Watch: Jack O’Connell addresses historical Lady Chatterley’s Lover controversy
The latest film version of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, one of the most notorious novels in British literature arrives, on Netflix this week – and one of its stars feels it’s time to put the record straight about the story’s reputation.
Actor Jack O’Connell, who plays gamekeeper Oliver Mellors, believes there’s nothing scandalous about the original novel. “It’s quite laughable that this book was ever banned,” he said, when talking to Yahoo UK.
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“It’s far from offensive. It’s a fascinating tale of infidelity and that was a massive part of what drew me to the project.”
D.H. Lawrence’s story of the passionate affair between the Lady Chatterley of the title (played in this version by Emma Corrin) and her gamekeeper, Mellors, was first published privately in 1928 and was banned in the UK until the early 60s for its frank description of sex and earthy language.
O’Connell, recently seen in BBC 1’s SAS Rogue Heroes, believes the story chimes with today’s audiences. “The themes are still relevant today, even though it was written nearly a hundred years ago. I think that’s a comment on how strong the original writing is.”
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Such was the book’s notoriety that, when it was first published in this country, its initial print run of 200,000 copies sold out within a day. Its publishers, Penguin Books, were prosecuted for obscenity and were found not guilty in what turned out to be a landmark verdict.
Actor Matthew Duckett, who plays Connie’s aristocratic husband, Clifford, agrees that the story has a reputation, but believes the new film will appeal to today’s audiences, as well as showing why it was originally regarded as shocking.
“Eyebrows might be raised around our telling of the story, but I think we’ve managed to keep that sense of re-invigoration of what people might have experienced when they first read the novel, as well as lifting it for a modern audience. The story is still so relevant.”
And the film’s director, Laure De Clermont-Tonnerre, believes that the novel shows that “sexuality is pure and beautiful and it was glorified by D H Lawrence. It’s not shameful or dirty. It was banned because it was trying to address the freedom of sexuality and that was regarded as obscene.
“I think that today we’re still facing a lot of challenges regarding a woman’s freedom and the idea here is about a woman taking ownership of her own body.”
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Lady Chatterley’s Lover has been dramatised regularly for both TV and the cinema, most recently as a BBC film starring Richard Madden, Holliday Grainger and James Norton. As well as starring O’Connell, Corrin and Duckett, this latest interpretation sees Joely Richardson returning to the story after a gap of nearly 30 years.
Playing housekeeper Mrs Bolton this time round, she took on the title role in the TV mini series Lady Chatterley in 1993. De Clermont-Tonnerre’s directing credits include The Mustang (2019), with Matthias Schoenaerts, and TV series American Crime Story (2021).
Lady Chatterley’s Lover is released on Netflix on 2 December, 2022.
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