Anne of Cleves

A German noblewoman arrives in England to become Henry VIII's fourth wife, a political match arranged from a portrait and a diplomat's promises. She speaks little English, understands even less of the court she's stepped into, and carries herself with a quiet, watchful reserve amid a marriage built entirely on paper and expectation.

Joss Stone plays her with a stillness that reads as intelligence rather than passivity, letting Anne's outsider status do quiet work in scenes full of English scheming she can't fully follow. The role trades on dramatic irony—we know what the audience at court is thinking before she does—and Stone's restraint keeps her sympathetic rather than pitiable.