[Warning: The following contains some mild spoilers for The Uprising]
Into this time where so many might feel powerless in the face of governmental decision-making, comes Paul Greengrass’ new film The Uprising. The Oscar-nominated writer-director-producer digs into England’s 14th-century Peasant’s Revolt — a story that will surely ring bells today — when the disenfranchised rose up against authority to fight for autonomy and change. Leading the charge is Andrew Garfield as a humble farmer known only as ‘Ploughman’. In a feudal era when the king simultaneously led church and state and the common people were known as ‘serfs’ and were effectively owned by their local lords, rebellion was unheard of. That is, until the teenage King Richard II’s counsel pushed for the peasant farmers to pay more tax. Ploughman has already lost his family to the plague and when the tax collector comes to his village, he hits his limit and lashes out. Suddenly, the humble farmer has incited a countrywide uprising. You’d better believe heads will roll…
Alongside Garfield’s Ploughman is Cosmo Jarvis as the true historical figure Wat Tyler, Jamie Bell as clergyman John Ball and Thomasin McKenzie as fellow rebel Alyce. Add to that, Katherine Waterston as Countess and mother to the king, Tom Hollander as Treasurer Hales and King’s Counsel, Stephen Dillane as Archbishop Sudbury, Jonny Lee Miller as Mayor Walworth, Stanley Townsend as Chief Justice Belknapp, Sky Yang (Rebel Moon, Last Days) as a royal scribe and Woody Norman (C’mon C’mon) as King Richard II.
In this interview, Greengrass and Garfield tell the story of how they turned history into a hero’s journey, the shoot in Bavaria and Germany, including in an ancient Nuremberg church, where exactly Robin Hood fits into the picture, and how, in some ways, Ploughman could be any one of us.
DEADLINE: I felt very proud as a Brit watching this, especially as I’m from Norfolk where a lot of the uprising went on.
PAUL GREENGRASS: They did a lot of chopping of heads off up there.
DEADLINE: Speaking of chopping off heads, what a time it was to be alive then, or very nearly dead, because everybody lived on a knife edge of poverty and violence. It was terrifying.
GREENGRASS: But also incredibly inspiring, I think.
Every day I would wake up like the rest of us going, ‘Are the people that I want to be held accountable being held accountable today? No.’ Every day it was a repeat enragement every morning. And I read this, and I thought, Well, here’s a response to that.
DEADLINE: Yes, because I think most people feel quite disenfranchised at this time. And this is a film about how even a farmer with absolutely no means can make change. It feels like a call to action.
DEADLINE: Paul, do you remember the light bulb moment where you thought, this story is what I want to do next?
GREENGRASS: I do. Absolutely. It was in my mind to do a film about an English rebellion and I had a few that I looked at, some a bit more modern, some even further back. But this was always my favorite and I had read more about this one than any other. This was in the year or two before COVID. And then when COVID hit and we were locked down, on the second day… It was so strange, the first day I thought, Well, I’m going to go to work because that’s the only way I’m going to get through this. I went in the office, which luckily for me is at home, and I said, “I’m going to write a movie about the Peasants’ Revolt.” And that’s what I did.
The light bulb was… I didn’t engage in any history because I’d read all that. I just thought, OK, well, what am I going to start with? I’m going to start with a simple farmer, an ordinary farmer, and I’m going to take him, get him mixed up in the Peasants’ Revolt at the moment it starts, and then I’m going to try and give him a hero’s journey through it. And that’s what I did all the way to the end. And I actually, that first draft I called The Hood — that was what it was called because of where it ended. And actually, it really didn’t change very much. It got better because I did work over the years on it, but the essential architecture and characters and journey remained the same all the way.
Robin Hood, the ballads all postdate the Peasants’ Revolt and were wildly popular and continued to resonate and echo down. Why? Because at a time when people felt that the world was unjust, telling stories about an outlaw who stood up against power when they themselves felt powerless, that kept the dream alive.
DEADLINE: Andrew, you were the first to sign on — did you immediately see the script and say yes, or was there a conversation with Paul beforehand? What was the story there?
GARFIELD: It was immediate for me. I sent an email to Paul as soon as I read it and I asked him to consider me. I really felt very passionate about it and I felt very touched by it in a very, very deep, deep place. And as you say, it felt like a kind of antidote to the disenfranchisement and a kind of isolation and an anxiety and an awareness that the world is out of joint, that there’s major and minor injustices occurring all the time in our world and that there seems to be no accountability. And every day I would wake up like the rest of us going, “Are the people that I want to be held accountable being held accountable today? No.” Every day it was a repeat enragement every morning. And I read this, and I thought, Well, here’s a response to that. This feels like a good place to put our energy and our artistry and our yearning to set the world in order. And then Paul is someone who I’ve longed to work with for a long time, so those two things combined felt like one of those rare instances where I felt very, very compelled to fight for a role.
DEADLINE: Some people, when I told them I was going to see this film, asked, “Is it Robin Hood?” What did you both talk about in terms of background reading, understanding Ploughman and the Robin Hood factor? What were the reference points?
GREENGRASS: Well, it was really very simple. First of all, you’ve got to look at it in terms of cinematic storytelling and then you got to look at it in terms of what the history tells us. What was interesting to me when I started writing was, as I said earlier, I put all the history aside but I knew it. And one of the things that it had shown me was that when the Peasants’ Revolt was crushed, people didn’t stay crushed, the dream stayed alive in human history. And one of the principle ways it stayed alive was that people started to tell stories about outlaws. The late 14th century, you see this huge bubbling up from underneath. The [stories] weren’t courtly poems, they were the stories that people told in taverns and village squares. They were the people’s stories, they were stories of outlaws. And most of all, stories of the legendary figure. Not a real person, because there never was a real person for Robin Hood. But Robin Hood, the ballads all postdate the Peasants’ Revolt and were wildly popular and continued to resonate and echo down. Why? Because at a time when people felt that the world was unjust, telling stories about an outlaw who stood up against power when they themselves felt powerless, that kept the dream alive. That’s where the legend of Robin Hood began and why it began.
As I was writing the story of Ploughman, you couldn’t make a film set against the backdrop of the Peasants’ Revolt and go, “And then the revolution got crushed and Ploughman got killed and that’s the end of the film.” Because who’s interested in that? Your hero’s journey demands that your hero marches in hope, trusts in the king, and once he’s betrayed, goes, “I’m not going to stand for that. I’m going to go to the forest and haunt you for the rest of your days.” And confronts him, that’s what you want your movie to do. And so the two came together, that’s where the legend of Robin Hood began, and this is a movie set against that. Obviously, this character is going to become a character like that which is why I [originally] called it The Hood. It’s always been there.
DEADLINE: Andrew, you’ve said that you really like research, and historical research. Tell me about some of the work you did to build this character. And also, just the physicality of him, he had to be able to wield a scythe convincingly. I’m not sure most of us have ever held a scythe these days so what was the background prep for you?
GARFIELD: It all started with the script. Paul’s script was really comprehensive and then he had troves of research that he shared with all the cast as we came on. And then we had a person called Dan Jones who wrote one of the quintessential books on this period called Summer of Blood. He was our consultant and an incredible historian and teacher and just, again, a trove of information. I would be able to text him and say, “Where would my ox sleep?” And he’s like, “Well, it depends on the month. If it’s the winter months, the ox is going to sleep inside the hut because it needs to be your main source of central heating.” It’s details like that where you’re like, “Oh wow, that just enriches my ability to immerse myself in this period.” And even if we never see it, to have that knowledge just gives you so much play space in your imagination.
I wanted to make a big historical epic because I’d never made one and I love those films. I loved Spartacus, the Kubrick movie. I loved Braveheart. I loved Gladiator in particular. They’re great, great historical epics and I wanted to do my own version of that set against the Peasants’ Revolt.
And then of course, what was important for me to know about the Ploughman was his immediate experience rather than a grander context. He doesn’t know much outside of his plot and his village so I wanted to know about village life, I wanted to know about the rhythm of the seasons, the rhythm of his day, the rhythm of his work, his relationship with god, his relationship with his family. And also was very, very vital, of course, was the experience of living through the plague and the symptoms of that disease, watching his kids go through it, watching his wife and children die from it. I needed as visceral an understanding of that as possible because that’s the part of the engine, part of the grief that gives him the engine to feel called to wreak justice on the world and change things. All of those things, devastating and fascinating all at once.
GREENGRASS: I would say one thing, if I may, just to add to that, that it comes down to what your intent is when you start a film like this. It was never the purpose to make a documentary about the Peasants’ Revolt or a history lesson. What was in my mind was I wanted to make a big historical epic because that’s a genre that I’d never worked in. Same as you might say, “I want to make a contemporary action movie.” I wanted to make a big historical epic because I’d never made one and I love those films. I loved Spartacus, the Kubrick movie. I loved Braveheart. I loved Gladiator in particular. They’re great, great historical epics and I wanted to do my own version of that set against the Peasants’ Revolt.
But you approach it the same way. You’re not approaching it on the level of documentary, you’re approaching it on the level of how can you create a hero’s journey? And very often those films, that genre, has certain things you have to have. It has to have the world turning, be concerned with justice and injustice, have caught the intrigues and a hero in opposition, a love story at the center of it, a crowd, spectacle, cinematic quality, battles. Those are the constituent parts and those are the things that I was wrestling with as you try to craft the story.
DEADLINE: Well, to that point, I really love that you didn’t lean so much into the romance factor. I thought that was really gratifying to see that you focused on the story of Ploughman and the rebellion.
GREENGRASS: It’s in there. But it’s me so I’d hope it’s been done in an understated fashion. But I think the story of these two characters, both of whom have experienced loss, that you don’t understand her loss until later, and the way that they, as it were, find each other, I think is in the spine of the movie. And it’s incredibly moving, I think, with that big, big scene when she persuaded him to come back. You’re right, every filmmaker sings his or her song in the register that’s comfortable for them with the nuance and emphasis that’s appropriate, and my films tend to be about the world turning in fairly dramatic ways. But I think it’s got those human characters and that sense of that farmer and that follower of John Ball coming together, I think it’s really, really important in the story. But no, it’s not iterated in a Hollywood fashion, for sure.
DEADLINE: Andrew, tell me about the experience of the shoot itself. Some of these locations are just incredible, you’re in Bavaria, and in this 13th-century church in Nuremberg. It must have just been incredible. Also, the crafts on this film are extraordinary, the makeup, the costume, the boils on your neck even…
GARFIELD: It was immersive. Everything in Paul’s movie, every department, brought that kind of immersion for the actors and for the story. And yeah, it’s incredibly impressive what the costume department did with limited funds and what the set department did. It’s really, really an incredible thing. Honestly, it was wonderful shooting in Germany, in Bavaria. We had a really great time with a great German crew and some people from Budapest as well. And all these beautiful medieval towns in Nuremberg itself. It was a voyage of discovery in the same way that it was for the Ploughman in a way.
What did the American Revolution become? America threw off the king. No kings. We’ll live in our own republic… These events that are so unknown in America actually are foundational really, historians would argue.
But particularly shooting out in the wilderness, shooting out in nature, felt really, really gratifying. It was like being clapped off of a rugby field every time at the end of the day by Paul. And it must be said as well, that the extras, the supporting artists, the background artists, they’re the missing ingredient, the secret weapon of the film in a way. Everywhere you look in frame, you have passionate, true, soulful performances. Whether or not you know who those characters are, you feel them and it’s unconscious in a way. It’s subliminal. It helps provide a deep immersion. And the way that Paul worked with them and directed them and moved them through the lens with the help of Cliff Lanning, our first AD, and Pål [Ulvik Rokseth] our DP and camera operator, it was a masterclass for me. I was very, very observant of how they were managing to create such authenticity while also giving everyone such support and encouragement and love in the action.
DEADLINE: I read that Cosmo had this Estuarian accent that he maintained for the entire time. Was that just a general vibe that everybody stayed really in, or was that just Cosmo?
GARFIELD: Cosmo stayed in it, but he wasn’t overly earnest. We were mucking about whenever we could. We were having a laugh in between takes and talking absolute nonsense. But he takes his work incredibly seriously like we all do, but he’s also a proper good hang in between takes, Jamie and myself and Cosmo and Paul and Thomasin. It was a lovely time. It was a happy time in the muck and in the mire. But yeah, he’s an incredible actor, Cosmo.
GREENGRASS: I have to say, it was an amazing cast. One of the things about the screenplay was it had a lot of parts and I really wanted to have a full and deep and rich cast of the best actors that I could possibly find from the U.K. And I was very, very blessed that they all agreed to come because it just felt like every day you were looking around the set seeing six of your favorite actors about to go on, so it was an absolute treat from my point. It was Tom Hollander or Jamie or Cosmo or Stephen Dillane or Katherine Waterston. Absolutely brilliant.
DEADLINE: How on earth did you recreate Medieval London? There is that huge scene where you’re crossing the bridge.
GREENGRASS: Well, we built a section of the bridge and then obviously you set extend it with the help of Murray Barber, our visual effects supremo. And every day I’d go on set and say, “Murray, see, we’ve got that bit of bridge we’ve built. But can we extend it?” And he had this phrase… Joanna Kaye, one of the producers, my wife, made him a T-shirt at the end saying, “What could possibly go wrong?” Because that was his phrase. I’d say, “Murray, we need such and such doing. Is that all right?” And he said, “What could possibly go wrong?”
That actually became the phrase of the film because it spread around all of us around the camera. Because the thing about this film was it had grand scale and grand ambitions and it was a miracle, really, what we all achieved, thanks to Andrew and all the other actors, but also thanks to the crew.
The short answer is for London Bridge, we built a section of it, actually which was a very cunning set because it had two sides so you could run through one and then you’d come back the other way, and it was as if it was the other. It was what they call a French reverse. I don’t know why — it’s always called in cinema a French reverse. But basically, it’s a clever way you build a set, so you get two sets out of one, it’s a way of getting an expensive set for a very cheap price. But it requires you to move your actors and extras in a certain way and shoot in a certain way to get the benefits of it. And then you set extend so obviously there’s a lot of beautiful visual effects work, which is stunningly authentic, I think, to make this film work.
DEADLINE: Andrew, what’s a scene that you look back on as not only just a challenge but also something that really personally moved you?
GARFIELD: There’s a lot in this film to be honest, but the first one that comes to mind is probably a moment where Tyler is leading his group in a conversation with the king for the first time. And Cosmo is so incredible in that scene, as is everybody. And then there’s a moment where the Ploughman is forced to speak against his will and against his own desire. And what comes out is something unintended and something spontaneous just from the soul.
GARFIELD: The way that Paul wrote it, very simple language but very poetic. And a strange opportunity because in this moment, the Ploughman and everyone involved is seeing the king as a messenger of god himself so there’s something deeply overwhelming about being face-to-face with this almost mythic creature that has been promised, that will be a sword of justice for his people. There’s something deeply profound in that moment for these common folk. And yeah, I think you can feel it in the frame, you can feel it in that scene. There’s something magical happening when someone finally gets to ask the big man for basic human dignity. It’s touching. It’s moving.
DEADLINE: You can feel his humility in that moment where he really doesn’t want to shine and stand out and that’s why it’s so poignant as well. And just the psychic shock they must all have been in after everything that happened.
GREENGRASS: Massively so. And that’s why to me that coda really works because out of that psychic shock, how do you maintain… You can’t go back. You can’t go back to what you were because you’ve gone through this experience. And that’s why there’s a very famous book, a historian’s book, a historical account of the 14th century, it’s called A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman. An absolutely brilliant book. Particularly it talks about the Peasants’ Revolt a lot, how people’s perception of themselves changed. For the first time in history, ordinary folk began to feel that what they felt about the unfairness of the world mattered. And that feeling never went away, it stayed there in the stories they told about outlaws. But ultimately, it echoed down the centuries, hence the title of Distant Mirror, and became the enlightenment, became the growth of individual rights, individual representation.
What did the American Revolution become? America threw off the king. No kings. We’ll live in our own republic, just exactly like the Ploughman says at the end. These events that are so unknown in America actually are foundational really, historians would argue.
The Uprising is scheduled for a theatrical release in the United States on September 10, 2026, by Focus Features. Jason Blum is producing through Blumhouse Atomic Monster, alongside Gregory Goodman, Joanna Kaye and Greengrass. Lars Sylvest produced through Thank You Pictures and Joe Neurauter through Supernix.
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