NEW YORK, May 6 (UPI) -- Call the Midwife and The Strangers star Ella Bruccoleri says The Other Bennet Sister finally empowers Mary Bennet to determine what is best for herself, not just her fortune-seeking family.
"She's on the sidelines of the Pride and Prejudice story, but she's also kind of on the sidelines in her own life," the 35-year-old British actress told UPI about Mary in a recent phone interview.
"She's kind of grown up in the shadow of her sisters and told by her mother that she's innately unlovable, really, and, so, for me, it's a story about her learning to shut out those voices and having to remove herself, quite literally, geographically, move to a different place, so that she can kind of figure out who she is," Bruccoleri said.
"She kind of intellectualizes everything and she sort of shut down a little bit or repressed herself emotionally a little bit over the years just because it would be hard not to if you had that upbringing where you just felt like you were emotionally neglected. So, she's just hardened herself to all of that."
Led by showrunner Sarah Quintrell, the 10-part adaptation of Janice Hadlow's novel follows the oft-overlooked sister of Regency-era heroines Elizabeth and Jane Bennet from Jane Austen's early 19th-century classic, Pride & Prejudice.
