Jack Lowden, Why Are You Darcy?

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I keep replaying this hilarious imagined Twitter exchange between God and Alicia Keys in my head. Basically, God tells her she’s an alto, and she insists she’s a soprano, and God just says, “Alicia, please.” She replies with a firm “No, God.” It’s silly, but it’s stuck with me as a surprisingly perfect way to describe what happens when actors try to play roles that don’t quite fit their natural vibe. It immediately popped into my head when I saw the trailer for the new Pride & Prejudice adaptation on Netflix and saw Jack Lowden on horseback. He’s playing… Mr. Darcy? Seriously? No way. Jack Lowden is clearly a Bingley. Jack, please!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=watch?v=4bSKM9WWT08

If you’re not familiar with Pride & Prejudice, Mr. Darcy is the story’s proud and brooding hero. He’s incredibly wealthy, earning 10,000 pounds a year, and is initially perceived as arrogant by the novel’s clever heroine, Elizabeth Bennet. Though Jane Austen doesn’t offer detailed physical descriptions, Darcy is known for his impressive height, good looks, and dignified presence. However, Elizabeth isn’t impressed! They immediately clash, but through a series of events and miscommunications, they eventually fall in love. Meanwhile, Elizabeth’s kind but less intellectual older sister, Jane, and Darcy’s amiable friend, Mr. Bingley, have a smoother path to romance, except when Darcy interferes, wrongly believing Jane and her sisters are only interested in Bingley’s money.

Darcy is traditionally portrayed as tall and intense. Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen have both played him – before American audiences realized Macfadyen was also a comedian, and he himself felt pressure to do the role well. Bingley, on the other hand, is usually depicted as kind-faced, with dirty blonde or reddish hair. Considering this, does that description fit Jack Lowden, the charming Scottish actor known for his role in Slow Horses? (I also want to mention his fantastic performance in Terence Davies’s Benediction whenever I can.) So, are we really expecting Lowden to play a character who is so socially awkward that he accidentally offends the woman he likes?

Whenever I see an image of Lowden riding a horse, my first thought is simply that he looks like he’s enjoying himself. But that doesn’t quite fit the character of Mr. Darcy, and it became a recurring issue in the film Ella McCay. In the movie, Lowden’s character is forced to oppose the woman he loves, Ella McCay, because she refuses to use her political influence to help his family’s pizza business. He just doesn’t seem like the type to suddenly become a villain. (Another weakness of Ella McCay was casting Lowden and Becky Ann Baker as the owners of a pizza-restaurant empire.) Daryl McCormack, who plays Bingley in this version, seems perfectly suited to play a brooding, unhappy Darcy – I was very impressed with his performance in Bad Sisters and think he could capture that vibe perfectly.

Just because Lowden is an unexpected choice for Darcy doesn’t mean we should dismiss this new Pride & Prejudice series. However, there’s a disconnect between the casting and how Netflix is promoting the show. They’re calling it a “faithful adaptation” by Dolly Alderton, which is a strange claim, especially with a strawberry-blond Darcy. As my colleague points out, no adaptation can ever truly be “faithful” to a book, because everyone reads and experiences stories differently, and even our own understanding of a book changes over time. Right now, I’m struggling to picture Lowden as Mr. Darcy, but that could change. Any adaptation is an interpretation, and this one will succeed or fail based on how well it presents its vision. I might be surprised by Lowden’s performance and see the story in a new light, or I might not. For now, Netflix is saying “faithful adaptation,” and I’m thinking, “Netflix, no, please don’t.”

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2026-02-26 20:58