Introducing 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' Star Jack O'Connell
You may recognize him from his roles in the hit UK series Skins or Angelina Jolie's Unbroken, but Jack O'Connell's new film Lady Chatterley's Lover is setting the stage for his accent to stardom,
Photography Alberto Maria Colombo
Stylist Simone Folli
Jack O'Connell has been in Modena, Italy since August, filming Ferrari by Michael Mann, the director of Collateral, starring Adam Driver in the role of Enzo Ferrari. The British actor declares himself fascinated by the Emilian city: "The food is fantastic. You breathe culture. The architecture is beautiful. It's impossible to get bored." He can't say much about the film except that his character is "a driver of the Ferrari team, Peter Collins, so charming, reckless, and gifted with sporting—fair play—that he enjoyed movie star status at the time. A nice character, and I love that historical period." The film is set in 1957, a year before the 26-year-old driver, in his third season with Ferrari after racing for Aston Martin, died in an accident at the German Grand Prix. O'Connell has no defined plans for the aftermath, saying "There are various possibilities in the air, but nothing concrete yet. But I'm not worried, on the contrary, I'm happy at the prospect of enjoying some freedom, I find it exciting."
Meanwhile, there is much anticipation for the Netflix version of Lady Chatterley's Lover, based on the D.H. Lawrence novel of the same name, which premieres on the streaming service today. O'Connell plays a (more intellectual and sensitive) version of the book's gamekeeper alongside Emma Corrin (The Crown) as a bohemian version of Lawrence's Lady Chatterley. Those who previewed it the film at the Telluride Film Festival talk about a very emotional performance by Corrin, a visually fascinating story, and super hot sex scenes. "I had a great time on the set. And [director] Laure [de Clermont-Tonnerre's] reading of Lawrence's text is decidedly atypical, focused on the female point of view."
Born in 1990 in Derby, O'Connell experienced a turbulent adolescence, so much so that when he had to give up a career in football at 16 due to a broken knee, he had to abandon his other ambition, joining the military, because his juvenile criminal record prevented him. To give him direction, he found acting lessons at school, which led to him enrolling at the Nottingham Television Workshop. There, director Shane Meadows recruited him for the cast of This is England, in which O'Connell, then 15 years old, plays a skinhead, the first in a series of roles as violent boys supressing a deep vulnerability.
"Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre's reading of Lawrence's text is decidedly atypical, focused on the female point of view."
In 2008, he was a psychopath at the head of the gang of murderous teenagers who terrorize Michael Fassbender and Kelly Reilly in Eden Lake, the following year a bad boy in the cult series Skins. The turning point in his career came in 2014 when Angelina Jolie chose him for the lead role in the World War II biopic Unbroken. O'Connell plays Louis Zamperini, a pilot who is shot down over the Pacific, survives 47 days in the middle of the ocean, and spends two and a half years in a Japanese prison camp. He won the BAFTA Rising Star Award for his performance. "I will always be grateful to Angelina, because it's really rare for an actor in my position back then to be able to get an audition at that level."
Two years later, it was Jodie Foster who gave him another international role in Money Monster with George Clooney. Later, he was the FBI agent called to investigate Jean Seberg, played by Kristen Stewart, on her involvement in the movement of civil rights in Los Angeles in Seberg.
Among his most recent works The North Water, a survival story for the BBC, set in 1859 on a whaler trapped in the ice of the Arctic. O'Connell is the ship's surgeon, while Colin Farrell (who didn't wash for weeks to get into the part) is a hunter whose taste for blood makes little distinction between seals, whales, and humans. Describing O'Connell, the director, Andrew Haigh said, 'With every actor, you have to try to understand what is expected of you as a director. Some actors want to be groomed, some want a push. Jack wants to be thrown into the air without a mattress to fall back on." When asked which of her roles she deems most relevant, O'Connell doesn't answer, arguing that it's the audience that has to judge.
What led him to becoming an actor was "a series of fortunate circumstances," which today would be unrepeatable, in a society that seems to increasingly reserve access to art to the wealthier classes (for example, today, the workshop that he attended is no longer free and acting lessons at school are no longer compulsory). Passionate about Italian neo-realist cinema, he has always declared his admiration for Gary Oldman, an actor he considers "an institution and a model." What guides him in his career choices "is, above all, the story. Then comes the director." He would like to return to work in the theatre, where his performances, particularly in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opposite Sienna Miller, have received acclaim from audiences and critics. One last question: if he had to summarize his current life philosophy? "Take care of yourself, your physical health. Stay focused and have fun!"
GROOMING Rossella Pastore
PRODUCER Federico Poletti
PHOTO ASSISTANT Mark Vignati
STYLIST ASSISTANT Nadia Mistri
