‘The Crown’ First Princess Diana Emma Corrin Speaks Out on Non-Binarism and On-Screen Nudity

The New York Times

Emma Corrin knew that accepting the offer to play an adaptation of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”, the daring novel by DH Lawrence, would mean nudity and sex – in large doses. The British actress/actor was even willing to get wet, thanks to a central scene that takes place in the rain, when the couple who star in the story (Corrin as the lady and Jack O’Connell as the lover) play lovingly in the water, no clothes. “It was that scene that really attracted me to the project, when I read the script, because I thought to myself/what a wild thing that was. I’ve never seen anything like that on screen,” said Corrin.

And yet, that sequence was also “the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done in my life,” she/e said (Corrin identifies as non-binary/o, and uses neutral pronouns). There were no cinematic gimmicks, tricky camera angles to protect the actors, or protective costumes to camouflage the nudity: what we see on screen is the bouncy, wet, carnal vulnerability of full frontal nudity. To watch the film, Corrin said it took “a lot of whiskey”.

Corrin rose to international fame with the innocent yet seductive looks she lent to her portrayal of Princess Diana in “The Crown” in the 2020 season, garnering awards and international recognition for her first major role. Though the two situations are decades apart, there is a connection between young Diana, who squirms to try to embody an impossible ideal, and Constance Reid, an independent-minded woman who marries an aristocrat of the first magnitude during the First World War. World and discovers that Lord Chatterley is completely dismissive of his needs. Both are “imprisoned women looking for freedom,” said Corrin.

Connie achieves that freedom in “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” – which debuted on Netflix in late November – through moments of sexual intimacy that are rarely portrayed in period dramas (masturbation, under all those skirts!). By bringing that to the screen, “you know you’re doing something that takes up space that needs to be filled,” said Corrin. “I felt excited, with a little bit of ‘but this is also a little bit terrifying.’ It’s an exciting position to be in, as an actor.”

It doesn’t take a huge leap of imagination to link the projects and characters Corrin has chosen to be involved with recently to her personal exploration of gender, love, power, and the responsibilities and costs of being heard. She/he is currently playing the title role in a stage production of “Orlando,” based on a Virginia Woolf novel that breaks genre conventions and deals with time travel.

Corrin’s ascension could have been simple: she/e has a touch of a delicate English rose, a figure that looks elegant in period costumes and is apparently capable of effortlessly blushing whenever the script calls for it (“I wish” , commented Corrin). Instead, she/he shared pictures of her experiences using headbands to hide her breasts and twice changed her pronouns as her understanding of how she/he wanted to present herself evolved.

“My identity, and being non-binary, is an embrace of many different parts of myself, the masculine and the feminine and everything in between,” said Corrin. She/he just hoped people would have patience, and for roles that encompassed the full spectrum of individuality. “It’s hard to figure something out in yourself at the same time as you’re trying to find your way around in an industry that’s asking so much of you in terms of knowing who you are,” she/e said.

Dan Levy, star of “Schitt’s Creek”, is a friend of Corrin and has become a “lifesaver”, according to her/e. He said the expectation that all facets of a star be accessible, in the age of social media, is dangerous, “especially for a ‘queer’ person trying to find their place in the world”.

“You want to participate in the dialogue,” he said in an email, but “doing so comes at the expense of your privacy. Emma has been putting a lot of thought into what she wants to say and be, publicly.” What Levy most admires, he said, is “her frankness about not being absolutely sure – knowing that what she/is is the result of an ever-evolving internal conversation.” “I know this must be reassuring to a lot of people who can relate to this situation.”

Corrin, 26, lives in north London, in an apartment decorated in conflicting styles (she/he likes Lego sets), shared with three classmates whom she has known since school and her dog Spencer, her pet. On a warm autumn afternoon, she/he showed up for lunch in Manhattan wearing shorts and a sweater, and with her platinum, curly hair cut very short, a new hairstyle that she/he liked very much. In group chat with his/her flatmates, he/she suggested getting a perm. “It’s a renaissance pageboy look, something I feel like channeling into my soul anyway,” Corrin told me about the look.

Absolutely not, came the immediate response via cell phone: a photo of three blondes with their arms crossed in a universal “NO” pose. Corrin said they are the kind of friends who know you “so well that they won’t let me get away with anything, and that’s wonderful.”

Corrin’s support network is robust, almost indestructible. Her mother, who is a speech therapist, and two younger brothers attended the premiere of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” in London. “I tried to lay the groundwork beforehand,” said Corrin. “And it was still pretty embarrassing. I think it was even worse for my flatmates, who had to watch alongside my family.” But the Corrins liked the film, she added. “I got really sweet text messages from my brothers afterwards.”

Since her big debut, Corrin has been working nonstop (“I don’t know what it’s like to take a break,” she/e said). After spending the fall in New York shooting a mystery series for FX, she landed an essay for Vogue magazine as the first non-binary star to appear on the cover.

Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, the French director of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” understands why Corrin — whose pronouns during production were transitioning from “she” to neutrals — is in demand. The star “has a quality of being part of the here and now,” said the filmmaker. “She is credible playing a character from the 1960s, 1920s, or today, and she has an immediate presence and spontaneity that brings the viewer back to the present in her company, and that is a very strong quality. has, the way he talks, the way he moves, it’s always amazing”.

The physical aspect of the work is very important in Corrin’s performances. She/he has been working regularly with Polly Bennett, movement coach and choreographer, since they met in “The Crown”, when they struggled to decipher “dianisms”, for example the way the princess tilted her head. “When you try to look at her from an actor’s perspective, it’s to understand why Diana did what she did,” Bennett said. “Equating the physical world to the emotional.”

In “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” Bennett got the lead actors to do “some really strange things, abstract exercises in perspective like drama school,” said O’Connell, who plays Oliver Mellors, the lonely but sensitive gardener. who Connie falls in love with. “And I didn’t have a drama school experience, which means I was very open to that.”

In rehearsals, the lead actors and directors, along with intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien, outlined the sex scenes and defined their boundaries.

For O’Connell, who hails from the same part of the UK as DH Lawrence and recognized Mellors as a familiar type of local figure, the training helped him “adjust to that uncomfortable feeling”, he said. “Before every take, there was this overwhelming feeling that I didn’t want to do this.”

The rain scene, in particular, seems to have posed a test for everyone involved.

For starters, although shooting took place on a normally rainy and muddy country estate in and around Wales, “we had the sunniest summer in a decade,” said de Clermont-Tonnerre. Time to turn on the rain machine.

The scene, which comes towards the end of the film and serves to amplify the love and connection between Connie and Oliver, lasts 90 seconds (to avoid the film receiving an NC-17 rating, the director had to restrict all more explicit moments). The situation needs to feel spontaneous and upbeat, and exude the natural enthusiasm that a green field awakens.

“That scene relied too much on two people behaving with complete physical abandon,” Bennett said. “You can’t just instruct actors to do it. We choreographed forms and moments, and the way in which the clothes would be removed.”

But much of what was recorded happened impromptu. “We were on the field and we were looking at each other, and I had never seen my own terror reflected with that intensity,” said Corrin. “It was like we were trying to figure it out: now what do we do?”

In a closed set where only eight people were present, with music blaring loudly to inspire energy, Corrin and O’Connell let loose. “It was scary for all of us,” said de Clermont-Tonnerre. “And also liberating, to the point where we all want to take our clothes off and run with them.”

And O’Connell learned to calm his inner doubts. “Once you get over the initial discomfort, and sometimes shock, something really exciting can come out of that experience,” he said. “Which is quite gratifying.”

Lawrence’s novel, originally published privately in 1928, was banned for decades, but after social mores relaxed the text was the subject of multiple screen adaptations. De Clermont-Tonnerre wanted to ground hers in Connie’s perspective, in the fact that she chooses to leave the manor house behind and pursue more earthly pleasures.

Ecstasy, in all its forms, was what the headmistress sought. “I needed this version to be erotic and to glorify eroticism as a real, vital need,” she said. “I want people to feel desire, and really get excited.”

The kind of sexual awakening Connie finds is something that “I think is at the center of a lot of our lives, definitely in terms of self-discovery — and probably throughout our entire lives,” said Corrin, adding that “I think her determination to finding something that is very genuine, and a real connection, definitely makes me want the same. She’s brave in a way that really inspired me.”

Corrin hopes some of that boldness will linger in her life, in other ways. “I’m terrible at conflict,” she/he said. At work, when someone asks her for something that bothers her, Corrin calls Levy for advice. “And he says it’s not right, and I need to say no and set boundaries.” (According to Levy, “Self-preservation is a team effort.”)

Getting angry, raising your voice on the screen, still feels strange to Corrin. “I’m always worried that I’m not doing my part because I’m so unused to feelings like that in my own body,” she said.

Crying and having sex, on the other hand, “is something I can do all day,” Corrin said.