Author Archive
emily   –   September 01, 2021

Jack has done a great new interview and photoshoot for The Observer! You can check out the photos in the gallery and read the interview below.

THE GUARDIAN – Are you here to see man?” asks a Spanish waiter as I walk through the café garden, and points towards the table just beyond the loos where Jack O’Connell stands, his hand raised in a solemn hello. Yes I say. Yes I am.

To sit in the dark and watch Jack O’Connell’s work, from the very earliest characters he played (a boy accused of rape in The Bill, Pukey the skinhead in This Is England) through to self-destructive lad Cook in teen drama Skins and the boy incarcerated with his dad in prison drama Starred Up, followed by a squaddie in Northern Ireland in the Troubles film ’71, is to watch a slow portrait of contemporary masculinity. What O’Connell does, with his eyes and voice, and careful violence, is show the vulnerability beneath his characters’ cracked shells, and I’m keen now to find out how much of them is him, and how much of him is them, and what he’s learned about masculinity.

Unfortunately, though, it is 2021, and it has never been harder to talk about being a man, yet this is how we begin.

“It’s quite a… complex topic, isn’t it?” O’Connell says, taking a swig of his juice (flavour: red). “I grew up in a lot of genuinely macho environments. My dad played football for a team until I was seven, and I can still remember that musk of the dressing room.” This was Derby in the mid-90s, when his late dad, an Irish immigrant, worked on the railways. He wanted to be a footballer too, but injuries got in the way, and then a hairdresser, because it looked glamorous, and then he wanted to join the army, but his juvenile criminal record ruled that out. “The environment with my uncles was a jovial one, with hilarity, honesty.” He leans back. “I don’t think the term ‘toxic masculinity’ is very helpful though. It makes me feel… a certain way to see men’s lives getting clouded by it, and burdened.”

The waiter gives a jolly thumbs-up from across the room.

“Men are a chastised group within society. But my experience with male-dominated crowds was always that they were… gentleman.” Is he sweating slightly? He wipes his face, tanned after shooting in the North African desert, a series about (“Oh, you’ll love this”) the foundation of the SAS. “Misogyny is a pig-ugly trait, but you could also call it a self-absorbed, self-serving self-centredness. And no one likes a selfish cunt.” We relax for a second. “It’s tough. I mean, I read the Guardian. And a lot of time I feel targeted, just by virtue of being a lad.”

I feel bad. I intended this to be a gentle celebration of Jack and his trade, the question about men simply a fun way in, but of course I was ignoring the political fog that we’re sitting in. Would he like something to eat? I join him in an avocado toast. “I suppose, with my work, I’ve been able to explore ‘masculinity’, and those type of themes, and hope to do justice to the reality of them, as opposed to showing them in 2D.” O’Connell started acting at school, where drama classes were “a welcome change from being sent to face the wall in the corridor,” and was soon accepted into the Television Workshop in Nottingham. They met twice a week and all day Sunday, and it seems to have saved him from the kind of life he went on to play on film. On the day he was starting a show at the Royal Court in London he was in real court waiting to find out if he was getting a custodial sentence; when he came to London for auditions he’d sleep on a park bench. He has a rare talent; he credits luck. “I’m hyper-aware of just how much fortune has been involved, a series of events that simply would not happen now.”
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emily   –   August 25, 2021

Jack is featured on the cover of GQ Hype. You can check out the photos from the shoot in the gallery and read his interview below where he talks about The North Water and other projects.

Magazine Scans > 2021 > GQ Hype (August)
Photoshoots & Portraits > 2021 > GQ Hype

GQ HYPE – To see Jack O’Connell drifting on deck through the scenic fjords of Svalbard, 1,000 kilometres north of Norway, you’d never have guessed the traumas he was there to film. En route by boat to Arctic waters to shoot The North Water, a BBC survival drama set on an 1850s whaling ship, O’Connell and his cast mates Colin Farrell and Stephen Graham would soon find themselves reenacting murder, theft, on-board sexual assault and a lot of bloody seal and whale hunting. But for a short period, things were utterly peaceful and even quite temperate under the low-slung Arctic summer sun. “There were some really unforgettable moments,” recalls O’Connell, “of setting sail and ending up in these glacier fjords. Sitting there with your mates, pint in hand, going ‘Look where we are.’ It was mind-boggling.”

Mind-boggling is an apt way to describe much of The North Water, which is based on a novel by the author Ian McGuire. While most of the action takes place north of the Arctic Circle, the series begins in tropical-by-comparison Hull in 1859, where the whaling ship Volunteer is about to set sail on a final, possibly lucrative voyage to fill her hold with blubber. An early hint as to how the trip will pan out comes in the form of a cheery quotation from Schopenhauer during the opening credits: “The world is hell, and men are both the tormented souls and the devils within it.”

Among the undesirables assembled to crew the Volunteer is master harpoonist Henry Drax, played by a hirsute Farrell, and the ship’s surgeon, Patrick Sumner, who O’Connell plays. Drax, fittingly enough for an era when Darwin was the talk of Victorian society, is the living, brutal embodiment of “survival of the fittest.” A bearded man who will brutalise his crewmates for a dram of whisky or even trade his boots for a drink if there’s nobody around to rob, Drax carries a lank, latent threat and acts on pure impulse.

Sumner, meanwhile, is a surgeon and an educated man, albeit one with a murky past. A little uptight and reserved, he reads Homer and keeps a journal to try to make sense of what goes on around him – a mistake on a ship where there is no deeper meaning to life than killing for money. Sumner is also nursing a laudanum addiction triggered by the cruelty he saw in action during the Indian Mutiny and carries a belief in the rule of law that quickly puts him on a collision course with Drax. “It’s important to Sumner to maintain order,” explains O’Connell. “When there’s a victim, he takes it on board as his responsibility to see that the perpetrator is punished. That lands him in Drax’s crosshairs – he’s the target of a lethal killer.”

Sumner is quickly forced to embrace his violent side to survive the Arctic. And how violent. Almost every character in The North Water is packing a knife or a blackjack and most exist exclusively on hard spirits. Life is cheap amid the pack ice; over six parts, as madness and hardship begin to set in for the ship’s crew, the show borders on Moby Dick and Heart Of Darkness territory. “We’re refugees from civilisation,” Graham’s Captain Brownlee says of his crew at one point and the theme of a battle in each man between civilisation and savagery quickly takes root. And if Drax represents savagery then, as O’Connell explains, Sumner is the embodiment of civilisation and rationality. “Sumner has an infatuation towards Drax. He’s trying to academically understand everything, whereas Drax just feels his way through life, acting on impulse, doing whatever pleases him at the time.”
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emily   –   August 18, 2021

Hi Jack fans! Back 2 weeks ago on August 4th, Jack attended a Launch Party for Bentley Motors x Macallan. You can find a few photos from the event in the gallery!

emily   –   August 18, 2021

Jack O’Connell has joined the cast of 3000 Pictures and Netflix’s adaptation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover!

DEADLINE – EXCLUSIVE: Jack O’Connell and Matthew Duckett have joined Golden Globe Winner Emma Corrin in Lady Chatterley’s Lover for Sony’s 3000 Pictures and Netflix. This will be the first film to be produced under the new partnership where Sony Pictures will offer Netflix a first look at any films it intends to make for streaming. The deal was announced in April and part of that deal allowed Sony to offer Netflix a first look at any films it intends to make directly for streaming or decides later to license for streaming, and Netflix has committed to make a number of those films over the course of the deal. Sources say that while Sony will not distribute the film, Netflix can still choose to have it run theatrically if they please for an awards qualifying run given Elizabeth Gabler, who runs 3000 Pictures, track record with award season pics.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover will be directed by The Mustang helmer Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre. Life of Pi scribe David Magee wrote the script. Academy Award nominee Laurence Mark and Academy Award nominees Pete Czernin and Graham Broadbent of Blueprint Pictures are producing.

Based on the classic D.H. Lawrence novel, a story well ahead of its time, we follow the life of Lady Chatterley, a woman born to a life of wealth and privilege, who soon finds herself married to a man that she eventually falls out of love with. Lady Chatterley engages in a torrid affair with a gamekeeper on their English estate, discovering more desire and intimacy than she thought possible. When she realizes that she has fallen heart and soul, she breaks all traditions of the day and seeks happiness with the man she loves.

Marisa Paiva and Nikki Cooper are the executives overseeing the project for 3000 Pictures.

Best known for his roles in ‘71 and Unbroken, O’Connell recently wrapped filming the BBC’s SAS: Rogue Heroes, a six-part drama based on Ben Macintyre’s book of the same name which charts the formation of the renowned Special Forces unit. He was most recently seen in Andrew Haigh’s five-part AMC/BBC thriller The North Water, portraying a disgraced ex-army surgeon who signs up as ship’s doctor on an ill-fated whaling expedition to the Arctic in the late 1850s. Among other much-admired television roles, O’Connell has also made a name for himself on the silver screen by starring in acclaimed films such as: Money Monster Little Fish and Starred Up.

emily   –   August 13, 2021

Hello Jack fans! The finale of The North Water titled “To Live Is to Suffer” released yesterday! Jack was brilliant in the series! It was definitely different from series I watch, but I recommend to give it a try for Jack if you haven’t seen it.

Television Series > The North Water (2020) > 05: To Live Is To Suffer > Episode Stills
Television Series > The North Water (2020) > 05: To Live Is To Suffer > The North Water: 1.04 ‘The Devils Of The Earth’ Episode Stills & Screen Captures
emily   –   August 06, 2021

Hi Jack fans! A new episode of The North Water titled “The Devils Of The Earth” released yesterday! I have added HQ episode stills and HD screen captures from the episode to the photo gallery! There is only 1 more episode left!

Television Series > The North Water (2020) > 04: The Devils Of The Earth > Episode Stills
Television Series > The North Water (2020) > 04: The Devils Of The Earth > Screen Captures
emily   –   August 01, 2021

Today is is Jack O’Connell’s 31st birthday! Happy Birthday Jack! Thank you for bringing happiness into our lives with all of your work. I have loved following your career over the last years with this site. I can’t wait to see everything you do in the coming year. I hope you spend the day with all your loved ones. Here’s to another year of supporting the amazing person and actor you are!

To celebrate Jack’s birthday at Jack O’Connell Web, I have added lots of outtakes from a photoshoot Jack did in 2014 for Entertainment Weekly when he was promoting Unbroken. In addition, I have replaced a shoot for Universal from tagged to now untagged versions. A few additional photos from a photoshoot Jack did for Variety’s Actor and Actors have also been added. Thank you all for supporting this site! More updates to come!

Photoshoots & Portraits > 2014 > Entertainment Weekly
Photoshoots & Portraits > 2014 > Entertainment Weekly
Photoshoots & Portraits > 2014 > Universal
Photoshoots & Portraits > 2014 > Variety
emily   –   July 30, 2021

Hello Jack fans. A new episode of The North Water titled “Homo Homini Lupus” aired yesterday. I have added episode stills and HD screen captures from the episode to the gallery. Enjoy!

Television Series > The North Water (2020) > 03: Homo Homini Lupus > Episode Stills
Television Series > The North Water (2020) > 03: Homo Homini Lupus > Screen Captures
emily   –   July 23, 2021

Hi Jack fans! Another episode of The North Water has been released. I have added HD screen captures from the episode titled “We Men Are Wretched Things.” Enjoy!

Television Series > The North Water (2020) > 02: We Men Are Wretched Things > Screen Captures
emily   –   July 16, 2021

Hello Jack fans! Jack’s new series The North Water premiered yesterday on AMC+. I have added HQ episode stills and HD screen captures from the first episode titled “Behold The Man.” Enjoy!

Television Series > The North Water (2020) > 01: Behold The Man > Episode Stills
Television Series > The North Water (2020) > 01: Behold The Man > Screen Captures