Fans of Prime Video's My Lady Jane got the worst kind of news earlier in August when the historical fantasy romance was cancelled after just one season. While the show didn't end on a life-or-death cliffhanger, the executive producers had hopes and dreams for a Season 2. Well, viewers who fell in love with Jane and Guildford's love story aren't quite ready to give up, and the campaign to save the series is still heating up. And after the story that Emily Bader and Edward Bluemel told about their chemistry read and auditions, who wouldn't want a second season?
Viewers who want that second season wasted no time in trying to show Amazon Prime Video that My Lady Jane deserves to be rescued. The first fan petition was seeking 50,000 signatures; when that milestone was reached, the goal was upped to 75,000 signatures. At the time of writing, another 1,808 people signed in one day. A second petition is also making the rounds, and is currently approaching its goal of 15,000 signatures.
If that's not enough, the fandom has also started a GoFundMe to "Donate to help #SaveMyLadyJane." That hashtag has also trended on X (formerly known as Twitter) off and on since the cancellation on August 16. Whether or not the decision to cancel is reversed, fans are certainly not giving up without a fight just yet.
And on the subject of fighting... when I spoke with My Lady Jane stars Emily Bader and Edward Bluemel together earlier this summer in the 2024 TV schedule, Bader shared that the first time she met her on-screen love interest was the stunt rehearsal for the scene with Jane and Guildford battling each other with daggers. To quote Bader:
Actually, the first time we met was a stunt rehearsal, so it's a great way to break the ice. Just, 'Hi! Good to meet you. Let's attack each other. Here are two daggers.'
My Lady Jane had a talented ensemble, but no way would the show have garnered such a fanbase with Amazon Prime Video subscriptions if the two leads couldn't generate the right kind of chemistry. Having already seen the full season when I spoke with the stars, I asked about the audition process. Bluemel shared his experience:
The audition process for me [was] I was in Nova Scotia in Canada filming something else and I had to sort of do a tape in a very tiny hotel, shouting a Latin poem over and over again. That sort of woke everybody up. The talk of the town in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia was the boy shouting the Latin poem. It was a fairly long audition process.
Few people will ever have to loudly recite a Latin poem to try and get a job, but it clearly worked for Edward Bluemel to land the role of Guildford! Emily Bader, who reacted to the cancellation news this month with a heartbreaking post, agreed that the audition process took some time:
It was one of those [cases when] you audition and then you don't hear anything for three months, and you just keep it in the back of your mind. But then I got a phone call that I had to come back to LA because I had gone on vacation, which is the classic way that you get a job is to leave. It all moved really quickly from there, sort of like a dream, really.
Showing that they each had what it takes to play their characters separately was one thing; the actors who would portray Jane and Guildford had to be able to generate some sparks between them. According the Bluemel, the chemistry read between them wasn't exactly steamy, but it's a cute story in hindsight. He explained:
Then we met for the first time in a chemistry read over Zoom. You go on to the chemistry read and you're desperate to be like, 'I've got to look like I fancy this person so much,' and you're trying to eyeball them through the camera. I'm like, 'Show all of your chemistry,' but then there's a three second delay and it suddenly feels very unsexy.
Apparently, a Zoom chemistry read is "very unsexy" for the people trying to win roles in a very romantic series! Bader went on to share one way to make a Zoom read even more awkward, but Bluemel found the silver lining.
- Emily Bader: "And it gets frozen on one blink. Always really great. [laughs]."
- Edward Bluemel: "Luckily, we clearly managed to do something that felt right."
The fans who are currently signing petitions, posting hashtags, and even donating funds would surely agree that the co-stars did indeed manage to do something right together. It's hard to imagine other actors in the lead roles of Jane and Guildford at this point, but did they ever do a chemistry read with somebody else during the audition process? I asked that very question, and Emily Bader responded:
I did, yeah! There were quite a few Guildfords but I do remember you were the first that I met with, and they had told me. They're like [whispers], 'We really like this guy.' And we just got along so well right from the get go. I was definitely crossing my fingers and hoping and it ended up working out. And I knew it, I think.
Only time will tell if My Lady Jane's Season 1 finale truly is the permanent series finale. Plenty of people are clearly still hoping for more of the show's alternate take on British history. If you want to to revisit the series or even check it out for the first time, the good news is that a cancellation doesn't mean Amazon removing the show from its library. All eight episodes of My Lady Jane are available streaming with a Prime Video subscription now.
