Lady Chatterley's Lover is getting another remake, this time on Netflix! The famous story, originally a 1928 novel by D.H. Lawrence, now sees Jack O'Connell and Emma Corrin in the lead roles of gamekeeper Oliver Mellors and Lady Constance Chatterley, aka Connie. It's of course a very famous story of forbidden love, class divides and sexual awakening. It also stars Joely Richardson, who played the repressed Lady Chatterley in director Ken Russell’s TV miniseries in 1993, this time as nurse Mrs Bolton.
So here’s everything you need to know about the new Netflix movie Lady Chatterley's Lover...
Lady Chatterley’s Lover release date
Lady Chatterley’s Lover launches worldwide on Netflix a week later on Friday December 2 2022. It had a limited run in cinemas from Friday November 25 2022.
Is there a trailer for Lady Chatterley’s Lover?
Yes Netflix has released Lady Chatterley’s Lover trailer. Looks lavish and lustful! Take a peek at Jack O'Connell and Emma Corrin as passionate lovers Connie and Mellors below...
Lady Chatterley’s Lover plot
Lady Chatterley’s Lover is a romantic story considered highly radical for the 1920s when it was written. It sees Connie marry Sir Clifford Chatterley, becoming Lady Constance, giving her a life of untold wealth and privilege. But when Clifford returns from World War One with debilitating injuries that have left him unable to walk, Connie finds her love for him dwindle and she feels trapped in her marriage. She thn turns to gamekeeper Oliver Mellors and their affair leads to a self-awakening. But soon talk of their trysts becomes local gossip and Connie must choose between love or conforming to the expectations of the Edwardian society she lives in.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover cast — Emma Corrin on playing Lady Constance Chatterley
Emma Corrin plays Lady Chatterley, an aristocrat who falls for a working-class man. Emma, who identifies as non-binary and uses the pronouns ‘they/them’, was recently seen with Harry Styles in the love triangle drama My Policeman, and played unhappily married Princess Diana in series four of The Crown season 4. Emma admits that they were surprised to find themselves starring in a third period piece about a complex marriage.
"The common denominator between The Crown, My Policeman and Lady Chatterley’s Lover is that these women long to be freed within themselves, and recognized, and validated in their sexuality,’ Emma explains. "It’s amazing if you think about how they’re all set at very different periods of time, and yet that is something that is sort of timeless, the need to be wanted, to be desired."
Casting the title character was the first big challenge for the production team, and Emma admits to being hugely excited about bringing this classic story to a contemporary audience. "The Crown was such a challenge, and I felt so invested in it,’ they reveal. ‘Then searching for the next thing, it was a hard one to top, because I wanted to feel that same feeling of excitement."
However when they read the script by Oscar-nominated writer David Magee (Life of Pi), they loved it. "It says so much about what it is to be a woman needing sexual pleasure and intimacy, and the legitimacy of that,’ says 26-year-old Emma. "It is not something that you should be ashamed about or deprive yourself of. It is something that we all need. Connie’s journey is one of realisation – she needs to embrace that side of her."
As the female lead in the famously steamy saga, Emma was aware there would be challenging scenes to film. "I’d been quite apprehensive,’ Emma admits. ‘And it was my first time doing any nudity or sex scenes to that extent. Obviously it's such a huge part of the film, so we spent two weeks rehearsing. It meant that Jack and I could get to know each other as friends and become comfortable."
To assist in depicting the physical relationship between Constance and Mellors, intimacy co-ordinator and movement coach Ita O’Brien, who worked on Normal People, was brought in
"We broke it down like a dance," Emma recalls. "It made us aware of our limits, of where we could be touched or didn’t feel comfortable being touched. After that, you can have fun and freedom within it, which is so important, because those scenes are so liberating for both characters."
One particular scene that stood out for Emma Corrin when she read the script was a sequence that sees the two secret lovers dancing naked in the woods during a rainstorm. "We caught each other's eye, and I was terrified, and also Jack was terrified!’ Emma says about shooting the scene. ‘It was a huge, deep moment of trust where you're like: “We're in this together!” It was amazingly freeing, though. I've never done anything like that in my life, and it was so much fun."
Jack O’Connell on playing Oliver Mellors
Jack O'Connell is playing Oliver Mellors, gamekeeper on the Chatterley estate and Connie’s lover. French director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre had seen Jack O’Connell playing a British soldier in Belfast during the Troubles in 2014 film ‘71, and a violent convict in 2013 prison drama Starred Up, and sensed he would be perfect for the role. Jack had an unexpected connection to the book. "D H Lawrence is from down the road from where I was brought up – so there was that,’ says the Derbyshire-born actor. ‘Then there was Laure, Emma and Joely [Richardson, who plays housekeeper Mrs Bolton] attached to it, so it was a bit of a no-brainer."
Jack says the experience of filming the famous raunchy scenes was frightening and exhilarating at the same time. "The first couple of times we rehearsed, it was terrifying, and then it was liberating,’ says 32-year-old Jack. ‘But it’s not worth doing if it’s easy – and everyone loves a skinny dip, don’t they?!"
Jack previously appeared as Ross Trescot in The Bill, back in 2005, as has gone on to appear in This Is England, Skins, Wuthering Heights, The Runaway, Private Peaceful, The North Water and Godless. He plays Paddy Mayne in the BBC1 war drama SAS Rogue Heroes.
Joely Richardson on playing Mrs Bolton
Joely Richardson starred as Constance in Ken Russell’s 1993 four-part television adaptation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, opposite Sean Bean as Mellors, was delighted to be cast as widowed housekeeper Mrs Bolton in this Netflix film.
"I thought: 'Gosh, I’m still part of propagating the story of Lady Chatterley and Mellors and D H Lawrence, who’s a writer that I absolutely love, and always have, since way back,’" says the 57-year-old member of the Redgrave family acting dynasty, whose character looked after Clifford when he was young, and forms a friendship with Mellors.
"Mrs Bolton really believes in love, and that’s such a beautiful thing, especially since she had lost her own husband. So she’s both on Clifford’s side, Connie’s side and Mellors’ side. And I love people like that."
Joely is a huge star with hits such as 101 Dalmations, Nip/Tuck, Red Sparrow, The Hatton Garden Job and The Tudors to her name. This year she played Ethel Cripps in the series The Sandman and also appeared in The Suspect and The Lost Girls.
Who else is starring in Lady Chatterley’s Lover?
Game of Thrones actor Faye Marsay is starring in the film alongside A Confession’s Matthew Duckett who plays Clifford Chatterley. Ella Hunt, Eugene O’Hare. Rachel Andrews, Marianne McIvor, Nicholas Bishop and Sandra Huggett round out the cast.
Locations and more on Lady Chatterley's Lover on Netflix
The setting for Lady Chatterley's Lover is Wragby, Clifford’s estate near a Midlands mining village, in which Constance feels trapped. but whose surrounding woodland offers freedom and refuge.The production team settled on the Brynkinalt Estate, on the border between Shropshire and Wales, as their Wragby. The geography of the location, with the house elevated, and Mellors’ hut, which was built for the shoot, at the bottom of the hill, informed the class divide theme of the story, and for Emma it was simply a beautiful place to be.
"We had these three weeks in nature," they recall. "It was so much fun because it was the end of summer, early autumn, and we would go swimming after work, and we were in the woods all day, every day. When you are outside and frolicking around, filming in rivers and forests, you really feel so different from when you’re inside.’
A brief guide to Lady Chatterley’s Lover the novel
The novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover was written by DH Lawrence and was first published privately in 1928. The uncensored version of the novel was banned in the UK and several other countries until 1960 when it was the subject of a watershed obscenity trial against Penguin Books. The publisher won the case and as a result of the publicity sold three million copies. It quickly gained notoriety for its explicit sex scenes, class defying romance and swearing.
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