After being orphaned just days after her birth, Catherine is barely given a chance. Though born into the renowned house of Medici, she is left alone and thrown into a convent until her teenage years. Only when her uncle, Pope Clement VII (Charles Dance), brokers a marriage for her does she get a taste of freedom. But as with most young women of the time, it was not without its difficulties. Sold in essence to Prince Henri of France (Alex Heath), Catherine finds herself in a pit of vipers and has to fight from the moment she arrives. This is the main element that Liv Hill focused on when developing the character.
"I think the main thing for me is how I approached it, as I just remembered, the intention of survival," Hill told ScreenRant exclusively. When Catherine arrives at court, she falls head over heels for Henri, unaware of his affair with a woman twice his age. Older and more experienced than Catherine, Diane de Poitiers (Ludivine Sagnier) does whatever she can to undermine Catherine only to be surprised when the teenage girl quickly picks up the game of succession.
The only way for Catherine to survive being ousted is to be smarter and more observant than anyone in the room, which is something that Hill enjoyed playing: "I loved playing her watchful eye. She was always in a sense of alertness. And I feel like I really relate to that."
