On a cold day, under a gray sky—a typical London day—we met Lucy Boynton to shoot our March Cover Story.

A white, bright set, with sheer curtains creating soft transparencies and delicate furnishings: we chose a setting for Lucy that could accompany her words in the most intimate way, stripped of any embellishments. She spoke to us about her new series, “A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story”. Lucy is Ruth Ellis, the last woman sentenced to hanging in the United Kingdom. The series tells the story of the abuse she suffered throughout her life, leading up to her arrest for killing her lover, David Blakely. An important project, crafted with great care. Lucy’s portrayal of Ruth Ellis is one that lingers in the mind and heart, impossible to shake off.

The series delves into violence, an unjust society, financial independence, the desire for redemption, and the deep yet misguided way in which we hold ourselves responsible for the situations we go through, believing we somehow deserve them. “A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story” moved me, made me feel the anger of injustice, and captivated me with its profound screenplay—so much so that I found myself jotting down lines that struck me the most, just as I would underline passages in a book I am falling in love with.

Lucy’s performance is incredible—it leaves you breathless. To me, she manages to restore dignity and justice to a woman from whom both had been taken away. It was enlightening to talk to Lucy about how history is written and rewritten, about how deeply she loves her craft, about “armor”—even when it comes in the form of lipstick—and about how empathy could save the world (and perhaps, it could have saved Ruth too).

And when I asked her where she would want to be at this very moment, she simply answered that she wanted to be right here, where she is now, talking about Ruth, doing exactly what she is doing.

And I thank her—because what she is doing matters.

I just saw “A Cruel Love” and, I have to say, it was amazing, sometimes it was even hard to watch certain scenes also because it’s all so amazingly portrayed. And you were fantastic in it, congratulations! How was your journey?

It was different than I expected, and it was more intense than I’d anticipated.

I tried to start the research process from a very analytical point of view. I was really aware of how much the media portrayal of Ruth Ellis had colored public opinion of her and colored the way that she was then written about afterward, so I wanted to approach her in a completely neutral way to be able to ascertain my own opinion. Then, later, I planned to approach it from a more empathetic and emotional point of view to start working on how to play her, but the emotional, empathetic part of it started much earlier than I’d anticipated, and I just couldn’t help it.

I realized very quickly there was no neutrality when approaching this topic and there was no neutrality when approaching her case. You can’t read about the details of her life and what happened to her and what happened to her within the time of meeting David Blakely and not feel emotionally affected. I was 29 when I was playing her and she was 28 when she was executed, so that parallel was really affecting – she had lived so much life in such a small time frame. I had a really accessible comparative point of the life that I’ve lived, the society I have the privilege of living in, which still has a long way to go before it becomes equal, but it’s immensely improved since the landscape she lived in. So, it was a really intense research process, and the actual filming of it was really hard.

When you work on a dark piece with dark material, if it’s fiction, you learn how to leave that at work, but when it’s a true story, it’s different. I was really rattled by it and really plagued by it and I didn’t know how to leave it alone because the thing that was affecting me was the reality of the injustice. There’s no way to put that because it happened and you just sit with it, so it was a really affecting experience in its entirety.

Yeah, even though I knew how it was going to end, I don’t why, but I was hoping it could have ended in some other way.

I felt the same while filming! You see, that it’s such a miscarriage of justice that there’s something in you that hopes that they’ll see sense and something better will happen. It’s a fool’s errand but you can’t help it.

I think makeup was really important for your character; it was almost like some armor for her, or even more: she wears red lipstick during the trial, and she puts her lipstick on a few minutes before dying with so much dignity. Did this element help you to portray her?

Yeah, I feel it was such a poignant detail, perfecting herself before she is hanged. I speak of the UK specifically because of this show and of my research and having lived here, we’re still really hung up on our class system and the hierarchy within our classes, and it was even more so, obviously, in the 1950s, and it became much more so after World War II. And Ruth was so aware that she had been born into a certain class and social echelon, and she wanted to elevate herself out of it and really wanted a big, beautiful, financially independent life for herself; part of that is how she’s perceived by society and so her clothes, makeup and hair were absolutely vital in how she presented herself and how she would be received. She tediously decided what would make her most appealing and acceptable to that higher social class. The perfect makeup, the bleached hair, and trying to dress as finely as she could were her attempts to do so.

She was constantly shut out, she constantly got it slightly wrong and even when she got it right, they’d decided she wasn’t allowed into that society because they’d seen the cracks already. That was a very moving detail. Emily Bilverstone, our Makeup Designer, and Emma Fryer, our Costume Designer, were so intricate in when to use which kind of colors, the shape of everything, the fabrics, and the style of the hair.

That’s the joy of working with experts in each department, where every detail is so specific and adds another layer of information about that character at that time.

“Her clothes, makeup, and hair were absolutely vital in how she presented herself and how she would be received”

I think we all have some small things we do to feel better, to feel protected in a way. Do you have one?

I think it’s similar. It’s clothing for me, maybe more than makeup, because I’m not an expert in how to apply makeup. I have been wearing lipstick more recently, since this job, and I do appreciate it as “an armor”, but also as a statement of self that I really love. I find that with my clothes. I don’t know when the change happened, but when I decided to start dressing for myself rather than anyone or anything else, it was such a liberating moment. I think it allows me to now go out into the world, even if I’m not planning on seeing anyone or doing anything, with such ownership of myself so that I feel less porous to the world. I think that helps.

Yeah, for me, clothes are something that somehow “defends” me. I take power from them, I feel powerful if I feel good in my clothes, and it’s kind of the same with makeup as well.

Ruth is an incredible woman, she’s always been independent, she’s worked her whole life, and she is so determined. This is also why society didn’t want to forgive Ruth.

Yeah, and because she was a rebellion to everything that they needed women to be at that time. She was a single mother, financially independent, and sexually confident, and these were all the poster marks that they did not want to promote to women. She was everything that defied femininity to the patriarchy and society at that time. She was made a political statement. There was such public outcry for her not to be hanged, and for capital punishment to be abolished at that time anyway was in the public interest; it was politicians who needed her to hang and hang really quickly so that they could pass that through, use that for political gain.

It’s horrendous to think what a cost that was.

Ruth says, “I’m not interested in any defense,” and at the beginning, as a viewer, you almost get upset, you want her to stand up for herself. She for sure doesn’t want to appear like a “beaten woman,” and she wants to be loyal to Desmond. So, there are many emotional layers here, and the audience can’t but empathize with her and cry for her eventually. What was your emotional journey while portraying all this?

I think it’s really poignant because she has no context for how much of a victim she really was and how much she didn’t deserve any of what she was on the receiving end of, especially not the end of her life. She had been abused by her father, by every man that had come into her life, so abhorrently. The details I read about during my research period were really awful and upsetting. But she never knew anything different, so she didn’t realize or didn’t know the extent of the injustice in her life. By the time she decided to kill David Blakely and end the cycle of abuse in the only way that she could see as a viable way out, she did that knowing the consequences, and she was really adamant about not being perceived as a victim. As an outsider, you feel so frustrated because you have the context to understand how much she didn’t deserve. It breaks your heart thinking she died believing that she deserved any of it and to die for that – it’s maddening that society allowed her to think that.

The only repentant comfort is that hopefully, this series is met by a society that understands how wrong that was.

The show isn’t debating whether or not she deserved to hang, we all categorically agreed, and even at the time, in 1955, the general society agreed that she did not deserve this. At least, now it’s going to be watched by people who have a little bit of understanding of that. I think the most important thing is to study how it was allowed to be carried out, and in broad daylight by a civilized society. Today, we aren’t perfect, we still live in a patriarchy and, therefore, in a misogynistic society, we have so much to improve upon, we really have to identify where we’re letting women down because the domestic violence statistics are still getting worse and are awful, so it wasn’t an isolated incident in 1955. She was a remarkable woman and so relentlessly strong throughout that process, and it broke my heart to play those scenes.

You feel so protective of someone that you now can’t do anything for.

Speaking of that: there are a lot of scenes that are almost difficult to watch. How was it to shoot those? How do you “decompress” after intense moments on set?

I didn’t go into it knowing that I would have to, or knowing how to, because as an actor, you’re used to the idea of having to portray quite intense material. I didn’t realize how much it would affect me, and maybe especially the fact that it was a true story made it so much worse. It was really difficult physically to do scenes of domestic violence, it’s awful, and the worst part is that you know that you’re experiencing an absolute minutia, a tiny proportion of what it is really like. That was really haunting to think, especially because we were creating a real person’s experience. It was really difficult to let go of that specific element, more so than any need to take care of myself. I think that’s what I’m really grateful for.

We had an intimacy coordinator, Sophie Cooch, on this job, and I have no idea how I would have gone through this process without her. She was extraordinary in just picking up on body language that I didn’t know that I was displaying and translating how to physically do these scenes in a kind of safe way and then how to talk about it afterward. I think to talk to another woman about this straight after, to talk about the fact that it is a real woman’s experience and it is real women’s experience today, and to have that catharsis of honest conversation was vital. It’s something that’s happening on this press tour as well; I’m speaking to so many women journalists and men who are very affected by this, but I think it is the majority of women who feel like we’re finally getting to have a bit of more of an honest conversation where we don’t have to sugarcoat it in any way.

So, Sophie was a total savior in that respect and also Laurie [Davidson], who I was doing those scenes with, was a dream collaborator because he’s so kind, so thoughtful and very pointed and deliberate in the way that he works. I have huge respect for him as an actor, and so just being able to elaborate on that really sensitive material with someone so respectful was a gift.

“I think it is the majority of women who feel like we’re finally getting to have a bit of more of an honest conversation where we don’t have to sugarcoat it in any way.”

There is a scene where a friend of hers asks her one question that I would love to ask you right now: “If you could be anywhere doing anything right now, what would it be?”

Oh my goodness, I don’t know what I can imagine right now in the headspace that I’m in doing this press tour. I don’t know that I could or would want to be doing anything else. I think the massive privilege in my life is this job which is the catharsis of storytelling and the thrill that it is to get to live in so many different times and places and with so many different people.

This job has been a privilege in getting to address something that as a woman I’m aware of, but I’ve tapped into so much more because of the research that’s been necessary. And so, I feel really grateful and honored to be having these conversations that feel productive and cathartic. In the current brain space I’m in, this pretty much is my answer. In another headspace, I’d love to think I’d be filming somewhere else. I just I really genuinely do love this job so much, so I feel thrilled by any opportunity to do every element of it.

That’s amazing.

There is a moment when Ruth is in prison where she is going crazy because she wants someone to turn the light off. For me, it was like she wanted to turn her mind off at that moment. I think that sometimes, in life in general, it’s very difficult to turn off your thoughts: does this happen to you? If so, how do you deal with that?

I’m still trying to work that out.

I think keeping a diary has been the most cathartic thing because the doom scrolling doesn’t work, the distraction doesn’t work. So, I think you do have to face it head on, what is kind of turning over and churning in your mind. A bath always solves everything and keeping notes on everything. I’d say keeping a diary because it allows you to purge everything; I think when talking to someone, I censor a lot of it and redact a lot of it because I’m aware of their experience of what I’m saying or how it comes across, whereas in a diary it’ll be completely unedited and it can be the ugliest or most honest version of things or just a stream of consciousness. So, it’s very effective in the moment of purging that. Looking back on, it is useful as you may realize things like, “I forgot about this thing that I actually overcame” or “I’m much stronger than I gave myself credit for or could have anticipated”, or it just gives you context and clarity for something that you went through.

And then getting out and being around people as well – being around people whom you can be your ultimate self around takes you out of your over analysis, or at least it does for me.

Speaking of diaries, watching this series to me felt like reading one of those books where you underline your favorite quotes and I wrote a lot of them down, as you can see from my questions. There is this line she says: “Nobody wants to hear about women bleeding and the men who make them bleed”. This really stuck with me. Do you have a “favorite” line, or moment, or scene?

I think it’s that scene.

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head because, in that scene, you keep seeing her talk about her suit and her hair because she’s just trying to be pragmatic. Bickford comes in, he’s trying to talk to her about something serious, and she’s like, “There’s just no point,” and so she tries to be present in the way that she usually does. And then, when it comes down to it, she said those words precisely and accurately as it is, as she perceives, and so you realize she’s operating on this other level of awareness, she’s already three steps ahead of you, and she has had 28 years of experience in understanding how this society perceives her and treats her and reacts to her – she understands it, and she knows the chess board that she’s playing on. And then she just so succinctly nailed it.

I credit Kelly Jones, our script writer, for moments like that, where she allows Ruth to show not only her cards, but hold the mirror up at society and at people like Bickford, even with all of his good intentions. That’s one of those lines that punctures you because it resonates immediately.

“she knows the chess board that she’s playing on”

Another line that I loved says, “Justice isn’t real. It’s a story written by the winners”.

This one really stuck with me and made me feel angry, and also sad because it officially states that Ruth is not going to have justice ever.

And it’s so important to remember because I think we grow up at the mercy of our education.

I felt very lucky to receive the education I did, I took it as total fact, I took the history books I read as unequivocal fact, I never considered that those history books have a very specific author. Especially growing up in a country that colonized countries, it’s less frequent that you’re educated with all the ugliness included of your country’s own shame or darker past. I think we have a historical kind of sense of patriotism that used to be very important, and we’re seeing now a rise in that, being something that people want to value. It goes back to that thing that we keep discussing, that I keep saying: it’s important to challenge things as they are presented to you because there is always an author with an opinion that can’t be let go of or completely neglected.

Yeah, and I think this is the magic of television and cinema – they tell you the other part of the story or other stories you would have never known otherwise. Like you said, we read history books, and we think that that’s it, there is not another point of view, but it’s not true.

So, I’m grateful for you, people who do this job, not only because I have the time of my life when I when I go and watch a film, but because I find it so educational on so many levels, emotionally.

I completely agree. Cinema allows you to live in it and sit in it with more access, I think, rather than being told something. Like you’re saying, not all sides are going to be interviewed, you’re presented with one side, whereas I think with film, TV, and literature, you’re offered multiple perspectives. And the priority isn’t making that appealing and likeable, it’s just offering a much more in depth and insight into it that’s closer to the flame. So, yeah, it’s a gift.

Two moments, in particular, made me very emotional: the one when she says she doesn’t want to die and when we understand that she is convinced that she deserves that, that she is the guilty one, and she concludes that she is responsible for all those evil men and finally everyone sees her for what she is. This is also the reason why she is so thankful for kindness; I think kindness and empathy are so important in the world. Do you think the same? Do you believe that a kinder world would be a better world?

Absolutely.

I think empathy is the thing that we’re really lacking because, for some reason, we have this idea that if I can’t understand completely what you’re going through then I don’t sympathize with it, it’s not valid. And I don’t understand that kind of rhetoric where someone has to qualify for your sympathy – it’s wrong, it’s not fair. And again, it’s why I’m grateful for this industry, literature and fiction because I think it does offer much more accessible and tangible insight into someone’s experience: you live with them rather than just hearing about them from a third party and I think it is vital.

I think it’s all that we have, to try and access each other, but I do wish there was a little bit more attempt to do so rather than our first instinct being an attempt to discredit.

“It’s why I’m grateful for this industry, literature and fiction because I think it does offer much more accessible and tangible insight into someone’s experience”

And I think it’s part of your job as an actor to be very empathetic with the character, and to try and have no judgement, especially when you have to portray someone who’s “evil” or a bad person. That’s when you have to practice empathy.

That’s what’s so great about this job as well, it’s such a good exercise in just having to suspend your judgement and analyze someone as a human being. So having played characters like Marie Antoinette, I know that I went into that job with such a specific idea of who she was because of the way she’s written about in history books, and then doing my own research, although for that film she had to be something really specific, so we didn’t get to portray her in the way that I believed that she actually was. You walk away with a way more illuminated understanding of that person in their entirety. Often it is the history books and it is the media that affects the way that we perceive people, and I think it is a really important reminder to re-examine that and challenge the author, challenge the way that we’ve been presented historical events and historical figures and present tense because the media is not becoming any more neutral, if anything, it’s going the other way and it’s becoming much more opinionated and biased. So, now more than ever I think the vital exercise is to challenge events and people as they are presented to us.

There is always an author with an opinion.

The movie also talks about being brave and having the courage to change your life. What’s the bravest thing you have done?

I think it’s learning to trust my own instincts.

It is really easy to discredit yourself, to choose the easier road, or gaslight yourself into thinking that that’s the correct road, or that someone else’s voice is kind of more informed than your own instincts about yourself.  I think it’s something that I’m still trying to learn.

But yeah, listen to your own voice, listen to your own instincts and trust yourself – it’s kind of a cliché for a good reason. Especially as a woman, I feel that we are more frequently discredited and told that what we’re saying and what we’re feeling is actually something else, and it is a constant challenge to remember that that is the rhetoric. So, it’s important to try and disentangle yourself from that habit.

You know, I binged the series in one day and a half, because I couldn’t stop watching it. What was your latest binge watch?

Oh, have you ever watched “The Traitors”? It’s a game show in the UK, and I was addicted to it. This is completely different tone compared to “Cruel Love”, but it’s my most recent binge-watch.

We need that kind of things, also, because after almost two days of watching “Cruel Love”, for example, I really needed something like… 

You needed something like “The Traitors” [laughs]. You need to go to BBC iPlayer and you need to watch that because that’s just good laugh.

Yeah.  And what’s the book on your nightstand right now?

I’m actually going back to a book that I read a few years ago and loved, it’s called “Shadowplay” by Joseph O’Connor, and it’s historical fiction. It’s set in the 1800s in London, and anchored by real historical people, but a fictionalized version of them all coming together and their lives intertwining. It’s a kind of gothic thriller. So, I’m going to revisit that one now. I love it.

Ruth also made me think a lot about how we can feel confident in ourselves despite what other people might think of us, which is very difficult, I think, for us women, or at least it is for myself. What does it mean to you to feel comfortable in your own skin, to feel confident? 

I think I feel that way when I’m less focused on the perception of me. You can feel that way – at ease – around certain people, where you know that you’re seen accurately and you’re known by your people, and you know them, and they feel like home.

There are times when you feel anxious about the way that you’re being perceived, and when I’m not thinking about that at all is when I feel most comfortable in my skin and confident – when I just feel self-assured, and I think that comes from feeling fulfilled.

Having spent enough time by myself because I always need that as a reboot and then having spent enough time around my soul people, and then, you know, reading good books and being nourished in that way, I find the accumulation of all that satisfaction and fulfillment just leaves me feeling very full and very able to approach the world.

“the perception of me”

What’s your happy place? 

Home. I’ve just done up my place, and it feels like the interior of my brain now, the physical manifestation of my brain. So, coming home is always cathartic.

Photos & Video by Johnny Carrano.

Makeup by Andrew Gallimore.

Hair by Halley Brisker.

Styling by Leith Clark.

Nails by Sabrina Gayle.

Thanks to Narrative PR.

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Total Look: SS Daley