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."

Tom Hollander played the Rev. Adam Smallbone in Rev, and was Mr Collins in the 2005 P&P film, he was very good.

Jamie Demetriou is playing Mr Collins, so he ticks the young and tall boxes and I expect can do pompous and stupid. Fiona Shaw as Lady Catherine should be worth a watch, but the Bingleys have been cast as Black, which is.... odd....

I need to rewatch that. I've never seen Bride and Prejudice, or the zombie one. Come to think of it, it's been a hot minute since I've read the book.

I've clearly got too much of a backlog to have time to bother with the Corrin version.

Yes, and to bring the thread full circle, Olivia Colman played Mrs Vicar in Rev.

(Off topic, but clergy of my acquaintance said that Rev was less a sitcom than a fly on the wall documentary)

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.

She does something similar with Lady Catherine. Lady Catherine gives Lizzie a bit of a grilling over all her sisters being "out" when they're still very young. She also points out there should have been a governess and Lizzie quips back that anyone who wanted to learn could. LC points out that a governess would have prevented anyone from being idle.
It's another example of an unlikeable character being proven right in the end.

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.

She does something similar with Lady Catherine. Lady Catherine gives Lizzie a bit of a grilling over all her sisters being "out" when they're still very young. She also points out there should have been a governess and Lizzie quips back that anyone who wanted to learn could. LC points out that a governess would have prevented anyone from being idle.
It's another example of an unlikeable character being proven right in the end.

Doh, I missed the obvious one...

Mr Bingley identifies as a woman. Mr Darcy and Mr Bingley marry and form a most beneficial match, with Mr Bingley furnishing Pemberley with light and laughter, while deferring to Mr Darcy in all significant matters, and they live happily every after. The End

Oh, so she did! 😁

Kudos for best use of the word "addlepated" I've seen this decade.

I love Mrs B.

Her marriage is interesting as she is the one carrying the deeply worried mental load of having 5 homeless and penniless daughters while her husband, who himself even admits at one point he could have done more financially for his DDs, just sits cracking jokes about a situation he will never live to worry about. It’s depressing that, bar the destitute but (though women are still left destitute when their DHs die in many cases) this is still a typical marriage:

I don’t judge Mrs B at all for going through all the efforts she dos to marry her DDs off, like sending Jane to Netherfield without the carriage as she knows it means she’ll have to stay over. And even pushing Lizzie into marrying Mr Collins. I think she was utterly desperate and her separation took over her senses.

Mr B can fuck right off. Lazy, obnoxious bastard

Yes and more appropriate age and looks wise to the character. Mrs B was only in her early 40’s and extremely attractive, I think Alison Steadman and Brenda Blethyn were way too old for the parts

Allison Steadman was only late 40s at the time, so not hugely too old for the part, and all the lace hats and scarves are very ageing anyway. I’d argue that Julia Sawalha was far too old to be playing a 15/6 year old when she was pushing 30 but she captured Lydia’s thoughtlessness very well so I try to overlook it.

If anyone fancies listening to the book after reading all this https://www.noiser.com/jane-austen-stories

Admittedly I haven’t seen Bride and Prejudice @DeanElderberry but I’d be willing to give that one a go. Not this new ‘edgy’ one.

The only one worth watching is the Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier one 🔨 (gavel)

Already seen Emma Corrin non binary the guts out of the starlet Nina in the Seagull last year 🙄not in a hurry to see her destroy Lizzie Bennet anytime soon. Going to give it a skip I think!

Maybe one of the less favoured Bennet sisters could offer to act as a surrogate for them…

The words you're looking for is "...a cervix haver" or "someone without one who identifies as having one even if they don't".

It's what Mx Austen would have wanted, if only she was better with words, alas....

I agree with PP that modernising the classics rarely works if it's done simply for the sake of being 'relevant'. Taking the story wholesale and dropping it into modern Britain, or leaving it in place historically but updating attitudes and casting result in nonsense.

If you're going to update something, put proper imagination and work into it. See how the characters would react if they and the basic plot were transposed to a different time or culture (Bridget Jones, Bride and Prejudice, Clueless, Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela¹), or if something major changed in the original.world (zombies).

¹ By far my favourite Romeo and Juliet, with the Montagues and Capulets as warring crime families in modern(ish) India. The first meeting between Ram and Leela is done without dialogue - the 'kiss from my lips' speech is a work of genius, conveyed almost word for word but entirely with very subtle gestures (only Ranveer Singh could make an eyebrow raise quite so suggestive).

Glad it wasn’t just me Heggety. I was thinking WTF?

You could do something with that.

Not with Olivia Coleman, but Miss Darcy as a single woman in possession of a fortune, and the 5 Bennett brothers without the means or connections to go into the church or law, or purchase an army commission. If they can't find a rich wife they'll be forced to go into trade like their uncle.

now that would be genuinely interesting to watch

they could even give Emma "IM NON BINARY IN CASE ID NOT MENTIONED IT FIR 5 minutes" a part. I mean they is NB and could therefore play a man. I'm sure they'd be cast

I find the whole thing very frustrating.

These women are not stupid. Plus they work in a highly sexist industry. One that values looks over almost everything else.

It's no surprise to anyone that they would like to opt out of the 'who is she wearing, has she had cosmetic surgery, crikey she looks old for her age, how quick will she lose her baby bump' criticism of female actors.

So of course, Emma Corrin might well think if she says she she's non-binary she opts out of all that. Likewise Olivia Coleman - I'm really a man but because I fancy men, I must be a gay man.

Yes, we get it.

Why don't they get it??

By pretending they are different to all the other stupid bimbos who let themselves be denigrated, they are undermining women, not supporting them.

Tackle the sexism. Not be so resigned to it that the only avoidance strategy is to pretend you're a man. Or that you don't even have a sex.

Join the bloody dots. Make the leap.

I've not seen the Romeo and Juliet adaptation you speak of (but now will be looking for it, sounds wonderful) but I have seen all the others. The most important aspect of them, I think, is their deep love for and understanding of the source material. This one sounds like the people who made it have a vague idea that Jane Austen wrote something and people like her, don't they? But no one could cope with morals and values being different in the Regency era so we'll just Bridgerton it. But they don't love Pride and Prejudice in the visceral way that you need to to make a proper adaptation.

I also like the sympathy for Mrs Bennett on this thread.