As often happens with these things, there will be an actor who I love in one frock flick, and I wonder, hmm, what else have they done? So I head to IMDB and find out, ohhhh, they did this part and that part that I also love! And so it is with Emerald Fennell, who of course I adore as Nurse Patsy with the sadly too short-lived queer storyline on Call the Midwife. Not only did I find out she’s been in a bunch of other flicks that I enjoy, she’s an accomplished writer with novels and screenplays under her belt — including a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Promising Young Woman (2020). Oh, and she directed that movie too! No idea if she’ll be focusing on behind-the-scenes work now after such success, but I do hope not because I enjoy her acting as well.
Lottie in Any Human Heart (2010)
Agnes in Chickens (2011-2013)
Mrs. Smythe-Willard in Albert Nobbs (2011)
Princess Merkalova in Anna Karenina (2012)
Monica Simmons in Blandings, “Problems With Drink” (2013)
Odette in The Lady Vanishes (2013)
Issy Quennell in Murder on the Home Front (2013)
Elsa in The Danish Girl (2015)
Nurse Patsy Mount in Call the Midwife (2013-2017)
Lady Lovelace in Victoria, “The Green-Eyed Monster” (2017)
Vanessa Bell in Vita & Virginia (2018)
Camilla Parker Bowles in The Crown (2019-2020)
What’s your favorite historical performance of Emerald Fennell’s?
Thank you for pulling this together. She looks so great in 30s fashions!
I am wondering why the choice was made to refer to Lili with male pronouns in the caption for The Danish Girl?
Because the character is still, at that moment “Einar” & hasn’t transitioned to to “Lili” yet. It’s literally a transitional moment in the film. So saying “she doesn’t recognize Einar Wegener because she’s dressed in women’s clothes in public for the first time and going by Lili” doesn’t actually explain what’s going on in the scene.
I simply adored her character in Call the Midwife, and was blown away by her directing the film A Promising Young Woman. Now I have more of Emerald’s performance to watch thanks to this article!
That golden gown in the second pic for The Home Front looks authentically vintage too. I think she has a great face and persona that really lends itself to a historical productions too.
She also has a wonderfully enjoyable Instagram feed – whenever she dresses up for an award show or event she always adopts a persona to go with the outfit (“Embittered Former 70’s Soap Star,” or “Randy Young Widow on the Hunt “etc.)
And yes, in the Crown. she actually elicited blips of sympathy from me for Camilla.
(also, I never really connected her with Call the Midwife – that show is paradoxically a stealth cultural phenomenon. )
Given what an unsympathetic figure Camilla is IRL (all things considered); that’s both a testament to both Peter Morgan as a writer and Emerald as an actor – it would have been far too easy to have Camilla as a straight forward Soap Opera villain. I can’t help thinking though if Morgan had really been willing to be different he would emphasised what Diana and Camilla had in common rather than their differences – maybe season 5 will cover this (fingers crossed).
It’s a surprisingly deft portrayal of Camilla. Not sugar-coated at all, but not a villain either — just very different from Diana. I think many of the characters in The Crown come off as pretty nuanced & complicated (maybe more so than the real ppl, who knows!).
I feel the same. She actually made Camilla seem somewhat human and just as much a pawn in Charles’ scheme to make his mother wish she’d let him get out of marrying Diana. This is my interpretation based off of the most recent season.
It’s fiction. Just as much as any Phillipa Gregory – the names may be the same but the conversations didn’t actually happen.
I know her Patsy role best <3