Netflix’s latest romp The Decameron is the story of five 14th century nobles and their servants selected to retreat to a beautiful countryside villa to wait out the deadly plague, sort through power struggles and class systems, and find out what happens when they stop being polite and start getting real. (IYKYK.) The answer? All havoc breaks loose. Based on the collection of short stories by 14th century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron is a hilarious, soapy, one-of-a-kind dark comedy that brings some levity to survival in the time of a pandemic.
As a whole, it’s wonderfully clever, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t specifically call out the show’s stellar ensemble cast—a veritable treasure trove of comedic favorites, such as Tony Hale and Zosia Mamet, and breakout stars like Parisian Lou Gala. One standout duo is Jessica Plummer (The Girl Before) and Tanya Reynolds (Sex Education). They play Filomena, a self-centered lady-in-waiting, and her dedicated servant Licisca, respectively. Both in search of a better life for themselves, their love-hate dynamic makes for some of the show’s best LOL moments. When the two young women find themselves at odds en route to the villa, Licisca takes matters into her own hands, ensuring her solo arrival to their destination. Claiming she is Filomena, Licisca enjoys the spoils of noble life and romance until the real Filomena arrives days later, threatening to expose Licisca’s lie. As their secret starts to unravel and their lives are thrown in jeopardy, they discover they have a closer bond than they initially realized.
Licisca and Filomena’s sisterly dynamic makes for brilliant TV, and off-screen, Reynolds and Plummer prove their chemistry and banter aren’t just make believe. A few weeks ago, the two got on a call to reminisce on filming The Decameron, trade funny audition stories, and debate which is better, period vs. modern costumes.
(Image credit: Netflix)
Tanya Reynolds: Hey, friends. Sorry I’m late. I had to update my bloody Zoom.
Jessica Plummer: There she is! I’m just on my phone because I’ve locked myself out of my laptop, and my iPad never works. Hopefully, it’s not annoying.
TR: No, it’s great. Your quality looks better than mine. I’m like on a potato.
JP: Do you have the questions, Tanya?
TR: I’ve got them right here. Okay, the first one is, What stood out to you about The Decameron script and made you really want to be a part of this project?
JP: I don’t know about you, but I remember reading the script for the first time and thinking, “This is too good. I’m not going to get this. … This is hilarious. This is genius. I want to be a part of this, but I’m not going to hold my breath.” I read the part for Filomena after such a long stint of hearing no and being really in my head like, “Oh my god, am I ever going to be employed again?” I think Kathleen [Jordan] put a note underneath being like, “Don’t be afraid to be weird.” Do you remember that?
TR: I think that was a note that everyone [got], that “weird” bit, which made me feel quite comfortable. I thought, “Oh, thank god. I can just be myself.” I just thought it was really funny, really clever, and unlike anything I’d read before. Sometimes, you read scripts, and you can visualize it because you can compare it to something that already exists. Whereas, I really couldn’t do that with this. I couldn’t think of anything that it was like. Even now, having finished it, I think it really stands on its own. I just thought that was really exciting.
JP: I’d love to know what your audition process was like for this.
TR: I taped, and I remember being in a rush to catch the train, and I just had a tiny window to do my tape. I always find that auditions where you’re rushing or it’s a bit of a chaotic environment always tend to be the auditions that I get. If I take my time and work really hard, no chance. I’m never going to hear about the job ever again. But this… I was in a rush, and it was the scene where Licisca puts flowers up her nose, and we had these tiny little flowers in our flat, so I put two up my nose and did that for my tape. And then I had the audition in person, which I thought was a disaster because when I left to go to that audition, I broke my front door key off in my lock.
JP: Oh god.
TR: I broke my door key and stood outside my flat like, “I don’t know what to do. Should I just leave and go to my audition and the door is maybe unlocked?” I turned up to this audition really panicked about my door, and then the audition was terrible. I did really bad acting.
JP: Your bad is everyone’s like 99%.
TR: No! But then it was all the Zooms. We had loads of Zooms where I read with so many Filomenas, which was really great. I read with you twice. I remember our first one together. I was like, “Oh, it’s her.”
JP: Oh my god, I remember the first one and coming off the Zoom being like, “Noooo! If I could do it again, I know I’m going to smash it. I know I can do this now because I know where I went wrong. I know what I was missing.” But that first one we did together, I was like, “Nah.” It didn’t have that thing. You know when you leave auditions and you’re like, “Yeah”? You feel it in your chest, whether you get it or not.
TR: Totally. But even if you were totally in your head about little line readings or inflections … you were perfect. You could have read it any way. It was just your energy and your vibe. You were also so cute. You were telling us how you balanced your laptop in your drawer or something.
JP: Yeah!
TR: It was so cute. I was like, “I love this girl. Please cast her.” Let’s talk about the sisterly dynamic between Filomena and Licisca.
JP: Even though I wasn’t too happy with my performance [in the audition], I felt like our chemistry was just there. The way that we bounce off each other constantly, loving and hating each other, it felt like, for me, it came naturally. It probably helped that you are so easy to be around. I remember the first time we met. You were like, “Yeah, I’m going to go home after the fitting,” and I was like, “Wait, you’re not going to stay another night?” I was like, “Well then, neither am I. I’m going back to the UK. We’re going to go back together.” I remember going to the airport, and you were there before me sitting in the lounge, and I was like, “Oh, does she just want to be left alone? I’m just going to give her no choice.”
TR: I’m so glad you gave me no choice. But that’s actually why we had immediate chemistry—because we are so different. [Laughs.] … I said this to you before. We’d walk to set together, and you’re like this ray of sunshine, and I’m like this fucking drizzly rain cloud. We have such different energies, and we’re so different, and I think that really worked for Licisca and Filomena because we really balanced each other out. At our core, we get on so well because we’re just cracking girls.
JP: Literally. I agree.
TR: Also, you’re a hugger, and I’m just not a hugger with anyone. You would walk onto set and hug everyone, and I would be so awkward and just kind of wave.
JP: There was that one time you had to hug everyone after me.
TR: Yes! Because we’d go onto set together, you’d be hugging everyone, and then I’d be like, “Well then, I look like a dick if I don’t hug, so now, I have to hug everyone.” I would just like to state for the record that I’m not a dickhead. I’m just shy.
JP: She’s not a dickhead, definitely. I’m probably just a bit OTT.
TR: No, you’re just divine. What was your favorite scene we had together?
JP: My favorite episode to film is definitely when Licisca and Filomena were banished from the villa. This was three courses of the way [into] filming. Everyone was so tired at this point. You know when you’re so tired you’re a bit delirious and everything is funny and you’re clumsy and falling over? Do you remember when we were walking and the bandits had to kidnap us, but before that, we were singing a song?
TR: That’s what I was just thinking, yes!
JP: I can’t remember, but at the end, we were both singing. [Starts singing.] He-he, he-he. I was like, “Oh my god, the next time we do it, I’m going to go like, [sings in a high-pitched voice] he-he, he-he.”
TR: It was like, [sings in low voice] “Sancto,” and you were going [in high-pitched voice] “Sangti” or something. In that episode, we’re singing an old hymn from our childhood, and while we were waiting for the camera to set up, we stood there like, [starts singing] “Sancti,” giving it Britney [Spears].
JP: Like Mariah Carey. It was a sing-off. That one was definitely one of them. What about you?
TR: That was the scene I was going to say. I loved our stuff on location. We had a lot of fun just being outdoors. We had our hair down, which was great because I didn’t have to wear any headpieces.
JP: Those headpieces.
(Image credit: Netflix)
TR: Were there any scenes that were so funny you kept breaking?
JP: Yeah.
TR: I had a scene with Douggie [McMeekin] where he kept breaking. It was the scene where we’re in a tent, and we’re on a date, and then he starts hyperventilating because I say his hair is wavy. And then he turns to me, and he’s meant to say, “Is that true? Do you love me?” But he whipped his head around and, like this, says [mimics McMeekin], “Do you love me?” I remember he just looked at me with this panicked look, and we all just exploded laughing. No one could get through a take for a while, even the crew. It was just so funny.
JP: Douggie’s facial expressions, he just kills you.
TR: That boy is hilarious.
JP: What was your experience filming with the rest of the cast?
TR: Oh, it was divine. We had the best time. I was pinching myself the whole time at how lucky we were to be making this really brilliant, unusual, funny show. And living in Rome, which is just the most extraordinary city. We all lived really close to each other. We were all walking distance from each other. It was amazing. Until I broke my ankle in the last three weeks of filming, it was great. It was such a special little bubble.
JP: I know it’s a cliché to say, but it did really feel like we were a little family. I think more so because we were all not at home. All we had was each other. The cast, the crew, everyone, we were constantly like, “Wow.”
TR: When I broke my ankle, we really felt like a family then because I couldn’t walk on it. I wasn’t allowed to walk on it for three to four weeks, and we had three weeks left of the shoot. I had to just sit with it elevated. They gave me a week off from filming, and I just sat in my flat by myself with my foot elevated, and everyone else was on set. Everyone would take turns coming over because I could not do anything. You guys all came around and cooked for me.
JP: You were obsessed with the Kinder Happy Hippos. When you broke your ankle, I remember coming over and seeing mountains of Happy Hippos. I think everyone was like, “How can we cheer Tanya up?” Everyone just came with Happy Hippos.
TR: They were stolen from the children on set.
JP: That’s how it started. They were for the kids, and then we started eating them all. But I swear all of Rome’s supply of these Kinder Happy Hippos were at Tanya’s house.
TR: Let’s talk about the show’s costumes. Were there any looks you really loved, including other characters?
JP: This was the first time I have done anything period, so the fitting was very exciting for me. Filomena, when she isn’t a noble, those outfits are probably my favorite. I love my little green-and-red dress. That apron, I didn’t want to take it off. I loved that apron with the pockets. I could put all of my stuff inside. I remember your tampon hat. That was a good one.
TR: [Laughs.] As a reference, we said that my costume—the one that I wear in episode four and for the rest of the show—is a black-and-red dress with a big red headpiece. It had a red veil type of thing, and I said I look like a bloody tampon but a really great one. I loved Dioneo’s costumes. Oh my god, Dioneo wore this black number.
JP: Yes, I knew you were going to say that one.
TR: I, to this day, want that.
JP: The guys did look really great and also Lou [Gala, who plays Neifile] when she wore your black-and-red dress. Do you remember where she had the black veil? I loved that dress.
TR: Also, the whites Neifile wears in the first episode. She looks so classic Hollywood. Divine. Do you prefer period costumes or modern?
JP: Modern.
TR: Did you say modern?
JP: Absolutely.
TR: No way.
JP: I loved my costumes to pieces, but it was freezing in winter and ridiculously hot in summer. I was carrying probably like 100 families’ worth of bugs in it.
TR: [Laughs.] I’m the opposite. I love doing period stuff. If someone said to me right now “You can only do period jobs from this day forward,” I would be like, “Yeah, fine.”
JP: Really? Going to the toilet is such a faff.
TR: Yeah, going to the toilet is a massive faff. I won’t lie to you. And it’s not ideal with layering. Listen, it’s not practical, but I just love it. I can’t explain it. Putting on something from a different period, I’m like “Oh yeah, this is make believe.” It feels like dressing up. It’s the thing closest to taking me back to when I’m 8 years old and I had a dressing-up box. I love it. But the headpieces… As extraordinary as they are—and they are extraordinary—they are beautiful, and they look fantastic, but my god were they painful.
JP: The pins.
TR: What’s the funniest or most interesting prep you’ve done for a role? I’ve got one. When I got the role in Sex Education, I found out that I got it on a Thursday, and I started filming on the Monday. I had like three days to prepare, and originally, in the character bio for Lily, there was something about her being a massive Battlestar Galactica fan, and I’d never seen Battlestar Galactica. I bought a DVD box set of… I don’t know how many seasons there are, but [there are] a lot, and I sat the entire weekend and watched Battlestar Galactica. It’s never once referenced in the show. It never came back. It probably was good in some way. It got me in the mindset.
JP: Was it good at least?
TR: It was a good time.
JP: I don’t know if I have any. This is the first time I’ve done a comedy, so any prep I’ve done has always been quite dark, nothing funny.
(Image credit: Netflix)
TR: I find it amazing that this is your first comedy. You’re amazing. What’s a role, Jessica Plummer, you’re dying to do next?
JP: I really want to do an action movie.
TR: You would be so good in an action movie.
JP: I just want to run, run, run and jump off a building and fly. I feel like that would be so cool. I love team sports and being physical, so to be able to play a role and be physical at the same time, that would be a dream. Before The Decameron, my dream role, I said I wanted to do a comedy. I needed to do something lighthearted. I needed a break from the heaviness. The Decameron is always going to have a special place in my heart, and I would love to do more comedy. What about you?
TR: Well, I don’t think I have any business being in an action movie. I think that would be ridiculous. My limbs have no place in an action movie. I kind of feel the opposite to you. I love comedy, but I find it’s so hard, and I feel like I’m way harsher on myself when I’m working comedy. I’m way more self-critical, and I have much higher standards for myself than I do in something that isn’t comical. I think to do something straight, like drama, would feel like a bit of a break from the constant self-flagellation of not being funny enough. But I don’t know if there is a particular role I want to do next.
What other shows are you watching right now that you really love?
JP: I finished Supacell the other night. Have you watched that yet?
TR: No, but I want to start watching it because everyone is talking about it.
JP: It’s set in South London, so I was like, “I must watch this being a born-and-bred South Londoner.” I’m not a fantasy girl. I want to be able to believe in it. It was amazing. I recommend it. I have not seen anything done in that kind of way. To be honest, I want to be in season two.
TR: Making it very clear to the producers.
JP: Yes, if you are reading this article…
TR: I’m such a rewatcher. I’m currently rewatching Gavin & Stacey.
JP: Didn’t you watch Arrested Development with Tony [Hale] in it? That was like your show.
TR: I’ve watched every season of Arrested Development. I can’t even count how many times. I can probably quote at least the first three seasons word for word, which is why I was so starstruck seeing Tony. And I remained starstruck. I don’t think I was ever not starstruck for six months.
And those, I think, are all of the questions.
JP: Oh my god, did we even answer them right?
The Decameron is now streaming on Netflix.
Photographer: David Reiss
Hairstylist: Davide Barbieri
Makeup Artist: Maria Comparetto
Manicurist: Naima Coleman
