If he’s good enough for Saoirse…
Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer/WireImage
Into each generation a Darcy is born: Gen X has Colin Firth, millennials have Matthew Macfadyen, and now Gen Z will have Jack Lowden in a new six-part Netflix adaptation of Pride & PrejudiceJane Austen’s beloved romantic comedy. Darcy is a high-stakes character — a brooding snob turned gentle softie who wins the heart of plucky Elizabeth Bennet who long thought of herself as above marriage and relationships. This upcoming series boasts The Crown and Nosferatu‘s Emma Corrin as the aforementioned Elizabeth Bennet and needs-no-preface Olivia Colman as Mrs. Bennett. While their casting matters — and who’s to say what other four lucky souls will take up the mantle of fellow Bennets Jane, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia — Darcy has become the novel’s touchstone, a sexual awakening for generations of headstrong and precocious readers.
Lowden, best known for Apple TV+’s Slow Horses, Benediction, and being Mr. Saoirse Ronan, has hovered on the bubble of major stardom for a few years now. His name pops up in the ongoing search for a new James Bond; he produced his now-wife’s indie hit The Outrun. h plow do most everything the industry puts in front of him. He’s handsome, yes, and ginger, sure, and very, very Scottish. But does he have the “Darcy Factor”?
Firth had been acting for ten years prior to his Darcy turn, and Macfadyen even fewer. Darcy shouldn’t necessarily be a recognizable face as much as he should be played by someone with the power to transform the character into an extension of himself. Lowden is excellent as River Cartwright in Slow Horsesbut River is not necessarily a character who garners instant recognition (even for some people who watch the show). Part of the appeal of Darcy as a character is that he — like whatever actor embodies him — should have to win the reader and Lizzie over during the course of the narrative, not at the time of casting.
Darcy is one of our most lovable grumps — committed to having a bad time anywhere and everywhere until he falls in love. (Who can relate?) Lowden plays River like a stoic fool, the serious novice to Gary Oldman’s sloppy elder statesman. It’s a role that requires a sharp balance between being just smart enough to get by at his spycraft and just stupid enough to be made a fool of repeatedly until he proves himself to the audience each season. In Benedictionhe trades barbs with the best and brightest of the London art scenes in postwar Britain. And on Graham Nortonhe did a triple-take!
mr. Darcy is a canonical brunette, right? Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen — these are two famous brunettes? He has a DARK personality for which he requires DARK hair? WRONG! This one is a trick question. mr. Darcy has no canonical hair color. He can look however we want him to look, which means he can — and should — be ginger, at least once, just to see how that feels.
Lowden has not often played a romantic lead. Little love stories pop up in both Mary, Queen of Scots and Benedictionbut not of the swooning, comedy-of-manners variety. However, he is currently married to the people’s princess, Saoirse Ronan. Hiss Instagram is full of little hints of their lives togetherestablishing that, yes, this is a wife guy for the ages.
In short: Lowden’s got this in the bag. He’ll glide through this role, winning the hearts of a generation so much so that maybe they’ll be making T-shirts out of a gesture of his 20 years from now. The biggest question about this adaptation is not whether Lowden should play Darcy — the proof is in the pudding — but why isn’t Ronan playing Lizzie Bennet?
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