Pride & Prejudice, non-binary style

[RogueFemale]

Starring Emma non-binary Corrin, and Olivia literally a gay man Colman.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/non-binary-star-emma-corrin-35781842

"Author and memoirist Dolly Alderton’s adaptation of the classic novel is treading this same ground by offering a new social commentary: this time on gender. In Alderton’s Pride and Prejudice, Emma Corrin is the first non-binary actor to play the iconic Elizabeth Bennet.

"The casting is a brilliant move that reflects the society we live in today, where people are free and open about not only their sexualities but their gender representation too. To see Corrin play this role will surely be celebrated by the LGBTQIA+ community."

'It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single... um... must find... umself... in want of... um"

I honestly read OP's first post as meaning Olivia Coleman would be playing Mr Darcy!

The 1996 BBC version will forever be the definitive production for me. Some of the casting for the 2005 film was pretty good but deviated too far from the book and the less says about the scene where Lizzie and Darcy get together the better.

i quite like modern adaptions - Bridget Jones or other classics like Clueless (Emma) or 10 things I hate about you (Taming of the shrew) but putting modern mores onto period productions is just teeth grindingly awful for me. I’ve not been able to watch Bridgerton for that reason.

So yes, the whole bloody point is that the Bennet girls are in the position they are in because of the Bennet estate being entailed to the male line. JA wrote quite bluntly to modern eyes about the “qualities of her sex” when discussing female roles in society. There’s all sorts of interesting themes in the book (did mr Bennet fall for Mrs Bennet in the same way Wickham did for Lydia and both live to regret being taken in by a pretty face only to have a lifetime of misery with a silly woman). The whole business of Charlotte spotting her chance to secure a respectable position and catching Mr Collins overnight and avoiding being on the shelf by the narrowest of margins, but managing her household pretty shrewdly for everyone’s happiness. Lydia’s loss of “respectability” vs the close miss of Georgiana. All of the characters face the choices they do because society imposed their roles based on their biological sex. FFS.

I like Eddie Izzard for Mrs B. He is so incredibly self-absorbed he would be great in that role. Taking to his bed and making everyone fuss over him and not contributing anything of worth, and then taking the spotlight when other people have solved it. Perfect casting.

Shame though, I think JA’s sharp tongue would have relished exploring non binary issues. She is always so good with ridiculous characters and their quirks.

Oh be fair. imagine how hard she must find it to dig deep and focus all her being on what it must be like to BE a woman, to walk as a woman walks, talk as a woman talks, think and react to others as a woman thinks and reacts while all the time remaining true to herself as a non binary human being . They is not an actor for nothing, it’s serious stuff and kudos to they for managing to carry off the many roles they play as a woman so successfully, honestly, most of the time you would never notice the joins.

And I have no doubt he would given half a chance and would have no shame in stealing yet another scarce female role from already struggling female actors, grifter that he is.

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Maybe she thinks it'll give her more acting jobs, because she's a bit like Emma Watson in that regard, not very good at acting.
Whoever chose her must have chosen her fir that purpose because Lizzie is described as attractive or pretty in the book, obviously Jane is the prettiest but Lizzie isn't plain, that's Mary.

I think, as others have said, Jane Austen wouldn’t have had much time for this production. But she’d have LOVED this thread… some of the literary/ historical rewrites and casting suggestions are absolutely brilliant.

It won't claw the 'best modern adaptation' crown from Bride and Prejudice.

I was just thinking of that film - it's second only to the BBC P&P in my affections. Nothing else needed.

"Literally a gay man" wouldn't be having five daughters with Mr Bennett would she? (he/it?)
I mean, lterally a gay man actor has to be playing a gay man right?
Isn't that the rule?

Oh such flutterings and spasms, I'm literally a gay man you know.
Lawks, it's a pantomine!

It’s funny reading it now that Mrs Bennett clearly has anxiety symptoms, and she’s right to be anxious because she knows damn well what will happen to if Mr Bennett dies without a daughter being married and one in disgrace. I get the impression Mr Bennett is a bit older than her, so she’s worried about the same fate as the Dashwoods or even (heaven forbid) the Bates. Although it’s clear that if the worst had happened Mr Phillips is a kind and wise man who would try do right by them somehow if he could, and even Mr Collins could graciously condescend to do something appropriate for a clergyman with distressed relatives.

All credit to JA for writing one Bennett parent to be superficially very likeable but actually lazy and negligent and the other to be really unlikeable but correct and trying to do something about the situation, even if it is in a socially disastrous manner. On paper marrying off one of them to Mr Collins would have been absolutely the right thing to do, and in the book description Mr Collins was young, tall, pompous and stupid rather than older and slimy as depicted in modern adaptations. Plenty of room for improvement with the right wife to guide him - which Charlotte obviously is. Miles Jupp would have made a good book version, just like his character in Rev.

I've always preferred Mrs Bennett to Mr Bennett. Anyone in her situation would be sick with anxiety.

Yes it's interesting how modern interpretations written and filmed at a time where women do have agency are utterly unable to empathise with a woman living at a time when they did not

As far as I can see, once you ditch the historical context of Pride and Prejudice you lose everything that makes it dark, and you're left with yet another rom com, albeit a very witty one. Which is fine but maybe you should have the integrity to admit it's a different story and think up a new title, as Helen Fielding did.

And yes #JusticeforMrsBennett who, for all her faults, at least recognised the jeopardy her daughters were in.

Editing because it feels only fair to add that I did think Emma Corrin was pretty good in The Crown

My favourite is the kick-arse Alex Kingston version in Lost in Austen.

Mrs Bennett is in fact a legend. I don't think Mr Bennett hates her either. He's a bit dismissive of the obsession with marriage but I think that's hiding his own feelings about letting his daughters down. They're a very affectionate and kind family.

It is a brilliant book that captures the essence of characters that resonate to this very day. Mr B allying with Lizzie as a wife replacement but really just can’t quite be asked to exert himself on behalf of his daughters. If it hadn’t been for Lizzie and Jane marrying well they’d have all been screwed. And let’s face it, whilst Jane is lovely, it was her appearance that first attracted Mr B (you are dancing with the only pretty woman here). Mr C and Darcy absolutely shocked that a woman would turn the, down, centring of their own needs and views. None of that has changed. My own DM had the same views on marriage as Mrs B, an utter panic at making sure her DDs got married.

All credit to JA for writing one Bennett parent to be superficially very likeable but actually lazy and negligent and the other to be really unlikeable but correct n and trying to do something about the situation, even if it is in a socially disastrous manner. On paper marrying off one of them to Mr Collins would have been absolutely the right thing to do, and in the book description Mr Collins was young, tall, pompous and stupid rather than older and slimy as depicted in modern adaptations. Plenty of room for improvement with the right wife to guide him - which Charlotte obviously is.

In the only adaptation that matters, I thought Charlotte was really given a hard time. So what she married a foolish man? Her options were limited to that or remaining a spinster reliant on her brother. Not v nice. And I thought once she had children, she’d be very contented with her life.

Edited to say I’ll be giving the modern version a swerve 🙄

I can't abide Emma Corrin and I'll be giving this a miss. I'd much rather re-watch the Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth version. Shame on them for coopting Austen into their addlepated project.

One of the reasons I rate Bride and Prejudice is that it makes Chandra/Charlotte's decision to marry Kohli/Collins entirely understandable and right.

All the characters translate well into 1990s India, and a lot of the dilemmas Austen wrote about fit perfectly.

Charlotte’s an eminently sensible woman who had a lifetime of dealing with her father who had ideas above his station too since his knighthood. So I think she knew exactly what to expect, and her household arrangements at the Rectory show that.

I’ve always imagined that in time she’d be able to tone down some of Mr Collin’s worst pompousness, make the most of Lady C’s patronage where she can and settle into a respectable country life. She knew what her options were and I think arguably she made the best match in the book.