Kristine Froseth weighs in on which man her ‘Buccaneers’ character should end up with

While every character in The Buccaneers, Apple TV’s deliciously addictive, corset-heavy period series, is engulfed in wild interpersonal drama, no character brings the dramatics quite like Annabel St. George, AKA Nan. Played with panache by Norwegian actor Kristine Frøseth, Nan is at the centre of a love triangle between a handsome duke – the most eligible bachelor in the land – and his equally handsome best friend. “She’s kind of reactionary and impulsive,” says Frøseth, who happens to be calling from her dad’s house in Norway. “She goes from not ever wanting to be in a relationship to all of a sudden having two men.”

It’s a strange coincidence that The Buccaneers, which centres around a group of American girls trying to fit into London society in the 1870s, features not one but two Norwegians. Starring opposite Frøseth is Norwegian-Somali actor Alisha Boe, who plays Conchita Closson, the first American girl in the gang to wed a stuffy Brit. The two actors – who were both featured in early issues of Vogue Scandinavia – met for the very first time just a few months before they were cast, at a Chanel party. “I was obsessed with her,” Frøseth says, adding that she’d often seen Boe’s face in the Norwegian news when she was visiting home. “I’ve always known of her, but I’ve never met her. She was so dope and I was like, ‘I want to be friends with this girl’. Cut to we’re in Scotland together for seven months.”

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The two Norwegians, along with the rest of their mostly-female cast, became fast friends. Frøseth even made an effort to help Boe, who’s been based in Los Angeles since she was a child, brush up on her native language. “I’ve been trying to teach her some Norwegian again, because I know she’s lost it a little bit,” Frøseth says. “She visits here – she still has family up North. But she’s mostly a Cali girl.” On set, Frøseth would occasionally drop a Norwegian phrase and see if Boe would pick it up.

Despite the cinematic shoot locations – the extraordinary castles, the cliff sides and beaches – and on-set camaraderie, filming a period drama is never without its challenges. First there are the costumes, a far cry from Frøseth’s usual relaxed attire. “You know how tight they are and you know the pain,” says Frøseth, referencing the corset I wore a few months earlier to my wedding. “It took some adjusting. I didn’t feel well in the beginning, because I really just wear baggy clothes.”

Frøseth, however, found a loophole; her free-spirited character would never cinch her corset as tight as the other girls. “My character kind of rebels against it, so I used that as an excuse to loosen it more than the others,” she says. “I also wanted her to have a flat chest – I wanted her to embrace the tomboy-ness as much as she could.” Still, the corsets were very much required wearing and as Frøseth describes it, it took weeks for her digestive system to recover from the garments’ constraint.

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Another challenge: chopping wood. This one Frøseth brought about herself; the original script called for a scene in which Guy Thwarte (the non-Duke of Nan’s suitors) teaches Nan the proper technique for chopping, but Frøseth quite literally flipped the script. “I was like, ‘No, Nan should teach him, because I think that she would know how to chop wood,” she says. “But I, Kristine, do not know how to chop wood.” Some clever cutting, however, made her look like a seasoned pro.

Nan’s proficiency in horseback riding, meanwhile, was firmly in Frøseth’s wheelhouse. A self-described horse girl, Frøseth grew up riding and obsessively watching horse-centred series The Saddle Club. Eventually, she and her sister shared a horse of their own: Annie, a Belgian Warmblood. “I begged for them to put me on the horse – they want a stunt rider usually,” she says. “But I was like, ‘No, I am riding’.” In the end, she won out. “That was the best day ever. We were on a beach, galloping,” she says. “I’d never done that before.”

With just three episodes to go in season one of The Buccaneers, we will soon discover the fate of Nan’s love life. The show is unique in that both of her suitors are viable options, complete with meet-cutes and passionate make-outs (“I kind of disassociate,” she says, when I ask how she approaches her copious on-screen kisses. “The first time is always kind of nerve-wracking. There’s obviously an intimacy coordinator.”) Both men boast one or two red red flags. Who does Frøseth hope Nan chooses? “Honestly, I don’t want her to choose either,” she says. “I think she should take some time for herself and sort out her own shit.”