Simon Farnaby Talks The Elite Knights Of Your Highness

I had the distinct pleasure to take part in a round table discussion with Bunny & the Bull director Paul King and stars Edward Hogg and Simon Farnaby at this weekend's cosplay-tastic MCM Expo, where they provided a brief welcome relief amongst the rampaging hordes of toons-made-flesh on a good time mission.

Farnaby has recently completed filming on David Gordon Green's Your Highness, in which he is playing one of a gang of "Elite Knights" who he says are the "baddies" of the picture. When the round table was wrapping up and the old "What's next for you?" standby came out, he was forthcoming with some details of his scenes and on-set experience. Full quotage after the break.

Here's a taste of what we can expect from Farnaby's role:

I play a knight, Mancunius the Bold. Who's sort of... there's a gang of Elite Knights led by Damian Lewis and Toby Jones who's in it as well and we're sort of the baddies. They shot this sequence where we were preparing for battle and we went "Wouldn't we... what do you want us to do?" and they said "Just do what you think how you would prepare for battle" so there's slow motion of us doing yoga and picking out weapons. That was great to do.

Paul King found it rather amusing that his old friend and Toby Jones would be cast as 'Elite Knights' so the film's shots at the funny bone appear to be already landing.

Another participant on the table swung in to ask Farnaby what the difference was between making an American film and a British one. Here's his response:

Less Lines. Having a trailer was amazing. Totally different. Bunny & the Bull was better, I think. Though Your Highness will be amazing.

Do you think he's maybe a little biased towards the film he stars in, is directed by his long time friend and features plot elements based upon his own life? Even if he is, it doesn't mean he's necessarily wrong, of course.

In the draft of the Your Highness script that I've read the main villain is the wizard Leezar, Justin Theroux's part. The character Farnaby has was called Manious, and his peers Daronious, Thundarian and The Brothers Mein. I'm assuming that there was some more writing done between April, when the draft was dated, and the end of shooting, though I'm also sure that a great amount of new material was improvised on set.