Emma Corrin is courting scandal in the Netflix adaptation of the controversial novel “Lady Chatterley’s Lover.”
“The Crown” alum stars as the titular Lady Connie Chatterley, who embarks on an affair with gamekeeper Mellors (Jack O’Connell) while her ailing husband, Sir Clifford (Matthew Duckett), grows suspicious. Joely Richardson also stars as Sir Clifford Chatterley’s nurse. The film premieres in select theaters November 25 and will be streaming on Netflix December 2.
Based on D. H. Lawrence’s novel of the same name, the film is helmed by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre (“The Mustang”) and adapted for the screen by David Magee (“Life of Pi”). The novel was previously at the center of a history-making obscenity trial.
“When I reread the novel, I thought it could have been written today,” director de Clermont-Tonnerre told Vogue. “It’s scary that not that much has changed since the ’20s. As women, we’re still fighting for equality. The idea of a woman being free is still scandalous. You only have to look at what happened with Roe v. Wade, and what’s happening now in Iran. This book is about a woman’s journey to empowerment, to controlling her body, owning her sexuality and owning her life. My goal was to emphasize her point of view, and to give the audience a visceral experience of a woman experiencing pleasure. It needed to feel accessible.”
De Clermont-Tonnerre added that “My Policeman” actor Corrin wanted to embody the “liberating” sensation of the novel onscreen. “‘I want to explore that feeling of ecstatic freedom,'” de Clermont-Tonnerre recalled Corrin, who uses they/them pronouns, telling her. “Emma’s such a free spirit and I think they wanted to express that through Connie.”
Corrin told Vanity Fair that the nudity for the film was “daunting” at first, but the “sex scenes would never feel gratuitous and it would always feel justified.” Intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien, who famously worked on Hulu’s “Normal People,” led Corrin and O’Connell through two weeks of rehearsals for the intercourse sequences.
“I felt so in awe of it, and also of Connie’s whole journey with her sexuality and her own access to pleasure and her body,” Corrin said.
“Lady Chatterley’s Lover” premieres in theaters November 25 and streams December 2 on Netflix.
Check out the trailer below.
