MovieChat Forums > The Tudors (2007) Discussion > I thought Anne Cleves was fine looking.

I thought Anne Cleves was fine looking.


Idk if they cast the right woman for this role or did her makeup differently. Also Henry was pretty rude to her considering history tells us that Cleves and him became good friends.

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[deleted]

Then why the annulment?

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[deleted]

To King Henry VIII SHE WAS UGLY. Get it???? In his OPINION, he thought her to be UGLY. You don't get to decide for HIM what he would have deemed attractive or not.

And furthermore, to say the actress was good looking is silly. Of course she's good looking, but in the context of the show, Henry considered her to be ugly. What did you expect--that the show would have put out a casting call, stating..."Looking for ugly actresses to audition for the role of Anne of Cleves..."? Obviously they cast the actress to play the role in which the opposite character would deem her character to be unattractive. I'm pretty certain the actress playing the role didn't develop a complex in real life because the character she played was deemed ugly by the character, Henry VIII.

Goodness me, some of y'all are clueless as hell.


Wearing my 'fro as high as it will go

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In the show, I think Henry resented her for many reasons other than him just not considering her attractive:
1) The infected, rotting ulcer in his leg hurt like a bitch and he was mean to everyone because of it, especially people closest to him.
2) She was a constant reminder that Jane was dead.
3) He was too weak-willed to admit that he lacked virility in his aging, pained state, and blamed it on Anne. "Of course, I'm not sterile! She's just too ugly!"
4) Cromwell made the sketch artist portray Anne as some kind of goddess-level beauty. There was no way poor Anne could live up to Henry's heightened expectations.
5) Henry's leg stunk but he was too prideful to admit it; of course, Anne was the smelly one with "evil smells" about her.
Henry was an utter douche to her in the show. I'm glad she managed to escape him.

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IRL:

Henry was an old, crabby narcissist who went charging into Anne's presence in one of his infamous "I'm pretending to be a rakish Robin Hood!" masquerades.

Problem is, no one had bothered to tell Anne that the English king insisted on dressing up and behaving like a man-child, or in carrying out elaborate "GASP, OH YOUR MAJESTY, I HAD NO IDEA THIS WAS YOU!" theatrics that Katharine of Aragon handled with so much tolerant grace.

So Anne became confused as to why this hideous, stinky, limping old man was pestering her, and why he entered her presence without an audience, and proceeded to ignore his attempts to "woo" her by watching the bear baiting, which insulted Henry very much; and by the time she had overcome her, "Wait, this is the king???" and apologized, he'd been "humiliated" and wanted nothing to do with her.

Looks or not, it had nothing to do with anything other than the fact that unlike her predecessors, who were warned of his massive ego trips, Anne didn't fall at his feet and stroke him by pretending he was the tall, gorgeous, handsome, chivalrous man that Henry considered himself to be in his own mind.

Instead, she collectively went eww and ignored him.

Irony is, they became rather decent friends after awhile -- but naturally, when you limp in to see your bride, you expect to be recognized (even if she's pretending she doesn't know who you are!).

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Anne got the best deal out of all of his wives. She only had to tolerate him for a few months, agreed to divorce, and enjoyed a rich life of leisure in his kingdom while respected as a "sister" of the king.

Much better than ending up on the chopping block. She's lucky he wasn't attracted to her! It probably saved her life.

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I agree.

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I like her not!

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