20th Anniversary: A Knight’s Tale

On May 11, 2001, the box office movie A Knight’s Tale was released in theatres.

At the time, the movie starred a rising star – the one and only Heath Ledger, who went on to wow audiences in Brokeback Mountain and starred as the Joker in The Dark Knight. Ledger played the lead role of Wiliam Thatcher, a 14th Century peasant who longed to compete as a knight, but was forbidden since he was not of noble birth. After the death of his Master, Sir Ector, he takes on the name Ulrich von Liechtenstein in order to compete, albeit illegally.

The film was directed by Brian Helgeland, who went on to write the Oscar-nominated film Virgin River and later wrote and directed the Chadwick Boseman-led film 42, who – at the time of A Knight’s Tale release – was coming off an Oscar win (from 1998) for the screenplay of L.A. Confidential.

The main cast also included some familiar faces, who, most of whom at the time weren’t all that well known, but certainly went on to appear in some pretty popular franchises.

Among them were:

Paul Bettany: Best known for the box office films A Beautiful Mind and The Da Vinci Code as well as voicing Jarvis and then portraying Vision in the Avengers franchise. Bettany played “hype man” Geoffrey Chaucer, the man widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages;

Mark Addy: Best known at the time for his in the box office movie The Full Monty, he later went on to portray King Robert Baratheon in Game of Thrones and was one of the main cast of the cult series Atlantis. Addy played reasonable squire Roland;

Alan Tudyk: Best known for his role as Hoban “Wash” Washington in the cult favorite short-lived series Firefly (which came out in 2002), he has also provided his voice to Ice Age, Star Wars, American Dad, Robot Chicken, Big Hero 6 and is now the star of the Syfy series Resident Alien. Tudyk played the temperamental squire Wat;

Shannyn Sossamon: Best known for her early 2000 films 40 Days and 40 Nights and Rules of Attraction, this movie was Shannyn’s first time on the big screen; and she has since appeared in Sleepy Hollow, Wayward Pines and the short-lived fan favorite TV series Moonlight. Sossamon played feminist love interest and lady of noble birth Jocelyn;

Rufus Sewell: Best known for his recent role in The Man in the High Castle, he also appeared in the films The Legend of Zorro, The Tourist, Hercules and more recently the acclaimed films Judy and The Father. Sewell played Count Adhemar, the nemesis of Ulrich nee William and rival for Jocelyn;

Laura Fraser: She went on to appear in the much-lamented film Vanilla Sky, having the lead in the TV movie Florence Nightingale and appeared in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul as well as the Starz drama The Missing. Fraser played Kate, the ahead-of-her-time blacksmith;

James Purefoy: He went on to appear in the first film from the Resident Evil franchise and Vanity Fair as well as the TV shows Rome, The Following, Altered Carbon, Hap and Leonard, A Discovery of Witches and Pennyworth. Purefoy played Edward, the Black Knight; and,

Berenice Bejo: She went on to earn a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for the acclaimed film The Artist and won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival and a Cesar (national film award in France) for the film The Past. Bejo played Jocelyn’s lady-in-waiting Christiana and love interest for Roland.

Want to learn more about behind the scenes of A Knight’s Tale? Make sure to check out this article from Jenelle Riley at Variety.

Here is a trailer for A Knight’s Tale: