If there’s anything we know about Sapphics, it’s that we just can never get enough of period love stories. Maybe it’s the longing and the forbidden desire ... or maybe it’s the heaving bosoms in all those corsets. Naturally, when we first spotted the lesbian kiss in the trailer for the Apple TV+ series The Buccaneers, we added it to our must-see TV list, and it has thankfully lived up to our hopes.
The series, for those who are just catching up, is based on the unfinished work of Edith Wharton and follows a group of young eligible wealthy American women who are sent to London to marry the one thing that all their money can afford them, aristocracy. Happy to embrace the new money into their family — but less so their wild American ways — are the lords and ladies of many formerly wealthy, but titled families.
Among them are Mable Elmsworth (Josie Totah) and Honoria Marable (Mia Threapleton) who, like their siblings, strike up a cross-continental romance; however unlike their brothers and sisters, whose matches are seen as a boon to both families, theirs has to remain secret, because, well, gayness.
Despite those circumstances, their love story is somehow the healthiest and most free because it’s devoid of the patriarchal confines of their straight counterparts, an irony that did not go unnoticed by Totah. “The straight people are struggling the most in this show. We’re gay and we’re fine. We got it figured out. But you’re hot and you’re straight, and you’re still having issues? Like just hook up. I’m so confused. It makes no sense. So, I love that for us, honestly,” she tells PRIDE.
It also doesn’t hurt that the actors share an effortless chemistry, one that Threapleton tells PRIDE was pretty much instantaneous. “I think it was quite obvious that we were going to become quite close, even just from the get-go from the first couple of conversations that we had,” she recalls.
Their friendship flourished in the lead-up to filming. “We did spend a lot of time with each other. And we had many dinners, and I made her many bread loaves,” shares Threapleton. “It was totally wonderful and very wholesome and just gorgeous. And you are gorgeous and wonderful. So that’s a bonus.”
Sounds like a dream — and, honestly, like the origin story of one of the “Boston marriages’’ that their characters have their hearts set on. As for the actors, representing historical lesbians who faced the same kinds of social pressures and need to hide was something they each took seriously when crafting their characters. For Totah, that inspiration didn’t come from the past but something much closer to home — literally.
“I think existing as a queer person in the 1800s was such a hard thing to grasp, it felt so far away. just kind of draw on my experiences of growing up in a very small — we call a cow town — an agricultural town in Northern California,” she says.
Threapleton, who typically likes to do a lot of research, took a different tack with Honoria. “I love getting stuck into something and doing my prep work. And I will happily spend if I have the opportunity, months and months on preparing and writing endless pages of notes and stuff, but it sort of all happened to it organically,” she recalls. “I wanted it to feel as organic and real to me, and unique to me as possible. And getting to know [Josie] and getting to spend more and more time with [her] and become close throughout the process really helped to solidify the bond that we that we have off-screen as well as on-screen”
This came in handy for the more intimate moments between the characters, she explains. “We talked a lot about some of the more intense scenes, some of the more tender loving scenes, we talked a lot. [The character] sort of revealed itself as things kind of went on,” says Threapleton.
While we won’t spoil the series, it’s worth noting that The Buccaneers manages to, ahem, buck, all the worst lesbian tropes, like burying your gays or the tragic lesbian ending. For both the actors, sharing a love story with a happy ending goes beyond being simply entertaining. “Growing up, you know, when you’re watching a show or a movie, those are kind of the only things you have to point to about your future. And if you’re not seeing that on screen, how could you believe that to be true for yourself?” asks Totah. “I’m really proud that we get to showcase the joyous nature of our relationship... and I think people will be very pleased with how season one ends for us.”
