Lucy Boynton on Playing the Last Woman Hanged in Britain in ‘A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story’
Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom after the fatal shooting of her abusive lover. The year was 1955. Thirty years later, Mike Newell’s 1985 movie Dance With a Stranger, starring Miranda Richardson and Rupert Everett, told the story. Now, Lucy Boynton (Bohemian Rhapsody, Murder on the Orient Express, The Politician) portrays Ellis in the new four-part drama series A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, which premieres in the U.S. on streaming service BritBox on Monday and aims to tell Ellis’ story through her eyes.
Produced by ITV Studios’ Silverprint Pictures for ITVX, where it will launch in March, and based on Carol Ann Lee’s biography A Fine Day for a Hanging: The Real Ruth Ellis Story, the show also features Toby Jones as Ellis’ lawyer, Laurie Davidson, Mark Stanley, Joe Armstrong, Arthur Darvill, Juliet Stevenson, Toby Stephens, Amanda Drew, and Bessie Carter.
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The script was written by Kelly Jones, with Angie Daniell producing the series and Lee Haven Jones directing all four episodes.
Boynton didn’t know about Ellis but was immediately intrigued by the opportunity to tell her story. “As soon as I asked anyone around me who is slightly older, including my parents, everyone not only knew about her, but also had a very emotional response,” she tells THR. “I was quite shocked that I didn’t know about her, considering how intense the repercussions of this case were, especially on the judicial system in the U.K. She’s an integral part of our social-political history.”
Calling her research process “a huge education,” she recalls “understanding the context of the ’50s and how that affected who she was as a woman, and how that created both her as a person and her dynamic.” And Lee’s book “became my Bible.”
Given the complexity of the woman and her story, Boynton lauded “the brilliant writing of Kelly Jones, because what first struck me when reading the script was that it was such a balanced depiction of Ruth. It really wasn’t trying to favor her in any way. The priority was to humanize her and clarify who she was when she’d been so misrepresented previously by the media.”
That helped the star “on the road to showing that light and dark and all of those contrasts in Ruth Ellis’ decisions,” she highlights. “She was such a contradictory and complex person which again makes my job so much more interesting. It’s also just more honest when you can really lean into and don’t shy away from a person and a character when their behavior contradicts who you think they are. It makes it all the more interesting.”
How does Boynton typically get into a character? “I am quite analytical, so I am trying to gather as many facts as possible. So I go from the outside in, and then I go from the inside out. You have so much to work with in terms of trying to find someone’s psychological center and idiosyncracies and how they operate.”
In the case of Ellis, “there was so much to empathize with,” the star tells THR. “Her circumstances were so specific, and she was put through so much. Once you have understood her family dynamic and the abuse and trauma she was put through by her father, you understand. Also, her childhood and the economic circumstances she grew up in start to form a very vivid picture of why she is the way she is. So I found it kind of easy to empathize with her.”
Boynton is not surprised that BritBox took the show for the U.S. “It’s such a human story — it’s about the politics of it, the gender dynamic, the class system. And I think that those are all global issues, so it’s very easy to relate to,” she says. “The fact that this happened in the British system is only specific to this case, but her sensibility, her as a person, and the relationship dynamics are universally accessible and familiar.”
Since Ellis features in so many scenes of the series and goes through so much tragedy, shooting the drama couldn’t have been easy on Boynton. “Those scenes of domestic violence were really difficult days,” she tells THR. “Even if your brain knows that it’s fake and you’re safe, your body still has a chemical reaction to doing those things. The most difficult part of that was knowing that it was a true story, and also knowing that it is still a true story for so many people, that this is still such a tremendous and global issue that we face. So, I was really, really grateful to be working with such a sensitive team, especially our intimacy coordinator, Sophie Cooch, who was really my saving grace on this project.”
Boynton lauds the whole team behind the series on “a communal sense of how important it is to bring this story to screens and to broader audiences, including those who aren’t familiar with this case.”
Davidson, who plays Ellis’ lover David Blakely, “did such a beautiful job of not shying away from showing those moments of real darkness and cruelty in Blakely, and he brings such magnetism and charisma to the role,” Boynton also shares. “So you really understand why people are drawn to Blakely, and you can understand and empathize with why Ruth felt safe with him and trusted him, and then there are these moments that are really only for Ruth and for the audience, where he turns. There are these little moments of cruelty that just let you in on the private experience of what that is like when other people at the table or in that environment miss those moments, and it’s so very, very isolating.”
Getting to play with the legendary Toby Jones was another element Boynton enjoyed. “I respect his work and his choices so much,” she tells THR. “He’s a real barometer for quality. And when we are doing scenes and dissecting how to turn the dials and bring the audience into this moment or convey this or that, it’s really wonderful to work with someone you trust so completely.”
Most of all, Boynton is thankful for the chance to bring the important and complex story of Ruth Ellis to the world. “I feel really lucky and grateful to be in an industry that uses the opportunity to explore women’s stories,” the actress concludes. “Especially right now, we really need to examine how our judicial systems treat women because they are still being let down.”
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