Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for The Buccaneers finale.

The Big Picture

Kristine Frøseth discusses Nan’s selfless decision to marry Theo to protect her sister Jinny from an abusive husband. Alisha Boe talks about whether Conchita and Richard can remain happily married despite their differences. The cast bonded during dance rehearsals, which were ultimately cut from the show, but helped them form friendships.

What an ending to the finale of The Buccaneers! Perhaps we should have expected some loose threads to remain dangling, given that Edith Wharton’s original novel (from which the Apple TV+ series is adapted) was never finished, likely leaving readers as desperate for more as television audiences after that episode.

While it may have seemed as if Nan (Kristine Frøseth) had finally made her choice in Guy (Matthew Broome), leading to the two of them spending an intimate night together, it turns out that she had a more selfless decision ahead of her — one that involved marrying Theo (Guy Remmers) in order to ensure her sister Jinny’s (Imogen Waterhouse) protection from her abusive husband James (Barney Fishwick). It’s a decision that the Dowager Duchess (Amelia Bullmore) can acknowledge as one befitting a woman who deserves to marry into the house of Tintagel, but a choice that Nan’s mother Patti (Christina Hendricks) can’t wrap her head around.

The rest of the titular Buccaneers don’t necessarily fare any better — although we’re currently rooting very hard for Mabel (Josie Totah) and Honoria (Mia Threapleton) to make it work, as well as some justice for Lizzy (Aubri Ibrag) heading into a potential Season 2. And what about the future of Conchita’s (Alisha Boe) marriage to Richard (Josh Dylan)?

Ahead of the finale’s premiere, Collider had the opportunity to catch up with several cast members from The Buccaneers, including Frøseth and Boe. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, the duo discusses how the group met over dance rehearsals (the results of which were ultimately cut from the show) and why they were drawn to this particular project. Frøseth also discusses making the case for either Guy or Theo as far as who Nan’s meant to be with, as well as the mindset behind Nan’s big choice in the finale, and Boe tells us whether she thinks Conchie and Richard can make their marriage work in the long run.

The Buccaneers The Buccaneers are the daughters of America’s new rich — beautiful and untameable, despite the best efforts of England’s finest governesses, they are on their way to London to snare themselves an aristocrat, low in funds but high in class, to make a perfect match. Release Date November 8, 2023 Creator Katherine Jakeways Main Genre Drama Seasons 1

COLLIDER: I was going to start this interview off with one question, and then I talked to Josie and Mia, and it inspired me to ask you two the same thing: did either of you audition for any other characters before you were cast in these roles?

ALISHA BOE: No, I auditioned for Conchita.

KRISTINE FRØSETH: Same. I mean, I auditioned for Nan. I didn’t audition for Conchita. [Laughs]

The Buccaneers Rehearsed for Dance Scenes That Were Ultimately Cut
Image via Apple TV+

The friendship between the ladies that make up the Buccaneers, feels so ingrained and lived in even from the beginning of the show at Conchita’s wedding. Was there anything that you did off-camera, or between filming, to help inform or strengthen those bonds on the show?

FRØSETH: I came [in] the latest.

BOE: You came in the last couple of days of dance rehearsal. So we had the two weeks or three weeks, almost, of pre-production where it was mostly dance rehearsals, which was really fun with the other ladies, so we just got to hang out for a good amount of time before we started filming. Kristine came a bit later, and I think that helped because we were just quickly realizing, “Oh, we’re all very normal, nice people, and it’ll be nice to film with you guys for the next six months in Scotland.”

FRØSETH: Definitely.

How intensive were the dance rehearsals, considering that you had to do weeks of them?

FRØSETH: Well, they got cut from the show. We did a little bit of rehearsed dancing that did not make it in, so I think that’s safe to say we didn’t do a great job.

BOE: Yeah, we didn’t do well.

FRØSETH: It was pretty intense.

BOE: It was a lot of dance. I had so many dance rehearsals with Josh [Dylan] throughout filming.

FRØSETH: There were complicated dances with the men that I had to learn, and I just could not. This one dance, it was the foxtrot – could not get it.

BOE: Dancing is not my thing.

FRØSETH: But it was a nice warm-up for everyone to just kind of feel vulnerable and loosen up their bodies. It was a great place to start.

Even though there isn’t drama with dancing, there’s still some drama at these parties…

BOE: Oh, all the drama.

Alisha, I’m thinking specifically of the scene where Conchita basically gets to tell off her in-laws. How satisfying was that for you?

BOE: To run into the rain [to] a cliff? Sorry, Richard! That was nice. That was really cathartic. She spends that episode trying to quiet herself down, and Conchita can’t be contained for long, so it was nice that she did it, but she did it in a very calm way. It was lovely.

FRØSETH: It was a great scene.

BOE: Thank you very much.

Related ‘The Buccaneers’ Scene That Wouldn’t Have Worked Without Taylor Swift Creator and EP Katherine Jakeways discusses adapting Edith Wharton’s unfinished novel and the possibility of a Season 2.

Kristine, Nan finds herself torn between two romantic possibilities where she didn’t expect to have even that many. Maybe not even one.

FRØSETH: Not even one, I agree.

Between Theo and Guy, was there a choice that you found yourself gravitating towards more for her, or do you feel like you could make the case for how they each suit her in different ways?

FRØSETH: I could go with the latter because I do think they offer great options, both of them. But I do think the truer love would be Guy because Theo is more… safety. When she doesn’t really know who she is, doesn’t know where to go, becoming a duchess would be a very safe thing for her to do, just having a new identity and title and just sticking with that. I do think their moments of bonding were true, I don’t think they were fake, so there could be hope there. But with Guy, it just feels like he brings out the old Nan in her, and she becomes playful and curious again and finds her truer self with him.

Alisha Boe Thinks Conchita and Richard Can Make Their Marriage Work
Image via Apple TV+

Alisha, one of the most heartbreaking parts of Conchita’s story is her marriage, with all its ups and downs and the angst and the drama and the fighting and the making-up. Do you feel like she and Richard still have the potential to be happy, or are they going to reach a point where they decide they’d be happier apart?

BOE: They did try to separate within the season, and then it didn’t really last long because they still have that very magnetic thing where they cannot stay apart. So, I think that they will be very motivated to really make it work because they did try to separate. It depends on whether Richard’s able to let go of his family’s expectations of him and be himself fully with Conchita.

Something that I really liked about this show in particular is, that as much as there is romance, as much as there is relationship drama, the relationships between friends and women on that level are just as important. We see that a lot between your two characters especially. They challenge each other, they call each other out. From your perspective, was that something that drew you to this project?

BOE: That’s nice.

FRØSETH: Yeah, that’s nice to hear.

BOE: I was excited about exploring the friendships. We got the first two scripts and what really drew me to it was that it was these girls in the first two episodes just being there for each other and having so much fun. It was lovely. But then you definitely see them, throughout the season, kind of get pulled apart, and it’s nice to see them come back together at the end and remind each other that, “Oh, this is the throughline of the story, the love that we have for our friends.”

FRØSETH: They come first, as they say in the show.

BOE: They do come first.

Kristine Frøseth Doesn’t Support Nan’s Indecision Between Guy and Theo
Image via Apple TV+

Kristine, I have to ask you about the finale. Nan’s decision that she makes is to protect her sister, ultimately. Even though she’s confessed her love for Guy, she decides to go through with the wedding. Is she still going to try to have the best of both worlds, embracing duty and responsibility, knowing that she and Guy love each other, or has she decided to just commit and be the duchess and do it for Jinny?

FRØSETH: Oh, I do think in that moment it’s coming out of survival, and it’s coming out of the necessity and urgency to get her sister out, and then maybe later she’ll reflect and be like, “Shit, I made the wrong…” I mean, not the wrong choice, but she’s definitely going to be mourning the fact that her sister is gone, her sister is having a baby by herself, and the love of her life is gone. But I do hope that she will just own that choice, and she has to then stick with Theo. And I do believe that what they had was also real, so there is hope, but I think she needs to stop being in this in-between. I don’t like that for her. I don’t support it.

BOE: I don’t support it, either.

I did talk to Guy [Remmers] and Matthew [Broome], though, and I suggested, “Maybe in a perfect world… both?”

FRØSETH: What did they say?

They were like, “Yeah, okay.” [Laughs]

FRØSETH: Well, that was easy.

BOE: Wait, so like a throuple?

FRØSETH: Yeah.

BOE: Polyamorous. It could be a polyamorous relationship. We’re really getting into 2023 in the 1870s.

FRØSETH: Yeah, but best friends with one girl? I just don’t think that’s going to end well. But maybe that’s my old-fashioned monogamy speaking.

The Buccaneers is available to stream on Apple TV+.

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