Portrait Of A Lady

Having played Lady Chatterley to Shirley Anne Field’s Mrs. Bolton in Ken Russell’s adaptation, was there anything you wanted to replicate?

Shirley was a woman’s woman and it was lovely that all these years later I get to see it from her point of view. I haven’t gone back again to watch it. I feel with all of our work you should let go of the results. I didn’t even want anyone in this project to know that I’d ever played Lady Chatterley – this is Emma’s. I don’t have an ego in that respect. I’m a 57-yearold woman. I want to play women who are ballpark my age, because I have a bunch of stories and life experiences, and those are the stories I can tell best.

Sean Bean, who played Mellors to your Lady Chatterley, said intimacy coordinators ruined the spontaneity of sex scenes. How do you feel?

Sean is a brilliant actor; each of his performances just gets better and better. I found him incredibly fun and humorous. We were lucky in that we got on very well and felt safe within our dynamic. There are people who aren’t that lucky, so it’s great that there are intimacy coordinators in place to protect them.

What was it like to now be playing the other side of the class divide?

I come from an acting family that has historically got a lot of attention, but that’s only 50% of my roots. My dad [Tony Richardson] was from Yorkshire so in a strange way that’s me too, and I wanted to change perceptions around the roles I’m considered for. I love Mrs. Bolton as she believes in love, and in my experience there are truly loving people in this world. LEILA LATIF