Ahead of the show's Season 2 finale, the actor tells L&rsquo;OFFICIEL why she&rsquo;s hopeful for her character's next chapter.

Spoilers ahead for Season 2 of The Buccaneers.
If there&rsquo;s one character whose life has taken a shocking turn on Season 2 of The Buccaneers, it&rsquo;s Conchita Closson, portrayed by Alisha Boe. It seemed like things had finally settled down for the one-time New York City party girl, who moved to London when she wed Lord Richard &ldquo;Dick&rdquo; Marable (Josh Dylan) at the start of the AppleTV+ series and brought her BFFs across the pond with her. In the time since, Conchita&rsquo;s story has had its share of drama: We&rsquo;ve seen her struggle to adapt to aristocratic life, bump heads with her stuffy in-laws&mdash;leading to a brief separation for the couple&mdash;and face financial strain. But after reconciling with Richard and deciding to launch her own matchmaking business, things finally appear to be smooth sailing for Conchita, but because this is The Buccaneers, that&rsquo;s precisely when tragedy strikes.&nbsp;
Richard is murdered by his maniacal brother, suddenly leaving Conchita a widow and a single mother to their daughter. Boe, for her part, wasn&rsquo;t completely caught off guard. &ldquo;From the very start of pre-production, we knew somebody was going to die,&rdquo; she tells L&rsquo;OFFICIEL. &ldquo;Because there are so many of us, the rumor mill just kept going.&rdquo; It didn&rsquo;t take long for her to find out that it was her onscreen husband who would meet an untimely fate. &ldquo;I went up to Josh being like, Hey, you know you're dying this season, right?&rdquo; she recalls, laughing. &ldquo;It turned out that he was trying to keep it a secret, because he wanted me to find out through the script. But he was kind of dreaming, because everybody knew.&rdquo;
For Boe and Dylan, the grim storyline was actually a net positive. &ldquo;Weirdly enough, we were excited,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;It sounds morbid, but it was nice to have something so specific to work towards. Our scenes were very light beforehand: You can't expect or prepare for a death in real life, so you can&rsquo;t do it when you're acting, either. That meant we got to film some really nice scenes that showed why they fell in love in the first place, which we didn&rsquo;t get to explore in the first season.&rdquo;&nbsp;
The plot twist also gave Boe the chance to explore a different side of Conchita in the aftermath of Richard&rsquo;s death. Season 2, Episode 7, opens six weeks after his murder, with Conchita&mdash;who has yet to cry&mdash;shunning traditional mourning rituals and refusing to wear black. &ldquo;Grief is different for everybody, and Conchita is going through a bit of a denial period,&rdquo; says Boe. &ldquo;She&rsquo;s kind of just being like, F you to English society. She's tried to be prim and proper, and it hasn&rsquo;t changed anything; now her husband is gone, and she's alone. So I think she's just being rebellious and thinking of herself first.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Don&rsquo;t be surprised to see Conchita&rsquo;s wild and free-spirited side return in full at some point, either. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure she's going to be partying soon after she's done grieving,&rdquo; says Boe. &ldquo;So I'm just waiting for that.&rdquo; Ahead, the actor opens up about her hopes for Conchita&rsquo;s single era, the show&rsquo;s intentional break from historical accuracy, and the &ldquo;form of torture&rdquo; that is corseted period costumes.&nbsp;

A still from 'The Buccaneers' courtesy of Apple TV+.

L&rsquo;OFFICIEL: Conchita has just had her entire world turn upside down. But even before Richard&rsquo;s death, what did you make of her evolution from Season 1 to Season 2?&nbsp;
ALISHA BOE: When you meet her in Season 1, you&rsquo;re meeting a teenage girl who&rsquo;s just approaching womanhood. In the second season, she has a lot of responsibilities. She&rsquo;s juggling being a wife and a mother and managing a household. You see her adjusting to being a woman and really coming into her own, which is fun to play.&nbsp;
L&rsquo;O: Was it more fun to play her as an over-the-top socialite, or as a more mature adult?
AB: It's just so widely different, and all about context. It was fun when she was wild, but I like playing the journey since her story just becomes more layered. I appreciate the fact that part of her still exists; it&rsquo;s just coming out in different types of moments.&nbsp;
L&rsquo;O: After Richard&rsquo;s death, she doesn&rsquo;t want to be treated like a widow and pushes everyone in her circle away. What do you make of her grieving process?&nbsp;
AB: Grief is so nonlinear, and people grieve in all sorts of different and strange ways. I think this is her having radical optimism, even if it seems crazy to other people. She&rsquo;s trying to survive and be a mother to her child&mdash;and to stay positive. But when she&rsquo;s alone or her daughter's sleeping, there are quiet moments of utter heartbreak. She&rsquo;s having to reckon with being a single mom, being the head of the household, and taking care of Richard&rsquo;s mom, whom she loathes. There&rsquo;s just a lot of shit she has to deal with. What you see in that episode is her kind of being a bit manic and trying to survive.&nbsp;

A still from 'The Buccaneers' courtesy of Apple TV+. 

L&rsquo;O: At her core, we know she&rsquo;s an optimist&mdash;and a romantic, with matchmaking being her specialty. Do you think she&rsquo;ll find love again?
AB: Oh, yeah. The show moves pretty quick&mdash;there&rsquo;s a lot of time between each episode, sometimes months. I don't know where the third season will go&mdash;I don't even know if we'll have a third season&mdash;but the show is romance. So I feel like it would be crazy if Conchita stayed alone. And she's young! I think she's only 22, so we'll see. I hope she finds love again.
L&rsquo;O: It would be fun to follow her dating life, since the series began with her wedding and we&rsquo;ve never seen her single.&nbsp;
AB: I know! She was in the back, already juggling being a mom and a married woman while everyone else was getting courted. It would definitely be fun&mdash;and it&rsquo;s very Buccaneers, so I wonder what the writers will do.
L&rsquo;O: Speaking of the writing, the show is quite heavy this season. How do you think it manages to tackle serious subjects while also weaving in glamorous balls and lighter moments of friendship?
AB: I don&rsquo;t know; I'm an actor. [laughs] It's really the writers and producers and directors; we just do what's on the page. But the show in itself, it is a light show&mdash;you watch it to escape. Like, we're not preaching. We're not here to tell a story about how to deal with domestic violence, you know? The drama, of course, is tackling that, but it's simply not the focal point of her show. It&rsquo;s more about female friendship, and just these girls having fun in England. I would say that's the general tone.

L&rsquo;O: And even though it's set in the 1870s, it's not necessarily true to that time in terms of the women&rsquo;s modern sensibilities.
AB: No, we&rsquo;re not following history at all. The costumes, the music, how we speak&hellip;nothing.&nbsp; We were never historically accurate, but in the first season, I think they were trying to figure out where we lived on that spectrum; in the second season, we&rsquo;ve really leaned into not being historically accurate. Like, Nan's red silk dress would never have been in that period. The glitter and the lipsticks just didn't exist back then, either. But what's the fun of a period drama if you're not going to have really fun costumes, hair, and makeup? They were unafraid to really just dial it up, and I think it makes it more fun to watch. Again, it&rsquo;s escapism.
L&rsquo;O: Conchita and her friends struggle to fit into English society. Do you relate to her experience of culture shock, having moved from Norway to Los Angeles when you were 7 years old?
AB: I think it&rsquo;s hard for anyone to adjust to a new environment, even if it&rsquo;s just moving to a different state or a different school. And when you're playing a character, there is, of course, some element of trying to relate to her&hellip;but my existence is so separate from that world that it doesn't really go together. Conchita&rsquo;s a married adult, and it's just so vastly different when you&rsquo;re a kid. Maybe I got made fun of for having an accent; other than that, I just blended in. So I wouldn't say I deeply connected to her, in that sense.&nbsp;
L&rsquo;O: Do you think you would be friends with her in real life?&nbsp;
AB: Yeah, she seems fun. I would definitely love to go to a party and drink champagne with her all night. And she seems so lonely; she needs more friends. I feel like I would be there for her in this time of her grief.&nbsp;

L&rsquo;O: What gets you in her headspace on set? Are you in Conchita mode as soon as you put on her costume?&nbsp;
AB: We film on location in Scotland most of the time, and it&rsquo;s really helpful to be at all of these stately homes in the countryside where everything is so untouched and beautiful. And then the costumes really help with your movement, because you just feel so restricted. I can't raise my arms past a certain point, and I find it hard to speak too much because the corset&rsquo;s so tight. The costumes, I believe, are a character in the show. They really inform your character and help you step into that world of the 1800s. Conchita&rsquo;s hair was also something that we changed this season: We wanted her to feel more adult, as she&rsquo;s trying to be more refined and fit into English society and start her own business. There were a lot of hats and really high hair looks&mdash;just really prim and proper, instead of her hair worn down and romantic.
L&rsquo;O: Okay, but how much does wearing a corset make you appreciate modern fashion?&nbsp;
AB: I mean, it's horrible. It's a form of torture, honestly. In the 1920s, women started wearing those shapeless dresses&mdash;it was a direct rebellion against how women had to wear corsets and huge bustles and huge skirts, which restricted them so much. It was this liberation, to have this drop waist with nothing constricting you. You could move freely and dance all night and do whatever you wanted. It was just a direct reflection of women&rsquo;s rights at the time.
L&rsquo;O: When you&rsquo;re done filming for the day, do you lean into a relaxed style more than ever?&nbsp;
AB: When I&rsquo;m in Scotland, I wear sweats every single day. I&rsquo;m like the marshmallow tire man&hellip;the Michelin Man.&nbsp; It's cold and after filming, I just want to get everything off and just put on the baggiest, baggiest clothing. I don't really consider myself a very stylish person&mdash;I go for comfort, and I&rsquo;m practical. I&rsquo;ll wear a purse until it falls apart. But I do like to look cute and feel nice, too. I just go through phases of wearing the same five outfits for six months.&nbsp;

Photo by Hope Clarke, courtesy of Alisha Boe.

L&rsquo;O: Who&rsquo;s your style icon?
AB: Rihanna's always great, but the stuff that she's able to wear, I don't think anyone else could pull off. She could make a paper bag look like the most beautiful garment. There are people out there who are able to just wear clothes and make them look so much more elevated, and Rihanna is the queen of that.&nbsp;
L&rsquo;O: Career-wise, who inspires you?&nbsp;
AB: I've always been a really big fan of Jennifer Lawrence. I saw her in Winter's Bone when I was in high school and it was very inspiring to see someone only a bit older than me have such success as an actor, so I watched all of her older indie films, like The Burning Plain. I also really love Julianne Moore and admire her career. And then my boyfriend and I just watched a bunch of Ingrid Bergman&rsquo;s movies for the first time, and Gena Rowlands is incredible, too. I think those are my big four.

Alisha Boe Is Ready for Conchita’s Single Era on 'The Buccaneers'

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