Corrin, Emma (1995- )

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    Emma Corrin Tries to Solve ‘A Murder at the End of the World’

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    The actor has worked steadily since breaking out as a young Princess Diana in “The Crown.” Corrin’s latest role is as an amateur sleuth in “A Murder at the End of the World.”“I have no idea what I like,” Emma Corrin said.This was on a recent Friday afternoon at the Mysterious Bookshop, a Manhattan emporium dedicated to thrillers, detective stories, spy stories and noir classics. Corrin, who uses they/them pronouns, had flown in from London the day before and seemed overwhelmed by the selection, spinning a display of pulp paperbacks, picking up and putting down a new translation of a Pier Paolo Pasolini novel. The real mystery? Which book to choose.Corrin appealed to the store’s manager, Tom Wickersham.“Go for it,” Corrin said. “What’s the best thriller?”Corrin, 27, had taken this last-minute trip, which coincided with the end of the actors’ strike, to promote “A Murder at the End of the World,” the moody, brooding FX limited series that began on Nov. 14. They play Darby Hart, an amateur detective who becomes a true-crime author after solving a case involving unidentified women in the Midwest. “A Murder” had filmed two scenes at the shop, which (appropriately) bookend the series.“We spent all day and all night here,” they said. Between setups, Corrin would read aloud from selected books, including a collection of erotica. “It was very funny.”On the series, Darby sports pink hair, layered hoodies and a watchful, wounded expression. Another character, the guerrilla artist Bill Farrah (Harris Dickinson), describes Darby as “really tough and really fragile at the same time.” In person, Corrin, who wore a brown suede jacket and black pants, their brown hair sleekly buzzed, was sprightlier, less wary, sliding from shelf to shelf in black flats.In “A Murder at the End of the World,” Corrin’s character is an amateur detective who ends up investigating a murder at an exclusive gathering.Chris Saunders/FXCorrin had spent the strike in London, with Spencer, their cockapoo named for Princess Diana, whom Corrin played in the fourth season of “The Crown.” “I honestly hadn’t really stopped working for the last three or four years, so it was a really nice chance to be with family and friends and dog,” they said.Had Corrin taken up any hobbies during the strike? No. “I found that so intimidating during Covid,” they said, laughing. “I’m not making bread. I refuse.”After a few months, relaxation had palled and Corrin seemed delighted to be back to work, even if work meant a whirlwind promotional tour. “I like talking about the work,” they said. “I like celebrating it.”Corrin paused at a row of true-crime books, as though expecting to see Darby’s book, “Silver Doe,” among them. Pulling out Helen Garner’s “This House of Grief,” Corrin mentioned a pair of genre favorites: Janet Malcolm’s “The Journalist and the Murderer” and Maggie Nelson’s “The Red Parts.”“It’s so good,” Corrin said of the latter book. “I found that such an interesting study of humanness in this arena.”The series shot scenes at the Mysterious Bookshop in Manhattan.Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesDarby is also a study in humanness. A different sort of detective, she is young, female and despite her perpetual scowl, she is, as her name suggests, all heart. “She takes it upon herself to become the voice of the voiceless,” Corrin said. “That rests very, very deep inside her, that need to help those people.”One of the show’s prescient themes is the increasing dominance and sophistication of artificial intelligence. Darby remains skeptical of technology, even as she uses chat boards and online searches in pursuit of her investigation. Corrin shares that skepticism.“I will always prioritize human connection over artificial connection,” they said. “That’s where it begins and ends for me.”In some respects, Corrin felt quite far apart from Darby. “She’s far more cynical than I am,” Corrin said. “I quite naïvely look for the best in people, probably to a fault, and I can be quite gullible.” But Corrin identified with Darby’s empathy and drive. “She likes rising to a challenge, and she likes a problem,” Corrin said. “I share that as well. I’m pretty fearless.”The actor’s past roles, which have also included starring turns in “My Policeman” and “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” have been largely period and largely romantic, the better to exploit Corrin’s English rose looks. Darby is the least femme screen role Corrin has played (onstage, the actor starred in an adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s gender-fluid “Orlando”). And though “A Murder” is in part a love story, gender and sexuality don’t particularly define Darby.“The modern aspect was a real tick for me,” Corrin said. “Playing someone more androgynous was a real tick for me.”Corrin’s breakout role came as a young Princess Diana in “The Crown.”Des Willie/NetflixBecause Corrin has spent the whole of their young adulthood onscreen, the actor’s identity and relationships have been the source of much unwanted attention. Corrin described this corollary of fame as “that poisoned chalice thing,” as well as “grim” and “inescapable.” Maybe this has made them even more motivated to disappear into fictional people or to make choices that the public might not anticipate. It was recently announced that Corrin will next play a young scammer in the mercenary comedy “Peaches,” set in Hong Kong.“I surprised myself by being so into it,” they said.So Corrin does have some idea of what they like, just not when it comes to mysteries and thrillers. Stumped, Corrin appealed again to Wickersham.“Do you think that John Grisham is the absolute master?”“I liked those books when I was a kid,” he said diplomatically.Corrin considered one of Maurice Leblanc’s Lupin novels, a Len Deighton, a Charles Willeford, a mystery cowritten by the prime minister of Iceland. “A Murder” had shot for a month in Iceland, which lent some verisimilitude to the chillier scenes. (Maybe too much verisimilitude. Brit Marling, one of the creators, experienced hypothermia on the shoot’s first day.)“The elements we were shooting in were just so intense,” Corrin said. Even when the production moved inside, to sound stages in New Jersey, “you still could feel that in your body,” Corrin said. “Being that freezing.”Still, Corrin couldn’t choose a book. “I’m experiencing real indecision,” they said. “Crippling indecision. I’m so bad at making decisions.”Finally, with their publicist murmuring about a subsequent appointment, Corrin was nudged toward Dorothy B. Hughes’s “In a Lonely Place,” a classic of California noir. The blurb on the back described it as a page turner, and Corrin nodded in approval.“That’s very exciting,” they said, happy with the choice. “I’ll need to do a lot of flying soon. So I need a good book.” More

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      in Television

      ‘A Murder at the End of the World’ Review: P.I. Meets A.I.

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      The story of death at a mogul’s retreat (no, not “Glass Onion”) has a few interesting ideas about tech within a familiar mystery scenario.An eccentric tech billionaire invites a slew of notables to a private retreat, where a detective must solve a mysterious death. If the premise of “A Murder at the End of the World” jumps out at you, it may be because you not so long ago encountered it as the premise of Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.”Or it may jump out at you because “Murder” is the latest creation from Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij of Netflix’s “The OA.” That series was a poetic and baffling testament to the force of human connection, involving interpretive dance and a telepathic octopus. The murder mystery, in comparison, is among the most literal, plot-reliant of genres. Could Marling and Batmanglij really have made something that … ordinary?FX’s “Murder,” which begins Tuesday on Hulu, is neither as weird as you might hope or as conventional as you might fear. (Or vice versa.) It takes an Agatha Christie scenario and spins it into a chilly, stylized cyber-noir with ideas about artificial intelligence and some familiar Marling/Batmanglij themes of global consciousness. Think of it as “Glass OAnion.”The detective here is a relative newcomer. Darby Hart (Emma Corrin), an intense young computer hacker, tracked down a serial killer with Bill Farrah (Harris Dickinson), a moody amateur investigator she met online and fell in love with. Her true-crime memoir earns her some literary notice, as well as an invitation from Andy Ronson (Clive Owen), a tech magnate who is convening a meeting of “original thinkers” — artists, entrepreneurs, an astronaut — at a sleek, remote hotel that he had built in Iceland.The purpose of this Arctic TED Talk is, ostensibly, to cogitate on the existential threat of climate change to humanity. Andy, however, has another intelligence at his disposal — an advanced A.I. called “Ray” that manifests in the holographic form of a neatly goateed man in black (Edoardo Ballerini). Andy believes in the transformative power of this technology and others, but transformative to and for whom?Darby questions whether and why she fits in with the luminaries at the gathering. But she accepts the invitation for the chance to meet a tech idol: Not Andy, but his wife, Lee Andersen (Marling), a renowned coder who dropped out of public life after a Gamergate-style harassment campaign and lives in seclusion with Andy and their young son (Kellan Tetlow).But another guest grabs Darby’s attention: Bill, now a famous artist, whom she has not seen since a falling-out at the end of their investigation. Before they have time to catch up — don’t say the title didn’t warn you — somebody turns up dead, and Darby’s wiring for suspicion kicks in.Misogyny and technology are the twin themes of “A Murder.” Darby was drawn into the serial-killer case by her talent for hacking and her empathy for forgotten female victims. A common theme of her investigations is how little credibility she is granted as a young woman. When she pulls her hoodie over her head, yes, it is a universal visual symbol for “hacker,” but she also might as well be drawing an invisibility cloak.Then there’s A.I., which pervades the story like it does Andy’s icy retreat. In some cases technological reality has moved faster than the TV production process. A scene in which Ray produces a Harry Potter story in the voice of Ernest Hemingway astonishes the guests, for instance, but you’ve likely seen a dozen similar examples over the past year.Still, “A Murder” has a multifaceted view of A.I., not just as a threat but as a possible helpmeet. On the one hand, Andy is another arrogant billionaire who looks to software to compensate for the deficiencies that annoy him in humans. But the surveillance features built into the retreat’s setting, however creepy, are also a trove of clues. As Darby digs into the mysterious death, she finds herself using Ray as a source and even an aide — part Sherlock Holmes’s Watson, part IBM’s.The present-day whodunit isn’t especially inventive, but Corrin carries the story with a nervy, febrile performance that invests Darby with the life that the dialogue sometimes fails to provide. And the series has atmosphere to spare, making the most of the stark volcanic beauty of its location in Iceland. (It also shot in Utah and New Jersey.)The flashbacks to Darby and Bill’s serial-killer chase, which take up much of the seven episodes, are emotional and involving; Dickinson gives Bill an open-wound vulnerability. But rather than adding resonance to the whole, these scenes end up outshining the long, talky story they’re meant to flesh out.“A Murder,” in its main arc, feels like a bit of an artificial life form itself. The blandly drawn retreat guests get no more than a stroke or two of characterization and are weighted with self-serious dialogue. Andy mostly plays to bullying tech-mogul type. And while Marling always uses her enigmatic air as a performer to good advantage, Lee is more of a riddle — how did a coding revolutionary become a tech tradwife? — than a rounded character.Marling and Batmanglij’s work has often been more about the delivery of ideas and intangibles than plotting or naturalism, however. At its best, “A Murder” has grandeur, chilly beauty and intellectual adventurousness (and it pulls off a satisfying final twist). It might have been more effective if, as with so many limited series lately, it were tighter and shorter. In this sense, technology is the culprit: Streaming-TV bloat has its fingerprints all over this case. More

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      in Theater

      Review: In ‘Orlando,’ Emma Corrin Straddles Genders and Centuries

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      In a freewheeling London adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel, Corrin plays a character whose emotions are as fluid as their identity.LONDON — The play comes perfectly matched with its leading player in “Orlando,” a freewheeling take on Virginia Woolf’s gender-bending novel that opened Monday at the Garrick Theater here.Neil Bartlett’s breezy adaptation of its 1928 source is playful, and ultimately moving, but the director Michael Grandage owes much of the production’s success to its galvanizing star, Emma Corrin, who made an acclaimed West End debut last year in the short-lived “Anna X.” Thankfully, this time, Corrin can be seen onstage for considerably longer; “Orlando” runs through Feb. 25.The fast-rising Corrin, who identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, has made headlines recently as much for their gender identity as for increasingly prominent screen roles. After winning a Golden Globe for playing Princess Diana in “The Crown,” Corrin starred in two films this season, “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” and “My Policeman,” which was also directed by Grandage.Yet none of those roles has connected as directly to Corrin’s ongoing self-inquiry as the restless, century-straddling Orlando. “Being nonbinary is an embrace of many different parts of myself, the masculine and the feminine and everything in between,” Corrin said in a recent interview with The New York Times.Corrin has obviously spent some time with a question that Orlando asks rhetorically throughout the play: “Who am I?” We first meet the character as a young nobleman, born into Elizabethan-era luxury and a home containing 365 rooms. (The real-life inspiration for this vast property was Knole House, the countryside home of Vita Sackville-West, the author and socialite for whom an adoring Woolf wrote the novel.)But as time hurtles forward, Orlando barely ages and awakens one day from an extended slumber, age 30, as a woman. “Well, knock me down with a flipping feather,” says Orlando’s longtime housekeeper, Mrs. Grimsditch, in response. On the other hand, this loyal sidekick has seemed comfortable with gender fluidity from the start: “Ladies and gentlemen — no, sorry, everyone” she says in an early speech to the audience. The invaluable Deborah Findlay, hair disheveled but her sense of fun unimpaired, is a delight in the role.Corrin is more than game for whatever the play requires. This includes putting on and taking off Peter McKintosh’s ravishing costumes, to keep pace with the passing centuries.The youthful male we glimpse at the play’s start has an impishly androgynous allure, along with a gift for rewriting Shakespeare: “Shall I compare me to a summer’s day?” a glinting Orlando asks early on. But with age comes experience and exposure, not just to royalty (Lucy Briers makes a memorably stern Elizabeth I) but also to lovers and intimates of various genders and circumstances, including a bawdy Nell Gwyn (Millicent Wong) who tells Orlando, “For a lady, you’re really quite the gentleman.”Corrin is in full-throated voice throughout the vicissitudes of Orlando’s fraught love life — when Orlando’s heart is broken, you know it — and in moments when Orlando is taken over by fear. It’s not just that gender is fluid, we feel, but emotions are, too, and the play comes blessed with an actor who can project confidence one minute, and surrender to uncertainty the next. “Orlando” features a cast of Virginia Woolfs, who the titular character turns to to amend or amplify the story. Marc BrennerThe production features a bustling chorus of Woolfs, nine in all, bespectacled and drably attired; each of them adroitly handles at least one additional role, and sometimes more. (That supporting cast includes another nonbinary actor in Oliver Wickham, who plays Clorinda, an early crush for Orlando.)The sobriety of the author on view in this version contrasts with the vivacity of her creation. We see an anxious Orlando interacting with the lineup of women: “Come on, you wrote me,” she says, almost pleadingly, as if Woolf could posthumously amend the story. And yet the play sustains a spryness of tone.Bartlett’s adaptation is more of a sparky, affectionate pastiche, whether invoking another Woolf title, “A Room of One’s Own,” or handing a song lyric from the musical “Cabaret” — another show about shifting identity — to an especially ardent suitor, the Archduchess Harriet. (Richard Cant has particular fun with that role.)We get a synoptic survey of changes in women’s circumstances over time — I loved the sight of the Virginias producing teacups from their bags to signal the arrival of the Victorian era — and there’s a verbal lob in the direction of Britain’s governing Conservative Party that surely owes more to Bartlett than Woolf. But Corrin’s gorgeous performance lifts the 90 minutes, no intermission, well beyond anything resembling a history lesson or a night out requiring preparatory homework.“I once did love,” Orlando says wistfully, and the play leaves us hopeful that this mutable, mesmerizing character will find his, or her, or their, own way to do that again.OrlandoThrough Feb. 25 at the Garrick Theater, London; thegarricktheatre.co.uk. More

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      in Movies

      For Emma Corrin, Identity Is an Ever-Evolving Project

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      The British actor Emma Corrin knew that signing on to star in an adaptation of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” the racy D.H. Lawrence novel, would mean nudity and sex — and lots of it. They were even prepared to be wet, thanks to a pivotal scene in the rain, when the titular couple (Corrin as the lady and Jack O’Connell as the paramour) lovingly frolic naked. “It was that scene in the script that really drew me to the project, because I was like, that’s wild. I haven’t seen anything like that onscreen,” Corrin said.And yet, that sequence was also “the single most terrifying thing I’ve ever done in my life,” they said. (Corrin identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns.) There was no movie magic, no hiding behind camera angles and modesty protectors: It was leaping, dripping, fleshy full-frontal vulnerability. Watching the movie, they said, took “a lot of whiskey.”Corrin gamine-eyed their way to international fame and award recognition in 2020, playing Princess Diana in “The Crown,” their first major role. Though the settings are decades apart, there is a connection between the young Diana, contorting herself to meet an impossible ideal, and Constance Reid, an independent mind who marries into high aristocracy, circa World War I, only to find her Lord Chatterley dismissive of her needs. They are both “trapped women, searching for freedom,” Corrin said.Connie finds it in “Lady Chatterley” — it premieres on Netflix on Friday — through moments of sexual intimacy rarely depicted in period drama. (Masturbation under all those skirts!) Bringing that to the screen, “you know that you’re doing something that is taking up space that needs to be taken up,” Corrin said. “I felt emboldened, with this edge of, ‘Oh, this is a bit terrifying.’ That’s an exciting place to be as an actor.”Corrin opposite Jack O’Connell in “Lady Chatterley’s Lover.”NetflixIt’s not a big leap from the projects and characters that Corrin has lately chosen to their own exploration of gender, love, power, and the responsibilities and costs of being heard. They are currently starring in the title role in a West End production of “Orlando,” based on Virginia Woolf’s gender-bending, time-traveling novel.Corrin’s ascent could have been simple: the English rose ingénue, who’s at home in flouncy frocks and looks as if they can blush on cue. (If only, they said.) Instead, Corrin has shared images of their experiments with chest binding and has changed pronouns twice, as their understanding of how they want to present evolved.“My identity and being nonbinary is an embrace of many different parts of myself, the masculine and the feminine and everything in between,” they said. They hoped only for patience, and for roles that encompass the full spectrum of individuality. “It’s hard to be discovering something in yourself at the same time you’re navigating an industry that demands a lot of you, in terms of knowing who you are,” they said.Dan Levy, the “Schitt’s Creek” star, is a friend who has become “a lifeline” for Corrin, as they put it. He said that the expectation, in the social-media age, that all facets of a star be accessible is dangerous, “especially as a queer person navigating your place in the world.”“You want to lend your voice to the conversation,” he wrote in an email, but “doing so comes at the cost of a sense of privacy. Emma has been really thoughtful about what they want to say and who they want to be publicly.” What he admired most, he said, has been “their frankness about not being entirely sure — that who they are is an ever-evolving internal conversation. I know that must be of comfort to many people who can relate.”The Return of ‘The Crown’The hit drama’s fifth season premiered on Netflix on Nov. 9.The Royals and TV: The royal family’s experiences with sitting for television interviews have been fraught. The latest season of “The Crown” explores that rocky relationship.Meeting the Al-Fayeds: The new season includes portrayals of the Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed, his son Dodi and his personal valet — who had all connections with the royal family.Republicanism on the Rise: Since “The Crown” debuted in 2016, there has been a steady increase in support for abolishing Britain’s monarchy. Has the show contributed to that change?Casting Choices: In a conversation with The Times, the casting director Robert Sterne told us how the drama has turned into a clearinghouse for some of Britain’s biggest stars.Corrin, 26, lives in North London, in a décor-jumbled flat (they have a penchant for Lego sets), with three roommates, friends from their school days, and Corrin’s doted-upon dog, Spencer. On a warm fall afternoon, they turned up for lunch in Manhattan in shorts and a sweater vest, with short platinum hair curled, a new style they quite liked. In the group chat with the roomies, they floated the idea of getting a perm. “It’s very Renaissance boy, which I feel like I channel in my soul anyway,” Corrin told me of the look.Corrin spent the summer in New York working on a new series.Josefina Santos for The New York TimesAbsolutely not, came the immediate texted reply: a photo of three blondes in a universal, arms-crossed, N-O. They are, Corrin said, the kind of friends “who know you so well that you can’t get away with anything, which is wonderful.”Their support network is robust, almost to a fault. Corrin’s mother, a speech therapist, and two younger brothers attended the “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” London premiere. “I did give them all the disclaimers,” Corrin said. “And it was, yeah, mortifying. I think worse for my flatmates, to have to sit next to my family watching it.” But they appreciated the film, Corrin added: “I got such sweet texts from my brothers afterwards.”Since their big debut, Corrin has worked nonstop — “I’m a stranger to breaks,” they said. “I’m bad at not doing anything.” They spent the summer in New York to film a coming FX mystery series and to be profiled by Vogue, the first nonbinary star to appear on the cover.Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, the French director of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” understood why Corrin — whose pronouns were she/they during production — is in demand. The star “has a quality of being here and now,” the filmmaker said. “She’s believable in the ’60s, in the ’20s, today, but she has this immediacy and the spontaneity that brings you back to the present with her, and that’s a very strong quality. The singular energy that she has, the way she talks, the way she moves, it’s always surprising.”Physicality is a big part of Corrin’s performances. They have worked with Polly Bennett, a movement coach and choreographer, regularly since meeting on “The Crown,” where they set out to unpack “Diana-isms,” Bennett said, like the princess’s signature head tilt. “When you try to look at it from an actor’s perspective, it’s to understand why Diana did that,” Bennett said. “Match the physical world to the emotional.”Corrin as Diana in “The Crown.” They worked with a movement coach on the character’s signature head tilt.Des Willie/NetflixOn “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” Bennett put the leads through “some really quite outlandish, abstract perspective drama school stuff,” said O’Connell, who plays Oliver Mellors, the solitary but sensitive estate groundsman Connie falls for. “And I don’t have drama school experience, so I was very open to it.”In rehearsals, the leads and filmmakers, along with an intimacy coordinator, Ita O’Brien, blocked out the sex scenes and found their boundaries.For O’Connell, who is from the same part of Britain as D.H. Lawrence and recognized Mellors as a familiar sort of local figure, the coaching helped him “sit with feeling uncomfortable,” he said. “Before every take, there was like an overwhelming sensation that I did not want to do it.”The rain scene, in particular, seemed to test everyone involved.For starters, though they filmed in and around an estate in normally drizzly, muddy Wales, “it was like the most sunny summer of the last decade,” said de Clermont-Tonnerre. Cue the rain machine.The scene, which comes late in the film and serves to amplify Connie and Oliver’s love and connection, lasts 90 seconds. (To skirt an NC-17 rating, de Clermont-Tonnerre had to keep all the most explicit moments trim.) It needed to feel spontaneous and joyful, a natural exhilaration in a verdant field.“That scene was so reliant on two people in physical abandon,” Bennett said. “You can’t just send two people out to do that. We choreographed shapes and moments, and how garments came off.”But much of it was improvised. “We’re in the field and we looked at each other, and I’d never seen my own terror reflected back at me so intensely,” Corrin said. “We were like, what do we do?”For one nude scene with O’Connell, “I’d never seen my own terror reflected back at me so intensely,” Corrin said.Josefina SantosOn a closed set of about eight people, with music blasting to pump them up, Corrin and O’Connell cut loose. “It was scary for all of us,” de Clermont-Tonnerre said. “And also liberating, in the way that we all wanted to get naked and go running with them.”And O’Connell learned to quiet his inner doubts. “Once you get over the initial discomfort and sometimes shock, something really exhilarating can stem from that,” he said. “And that’s quite rewarding.”Lawrence’s novel, originally published privately in 1928, was famously banned for decades, but after social mores loosened, it was the subject of multiple screen adaptations. De Clermont-Tonnerre wanted to ground hers in Connie’s perspective, as she leaves behind the rule-bound grand manor for earthier pleasures.Ecstasy, in all its forms, was what she was after. “I needed this version to be erotic and to actually glorify eroticism as an actual and vital need,” she said. “I want people to get desire, and to really get horny.”The kind of sexual awakening that Connie undergoes, “I think it’s at the center of a lot of our lives, definitely in terms of self-discovery — probably throughout your life,” Corrin said, adding, “I think that her determination to find something that is very genuine, and a real connection, definitely made me want the same. She’s brave in a way that really inspired me.”Corrin hopes that some of the boldness sticks with them in other ways. “I’m very bad at conflict,” they said. At work, when a request feels iffy, they call Levy for advice. “He’ll be like, that’s out of order, you need to say no and set a boundary.” (“Self-preservation is a team effort!” he said.)Getting angry, raising their voice onscreen, still feels foreign to Corrin. “I’m always worried that I’m not landing it, because I’m so unused to that feeling in my own body,” they said.Crying and having sex, on the other hand, “I can do all day.” More

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      in Movies

      6 Faces of Diana, Princess of Wales, to Stream Online

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      The film “Spencer” is the latest in a long line of TV and movie depictions of Diana. Here’s a selection.LONDON — Nearly 25 years after her death, Diana, Princess of Wales, remains a fixture in British culture and on screens both sides of the pond.Her life is often remembered as tragic: an unhappy marriage to Prince Charles, a complex private life hounded by paparazzi, a shocking death in a car crash at the age of 36. But she was also, truly, beloved, earning the moniker “the people’s princess” for her charity work and candor.This complexity has inspired countless television and film adaptations of her life. The latest, in theaters Friday, is “Spencer.” Starring Kristen Stewart as Diana and directed by Pablo Larraín, the film takes place over one Christmas holiday with the royal family, as Diana’s marriage (and possibly her mental health) unravel. Each Diana production — made in every decade since she became a public figure — takes a different perspective on the princess. Here’s a list of six varied examples, all available to watch online.‘Diana: Her True Story’ (1993)Serena Scott Thomas in “Diana: Her True Story,” which aired on NBC in 1993.NBCIn the early 1990s, U.S. television networks scrambled to make small-screen movies depicting Charles and Diana’s much-publicized unhappy marriage.Andrew Morton’s explosive biography “Diana: Her True Story” was published in 1992, and a year later NBC aired a movie adaptation of the book, starring Serena Scott Thomas as Diana and David Threlfall as Charles.This is a soapy rendering of Diana’s marriage, but the plot generally sticks to the story that “The Crown” later explored with more nuance, and the differences between the couple are evident from the start. Charles is explicit that he doesn’t see love as a prerequisite for marriage, seeing it as a “partnership.” Scott Thomas’s Diana, meanwhile, believes that her role is to support her husband and that, with time, she can make Charles love her.Scott Thomas doesn’t quite embody Diana’s looks or mannerisms, but she does capture the personable nature that made her so popular. Her portrayal of the princess is sympathetic and she frequently reacts to Charles’s mistreatment, screaming at him after she finds a photograph of Camilla on their honeymoon and throwing herself down the stairs while pregnant with her first child. Sticking to revelations in Morton’s book, Diana’s struggle with an eating disorder is also depicted. (Stream via Amazon Prime Video; rent or buy on Amazon.)‘Diana: The Musical’ (2021)In Netflix’s “Diana: The Musical,” Jeanna de Waal plays the princess. Netflix“Diana: The Musical,” written by Joe DiPietro and Bon Jovi’s David Bryan, had its Broadway run swiftly shuttered because of the pandemic. Earlier this year a filmed version landed on Netflix.Starting with her initial courtship of Prince Charles, the two-hour musical flies through notable events in Diana’s life at a dizzying pace. There are numbers on her paparazzi intrusion (with lyrics like “Ain’t nothin’ like the hunt, Ain’t nothin’ like the thrill. Find the right bird, Then go in for the kill”) and contrasting Diana’s common touch with the public with the royal family’s stuffiness (“All right, I’m no intellect,” she sings while watching a cello performance with Charles. “But maybe there’s a discotheque, where the prince could hear some Prince and we’d all get funkadelic.”)This version of Diana (played by Jeanna de Waal) is particularly one-dimensional. There isn’t much of an opportunity to dwell on her emotions, or provide insight on her mental state, and the filmed musical was not well received. “This is a Rocky Horror Picture Show of cluelessness and misjudged Judy Garlandification,” wrote Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. (Stream on Netflix.)‘King Charles III’ (2017)Katie Brayben plays the ghost of Diana in “King Charles III.”BBCBased on the play of the same name by Mike Bartlett, “King Charles III” is set following the death of Queen Elizabeth II and sees Charles (Tim Pigott-Smith) grappling with the death of his mother and his transition to king.In the vein of a Shakespearean tragedy, the ghost of Diana (Katie Brayben) appears several times in the made-for-TV movie. Always kept distant from other characters and wearing white, she reassures a stubborn Charles (“You think I didn’t love you. It’s not true”) and a pained William, upset at his rebellious father (“You’re now the man I never lived to see”).The ghost of Diana sparked a British tabloid storm, particularly when it was set to be broadcast soon after Prince Harry spoke about the impact losing his mother had on his mental health. Bartlett defended her inclusion: “It’s a genuine investigation of what it is to be that family and in that role in the country,” he told the TV magazine Radio Times. “Diana is part of that.” (Rent or buy on Amazon and iTunes.)‘The Crown’ (2020)When we meet Emma Corrin’s Diana in Season 4 of “The Crown,” she is a teenager.NetflixThe posters for the fourth season of “The Crown” marked the show’s arrival in the 1980s by sandwiching the face of the queen (now played by Olivia Colman) between two new characters: Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson) and Diana (a newcomer, Emma Corrin).We meet Diana as a teenager, and while Corrin perfectly captures the future princess’s look and subtle mannerisms, the show also emphasizes the down-to-earth quality that made Diana so popular with the public through scenes of her roller skating through the palace and going out dancing with friends.We see her struggling with an eating disorder, and with feeling isolated from Charles and the rest of his family, as well as with the complicated social rules around interacting with royalty.Corrin received a Golden Globe for her portrayal, and as is typical on “The Crown,” the role of Diana will be taken over by a new actress, Elizabeth Debicki, for the show’s fifth season.Five Movies to Watch This WinterCard 1 of 51. “The Power of the Dog”: More

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      Emma Corrin Is Fine With Not Playing Diana to the Bitter End

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      The British actor, who received an Emmy nomination for playing Diana in “The Crown,” is happy to be handing off the role as it takes a darker turn. “I feel very protective over her,” she said.Voting is underway for the 73rd Primetime Emmys, and this week we’re talking to several first-time Emmy nominees. The awards will be presented Sept. 19 on CBS.Fans of Netflix’s “The Crown” awaited Season 4 with particular interest — it would be the Diana Season. Emma Corrin won the key role and soon found herself, not long out of Cambridge University, starring in one of TV’s most popular shows as modern history’s most beloved royal, portraying Diana Spencer as she evolved from a precocious and playful 16-year-old into the Princess of Wales.Corrin’s was an arc not unlike Diana’s — a mostly unknown young woman thrust suddenly into a global spotlight. Fans and critics were generally taken with Corrin’s turn, which displayed a charming, grounded accessibility and grace that mirrored Diana’s public image and offered a sympathetic portrayal of her often chaotic personal life.Corrin, 25, has since followed the accolade-laden path of an earlier “Crown” breakout star, Claire Foy, whose performance as a young Queen Elizabeth II nabbed her two Screen Actors Guild awards, a Golden Globe and an Emmy before she was replaced by Olivia Colman as an older Elizabeth. Corrin won the Golden Globe in February, thanking her cast and crewmates in her video acceptance speech, and now has an Emmy nomination for lead actress in a drama. And like Foy, Corrin will exit “The Crown” as the show ages up — Elizabeth Debicki plays Diana next season, in production now, and Corrin wishes her nothing but the best. (Dominic West takes over Charles from Josh O’Connor, another Emmy nominee.)Playing a bona fide icon has afforded Corrin plenty of attention, but perhaps not as much as she might have received had there been no pandemic. She has several high-profile films lined up, including a just-wrapped “My Policeman!” adaptation opposite Harry Styles, as well as female lead in a new version of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” directed by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre. But because production on Corrin’s season of “The Crown” ended early because of Covid and then debuted during the shut-in fall of 2020, its impact hasn’t quite felt tangible, she said in a recent interview.That changed recently, while on holiday in Spain, when she was tickled to be recognized by a boat full of Italian men.“It was so weird; we’re in the middle of the sea, and there are guys floating toward me calling out, ‘Oh Lady Di!’” Corrin said with a laugh. “Those moments still feel very strange. So maybe it will never really sink in. And that’s maybe quite a good thing because it could be very overwhelming.”Corrin tried to funnel the emotions she felt from becoming famous into her performance as Diana.Des Willie/NetflixIn a video interview, Corrin discussed saying goodbye to Diana and the significance of having a nonbinary queer person play such an internationally beloved figure. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Your season of “The Crown” was generally well liked and received 24 Emmy nominations, the most of any series this year (tied with “The Mandalorian”). How has its reception felt to you? Is it different from your expectations?It’s a weird thing, expectation. I don’t know what I expected. I was sort of waiting in trepidation to see what it would be like, and then with the pandemic, I think that things were just so different. Because we didn’t get to have a wrap party together to actually celebrate the end of filming, and then when the series came out, we’ve all been in isolation for a year, and then obviously we haven’t been able to go to award shows together. So it’s very strange. I think in normal circumstances, it would have been very hard to comprehend everything, and the pandemic made it even weirder. So it doesn’t feel real, especially awards stuff.I remember in the midst of everything, when the series was coming out and the whole cast was feeling sad that we weren’t together, and it was strange I wasn’t experiencing anything in real time. My friend who I live with said, “The most important thing is the work that you’ve done — that at that moment, everyone’s at home watching the series, and it means that everyone’s 100 percent focused on your work and not what you’re wearing at different press interviews, or where you’re going.”Diana’s relationship to the press and the tabloids is explored in “The Crown.” What is it like to become a known person? Does that make you identify more with Diana?It’s a very weird thing to get your head around. It’s a very invasive, intrusive sort of thing to happen. And I remember when I got the part, Benjamin Caron, the producer, said: “Life’s going to change a lot when this comes out. And even when the role is announced, if there’s moments that you feel overwhelmed by it or scared by it, or if you get followed or if your picture ends up in a newspaper or anything, use it, because that’s exactly how she would have been feeling. Use all the emotions around it, use the excitement, use the curiosity, use the fear.” So it was very helpful.I remember there was this one scene we were filming outside her flat when she’s leaving for the last time, saying goodbye to her flat mates. We had loads of supporting actors being the press, and then beyond the cameras are film cameras as well — actual paparazzi. And it was such a weird double world. I was like, no acting required.We’ve seen the new photos of the new Diana and Charles. What was your initial reaction? Is there any sadness about not having the opportunity to continue playing the role?I feel so happy to have done the arc of her life that I did, but for me it feels like a very closed chapter. I went into it knowing I wouldn’t continue. I saw the picture of Elizabeth [Debicki], and I just think she looks absolutely brilliant. And then there were our photos side by side, and I felt really special — almost like a sort of sister feeling that there’s this continued likeness. She came to see the play that I just did in London because she’s friends with the director. We hadn’t met before, and it was wonderful. It was a bit of that thing where we felt like we knew each other so well, even though we didn’t.Is this the type of relationship where you would share information or tips?We haven’t actually. We haven’t done that, and we didn’t speak about it when we met. It would have to come from her because she wants to do that, and I’m assuming that she wants to do her own thing, which is good. She knows I’m here.Diana’s story presumably takes a darker turn next season. “I’m grateful that I don’t have to do that because I know how attached I feel to the person I played,” Corrin said.Des Willie/NetflixHow you feel about not having to go through the end with Diana, which is to say her death?I hadn’t thought about it, to be honest, but I don’t know — it feels like someone else’s thing. I’m grateful that I don’t have to do that because I know how attached I feel to the person I played. I feel very protective over her.You recently came out as queer and nonbinary. What do you think is the significance of a queer nonbinary person playing someone that’s so prominent, a princess so beloved the world over?I think it’s such a joy. My journey with that is still evolving and quite recent. It’s wonderful to know that I’ve played someone who was such a help to so many people in that community and so supportive to that community. I think I’d be lying if I said it didn’t help me in my journey with everything to play someone like Diana. She was so openhearted to everything and explored so much. I feel like Diana helped me explore so many depths of myself and really do a big internal discovery of what I was feeling about everything because she was a very complex person. It feels great. I was very honored.What kinds of roles are you being sent now? Is there any sense that you’re being typecast, or are you reading only things that are completely different?Initially, we were being sent a lot of royal princess sort of things. Wonderful parts, but we decided very early that we need to be clear in like, “We’re not going to do this kind of thing.” But to be honest, for me it’s always going to be about the story, and it’s always going to be about how I feel about the work.I remember saying, “I want to do some contemporary stuff now,” but then getting the “Chatterley” scripts, which I start in a few weeks, and thinking “Oh, my God.” I wanted to work with Laure so badly, and when I saw her vision for it and what they wanted to do with it, I was just like, “I’m in!” And that’s a period piece, so I eat my words. It’s a good lesson to sort of keep an open mind, not pigeonhole yourself. More

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      in Theater

      Ian McKellen Returns as Hamlet in U.K. Production

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      As England’s theaters welcome capacity audiences again, Ian McKellen is back in a role he first played a half-century ago.LONDON — If you’re going to fully reopen a theater in these edgy times, it helps to have an actor whose presence feels like an event. That’s absolutely the case at the elegant Theater Royal in Windsor, England, where Ian McKellen, 82, is currently playing Hamlet, of all roles, and will stay on into the fall in a new production of Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard.” (“Hamlet” runs through Sept. 25.)When the director Sean Mathias’s production started previews in June, coronavirus protocols in England required social distancing in playhouses, meaning numerous seats were left unsold. But those rules ended July 19, when the government rolled back restrictions on social contact. Theaters now have to choose for themselves whether to put their entire capacities on sale, and some smaller venues are still operating with caution by spacing seats out.At the “Hamlet” matinee I attended, this was not the case, and a full and expectant house had gathered to see McKellen return to a role he first played a half-century ago. The demographics of the Windsor playgoing public skew older, and during a post-show question-and-answer session with the cast, one man in the audience recalled seeing McKellen’s previous run as literature’s most famous Dane, in the early 1970s. (The actor tackled a more age-appropriate Shakespeare tragedy, “King Lear,” on the West End in 2018.)McKellen with Jenny Seagrove as Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude.Marc BrennerYou might wonder how an octogenarian might inhabit the angst of a perpetual student who can’t shed the memory of his father or an unusual attachment to his mother. McKellen’s achievement is to render age irrelevant, so that we seem to be peering into the soul of a character this actor understands from the inside out. And as mortality rattles Hamlet more and more, it’s doubly moving to hear those lines spoken by an actor now in his ninth decade.The production belongs to the here and now, and is presented on a multitiered, industrial-looking set with the actors in modern dress: Alis Wyn Davies’s Ophelia strums a guitar, and Jonathan Hyde’s excellent Claudius suggests a corporate apparatchik with his eye on the prize.But it’s McKellen everyone has come to see, and the Tony-winning actor who found global renown in the “Lord of the Rings” and “X-Men” movies doesn’t disappoint. As if taking a leaf from his character’s instruction to the players in Act III’s play within a play, he speaks Shakespeare’s verse “trippingly on the tongue,” so that the time-honored soliloquies become extensions of thought, rather than set pieces. I’ve rarely heard “To be, or not to be” communicated as easefully as here.Not all the cast is at McKellen’s level, and there doesn’t appear to be much of an overarching vision. But whether riding an exercise bike or scaling the skeletal set, McKellen is always the nimblest presence; the actor’s the thing, and the audience made its appreciation thunderously clear.I witnessed a comparable ovation at another full house recently, this time in the 2,300-seat London Coliseum, where the star attraction is the return of the English musical theater veteran Michael Ball, playing Edna Turnblad in “Hairspray” through Sept. 29. Ball won the 2008 Olivier Award for his performance as this demure, soft-spoken laundress when the Broadway hit first came to London, and his affection for the generous-hearted show seems only to have deepened since. A heartthrob back in the day, Ball dons Edna’s apron and slippers without any sidelong winks.Lizzie Bea as Tracy Turnblad, Michael Ball as Edna Turnblad and Les Dennis as Wilbur Turnblad in “Hairspray” at the London Coliseum.Tristram KentonIt is a gift of a part. Edna is a wife and mother in 1960s Baltimore who long ago made peace with the life she never got to lead. (“I wanted to be the biggest thing in brassieres,” she says, meaning designing, not washing and folding, them.) Imagine her surprise, then, when her feisty daughter, Tracy (a spirited Lizzie Bea), turns out to be a consciousness-raising rabble-rouser, railing against racial segregation.Tracy’s transformation prompts her mother to unleash a previously unknown energy, and a dimpled Ball is a riot emerging, eyes gleaming, for the final number in a glittering pink party frock.Addressing the audience after the curtain call, Ball sounded moved to see a near-capacity crowd again. No wonder he looked ready to shake and shimmy all night, or at least until Edna’s sequins fell off.Social distancing was still the order of the day when I caught the Joseph Charlton two-hander “ANNA X,” which has just finished its run at the Harold Pinter Theater but will have five performances next week at the Lowry in Salford, near Manchester.The director Daniel Raggett’s high-octane production showcases a 25-year-old talent, Emma Corrin, who has been lauded as Princess Diana in “The Crown” and is clearly due for a major career. “ANNA X” casts Corrin in a fictionalized version of a real-life Russian, Anna Sorokin, who cut a swath through New York society before serving time in prison for fraud.Appearing alongside the engaging Nabhaan Rizwan as the ambitious techie, Ariel, whom Anna pulls into her alluring orbit, Corrin is both charismatic and inscrutable, as befits Anna’s shifting, twisted psyche. Let’s wish Corrin a return to the West End at a time when she, too, is allowed a full house.Nabhaan Rizwan and Emma Corrin in “ANNA X.”Helen MurrayHamlet. Directed by Sean Mathias. Theater Royal Windsor, through Sept. 25.Hairspray. Directed by Jack O’Brien. London Coliseum, through Sept. 29.ANNA X. Directed by Daniel Raggett. The Lowry, Salford, Aug. 11-14. More

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      For Many Golden Globe Winners, the London Stage Came First

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Awards SeasonGolden Globes: What HappenedBest and Worst MomentsWinners ListStream the WinnersRed Carpet ReviewAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s NotebookFor Many Golden Globe Winners, the London Stage Came FirstAt Sunday’s ceremony, a whole host of British winners and nominees got their training in the theater before they made it to the screen.At the Golden Globes, the actor John Boyega accepted an award for best supporting actor in a series, mini-series or television film for “Small Axe.”Credit…Christopher Polk/NBC, via ReutersMarch 2, 2021, 1:36 p.m. ETLONDON — Where would this year’s Golden Globes be without the English stage? Greatly diminished. As the winners John Boyega and Daniel Kaluuya (who took home trophies for best supporting actor in a television and movie role, respectively) and nominees like Olivia Colman and Carey Mulligan evidence, a pipeline of talent runs directly from London theater to onscreen renown at the highest levels in Hollywood.Many of the other British winners at Sunday night’s ceremony also got their training onstage. Although we may now know Emma Corrin as the latest person bold enough to embody Princess Diana, Sunday night’s 25-year-old winner for actress in a drama series accrued plenty of dramatic credits while studying at Cambridge. Her “Crown” co-star and fellow winner Josh O’Connor graduated from the Bristol Old Vic Theater School before shifting his attention to the screen. He was expecting to make a high-profile return to the London stage last year in a National Theater production of “Romeo and Juliet.” Because of the pandemic, the production has been reimagined for the screen with a notably starry supporting cast, and will be airing in Britain and the United States next month.Josh O’Connor, who plays Prince Charles in “The Crown,” graduated from the Bristol Old Vic Theater School.Credit…Alex Bailey/Netflix, via Associated PressEmma Corrin, who plays Princess Diana, accrued dramatic credits while studying at Cambridge.Credit…Des Willie/Netflix, via Associated PressMichaela Coel’s absence may have commandeered attention at this year’s Globes after her HBO show “I May Destroy You” was snubbed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, but keen-eyed London playgoers will have spotted this graduate of Guildhall School at the National Theater’s now-defunct Shed theater, first in the all-female ensemble of “Blurred Lines” and then in her self-penned monologue, “Chewing Gum Dreams,” a project she began while still a student. That title was shortened and the work’s concept expanded to create “Chewing Gum,” Coel’s first TV show. Her fiery talent, first seen in embryo by London theater audiences, has now found the larger audience it deserves.On occasion, a small play itself becomes a celluloid sensation. There’s no other way to describe the leap made by “Fleabag,” which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2013 and which I caught within the intimate confines of the Soho Theater in London the following year. Before long, its creator and star, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, had found a new and welcoming home for her sexually unbridled Londoner on television.An astonishing success story followed, and when Waller-Bridge returned with her character to a mainstream West End perch in 2019, there were House Full signs from its first performance onward. Before long the show’s second season had also won six Emmys, as well as a best actress Golden Globe for its creator. As a sign of quite how high her Tinseltown star has risen, Waller-Bridge was brought on with much fanfare to work on the script of the upcoming Bond film “No Time to Die.”Phoebe Waller-Bridge received a Golden Globe award in 2020 for her work on “Fleabag.”Credit…Paul Drinkwater/NBC, via Associated PressIndeed, scratch most British TV and film names and you’ll find a theater-trained talent, most of whom are happy to return to the stage and regularly do: Ralph Fiennes, a movie star by anyone’s definition, was quick to brave the London stage last year during the brief mid-pandemic window when theaters here were open. His chosen vehicle was David Hare’s solo play, “Beat the Devil,” appearing as the playwright himself.Fiennes graduated, as have many well-known actors here, from the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. The widely shared belief, at least in Britain, is that some sort of stage training sets you up for a profession that demands versatility and flexibility (not to mention technique), all of which are surely useful onscreen as well as onstage. Nor can one deny that theater training here has long seemed like a rite of passage, conferring legitimacy on those who submit to the rigors of the stage.Not everyone follows this path: I’ve yet to see yet another of Sunday’s Globe recipients, Sacha Baron Cohen, on a London stage, though that prospect is hugely enticing, and such actors as Hugh Grant and Kate Winslet seem to have leapt to onscreen stardom without paying this country’s seemingly obligatory dues onstage. (Winslet has done theater in the regions but not in London.)Awards Season More

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      Golden Globes: The Projectionist’s Takeaways

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      Golden Globes: The Projectionist’s TakeawaysSacha Baron Cohen with his wife, Isla Fisher.Christopher Polk/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWant a catch-up on last night’s Golden Globes? It was a weird one — and considering how weird a typical Globes ceremony is, that’s saying something.Watch the standout moments → More