Arty Froushan (Jonah) and Caroline Ford (Sophie) in CARNIVAL ROW – Season 2 | ©2023 Prime Video
In CARNIVAL ROW, now in its second and final season on Prime Video, the Fae are rebelling against their human oppressors in the eighteenth-century-Europe-like Burgue.
Chief human upholders of the anti-Fae policies are the ruling Chancellor, Jonah Breakspear, played by Arty Froushan, and the leader of the opposition party, Sophie Longerbane, played by Caroline Ford.
What nobody except Jonah and Sophie know is that the two of them are in league together. Jonah is privately diffident and listens to Sophie, while Sophie seems to be playing all sides against the middle in her quest for ultimate power.
British performer Ford has previous experience with faeries, having played one in ABC’s ONCE UPON A TIME. Some of her other credits include LAKE PLACID: THE FINAL CHAPTER, ASYLUM, THE CALLBACK QUEEN, and FREE REIN.
Froushan, originally from Connecticut, recently played Ser Qarl Correy in HOUSE OF THE DRAGON. His other credits include KNIGHTFALL, STRIKE BACK, and THE PERSIAN VERSION.
Ford and Froushan get together, from separate locations, for a Zoom discussion of their CARNIVAL ROW characters this season.
ASSIGNMENT X: Were either of you at any point in childhood or afterwards a fan of fairytales?
CAROLINE FORD: Yes. I have always loved fairytales, absolutely. I grew up watching the Disney films, reading fairytales. I loved getting lost in fantasy worlds, and especially fairytales, magical realms. I also still like to walk through gardens and imagine where the fairies live [laughs].
ARTY FROUSHAN: Yes, of course. I buried myself in books and stories as a child. I was a particularly avid reader between six and twelve, which is sad, but that’s no longer the gamut. I love books, but I think a lot of the reason behind that was my love for fantasy and for fairytales and stories that transport you elsewhere.
AX: In CARNIVAL ROW, you’re in a fairytale, but you’re playing people who are adversarial to the faeries …
FORD: It’s often more fun, I think, to play the darker characters, to dive into a side of humanity that hopefully you don’t in your everyday life. And I think telling the dark side of the story, the other side of the story, is just as important as the good one, as a warning, and as a lesson, and to help understand how people get to the decisions they get to. I also think there’s no such thing as black and white. There’s always a grey with humans. So, it’s actually quite fun playing that role in this story. What do you think, Arty?
FROUSHAN: Yeah. I think you can’t have the shining, brilliant magic of faeries without someone trying to oppress them, or strip them of their magic, or restrict them. And the story as a whole needs that – it needs that adversarial energy between the dark and the light. And yeah, it was fun to play, although if I were really Chancellor, I probably wouldn’t be as nasty to the Fae, because they’re quite nice, aren’t they?
CARNIVAL ROW final season Key Art | ©2023 Prime Video
AX: What are your characters’ relationships to their ambitions? Does Jonah actually have any, or is he just sort of moving along in the direction that he thinks he’s being pushed?
FROUSHAN: [laughs] I think Jonah does a lot of soul searching. He does it in the first season, but even more so in the second. So, he’s not sure. He’s trying to figure it out. Basically, there are just so many other people telling him what’s best for him and what he should do, he’s kind of trying to, I think, retreat from the noise a bit, and just listen to what he wants and needs. But it’s hard to do that in the company that he’s in, and the position that he finds himself in. So, that’s the story of this season for Jonah, I think, is trying to decide what he really wants, and what he wants his destiny to be.
AX: And is Sophie genuinely an anarchist, or does she have some organized goal in mind, or does she just want to see the trains crash into each other?
FORD: I think Sophie isn’t an anarchist. I think that she spent her whole life listening to her father and his friends fail miserably at governing [laughs], and treat her appallingly, and treat women appallingly. And she has the belief that she could do it better. And she goes about it in a really messed-up way, because of her upbringing, and because of what she’s been taught. She’s seen darkness and she’s seen aggression for her whole life, so that’s what she knows, that’s how she knows how to act. It’s also how she knows men listen. But I genuinely think her goal is to be the one in charge, because she thinks she could do it better. So, she does want to rule. She doesn’t want to get rid of the whole system, she wants to be the system, and genuinely believes she can do it quite well, and manage people quite well.
AX: Do you think she has a vision for what the system looks like once she’s in charge of it?
FORD: Yes. One hundred percent. I think she’s been working on her vision since she was probably a six-year-old girl, in her diary [laughs].
AX: [laughs] Setting up her dolls and telling them, “And you go here …”
FORD: [laughs] Exactly, exactly.
AX: Sophie is romantically involved with Jonah, but does she have any actual feelings for him? And what are Jonah’s feelings for Sophie?
FORD: I think Sophie is very confused about her feelings towards Jonah. She’s only ever had really one friend, and that’s her maid [who is a faun], so she doesn’t really know how to do friendship, she doesn’t really understand it. And she definitely develops some sort of emotion towards him; she probably grows to slightly enjoy hanging out with him, because it’s what she’s used to, and [he is] someone her age and in the same position as her, so there is an inkling of feeling there. But it’s messy, and it’s confused, and I don’t think she knows what to do with it, so she probably just squashes it.
FROUSHAN: Yeah. I think Jonah does have really strong feelings for Sophie, but amongst those feelings is fear and trepidation [laughs], so he’s not able to allow himself to lean into the romantic feelings he has for her, because he’s worried that it might swallow him up. So, again, he’s conflicted. But I think, in an ideal world, he and Sophie would be together.
AX: Without spoiling, do your characters end the season where you expected they would?
FROUSHAN: Not quite, no. But there is joy to be taken in the unexpected twists and turns, and I think where they do end up is an exciting conclusion, for sure.
FORD: Yeah. There are definitely some shocking twists and turns that were definitely a shock to me as well.
Related: Exclusive Interview: CARNIVAL ROW actors Jamie Harris and Jay Ali on the final season
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Article: Exclusive Interview: CARNIVAL ROW actors Caroline Ford and Arty Froushan on the second and final season of the Prime Video series
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