Warning: Full spoilers for Black Sails: Season 3 below.
Black Sails: The Complete Third Season arrives on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD this Tuesday, giving fans the chance to delve into a huge year for the epic pirate series that found characters transforming in monumental ways.
I recently spoke to Hannah New about what occurred with her character Eleanor Guthrie in Season 3, as Eleanor found herself now opposing the very pirates she’d once lived and worked alongside in Nassau - particularly Charles Vane (Zach McGowan), her former lover turned bitter enemy.
New discussed Eleanor’s role in Vane’s demise, fan reaction to that turn of events, her evolving dynamic with another ex-lover, Max (Jessica Parker Kennedy), and more about what motivates Eleanor and why she’s made the choices she's made – along with what’s in store next year, when Black Sails returns for its fourth and final season.
Hannah New as Eleanor Guthrie in Black Sails.
IGN: Your character’s position in life has changed so much. Do you think she was mostly focused on revenge in Season 3?
Hannah New: I think revenge was a very big part of it. I think there's a lot of anger and resentment that she holds. I think coming back in the way that she did... For her, really, Season 3 is kind of like she's reborn. She's completely different. She's become what she’d rejected, in many ways, this kind of society lady. I think after her experience in London - You don't really get to see that between Season 2 and 3 because we had a time jump. We don't get to see what she was actually put through in the trial and the way she was vilified and the fact that she's had this second chance to come back. It's not only revenge, it's also her opportunity to still make Nassau into something, but do it in a completely different way. She's a chameleon. She adapts to survive. I think that's exactly what she's done in Season 3.
She's come back to push forward her objective that she's always had, which is to make Nassau a sustainable place. It's a place that she feels she has a right to because she was born there, her mother died there, her father built up the business there. She's maintained it for so long. It ties into who she is as a person to go back to Nassau and make it something. It defines her. She has to do it even though she does it coming back as a shape-shifter, a different woman. I really loved that opportunity to completely transform. I think at the beginning when they first told me she's going to be brought back by Woodes Rogers, I was like, “What, no! She's shaved her head and becomes a stowaway on a ship and manages to get back as a pirate!” That was my kind of vision for it. The reality is, this would have been her only way out in the world that she lived in.
IGN: What I like on the show is how so many of the characters are motivated by doing what they think is the right thing for Nassau, but they just have very different perspectives on what that is.
New: Yeah, exactly. The idea of freedom is very different for each character. The idea of having economic freedom separate from colonial powers is what Eleanor tried for. When you look at the kind of freedom that Vane is after, it's kind of diametrically opposed to that. It's anarchy. It's not order. It's not a republic. It's just individualism. That's where she, that's where her and Vane come to loggerheads.
IGN: You have that great final scene with Vane in the cell. He says everything he's feeling but obviously it doesn't change his fate. Was there a part of her sort of maybe feeling like he had a point, or had they just gone down far too different paths at that point?
New: I think she knows that everything that he says is true, but it's just so painful for her that it's kind of part of herself that she has to kill, in a way, which is immensely selfish in lots of ways. Once again, it's another fierce aspect of her survival strategy. She knows that what he's saying ties into the deepest, darkest, most painful aspects of her existence. She can't just go see a shrink. [Laughs] She's got to do something that enables her to be free of it and push forward with her objective. It’s not only the death of Vane, it's the death of a massive part of herself. I think that's a tragedy to watch in so many ways because she thinks she knows who she wants to be. And then when she is that person, it's interesting in Season 4 because there's something she finds out about herself that makes her really question that - to question who she is and what she wants and why she's fighting for Nassau. Every season there seems to be another challenge to try and find her, to know who she is herself.
IGN: Of course, many of her decisions, especially related to Vane, are not going to be popular one with the fans. What’s it like for you to see people being really upset about what she's done, given it’s your job to embody Eleanor?
New: I mean, that's the thing…. I find it really, in lots of ways, so flattering because the passion that people have for Vane and Eleanor and their relationship, which is kind of, I think, what's really made people really get furious. It's because people were so intrigued by this relationship. And obviously, to play somebody who is instantly vilified is tough. It's interesting because I think we've seen this time and time again. When female characters do things that male characters do, they become vilified. There's a lot less of the context taken into account. He killed her father, which is a silly thing to get overlooked a lot! He's constantly in the way of what she wants to achieve. He's not a person who adapts, he's not a person who she could work alongside with. He's driven and determined in a way that is anarchic and it doesn't have any limits. You know, the interesting thing for Eleanor is she is always going to be fighting against this figure and against herself if he's still around. From a fanbase point of view, it's really interesting and obviously because Zach is such a charismatic and amazing actor, it's so sad that I don't get to do scenes with him anymore. It's great to have those storylines that really get people worked up and passionate about characters’ actions, because it shows that people really care.
IGN: Yes they do! Meanwhile, Eleanor’s relationship with Rogers is also interesting. Do you think she's purely opportunistic with him? Or is there a part of her that's respecting where he's coming from in all of this?
New: I think at first there was very much this kind of manipulative behavior of Eleanor's in order to survive, which is something that very characteristic of her. But as she gets to know this man and she gets to see how his mind works and what his ambitions are, she starts to see that there's so much that's in line with her ambitions and her desires. I think she falls in love with him in this very intellectual way that shocks her in lots of ways, that she would even be attracted to somebody from England - but then he's not of them. He's constantly fighting against them at the same time. There is a true love and affection there, and I think that's what really brings in question the way she's behaved before. She definitely experienced love with Max, and definitely experienced love with Vane, but both of those relationships had fallen into this very self-destructive and negative area. With Rogers she's got this opportunity to suddenly have a pure, equal relationship where she identifies with him on so many issues. I think it's something that the writers have developed in a very, very specific and beautiful way. I think it's episode seven where they're in bed together afterwards and she says, you know, I used to be all those things but I don't want to be any of those things any more. I think that is the biggest moment of truth for Eleanor in all of the season so far. And it's Woodes that made her see it.
IGN: Looking ahead to the future, what can you say going into the final season? What is Eleanor’s reaction to what's going on as Season 4 begins, in the wake of this new legend of Long John Silver? She never assumed this would be be an easy fight, but it might be more difficult than even she surmised.
New: Obviously, at the beginning of Season 4, the stakes are so high. She is on a lot of people's hit list. Her life is endangered in ways that she could have never imagined. There’s a bit of a full-scale war. Before there were outbreaks of violence on the island, but she was maintaining control, but in this case, the level of violence is escalated and she at this point has to be very clever and very precise in her movements and actions in order to escape this. the beginning of Season 4 is very epic because is it such a large-scale battle. But it also is very emotional because it's such a huge level of stakes for her. And then the season is really interesting because as the violence and the battles and struggles become bigger and bigger and bigger the questions the characters are asking themselves are even more kind of existential. Every single character comes to question why they're doing what they're doing and why they're there and what they're fighting for. That's why Season 4 really does kind of bring it full circle and allow each of the characters to develop in a way that we haven't seen before.
We get a lot of backstory of Flint in previous seasons and you get a lot of backstory, bits and pieces on Bonny and Rackham, but then the final season you come to understand these characters on a much deeper level. It's very exciting that we've had this opportunity to wrap it up in that way. It's so sad that we're not going back. We all just got an email yesterday from [executive producers] John and Dan which was so, so sweet, saying, “We can't believe that we're not going back to South Africa to roll around in old ships and get sunburned and messy and bloody in South Africa." And it's true, it's been so much a part of our lives. I think we've been lucky enough to honor this story and honor these characters in a way that lots of other shows don't get the opportunity to do because they just get cut off.
...I want to tell you so many cool details of Season 4, but I can't!
IGN: [Laughs] I'm excited to see it! One person who would be really unhappy with Eleanor is Teach. We learned some backstory in Season 3 and the role she played in driving him away and now of course she had a big role in Vane's death. Anything you can say about a possible face to face between those two characters?
New: Well, all I can say is that he is always looming on the horizon. He's always just one step away. It wouldn't take much for them to come to blows. Yeah, I'm not allowed to say much. It's a massive season for Blackbeard as well because the things that happen to him are just insane. I can't tell you any more than that, really. His presence is something... she was never a fearful person. It’s told exactly like that in Season 3, she identified a specific person and got them thrown off the island at 17. She's not a person who's ruled by fear. But, I think, the stakes at this point become so, so high that it's more than fear. It's a kind of mortal danger that ties into a deep, deep kind of human aspect of being. She's certainly faced with her own death in a way that is very humbling in lots of ways.
IGN: At this point, how would you describe the dynamic between her and Max? There was this huge rift, but last season they seemed to be at a better place than they have been in a while, though she didn't heed Max's warnings near the end of the season. Going into the final season, given all their history, what do they make of each other?
New: Well, I think one of the most mutual things about their relationship is that they are kind of kindred spirits. They do get each other and they're also able to get over past rifts and there's a beautiful kind of civility to turn the page and forget all this stuff for the greater good and to be mutually beneficial to each other. They do come to work together. That doesn't mean that it's smooth sailing, at all. There are moments where everything falls apart. But I think essentially they have a huge amount of respect for each other that that enables them to get through and get stuff done. It doesn't mean that she's immediately brought on board by the Red Coats and with George's men. It's something that Eleanor really does have to fight for. I think it's beautiful that you have that kind of friendship and love... that female relationship shown in such a detailed way. I'm just so lucky that I get to work with Jess as well. She was the person that I actually did my screen test with before the show. I always knew that we'd have a really amazing onscreen relationship and friendship off-screen as well. After the relationship went down so quickly in Season 1 I was like, oh no! Like, “We won't get to work together again!” And then obviously we had such a long time where we didn't get to work together, and it so it really was amazing to work with her again in that capacity. A business capacity where they have this amazing respect for each other.
Black Sails: The Complete Third Season is available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD on Tuesday, November 8th.
Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @TheEricGoldman, IGN at ericgoldman-ign and Facebook at http://ift.tt/LQFqjj.
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