Holliday Grainger on Sunday Times: She's bound to go far

H olliday Grainger would like you to know she is not tired of corsets at all. The British actress may spend half of her year trussed up as the Renaissance temptress Lucrezia in Showtime’s The Borgias — a full six months in wigs, bodices and petticoat upon petticoat, often on location in the 40C summer heat of Budapest — but no, she loves nothing more than a bit of professional masochism parading as period style.

“I do love the Borgia costumes. Luca Costigliolo, who makes them, is amazing. He’s a costume historian who knows everything about Renaissance dress. And, I mean, he wore a corset for 15 years” — somehow, we let this pass — “so the ones on the show are incredibly comfortable. It’s just,” she concedes, “that I had to wear them so much.”

Luca Costigliolo