[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story.]
The four-part seriesA Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, available to stream onBritBox, is based on Carol Ann Lee’s biography about the last woman hung in Britain. A true crime drama that tells the real-life story of Ruth Ellis (Lucy Boynton) who, at the age of 28 in 1955, was the youngest club manager in London. But success couldn’t save her from an abusive relationship, and Ruth found herself on trial for the murder of racing driver David Blakely (Laurie Davidson). During the trial, Ruth was judged for far more than her crime, stuck in a time period that looked down on those of lesser status and wealth and that didn’t have the resources to help someone escape a volatile situation, so she paid the ultimate price.
During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Boynton talked about the shock she experienced for not knowing about Ruth Ellis, why it was so important for her to humanize the full range of her complexities, being drawn to her rebellion against society, continuing to tell the story through her costumes, the privilege of getting to put women’s stories at the forefront, spending a lot of time on the accent, the weightiness of the relationship between Ruth and David, and the tragedy of her fate. She also discussed why she’s no longer playing Marianne Faithfull, whether she’d want to do another season ofThe Politician, and her hope to continue telling the stories of women that have been overlooked.
Collider: When this came your way, did you know anything about Ruth Ellis? What was it like to meet her on the page?
LUCY BOYNTON: It was my first introduction to her, and I was shocked.This case changed our judicial system in the UK, and I can’t believe it’s not taught more broadly.Anyone who I asked about it, who was older than me and either remembers it themselves or remembers reading about it, had a really emotional, very fervent response to me doing it. It was very gratifying, knowing that I could be a part of bringing this story to broader audiences and younger audiences who aren’t familiar, and also correcting the image of Ruth Ellis. She was written about in the media in such a skewed way, so narrowed by misogyny and classism. This script was a really great balance. It gives the full scope of who she was and the context for that, of 1950s London and the society at the time. It allows her to be humanized, finally, and really portrayed in her full spectrum.
Lucy Boynton Wanted To Explore the Entirety of the Real-Life Woman at the Center of ‘A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story’
“She’s just so complex and such a combination of light and dark."
What was it about her, as a person, that drew you in?
BOYNTON: The extent of her rebellion against what society deemed appropriate for her or expected of her. In the ‘50s, it was such a specifically prescribed version of what a woman should be, how she should carry herself, and how little space she should take up, and that wasn’t good enough for Ruth. She wanted a big, bright life. She wanted to be successful in business and financially independent. That was so important for her. She wanted to elevate herself out of the economic circumstances she’d been born into and provide for herself, but society was telling her that she didn’t deserve to do that and didn’t deserve to take up space. So, she chipped away at it and carved it out herself.
I thought that was remarkable, to not have a really huge number of role models to look to for how to do that, but to know that this person is really self-sourcing that confidence and that validity and self-worth that drives you to be that ambitious. And then, obviously, there are the scenes where she’s incredibly stoic and rejects any help and acts in a way that you wish she would allow herself to be more vulnerable. She has been so hardened by experience that she can’t afford to, so you can understand that. She’s just so complex and such a combination of light and dark.Just when you think you’ve got her understood and categorized, she’ll do something that completely undermines that.She was a fascinating woman to investigate. There was just so much to mine, as an actor, and so much to explore.
Lucy Boynton Takes on ‘The Ruth Ellis Story’ in Trailer for British True Crime Drama ‘A Cruel Love’
Boynton becomes the last woman hanged in Britain when the series hits Britbox in February.
It feels like a story of layers, in so many ways. Even just looking at the poster, she’s dressed the part, which isn’t all of who she is underneath that.
BOYNTON: That’s why I loved the costuming process on this. It was an opportunity to offer a little more exposition to the audience without it being dialogue exposition. It’s just an indication of how she wanted to be perceived.To be successful, you wanted to be accepted into or by the upper class, but it was such a closed-door society.In the UK, we’re so precious about upholding this class hierarchy, and there was nothing that she could do where they would therefore allow her in. She changed her voice and her appearance. She always dressed immaculately. Our costume designer, Emma Fryer, did it so beautifully, where whenever she’s around the Findlaters, who are of the upper echelon, her outfit is always just slightly wrong and slightly too bright, or the silhouette is slightly off and not quite appropriate for that setting. There are all these poignant insights into evidence that it isn’t the world that she’s from, and they were so self-righteous about pointing that out. I thought the costuming was such a beautiful indication of who she wanted to be versus that inherent separation.
When I went to college, I majored in journalism, but I wanted to minor in women’s history, and I found out there was only one course, which implies that there aren’t enough women to tell the stories of. A woman like Ruth Ellis, that we don’t hear about at all, makes you realize that there are so many stories that we’re not learning. It’s such a gift that you’re able to remind people that there are so many women out there whose stories haven’t been thoroughly told.
BOYNTON: And deliberately so. It is maddening when you tap into that, and you willingly take the blinders off and realize how neglected women have been in the history books. It is absurd to think that our society or our world has been built solely by men. So, it is a privilege to be in an industry where you get the opportunity to do this, to excavate these stories and to really put women’s stories at the forefront, where they deserve to be. Being half the population and half the entirety of history, it seems obvious. I feel so grateful to be in an industry that gets to that position of storytelling and industrialized empathy, holding up a mirror to ourselves. It’s really satisfying and a real privilege.
Lucy Boynton Found Ruth Ellis Easy to Empathize With
“There is no neutrality when it comes to domestic violence.”
When you play someone like this, who was a real person that you’ll be introducing to most of the people who watch this, how do you figure out how much to draw from who she really was versus what’s in the script? You had a biography and there were transcripts of the court case, but what most helped you shape your performance?
BOYNTON: Whenever I’m playing someone real, I always try to go in quite analytically. I try to leave feelings at the door and don’t allow my own instincts and bias to color the character, or color the person, which is hard to do but a necessary first step. And then, I fill in the color of emotions later. With Ruth, that wasn’t really possible because I empathized with her so early on in my research. There is no neutrality when it comes to domestic violence. She had been at the mercy of so much throughout her life.There was so much context for her strength out of necessity and that hardened exterior. There was no safety in vulnerability.I was lucky with this one because there’s so much source material on her. Carol Ann Lee’s book was so well researched, giving context to society at the time, in post-war, 1950s London. That informed how Ruth was shaped and where concedes to that society and where she pushes against it. There was just so much material to draw from. Thankfully, Caroline had done so much of that research, and then Kelly Jones, our scriptwriter, added the emotional tether to it. There wasn’t much fabrication or creative interpretation because there was so much evidence there already.
Hiding her true accent seems like such a small detail, but it’s such an interesting one too. Why do you think she felt it was necessary to do that? How did you figure out how to portray that?
BOYNTON: We still do that in the UK because we still feel so precious about this class hierarchy. It’s still so in play, where people feel like they have to change their voices or that they’re being judged on their accent, so it was vital for her to do that. Working out the balance in the filming process was tricky because she never dropped it. She developed this telephone voice. There are recordings of her when she’s really drunk, and she doesn’t drop it. It’s very specific, and I wanted to honor that. She worked so hard on it that I really wanted to deliver the same and respect that. However, we needed to find places to let the audience in, to show cracks in that, in order to tell the truth of the story. So, you forfeit some moments of accuracy, in order to convey the accuracy of the general truth, if that makes sense. I reluctantly dropped it in some areas. And we went in after in ADR and did that, as well. It was a really interesting process, trying to do that, and trying to find that balance between what you convey to the audience and what you honor.
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How did you approach the relationship between Ruth and David? What are the most important aspects of their dynamic, that you felt were important to focus on?
BOYNTON: It was a really weighty thing to be contending with. When I was just on my own, reading the script, and then meeting Laurie [Davidson], it all really clicked into place because he was so excellent and so willing to find the darkness in Blakeley. He brought so much charm and charisma to him, so you may understand why she’s drawn to him, why everyone is drawn to him, and why someone could feel safe with him. And then, he would find these moments to turn, in a way that only she and the audience can see, whereas the rest of the table could be blind to it. It was so perfectly executed because it does allow you to empathize with her and empathize with her shock at the Jekyll and Hyde of him. I think it allows you to understand why she’s with him and why it is a really difficult thing to then extract yourself from, when you can’t quite grasp the person that you’re with.
It was a really complex dynamic to try to establish. When you’re close to the flame and you’re so intensely in that relationship, there is no real analysis happening. You’re not really weighing up your safety and the pros and cons of a person. You are just so in it, specific to this relationship. So, just finding it in those scenes was really informative.Our intimacy coordinator, Sophie Cooch, was vital in finding that dynamic.It meant that you felt completely safe and taken care of at the onset, to then go to those extremes, which was integral to that relationship, on both sides – the heady, lustful side, and then the intensity of the violence. That’s only possible and you can only really do your job to your full capacity when you’re safe, and our intimacy coordinator guaranteed.
Lucy Boynton Found the Intensity in the Relationship Between Ruth Ellis and David Blakely Quite Awful To Experience
“That was the thing that really rattled and would rock me."
You’re an actor and you’re filming scenes, and you have the luxury of finishing the scene and moving on, which she didn’t, but it’s still your body and your mind don’t necessarily know all that.
BOYNTON: Yeah, your body still has an intense chemical reaction to that, going into panic. That was the thing that really rattled and would rock me. It was a really intense thing to film. It was quite awful. The worst part of it was knowing that it was a minutia of what she experienced. It was a glimpse of what that experience is actually like. There is no safety in thinking, “Thankfully, we’ve left that in the ‘50s.” It is happening today, and the statistics are horrific. It’s an epidemic. It is a national crisis in the UK, in the U.S. and across the world, and it’s getting worse. To be re-enacting those scenes and to know that it’s so many women’s experience was so impossibly heavy and so hard to contend with. I really hope this series is a catalyst for addressing that conversation and addressing this epidemic.
It does feel like Ruth Ellis was not just punished for her crime, but also for what she represented. Do you feel like she was made an example of? Do you think society would see her differently today, especially with the greater understanding that we have of toxic relationships and manipulation and abuse?
BOYNTON: That’s the thing, I think we have better vocabulary for it now and better understanding of the scope of abusive relationships. And there are more resources to turn to and there’s more of a sense of community with social media. Even if you are isolated within your physical proximity, there is, hopefully, a sense of shared voices and community through that. I think that would make it harder for people’s will to be ignored. You would think and hope that because there was mass outrage at the time. It wouldn’t happen now, but it shouldn’t have happened then. Logically, she should have been reprieved and jailed, but not hanged, as were so many women at that time. So, it was because of what Ruth stood for.She was a single mother. She was financially independent. She was sexually confident. They hated all of that.She was used as a political pawn, and it was a bureaucratic issue. That was the reason why they didn’t bring up Blakely’s violence in the trial. It was uncouth to detail the horrific behavior of a man in the upper class. That classism was playing out right before their eyes, as was misogyny. This is the first time that audiences will really see that in its full truth.
When it comes to playing real people, you have also been talked about in relation to playing Marianne Faithfull. With her recent passing, it feels like there’s even more interest there. Is there any update on that? Is that something you’re still hoping to do, at some point?
BOYNTON: I’m sadly not attached to the project anymore. The pandemic really threw us off. And then, there was a series of things. But she so deserves to have her life and all her work to be explored. She was such a brilliant artist, and such a force and storm of a woman. I got to do a brief research period for that and got to meet her, and she was just remarkable. She’s someone who’s been undermined, underestimated, and relegated to the title of muse, where she herself is the source and this brilliant creative. I really hope her story is told.
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Do you think there might ever be another season ofThe Politician? Would you ever want to revisit that character and that world?
BOYNTON: I would go back to Astrid in a second. She’s just something else. It was so fun to step into that character. I would love to. I’d happily go back, especially now that time has passed. There’s the thrill of going back to an old character like that. And I love that cast so much. Everyone is still really close. That would be fun.
Lucy Boynton Hopes To Continue Playing Women Whose Stories Have Been Neglected
“There are so many women who have been missed.”
It seems like you’re collecting this fascinating group of women that you’ve played throughout your career. Do you know what’s next for you? Do you know the minute you find something you’re drawn to?
BOYNTON: Yeah. I think it’s quite instinctive. It’s always based on the writing. Great writing just gives you this adrenaline rush of inspiration and creativity. It’s such a privilege to work with.I really hope to play more women whose stories have been neglected in the history books.There are so many women who have been missed, and ones that you and I don’t even know about, at the moment. I really hope to keep looking for those. I’m hoping to adapt more work and be more involved from the genesis. And then, I’ve got another film coming out, calledSee You When I See You, which is directed by Jay Duplass, who’s just an incredible director. He’s an incredible creative and sensitive human. That was a really special one.
A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story
A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Storyis available to stream on BritBox. Check out the trailer:
