The Buccaneers is only three episodes into its eight-episode sophomore season, and the characters are already on a(nother) whirlwind journey of interpersonal drama and complicated romance. Fangirlish sat down with Aubri Ibrag (Lizzy Elsmworth) and Jacob Ifan (Hector Robinson) before the Season 2 premiere to discuss what’s ahead for their characters and what makes the show relatable.
While Ifan was new to the Apple TV+ period drama, Ibrag was more than excited to return to the role of Lizzy. “She’s literally like my baby,” Ibrag affectionately shared. The actress said not coming back to the character, “which one day that will happen,” “would be grief for me.” Luckily for Ibrag and fans of the show, this season and Lizzy’s arc in it are only getting started. The season’s second episode sees Lizzy develop a dynamic with Theo, the Duke of Tintagel. Meanwhile, the third episode, “Get Her Out,” sees Lizzie say “yes” to Hector’s proposal.
After everything that Lizzy experiences in the show’s first season, it’s more than refreshing to see Lizzy find herself farther and farther away from that darkness. “I feel like she has gone through so much in Season 1 with Seadown, and feeling like she was taken advantage of and stuff like that, that I empathasize a lot with her, so I was really, really excited to sort of delve into her arc in the next season and see what’s like…explore different sides to her character, if that makes sense,” Ibrag explained. Not only does it make sense, but it’s exciting to watch.
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Ibrag revealed that she wanted to see Lizzy “be a bit more, um, I wouldn’t say selfish, but like…”. Ifan suggested “front-footed” and agreed when Ibrag continued her response. “I just wanted her to be more sort of, like, act out of her own interests a little bit more and do what she wants as opposed to being shy and people pleasy and, like, I really wanted her to fall in love, honestly. Because I feel like she’s such a lover girl. And, um, she just wants romance, and yeah, we love Lizzy,” Ibrag opened up about her character. We love Lizzy, too!
Lizzy certainly finds herself amid a lot of love this season. First, she must decide whether to give Guy Thwarte’s letter to Nan while Nan tries to make her marriage to Theo, the Duke of Tintagel, work. Then, “Get Her Out” suggests another love triangle could be taking shape. After becoming engaged to Hector, Theo tells Lizzy that Hector is “entirely unworthy” of her. The Buccaneers has yet to reveal what that comment will develop into – if anything. Mostly, the episode teases that there is much more to the Theo/Lizzy/Hector of it all.
Readers of Edith Wharton’s unfinished novel The Buccaneers (or the finished edition by Marion Mainwaring) will recognize Hector Robinson. Instead of relying on those pages, Ifan used a different source material in approaching the character. “There’s not that much on Hector [in the book], so, for me, the source material was all the script, really,” he shared.
Like us, Ifan was a fan of the Apple TV+ show’s first season. “So, I had an excitement joining the show because, obviously, I knew the characters and I knew of the cast and I was a fan. So, it was a slight intimidation when you’re stepping onto, like, a big show with a big ensemble,” he said.
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Ibrag insists that Ifan did well in coming onto the show. “I did well. I did okay, I think. You know, I remember, like, just the first day, having a bit of those nerves and coming in for that readthrough, and everyone being so super kind and super nice,” Ifan explained. Ibrag remembers – and Ifan concurs – the read-through in Glasgow, Scotland, as the first time that she met Ifan. “And then getting to spend six months in Scotland, which was the best,” Ifan shared. “That was somewhere I really fell in love with on the job.”
Ibrag, who described him as “a big chatter,” kindly shared that she felt like Ifan “made lots of friends” in Glasgow. “Yeah, I made lots of friends in Glasgow. I was out and about. I was chatting to people,” Ifan replied. While Ifan was making friends off-screen, his character had a pivotal dynamic on-screen.
Greg Wise played Guy (Thwaite, not Thwarte) in the 1995 BBC TV adaptation of The Buccaneers. He joined the Apple TV+ series as Hector’s father, Reede Robinson, in “Get Her Out.” The episode revealed a history between Reede and Blanche, the Dowager Duchess of Tintagel, played by Amelia Bullmore. When asked about coming onto the show at the same time as Wise, Ifan said, “Yeah, well, we were following a Buccaneers legend, of course.”
“He is such a lovely man. Such a good, like, generous actor. I loved doing all my scenes with him. And it was nice to have, I don’t know, I think a male relationship – a father/son relationship – portrayed in that way – our relationship in it is very caring and tender. And I think especially in period dramas, you don’t tend to see those depicted very often,” Ifan expounded.
MORE: The Buccaneers Season 2, Episode 1 Review: ‘The Duchess of Tintagel’
“They tend to be, you know, very draconian and harsh, and you’re living in your father’s shadow. Where he raised me, and it’s a far more loving relationship. And getting to do that with Greg – big, tall Greg – was…it was lovely.”
While “Get Her Out” only features a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it hug between Hector and his father, Ifan’s comments inspire a genuine excitement to see where the father/son dynamic goes from there. Ibrag even shared that Wise “has a very tender energy about him,” and called him “very caring.” Ifan coined the fun yet endearing term for Wise’s Reede Robinson – “a tender daddy.”
Perhaps Hector and Reede’s relationship will be another aspect of The Buccaneers that pulls audiences into the period drama. After all, now in its second season, the show continues to deliver dynamic characters through a blend of contemporary and historical elements.
Aubri Ibrag commented on The Buccaneers and the genre’s appeal: “I mean, I think a lot of people are kind of, like, intimidated by period dramas because they think it’s something that’s far from reality, if that makes sense. But I think it’s actually not because our show and period dramas in general explore so many themes and situations and things that are relatable, that are timeless.” She even noted some evergreen themes – love, love triangles, and power.
Ifan agreed that timelessness was present in The Buccaneers’s stories, but it also extended to the soundtrack: “I always find that the excitement with these people going to these balls and these dances would have felt the equivalent to now going – I know we’re using, like, in the trailer, there’s a Chappell Roan song.”
MORE: Are you still looking for a reason to watch The Buccaneers? We have five!
“So, that kind of elation… Like, if you play sort of period drama music to young people now, I don’t think it would maybe convey what the actual emotion of what these people…it would feel sort of old-timey and old-fashioned. But, actually, to them, it was like going to a rock concert, you know? Like, the most exciting thing. So, I think it’s really clever how the show sort of uses music and uses camera to try to convey…[that],” Ifan explained.
“Yeah, I think it makes it more sort of relatable,” Ibrag added. Music always felt like a character on The Buccaneers. Taylor Swift’s music, for example, bookended the first season. While Swift’s songs haven’t appeared in Season 2 yet, her music played some cosmic part in it. “I remember Taylor Swift was playing in Glasgow when we were there, when we were starting the job, and it was, like, the whole city was on lockdown. And I felt, this show is going to be okay,” Ifan shared.
While discussing whether The Buccaneers has featured a Lana Del Rey song (Aubri Ibrag is a big Lana fan!), the topic of that Chappell Roan concert in Glasgow came up again. Given that was how our exclusive conversation with Alisha Boe, Josh Dylan, and Josie Totah wrapped up, it felt fitting for our chat with Aubri Ibrag and Jacob Ifan to coincidentally end the same way.
Like Dylan, Ifan shared that he would’ve loved the show had he gone. “You could’ve come if you wanted to,” Ibrag told him. “But we went to a Chappell Roan concert in Glasgow, actually, with the girls. So, it was lovely,” she concluded. Equally as lovely, Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!” made its debut on the show in “Get Her Out” – an episode that encapsulated The Buccaneers’s grand yet grounded relatability that Ibrag and Ifan discussed with us.
MORE: The Buccaneers and Taylor Swift’s music are a perfect match, and the Season 1 finale proves it.
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What did you think of our interview with The Buccaneers‘s Aubri Ibrag and Jacob Ifan? Let us know in the comments below!
The Buccaneers streams new episodes every Wednesday on Apple TV+.
