‘The Last Kingdom’: Alexander Dreymon Talks About Brida in Season 4 — ‘She Can’t Catch a Break’
In season 4 of The Last Kingdom, the friendship between Uhtred (Alexander Dreymon) and Brida (Emily Cox) has taken a nosedive. Uhtred is still helping the Saxons and Brida is still devoted to the Danes. The actor who plays Uhtred discusses Brida in a recent interview. Learn what he has to say about Brida in season 4.
Uhtred and Brida were once very close
Uhtred and Brida spent their childhoods together and they fell in love. Unfortunately for Brida, Uhtred ends up choosing the Saxons over the Danes, at least that’s the way she sees it. It’s something she never truly forgives him for. Over the years, their relationship has remained pretty tumultuous. In season 4, they meet again after years apart and the hatred is still there for Brida.
Uhtred tells Brida who really killed Young Ragnar
In the new season, Uhtred encounters Brida again during battle. He’s fighting Cnut (Magnus Bruun), the man Brida is with now and she’s even having his child. Uhtred tells her that Cnut manipulated Aethelwold (Harry McEntire) into killing Young Ragnar (Tobias Santelmann), who was the love of Brida’s life. She takes this as the perfect opportunity for revenge and she kills Cnut right then and there.
Brida tries to get away, but the Welsh capture her. She begs Uhtred to kill her and send her to Valhalla, but he just stares at her unable to do it. She’s taken as a slave and treated terribly until the Danes come to save her. This is the final fuel to the fire raging inside Brida. She can never forgive Uhtred for not killing her in the moment that she needed him to.
Alexander Dreymon talks about Brida in season 4
Dreymon, who plays Uhtred in The Last Kingdom, spoke with Variety before the premiere of the all-new season. He discussed numerous aspects of the show, including Brida in season 4. Dreymon says she turns into a “fierce fighter.”
“A lot of the stuff that happens to her, she also deserves,” Dreymon said. “That’s the crazy thing, to see her develop from how she was. If you remember that shot of the two kids sitting on the steps of the hall at Eforwic right at the beginning after they’ve been taken and then seeing her develop into this fierce fighter.”
It’s a conflicting situation for the audience to have watching this girl grow up into a warrior woman willing to do whatever she has to for what she believes in. It takes her to some pretty dark places.
“There’s this one scene where she kills the villagers when they’re stealing the horses,” Dreymon continued. “She smashes this woman’s head. It’s just — jeez, how do you get to that? And I think in a way, it’s one of those moments where the audience is really torn between rooting for her because it’s Brida and because they know her so intimately from the beginning and at the same time she’s become this monster.”
Brida ‘can’t catch a break’
Dreymon praises Emily Cox, who plays Brida, for doing an excellent job of making you feel for her character and what she’s going through. She “can’t catch a break,” but she’s also a “vile figure” and it’s a hard place to be.
“But I think Emily [Cox] does a really good job of making you understand what she’s going through and she can’t catch a break. But at the same time she’s also portraying this vile figure that is only made up of hatred at this point,” Dreymon said.
The relationship between Uhtred and Brida has certainly changed over time. We’ll have to see how it continues to develop if the series is renewed for a fifth season.
