twisting and turning thanks to Ashur’s resurrection, Cornelia may have an unexpected journey ahead.
Slater said, “She just gets worse and worse.”
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